Development Blog archive for February 2001

Ok, so I didn't manage to get anything done over the w/end. Didn't really feel overly inspired at the time, and bought a new telly, and On Digital, so spent most of it veg'd out in front of that, sorry

I'll try and get some more done later this week…

Till then,

Filed under: Excuses, Hardware, Personal

Yay! It's done, my first tutorial. I'm sure I'll re-write it a couple of times at least, but there we go. It's a bit technical, but then it has to be, and if you've done any reading around the subject then you should be ok .

Take a look, and let me know what you think...

I'll be making a print-friendly version of it soon, so keep your eyes out for that too

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Got to be real quick…

I've put up most of the tutorial for Creating Actors & Packages in the Modelling section of the tutorials… Hope to finish it off tomorrow

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Built the tutorial section, but haven't owt it in there yet, will be coming soon, I promise...

As I said, my Mum was up for the w/end so I haven't managed to do anything at all , but I'm going home shortly to work on it, so I'll let you know where I've got to with that…

Having said that, InterDev has crashed at home, so updating the site isn't easy, so don't expect any tutorials tonight.

Filed under: Excuses, Site Updates

Small point of note - the archived post links now work (i.e. the time stamps at the top right of each post, now link to that post in the archive), so my link in the last post will make sense in a day or so's time, when that post falls off the page

Filed under: Site Updates

Ok, it's there, dm-WellsStreet4th8.zip in the Downloads section of the site.

Take care and read the readme - usual denial of responsibility included , unlike in my post two weeks ago the files between 5 and 8 are not in place yet, I'll up load them early next week.

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Fair enough, I lied again… Still no tutorial, nor any explanation of what the hell I'm talking about... but there we go, however, I have made this site reasonable to look at in any version 4+ browser, it's not great in NN v4.x, and nor is it going to be, I have enough other things to worry about at the moment, and we're not looking for work with the site just at the moment - when I am, it will be perfect in all, honest 

Ok, my Mum's coming up for the w/end, so not much work to be done on the level then, but I'll be posting the latest iteration of the level up in a minute, there's a new class file too - wellsStreetObjs.u - contains just one object atm, "Cabinet", and is completely untested, let me know if you get any where with it - read the readme, I'll bundle the two up with the unr file in the zip for now…

Filed under: Excuses, Games, Site Updates, Unreal

Right as promised, more info follows…

I've managed to get from having a real cabinet sitting under my desk to having a very poor representation of one in my level, but as a decoration rather than as a detail brush - I may still have trouble with the overall poly count - I'm still working on that, and will let you know - but build times will be significantly reduced.

The one stumbling block I had was the location of the _a and _d 3d files in my new package folder - I'd moved my class file, bit not the model files.

Slow down, I'm getting ahead of myself - will write a few tutorials - I'll come back and cover the basics if I really need to later… really do need a proper semblance of a Content Management solution - should I cheat and move my site to a new server where I can piggy back off another CM solution we've developed? Doubt it

Right, so off and make some tutorials… (Wow, three posts in one day, making up for lost time now I guess…)

Wow! Just noticed that Milkshape 1.5 is out - Yay! 

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Hurrah! Done it .

Ok, more info to follow…

Argh! Haven't gotten around to updating this recently .

Ok, I had a better idea - create a new .u package containing some new actor decorations - Cabinet, Desk, etc. Spent ages trying to find things to help me do this, only to realise that I had most of the tools needed anyway - Milkshape 3D, that I found ages ago, but hadn't tried or installed yet, so I think I shall purchase this after I've sussed out how to export Unreal stuff out of properly… Various text editors, and Visual UC++ very useful…

Once I've got stuff exporting out of Milkshape properly, I'll carry on with the level nicely .

Later

Filed under: 3D, Games, Unreal

Oops! Made the level completely unplayable now (on my home box at any rate - only a 700Mhz PIII with 128Mb RAM, 32Mb GeForce DDR), the level's gone from about the 700kb that it was last w/end to a wopping 5Mb today. Doh!

I think I've somewhat over done the poly count (12,449), and the node count(29,237), as when you try and play in the mad.co.uk office, it just chugs and judders, not good at all.

Yep, just checked "DM-Oblivion" (good tip that - always look at other peoples work - especially the levels that came with Unreal), and it has the following:
Brushes: 255, Zones: 2, Ploys: 1,098, Nodes: 2,337, Lights 152
Compared to mine:
Brushes: 144, Zones: 3, Polys: 12,449, Nodes: 29,237, Lights 125

Seeing as I haven't even nearly finished, (I have at least 20 more distinct rooms, and another 100 or more desks to go, plus desk furniture (computers, phones), chairs (maybe not!)), I think I've got to rebuild the desks and drawers again .

Ok, there we go, just so you know. But I'll put the level up tomorrow so you can see…

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Been a bit remiss this last week here, but I have an excuse! (Who doesn't?)…

Lots of work at work this week, trying to have a life(!), and getting things organised on my site for it's re-launch have all meant that the level hasn't had much progress recently... anyway, as promised, this w/end, lots of work on it, should be relatively happy with the two main rooms, and get a load of ancillary rooms done as well - the entrance hall, lifts, etc… we shall see.

There will be lots of stand in textures on Monday though, as I'm waiting for Andy to get a load of textures off his digital camera for me .

Filed under: Excuses, Games, Unreal

Right (new word to start a post with!), spent most of my spare time last night working on the site itself, rather than the level, but we'll get there . Main changes there - Web Sites section now has some examples, there's one screen grab missing, but that's cause the site's nolonger available, but I do have a back up of it somewhere at home, so I hope to have that in place tomorrow, along with some images for the gallery.

You never know, we might be able to launch this site soon! Currently racing beatsurrender.co.uk to go live - but he'll have more on-going content than me…

Good news though, I've cleared my decks for the w/end, so I should be able to make massif progress then .

Filed under: Excuses, Site Updates

Ok, so I failed to get as much work done on the level this w/end as I'd would have liked, went out shopping, and lost 1Gb data in a failed back up, nothing important, but stuff I would have liked to keep - damn TDK CD-R's . Had a Pack of 10 CD-R74's and 2 seemed to work, then 6(!) failed on me, went back to check the one's I'd already burnt, and the damn things are reported as blank… not happy. Anyway, I had 10 BASF CD-R's and they worked fine… but it did take out most of Saturday and some of Sunday, then had to do some shopping…

Anyway, I did finish off the mad.co.uk office, without the desks, but then decided that I needed to reduce the number of structural brushes I was using (currently stood at 120), which meant taking out all the desks, the dartboard, windows (these needed replacing anyhow) etc, and then de-intersecting a larger cubiod brush over the room, and then subtracting that fom the level (this should all make sense once I've added my explainations and the like).

More bad news - I'm not getting ADSL, has my house is too far from the exchange at present, June they reckon .

Filed under: Excuses, Games, Personal, Unreal

Ok, I haven't really got that much time to update this, as I'm at home today rather than work, and so only have an ickle dial up account that costs me local rates - (I know, there are other ISP's and such like, that either take a flat fee and the like, but the one I'm with has free (yes that's right free) tech support, (0800) only requires me to login once every 90 days rather than the usual 30, and gave me a free domain name, so all in all, not too bad a deal. Anyhow, I should be getting ADSL next week 

Basically, the earlier versions of the levels are all up here, just not directly linked to atm - if you wish to download them, then go to the downloads section and then just right click on the link and in the context menu select "copy shortcut", then paste it into the address bar. Then you just need to modify the file name slightly:
DM-WellsStreet4th4.zip
DM-WellsStreet4th3.zip
DM-WellsStreet4th2b.zip
DM-WellsStreet4th2.zip
DM-WellsStreet4th.zip
However, they're not much good without the explanations, and will be of more use in a tutorial version that I'm starting very soon…

In the mean time, I'm going to get on with the level, as soon as I've finised copying some of my CD's on this pc so that I can listen to them, have the Unreal Tourny cd in one drive, and the Direct CD I use for backing up the level in my CD-RW drive…

I'll post the chages up on Monday I'm sure.

Filed under: Excuses, Games, Unreal

Ok, as promised, I've started!

I've uploaded the map and texture files, but so far have only linked to the latest one, I'll set up the others over the weekend, along with explainations of what each one's doing, what I learnt from it and so on.

[13/05/2011: They are no longer available]

See you later.

Filed under: Games, Unreal

Ok, so I have all the files sorted out on CD, and they'll be appearing on here soon…

I'll also be adding a few notes and the like to talk you through the creation process and my thinking behind the level at the time.

Filed under: Games, Plans, Unreal

Oh, so I lied. I've decided that before I set these free on an unsuspecting world, I need to work on the texture packs… there's a 4Mb texture that I don't think I use anymore, but I don't want to put all the stages of creation up until I've taken it out of the levels, and then I can remove it from the texture pack.

So give me another day or so, I'll clean up the earlier levels, which should take too long, and then I'll get rid of the texture, and we'll be there.

Was doing staff appraisals last night, so didn't get a chance to work on it .

Filed under: Excuses, Personal