Decompress/Compress uz2 Files
This Tutorial will explain how to compress or decompress .uz2 files of UT2003/4.
It was very hard to find any information about this. And i could hardly find any tutorial or such explaining this. Thanks to contributors of the UDN, the UnrealWiki, UnrealAdmin.org Wiki, this guy, this one and Mephisto.
What is .uz2?
First of all, what are uz2 files? When a Client (like a player playing UT2004) doesn't have the Map that's played on the Server, the file will be pushed to that client. In other words: He will download the file from the server.
The problem is, that this can slow down the server if it has to send files to the clients.
Because of this you can set up a so-called "Redirect Server". Wich is basicly a webserver, that has all maps that the server runs. Like this the clients can download the files without making the game server slow.
Server admins can do this in the server's ini file. The lines are:
But Map files are quite big sometimes. So it would take lots of webspace for all those files, and it would take long to download them. Why not zip them? Yes.
There is a file format used by the Unreal Engine called "UZ2". It's compressed like a .ZIP or a .RAR archive. The Files need to be compressed to .UZ2 and then uploaded the the redirect server.
If you want to download a Map, that isn't availlable anymore in it's release thread, you can try to get it from a redirect Server. For exemple i want to download DM-Rankin-FE. Let's say i coudn't find it in the internet anymore. Well, i'd go to Unrealadmins redirect search engine, and see if i can find it on any public redirect server. If i enter "rankin", i get this list:
As you might have noticed, the files keep their usual suffix followed by the UZ2 extension. DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2 still has the .ut2 part, that stands for UT2004 Maps. That's how you detect what filetype it is.
So now i would download that file (DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2), but what do i do with it? That's what the next part of this Tutorial is about
How to decompress the files
Okay, now we have the uz2 file. There are differen't ways to extract it. The easiest way is using a program like "UT2004mi". This is a very usefull tool, that has other features, such as cache extraction, demo management, mutator / skin / mod management...
UT2004mi
Download UT2004mi here, and extract it to your HD. Open UT2004Mi.exe, and check the settings in the "configure" tab:
It should be correct, as the Program detects it automatically from the registry, but you'll need to hit "Save" anyway. Now click on the ".uz2 files" tab, and make sure "decompress .uz2" is activated. Now drag your .uz2 file(s) into the field, and hit "GO".
Now the file is decompressed. DM-Rankin-FE.ut2 is now in the same folder where DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2 was. Now i can move it to the UT2004/Maps folder, and play! Successfully decompressed!
Note: You'll need UT2004 to be installed for UT2004mi to work properly.
ucc.exe
This is another way to do it. It's what UT2004mi actually does in the background. It's like "doing it mannualy"
So first we should know what ucc.exe is. UCC is the tool that Unreal Engine devolepers need, for a whole description, you can read UnrealWiki: Ucc. But all you need to know is, that ucc can be used to compress/decompress files using UZ2 format.
UCC or ucc.exe can be found in your "UT2004/System" folder. But what you have to know is, that it doesn't have any GUI (Graphical User Interface). If you don't know what this means, you'll find out now, hehe...
Press "[Win] + [R]" on your keyboard, or select "Run" from the Start Menu. Now enter "CMD" and hit enter / go. You will get a "Command Promt" window, that looks like this:
First thing we do, is set the default path to the UT2004/System folder. Do that by typing "path c:/ut2004/system", or change it, if you have UT2004 installed somewhere else.
Then type "ucc", and you should get this:
If you like, you can type "ucc help", and get some more info about it. What we have to do now, is drop out .uz2 file into the "UT2004/System" folder.
And now we can actually decompress the file. Type "ucc decompress <filename>", in my case this would be "ucc decompress dm-rankin-fe.ut2.uz2". Note that the file needs to be in the System folder. If it worked, you should get something like this:
And the File "DM-Rankin-FE.ut2" should be in the System Folder.
Now you can put the map in the "Maps" folder and play it
Other convertors
Other convertors also exist, but most/all of them will use UCC.exe. I'll list a few here:
Those are a few. I highly recommend UZTool, it allows you to compress/decompress files using right click! I don't know about the others, as i havn't tested them.
For Server admins
Well if you're a Server admin, and you want to use a public redirect, go into UT2004.ini of the Server, and find following:
The "RedirectToURL" needs to be changed to one of the following Public Redirect Servers (Warning: Don't open these in your Browser, there are so many files, it will cause a crash. For searching Files, use UnrealAdmins Search):
Gameservers.net has a Guide about setting up a redirect, and uploading files to their Server. There's also some info here.
You should be able to comress the files by yourself now already. If you don't know how to, i'll explain it quickly:
Open ucc, and instead of "ucc compress" type "ucc decompress". Or use UT2004mi / UZTool. It's really simple
If you know any Public redirect Services or UZ2 tools, let me know!
eviL<3
This Tutorial will explain how to compress or decompress .uz2 files of UT2003/4.
It was very hard to find any information about this. And i could hardly find any tutorial or such explaining this. Thanks to contributors of the UDN, the UnrealWiki, UnrealAdmin.org Wiki, this guy, this one and Mephisto.
What is .uz2?
First of all, what are uz2 files? When a Client (like a player playing UT2004) doesn't have the Map that's played on the Server, the file will be pushed to that client. In other words: He will download the file from the server.
The problem is, that this can slow down the server if it has to send files to the clients.
Because of this you can set up a so-called "Redirect Server". Wich is basicly a webserver, that has all maps that the server runs. Like this the clients can download the files without making the game server slow.
Server admins can do this in the server's ini file. The lines are:
Code:
[IpDrv.HTTPDownload] RedirectToURL=http://mywebserver/path/to/folder/
There is a file format used by the Unreal Engine called "UZ2". It's compressed like a .ZIP or a .RAR archive. The Files need to be compressed to .UZ2 and then uploaded the the redirect server.
If you want to download a Map, that isn't availlable anymore in it's release thread, you can try to get it from a redirect Server. For exemple i want to download DM-Rankin-FE. Let's say i coudn't find it in the internet anymore. Well, i'd go to Unrealadmins redirect search engine, and see if i can find it on any public redirect server. If i enter "rankin", i get this list:
- CompaMutRankin.utx.uz2
- CTF-Rankin(BETA1).ut2.uz2
- CTF-Rankin(BETA2).ut2.uz2
- CTF-Rankin(BETA3).ut2.uz2
- CTF-Rankin-PRO.ut2.uz2
- CTF-Rankin-PRO.ut2.uz2.uz2
- CTF-Rankin2k5-Beta01k.ut2.uz2
- DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2
- DM-Rankin.ut2.uz2
- KR-Rankin.ogg.uz2
- KR-Rankin.umx.uz2
As you might have noticed, the files keep their usual suffix followed by the UZ2 extension. DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2 still has the .ut2 part, that stands for UT2004 Maps. That's how you detect what filetype it is.
So now i would download that file (DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2), but what do i do with it? That's what the next part of this Tutorial is about
How to decompress the files
Okay, now we have the uz2 file. There are differen't ways to extract it. The easiest way is using a program like "UT2004mi". This is a very usefull tool, that has other features, such as cache extraction, demo management, mutator / skin / mod management...
UT2004mi
Download UT2004mi here, and extract it to your HD. Open UT2004Mi.exe, and check the settings in the "configure" tab:
It should be correct, as the Program detects it automatically from the registry, but you'll need to hit "Save" anyway. Now click on the ".uz2 files" tab, and make sure "decompress .uz2" is activated. Now drag your .uz2 file(s) into the field, and hit "GO".
Now the file is decompressed. DM-Rankin-FE.ut2 is now in the same folder where DM-Rankin-FE.ut2.uz2 was. Now i can move it to the UT2004/Maps folder, and play! Successfully decompressed!
Note: You'll need UT2004 to be installed for UT2004mi to work properly.
ucc.exe
This is another way to do it. It's what UT2004mi actually does in the background. It's like "doing it mannualy"
So first we should know what ucc.exe is. UCC is the tool that Unreal Engine devolepers need, for a whole description, you can read UnrealWiki: Ucc. But all you need to know is, that ucc can be used to compress/decompress files using UZ2 format.
UCC or ucc.exe can be found in your "UT2004/System" folder. But what you have to know is, that it doesn't have any GUI (Graphical User Interface). If you don't know what this means, you'll find out now, hehe...
Press "[Win] + [R]" on your keyboard, or select "Run" from the Start Menu. Now enter "CMD" and hit enter / go. You will get a "Command Promt" window, that looks like this:
First thing we do, is set the default path to the UT2004/System folder. Do that by typing "path c:/ut2004/system", or change it, if you have UT2004 installed somewhere else.
Then type "ucc", and you should get this:
If you like, you can type "ucc help", and get some more info about it. What we have to do now, is drop out .uz2 file into the "UT2004/System" folder.
And now we can actually decompress the file. Type "ucc decompress <filename>", in my case this would be "ucc decompress dm-rankin-fe.ut2.uz2". Note that the file needs to be in the System folder. If it worked, you should get something like this:
Code:
C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Admin>ucc decompress dm-rankin-fe.ut2.uz2 Decompressed dm-rankin-fe.ut2.uz2 -> dm-rankin-fe.ut2
Now you can put the map in the "Maps" folder and play it
Other convertors
Other convertors also exist, but most/all of them will use UCC.exe. I'll list a few here:
- Game Extractor - http://www.watto.org/extract/download.html
- TinyUZ2 - http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...hreadid=452357
- UZTool - http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...d.php?t=386997
Those are a few. I highly recommend UZTool, it allows you to compress/decompress files using right click! I don't know about the others, as i havn't tested them.
For Server admins
Well if you're a Server admin, and you want to use a public redirect, go into UT2004.ini of the Server, and find following:
Code:
[IpDrv.HTTPDownload] RedirectToURL=http://mywebserver/path/to/folder/
Gameservers.net has a Guide about setting up a redirect, and uploading files to their Server. There's also some info here.
You should be able to comress the files by yourself now already. If you don't know how to, i'll explain it quickly:
Open ucc, and instead of "ucc compress" type "ucc decompress". Or use UT2004mi / UZTool. It's really simple
If you know any Public redirect Services or UZ2 tools, let me know!
eviL<3
Comment