SP-FireFight [Alpha][Pics+Video]

[flkk]

Name: SP-FireFight
Version: Pre-Alpha 0.3.3
Compatibility: Not sure yet.

Newest update: http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=25202510#post25202510


Video: http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FireFight.wmv

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF_snow_0000.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF_snow_0001.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0002_Layer%201.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0001_Layer%202.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0000_Layer%203.jpg


Hi, this is the beginning of a level I just started working on for a school assignment. I'm collaborating with a coder whos experimenting right now what kind of new weapon or something we can introduce to the game. We've got a very short mission style level planned (it's one of many assignments and we only have 2 weeks ugh.. this is the progress after 2 sleepless nights).

For the singleplayer bit - all we're planning to do is spawn bots with regular deathmatch AI at key spots. We can always scope up later :P

Feedback much appreciated! :)

Credits: Me (level design) Shadi (code) Epic (assets)

[username2109863423]

I thought UT3 didn't have SP gaming. Can you make SP maps? All I have seen with the collectors edition was bot matches.

[Skinner]

Looks promising !

[shadinio]

i like i like! need an extra coder?!! :p

[flkk]

username: It's a map mod, so we're looking to make some extensions to the gameplay. We don't want to overpromise before we know exactly what we can do (we're just learnig this as we go along). It'll probably just be some triggered named bot spawns that despawn after the first frag.

[Hickeroar]

I thought UT3 didn't have SP gaming. Can you make SP maps? All I have seen with the collectors edition was bot matches.

All the UT games have seen their share of SP maps.

[VerteX]

hmmmm.....maybe you could make it a WAR map, get some coders together an make it AS style

[flkk]

Small bumpdate, spent the last 2 nights adding small detail to the elevator shaft and pretty much finished the hallway.

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FireFight_04.jpg

Vertex: Yeah that would be cool, but it's an assignment and the team size limit is 2 unfortunately :o

[Jagnot]

That hallway looks pretty cool. :)

[Hellrose]

The colours are amazing on that last shot, nj ;)

[DS3]

Great job!
BTW, how i can make same dynamic shadows from propeller(Sry, forgot other name for that thing :D )?

[Relief]

Needs more cowbell.

[BigPapa0702]

thats going to be a badass map looks good

[flkk]

Great job!
BTW, how i can make same dynamic shadows from propeller(Sry, forgot other name for that thing :D )?

The fan is a dynamic object so first you have to go into your lights properties and turn on the dynamic channel under: Light -> LightComponent -> LightingChannels -> Dynamic. You also want to turn on CastDynamicShadows under LightComponent. I think that's all I had to do.

[flkk]

Thanks to everyone whos commented :)

Small update:

Video: http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FireFight.wmv

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0002_Layer%201.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0001_Layer%202.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF__0000_Layer%203.jpg

Still buggy as hell and loads left to do!

[Mr.UglyPants]

So its a single player map? Your making your own TC or something?

Still, it looks amazing. Well done.

[VerteX]

looking very good =d

[JohnDoe641]

If it's single player, I can't wait for it. Looks extremely promising. :)

[SafeFire]

Very good looking :) Keep up the good work!

Could you ask your programmer friend to lend us the code you guys are using to do Single Player? Would come in very handy in redoing Assault :)

[ExTerminat0r]

Looks great. Can't wait to see the completed map.

[flkk]

Thanks for the nice comments :)

With WOTGreal not working yet and some Kismet troubles the actual enemy implementation is starting to lag behind, we'll keep hacking away at it and eventually get it to work, but if anyone knows anything, please share!

It snowed in Vancouver over the weekend hehe, still very much WIP:

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF_snow_0000.jpg
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/FF_snow_0001.jpg

[iycgtptyarvg]

@flkk
Oh man, the atmosphere on the 2nd (bottom) picture is just crazy! Is that really part of the map, or is that (part of) the skybox?

[flkk]

Thanks! Atmosphere is really what I'm going for, this new editor just seems to have an endless amount of visual toys :D

It's part of the map, just a nice little scenic drive up to the facility, following the lights across the bridge to the box that is still unlit. Hopefully soon with enemies hehe!

Skyboxes don't really seem to exist anymore in UT3, at least in all the Epic maps I've looked at they just build a huge environment around the level so that's what I did :)

[XenonG]

Hehe, awesome looking map, can't wait to test it.

Yeah, they don't seem to use skyboxes anymore, want sky and clouds? Make a large level and put clouds on top, lol.

[Warhead]

Sweet I cant wait to see how the singleplayer bots might turn out. Would be very interested in using them.

[iycgtptyarvg]

Skyboxes don't really seem to exist anymore in UT3, at least in all the Epic maps I've looked at they just build a huge environment around the level so that's what I did :)They don't? Presuming you are being stopped by volume boxes to prevent you from leaving the map, how do you set what the player sees in the distance? Are you trying to tell me that they are actual objects instead of a stretched texture?

[flkk]

I haven't seen anyone to clouds yet but I wouldn't even be surprised..

They still use sky domes - huge hemispheres with a sky texture over the level. What I meant with no skyboxes is that they now actually place any environment objects around the level.

The screenshot is of Epic's Carbonfire map in the top view port as an example. What I have selected is the playable level, which is really just a needle in the environment haystack. There is a skydome around the level (its so big I couldn't zoom out far enough to have it show up in the top viewport lol), but it ONLY has a sky texture. All the buildings you can see out of the windows are made out of polygons.

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/cfwire.jpg

There's lots of way you can obstruct the view.

I use 2 heightfogs, one really low over the water to fade that out quickly and one with a much lower brightness / density over the entire level. Depth of field helps a little too. The huge meshes that fade into the fog make it look as if the level could go on forever behind you. And the meshes intersecting the water are rotated to create the illusion that the environment curves around away from the player.

And of course there's the skydome around the whole thing so at worst they see a pretty sky texture! :)

[Procyon]

This looks seriously, seriously cool. Will be waiting for the full release with baited breath! :D

[vossy]

is it finished ?

[flkk]

Nope :P

Was really busy recently, I started working on it again yesterday, I'll have a new update ready in a day or two!

[jamima69]

looks really good so far,keep at it!

[campbullard]

Looks like something that should have been campaign mode.

[chaos667]

will wait till release!

[Yongmonrathen]

you gave this map a very atmospheric touch, it looks freaking amazing! The somber mood in arctic style maps is just phenomenal these days in games. Any idea when you will have it up after you're done?

[AnubanUT2]

Let me also jump on the bandwagon and say this looks absolutely insanely great! The pics with you in the mine cavern really reminds me of a part in Gears of War. The detail is insane and it looks like you are really mastering how to use the new tools that ship with UT3. All I'll say is I can't wait to play this gem of a project either. You should be proud of yourself ... you and your teammate have done an outstanding job so far.

[upL8N8]

For the hallway screenshots, I noticed that the wiring was idential for each section with how it droops down. A feature like this should be a unique trait in an otherwise simple world. By that I mean, come up with a simple wire bundle to use to show everything is fine and dandy, then in one of the hall sections put the drooping drooping wires to show that something happened there. Then you could possibly put something around there that gives a reason for the drooping. Like some blast remnants on the ground and textures that make it seem like an explosion happened there, and sparks coming out of the wires.

Adds a little flare to the hall.

[flkk]

Well it's been ages since the last update! Thanks for the encouraging posts! :D

upL8N8: A friend pointed that out to me already in the first version but I wasn't exactly sure how to fix it. Thanks for the suggestions I'll definately be revisiting it to see how I can apply them. :)

Anyways, here's the status.

Level design:


I'm steadily grinding away at the level part, a lot of it is details, optimization, collision etc so not much eye candy. But here's the updated outside and the very early stage of a new room.

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207.jpg . http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207-2.jpg

I've planned out the gameplay so I'm just going to keep grinding away at the level and then it can get added whenever it's working.

Gameplay:


My coder's away for the holidays and regardless we were having a very hard time getting the sort of enemy behaviour we wanted. If anyone is interested in helping out or joining up to help this thing get done, please do :)

The level was inspired by Epic's campaign in that I tried to think of a way to extend the UT3 experience, and with the amazing cutscenes and possibility for cinematic campaign missions it just made sense to take existing content and turn it into a real single-player type level.

It is divided into 5 sections, each with a purpose and visually different:
1) Outside - build tension, first encounters.
2) Elevator ride down - briefing.
3) Hallway - cinematic encounter.
4) Machine room - fast-paced action.
5) Boss room - boss fight hehe.

We're having a lot of trouble getting the bots to do exactly what we want. So for each encounter I have a best case scenario that I would like to achieve but also a fallback that I at least know is doable.


Encounter 1:


Two guards are posted outside the facility. A sound clip suggests taking them out with the sniper rifle from far before they can call for backup.

Best case: they run to the alarm and then attack the player. If they reach the alarm, encounter 2 happens.
Fallback: they run to the alarm and shoot at the player. Encounter 2 happens regardless.

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207_layout1A.jpg . http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207_layout1B.jpg

So far, we were hoping Kismet would give us enough control, but I now think this will definately need its own gametype and monster classes. In K, we spawn a bot with AI, but no deathmatch behaviour. This lets us issue commands, but there's a million problems with this method all coming down to not having enough control over them. Right now they stand perfectly still until one dies, then the other runs to the alarm, waits a second and then runs towards the vehicles while shooting. We can get them to enter vehicles, but they exit them whenever they feel like. Another major problem with this method is we can't set any of the bot's attributes - model, health, size, etc.

Anyways, the Kismet thing kinda works but it's really buggy and I'll start looking up gametype tutorials, but if anyone thinks they can contribute send me a message or reply here! :D

(some of the comments are just plain wrong since I forgot to update them, sorry :P )
http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207-K.jpg

Encounter 2:

Backup arrives in the elevator.

Best case: They arrive shortly after called and start shooting at the player, run into their cars and charge at the player while shooting, then exit when they're close.
Fallback: They are in the elevator when the player opens it and start shooting.

http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207_layout2A.jpg . http://www.w-gr.com/FireFight/SP-FF_291207_layout2B.jpg