[Utility] Botmanager for UT'04 & UT'03

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

I've started development of the new & improved Botmanager for the UT-series.
In this thread you'll find a short list of new features for the next release while it's

Plans for the immediate future :
- there will be a minor/final update for the UT'03-only Botmanager

- this will be v2.5 (current version is 2.0), releasedate of this version will be 'soon' ... altough it will depend on the amount of time & bugs available.

- it will include extremely minor fixes of known bugs/features

- as of version 3.0 it will support UT'04

- there will be new features to support the new bot-settings

Planned fixes for v2.5 :
- support for unicode .upl-files ... current version has 'problems' with those files.
Initial tests show good results :)

- a few fixes for the voicepack-preview

- any minor tweak/bugfix I can find or reproduce as soon as it's mentioned ...

Possible improvements/new features for v3.x include :
- improved namegenerator(s) for bots

- improved support for voicepacks

- .?.

If you've got additional feature-requests or ideas then you can post them in this thread for now.
This is where there's still room to discuss new features before I decide what to do with them.

Once the utility is near release I will post a new thread in the mods/maps-section with additional info and screens.

[legacy-Lopar-XL]

I'm glad you're still working on this project. While the UT'04 GUI has improved somewhat on character modification, it still falls far short from the flexibility and custimizability of UT'99. Maybe that will be fixed in a patch, I don't know.

Swapping face and body textures in JBM v2.x did not work for me; I couldn't load the textures I wanted or select them from the drop-down menu. I uninstalled UT2003 and I don't recall enough to give you more detail ATM, sorry. :( If there was a way you could implement real-time 3D previews of the character models/skins in the JBM (like in UT2K4's Player options tab), that would be good.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

// real-time previews ?
I'd like them too ... I just haven't had any time to get anywhere with that stuff.
It's probably easier than it sounds ... I hope, but the models are pretty high detail so I think I'd have to start with something easy first.

Also the texture-previews only show non-shader/combiners textures. So I'm not sure which of those two is going to be added first.

Then there's the little stuff like updated salary-calculations for the statistics-display as that has now changed as well.

ie : there's lots of cool stuff I've been thinking about adding, but nothing solid so far.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

So far it looks like I've fixed 2 major bugs :
- problems with unicode ascii-files are gone ... or at least as far as I could test

- voices not playing for Femmebot & Gabe-voicepacks ...

There's one more bug left (*knock on wood*) ... and then v2.5 is finished & ready for testing.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

I consider v2.5 to be finished ... altough it's still called RC1 on my site it only needs a new version number to make if 'official'.


I've started work on the UT'04-variant and things are looking pretty good.

I'll probably add a 'teamface'-indicator to the teamskin-indicator-set (ie : those two 'leds' near the portrait).

One of the things that I'm going to do is to rethink the initialization-routine that extracts all the possible skins, voices, etc. from the .upl-files.

I'd definitely need to read the .int-files for the possible voicepackages as well.
I might consider automagically creating the .int-files for additional voicepacks I find, which will come in handy for people that have old UT'03-models with unique voices ...

As you've noticed the current botmanager simply lists every possible skin even though they might not fit on the model.
I've 'fixed' this for the bot-wizard, but ideally it should be a generic solution.
As an added bonus this will lead to the return of the random-bot option for the skins as well.

*phew* ...
There's probably a few additional things to consider & fix (like voicepacks-playback not working at all), but it is looking good at this stage of development.

[legacy-Kissamies]

How about adding some explanations somewhere about what the values you can adjust actually do? For example, I had to do some digging before I understood what the CombatStyle value does ("low means tends to stay off and snipe, high means tends to charge and melee"). About automatically making .int files for voice packs, I hope it can be turned off because I like to slap them all in same .int file as much as possible.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

There should be a hint for each item already in v2.5.
Just keep your mouse at the same item for a second or so ...

// ---
The .int-generation feature won't be that automated, because I don't want to change or add files to the UT'04-directories without the user telling me to do so.

I'd definitely will think of keeping them in a single file as well, because that will safe a bit of time for my program as well.

[legacy-Kissamies]

Ah yeah, I think the last version I had of bot manager was older than 2.5. That's cool then.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

The hint can be seen at the statusbar at the bottom of the application.

See example :
http://members.chello.nl/~r.dautzenberg/jbm/jbm_details.png

Looking at the above screenshot I have an additional idea for improvement.
At the moment you'd need to use the bot-wizard if you want to add a new character from scratch.
I think I'm going to change it slightly and add the shortcuts for the mesh- & texture-search to this screen.
It'll probably be a combination of combobox (to pick one of the existing skins) and the '...' of folder-image that usually opens a 'file open'-dialog.

As the screen is getting a little bit more complex by these new features (did I mention a randomize/lock-option already ?) I'm going to separate the details-tab into at least two new parts.

I think I'll add the 'game-statistics' for the characters (which currently are in a separate dialog) to a separate tab as well, because it's more useful now.
// ---
More stuff ?
I've finally moved the settings from the commandline to a separate file.
So instead of creating a shortchut to "c:\jbmv2_5\botmanager /i'myuser.ini'" you can change it in the application.

So in the future this won't be for show anymore :
http://members.chello.nl/~r.dautzenberg/jbm/jbm_settings.png

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

I initially had problems reading the various packages in UT'04, but I've solved it by upgrading to v2.3 of the UtPackage-sources (http://sourceforge.net/projects/utpackages).
Upgrade went as smooth as it could be considering that I'm using Delphi 5 Pro and the sources were made for Delphi 6.

There is a chance that I can keep it compatible with UT'03 after all as well, because the settings are now located in a single ini-file.
I may even consider linking the program to Hellcat's UT Profile-manager (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351393) ... altough I wouldn't count on that feature for the next (public) release.

[legacy-JaFO(JBE)]

The first (internal) alfa-release is ready :
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5005221#post5005221

As of now any additional news will appear in the thread.