GMDXv9.0 Release

[Cybernetic pig]

Got a idea for a new level editor feature: comments. An actor that one can place in the map, only appears in the editor, is instantly recognizable due to slightly larger drawscale and unique texture/icon, and it's purpose: to leave comments for oneself or other level designers. Will code it soon and place some in GMDX maps to warn other level designers of a specific map or location's kinks.

[Cybernetic pig]

There is a color error under RES right now, did you have that installed? If not I'd love to know about it, been checking out fine vanilla for me in firefox/chrome.

I don't believe I have RES installed. What I was talking about was on the main subreddit page there was a purple box surrounding the link to your guide. Just checked again as I thought it may have been mouse hover CSS but I can't replicate it now. No purple box.

I loved your tips! Especially the level design ones!

Should probably throw some more general but highly useful ones like alt+left click to copy the texture of whatever surface the cursor is on. It's already mentioned in tacks but it's possible to miss and extremely useful.

I'd love to help on the moddb page! Not too familiar with how they do themes but I just skimmed and it doesn't seem extraordinarily difficult.

two seperate tutorials:

http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/how-to-c ... e-on-moddb
http://www.moddb.com/groups/web-devs/tu ... moddb-page

You're referring specifically to the borders on that link right right? A quick Idea I had would be to use the official art, for example, take this : http://i.imgur.com/J0LyltQ.jpg, segment it into 2 pieces (left/right), something like this example of the right side : http://i.imgur.com/x19NZdn.jpg.
Edit out title/shoulders, size appropriately.
I could also use the border art from your website http://i.imgur.com/hLwZPWI.png

Something like that is exactly what I had in mind! The official DX one may be more impressive, but the GMDX one may be more appropriate. Not sure but one can test before publishing so all is well.

I also took your advice and jumped right into unrealed. despite still knowing next to nothing I found it still possible to poke my way through making it do a few things I wanted. I'm thinking as a crash course into unrealed I might make a 1 level only concept version of the "maximum immersion", realism above all mod idea.
It would let me focus on the fun of overwhelming freedom and instead of the consequences of setting binvincible=false....

Cool! It's very fun. Can't believe people are paid to do this stuff Or at least back in the day anyway. Now everything is 100+ man teams tightly controlled to make sure they're not adding too much fun to the game.

I was just going to set everything back to vanilla by hand(or at least what I could easily figure out/do at this point), but i thought I'd ask if it was possible to easily re-enable that? Would save me the work for the character models at least.

Hmm? HDTP character models in GMDX are already disabled, so you'd see no use for it.

Similarly is it possible to more easily change the models to vanilla? I'm fine doing it manually but I thought I'd ask.

I don't think so. Only changing all the "mesh=" default property of all the HDTP-modded classes, other special case skin changes (multiskins set via PostbeginPlay()), and all the other scripting relating to HDTP.
Remember it is GMDX's goal to optimize both HDTP and New Vision. Most recent update: new skin for HDTP's BarrelFire mesh which is not only more faithful than the HDTP one, but also higher res and just looks much better in general. Hopefully come v9.0 there will be very few reasons why one may want to change back to vanilla.

Incoming screenshot.

[Cybernetic pig]

Vanilla with just HDTP & New Vision: http://oi68.tinypic.com/ne8ifa.jpg

GMDX: http://oi65.tinypic.com/2u94s5x.jpg

Can't embed the images as there's a 800 pixels wide maximum limitation. Can't attach the image because there's a 256kb max limitation. Goddamn it otp.

Note the barrel looks better, is more faithful to the vanilla barrel, is higher res, and blends into the environment more subtly.

Also what do people think of the jagged ceiling? Not sure about it myself, it's currently experimental, but it's a nice change from geometry always being so linear/cubed everywhere.

[RoSoDude]

New environment looks great. Jagged cave walls are a huge boost to believability, the catacombs always looked a little weird for how uniformly prismatic/planar they were. The rock texture under the dislodged bricks is a great addition too. Sandy ground texture is also more convincing.

The barrel itself is a dramatic improvement, but I'm not yet sold on the fire. I kinda liked how the old flames licked up the edges of the barrel. However, the new one might actually look better in game, I can't yet say.

Also, is there any music for this area now? Or, will the 2027Music addon fill some in?

[Cybernetic pig]

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Also, is there any music for this area now? Or, will the 2027Music addon fill some in?

Nah. Still a map that focuses on audio design to provide realistic atmosphere rather than recycling the paris music (beautiful) with it's combat music in particular (awful. Or at least it's awful hearing that intro over and over and over).

Would like it to have new subtle music but there's nothing appropriate. And I'm a huge video game music fan, but there being two maps in GMDX that take this approach rather than recycling music is good for variety I think.
As you know, the two maps are the NYC sewers and the Paris catacombs. The audio ambiance approach is especially notable for the sewers I think as NYC streets music recycled on approximately 15 maps!
As for 2027 music, there never will be any of that in the official release. Will forever remain an optional add-on to download separately. The maps the add-on currently changes music of will remain unchanged too, which if I recall didn't make a change to the catacombs.

[Cybernetic pig]

As for the individual details in the scene, as usual it's taking a psuedo-photorealistic approach to the finer details since it's a real world location, drawing inspiration from the catacombs themselves, just as the game originally did of course.

From the research I've done there actually isn't any overly jagged terrain in the catacombs and it was excavated efficiently. However, the options with unreal are pretty much overly jagged or completely flat with no in-between, so I went with overly jagged for this special instance. I'm still not confident the ceiling is a solid improvement, so we'll see what testers have to say about it. Next phase of testing shall begin soon.

[FastGamerr]

Also what do people think of the jagged ceiling?

I like them without BSP holes.

[Cybernetic pig]

Are you seeing something I'm not? there's no BSP holes. Semi-solids all the way with jagged brushes.

[FastGamerr]

Oh, that was my way of saying "try anything more complex than a box or a 6-face sphere in UE1 = BSP holes".

My heart actually jumps a bit in UE4 when the editor "unfocuses" and you can see through static meshes and stuff (moving around a bit in the 3D preview restores normalcy) thanks to UE1's BSP shenanigans. :\

[Cybernetic pig]

Yeah it's a shame. The BSP limitations are too great and you can't make something like that a mesh either due to excessive rendering occlusion and/or primitive collision cylinders.
Yet working with limitations pushes developers to get extra creative, and that's cool. Spiderbots on the ceiling? But Unreal 1 natively doesn't let NPCs go upside down. How'd I do it? Creative hack.

[Defaultplayer001]

Got a idea for a new level editor feature: comments. An actor that one can place in the map, only appears in the editor, is instantly recognizable due to slightly larger drawscale and unique texture/icon, and it's purpose: to leave comments for oneself or other level designers. Will code it soon and place some in GMDX maps to warn other level designers of a specific map or location's kinks.

This drew my eye instantly , would L O V E to have a feature like this!!!!

I don't believe I have RES installed. What I was talking about was on the main subreddit page there was a purple box surrounding the link to your guide. Just checked again as I thought it may have been mouse hover CSS but I can't replicate it now. No purple box.

Hmmm interesting, well please let me know if it happens again! Not sure what caused that.

Should probably throw some more general but highly useful ones like alt+left click to copy the texture of whatever surface the cursor is on. It's already mentioned in tacks but it's possible to miss and extremely useful.

This is particularly useful! Thanks I *did* actually miss it!

Something like that is exactly what I had in mind! The official DX one may be more impressive, but the GMDX one may be more appropriate. Not sure but one can test before publishing so all is well.

I'll make both and it can be decided!

Cool! It's very fun. Can't believe people are paid to do this stuff Or at least back in the day anyway. Now everything is 100+ man teams tightly controlled to make sure they're not adding too much fun to the game.

Honestly having an absurd amount of fun.

Hmm? HDTP character models in GMDX are already disabled, so you'd see no use for it.

My mistake lol, I have a v7 install I've still been playing on that's my main save, confused myself switching back and forth. That being said I still *may* eventually look into re-enabling that, just cause I like the idea of giving the user more choices.

I don't think so. Only changing all the "mesh=" default property of all the HDTP-modded classes, other special case skin changes (multiskins set via PostbeginPlay()), and all the other scripting relating to HDTP.
Remember it is GMDX's goal to optimize both HDTP and New Vision. Most recent update: new skin for HDTP's BarrelFire mesh which is not only more faithful than the HDTP one, but also higher res and just looks much better in general. Hopefully come v9.0 there will be very few reasons why one may want to change back to vanilla.

Thanks, guess I'll just focus on doing it step by step.
And just to clarify what I'm interested in doing, just want to change the hdtp textures (and models?) to the original textures/something more resembling them.
Very interested in keeping all the additions it makes ofc, just not a huge fan of it visually.

Sick screens! Really loving the look of v9 so far.

Fantastic how much detail you're getting.
Still so surprised you got spider bots stuck on the ceiling.
Really looking forward to it.

[DevAnj]

Cool! It's very fun. Can't believe people are paid to do this stuff Or at least back in the day anyway. Now everything is 100+ man teams tightly controlled to make sure they're not adding too much fun to the game.

Pretty sure level designers still exist and get paid for making levels, as do level editors. It just so happens that level designing has moved from being geometry based to being more model based, and many level editors contain too much proprietary software to be released to the public.

[Cybernetic pig]

Awful pre-release phase where everything enjoyable about modding is thrown out the window will begin soon.

Roadmap (of sorts):

The next phase of testing and feedback, then final changes based on that feedback, then another sanity check testing phase to ensure nothing was borked by those changes.

• Testing of all difficulty levels
• Testing of all language options.
• Testing of a wide variety of build types and playstyles
• Testing of the installer
• Testing for edge case bugs.
• Ensuring it's truly a wholesome, complete, flawless experience.

Update the user manual installation instructions.

Update the credits, giving thanks to Bird, DefaultPlayer, Klauz and the rest.

Create promo material, including articles, a high quality release trailer, and writing to gaming press.

Update gmdxuser.ini and gmdx.ini.

Update the licence agreement to include the usual babble.

Possibly update the add-ons to coincide with release.

Update the moddb page.

Update the website to list new features. May just scrap it though because it isn't very good and therefore misrepresents GMDX.

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I hope that's everything.

Bold = I'll need specialized help with. I've had an offer for the release trailer (hopefully still on the table), and DefaultPlayer said he'll update the moddb page, but I hope I can fall back on the community if something goes wrong somewhere. Either way, people have been a great help of late, so thanks for the support.

Before the pre-release phase begins, I need to:

• Finalize the Enhanced Artistic Direction. Finish a couple areas begging for an update. Make sure everything is consistent enough. Wait for an artist to deliver some files.
• Possibly refactor some more of my early code now that I'm more competent, to aid those that may expand on the mod.
• Update all the localization files to include some new strings in collaboration with translators.
• Ensure new hi-res textures enable/disable based on whether the user has New Vision enabled or not.
• Possibly do yet another playthrough to ensure everything is exactly as intended.
• Misc minor bits and bobs.

[Salk]

I understand that this upcoming phase might seem like a nightmare to you CP but I am very excited instead.

My 2 cents about the different geometry in the catacombs: excellent. Definitely the way to go.

Also, I am unsure as to why you hate your own official GMDX website so much. I find it to be somber and well made. Possibly you have higher standards when it comes to that though.

Godspeed!

[Cybernetic pig]

The website is just not the best it can be, ergo it's unrepresentative. The Ads and generic domain name suck too, but money doesn't grow on trees for the modder to remove them.