OldUnreal (Engine)

Hiya

I bet you all know, that a 226 map cannot run on a 225 server.
The conversion can easily be done with MC and the map will work fine.
My question here is:
If a map was only converted, but not loaded and saved with a 225 editor like it is recommended in the ReadMe, could this cause any problems?

In the serverlog I get this for example:

Warning: Property Summary of Class Engine.LevelInfo not found
Warning: Skipping 2 bytes of type 5
Log: Collecting garbage
Log: Purging garbage

Could this cause any strange behavior or even crashes?
I ask because I still have about 75 maps on a server which were converted from 226 to 225 but never were loaded and saved with the 225 editor after that.

i dont think so , at least not in my experience
, I have probably converted dozens of them ,I usually just use a hex editor tho,
I bet most people never even bother to resave them, I dont,

the problem technically also applies to maps made in 227

But you bring up a good point , As you are basicly  replacing level summary with specialevent , witch is confusing the game in theory...

While kind of unrealated , i made this map loading troubleshooting flowchart a few months ago  probably helpful to the unfamiliar
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18734201/unreal ... wchart.png

225? I thought everyone was using 227?

225? I thought everyone was using 227?

Short version:
Some server owners who are serious (Like me as well)  use 225f on servers due to the full compatibility will all 7+ common versions of unreal. they have been doing this for many years.

This small fact , is one reason why i really tri to push people to make things 225 compatible... its really very important and not that hard to do if you plan properly

It's good to do that for 226-only maps, yes. But definitely not for maps that were made with 227 features in mind! And that's what every new map should be.

As for the original question, yea, I don't think it has any other side effects other than spamming the log.

Fortunately 227i supports all Client versions, so the restriction to have to use 225 as server for this reason only will be soon past

However, to convert maps made with >225 there are some converters in the download section:
http://www.oldunreal.com/tools.html

The maps can be also made, fixed or reworked with 227's UED2.1 and reverted to 225 with these tools as long there are no 227 features used.

I prefer UConverter and I used it a lot already without any problems so far.

Fortunately 227i supports all Client versions,

Dont get me wrong ,  im excited about  this , but is it  gonna magically allow 227 F G and  H  to join I ?
It still a wide spread with mixed 227 versions......after that there is still the gold / non gold issue  and  many  complications in the end even with 227i...
  like it was said "limited suport for 226f users" likly means there is known  issues , in addition to the already existing issues.


as for 227 only maps,
in almost all cases workarounds can be made to facilitate it partaily to fully working in old versions ,
jumppads have a 225 version , emitters can be simulated. static meshes can be converted to vertex meshes or added as bsp, and most  stuff can be  dynamicly loaded/replaced if the map detects  engine > 227.via a "227effects" type package.
music can be turned to tracker , and multi music tracks ( both ogg and tracker) can be utilized with a engine version check. plant generators and rain/snow/whatever  effect scripts exist for 225 in limited form.... A 227 "bonus features" when played in 227... so to speak.

sort of like making a map for 225  , then making a 'paths' mutator layer to use if you use 227 to add bonus features for 277 users.

edit : on second thought , this is completly crazy and non pratical in all cases , but still doable

due to technical reasons the older versions of 227i have to be considered deprecated.
The versions evolved and had to be changed in some details which are causing incompatibilities between them. Mostly minor, but existing. No good idea to place in hacks to work around that.

This may sound weird in the first place, but the target was always to keep it compatible with the old versions, which was the most important point for anyone in the past. And don't get me wrong, I hate it that such problems are existing and I'd love to have nothing like that, but any change had good reasons.

Basically 224/225/226 compatibility > 227f/g/h/i compatibility.

Sure, especially the modders hate that and have to rework their stuff, which causes a lot of critics, but then again, we are spending here days, weeks, months and years to work on solutions and they only a few minutes or maybe hours. I think it's not much asked here, despite the nuisance to work on things considered done.

To be honest, I don't get the idea either to stay on the older 227 versions anyway.
Of course, all had their history, but in general things improved from version to version.

If that matters, 227i will be the last version with bigger changes, so people won't have to fear such problems in future.

So all I can do is to encourage the people to update.

The Gold/Non Gold problem is of course still existing, once a server admin decides to use Gold content, only Gold clients can join. We know the ways to work around that, such as using the custom 225 UPak and modified RTNP maps, so nothing has changed if the admin is careful. Although I have to append that it is really no problem nowadays to buy some Anthology set or something for

Yea, there is no reason to use an older version, besides sheer laziness. And the fact that people who don't have the patch can't play 227-only content is just natural. Want to play the new maps? Upgrade! Guess what, official patches do the exact same thing, or worse! You can't play on servers with newer official patches at all. And same thing with RTNP content. If you don't have the expansion, you are in no position to demand compatibility. It would be the same as demanding for it to be released for free.

Switching servers to 227 is also something that should be done for every server out there, as 227 contains countless security and stability fixes. Of course, provided that the admins are willing to upgrade as new versions come out, until the final comes out.

This converter works perfectly!

http://www.oldunreal.com/gatherstone/sb ... ter-2F.zip