[u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

[AlCapowned]

Thanks for the information, and welcome to UnrealSP.

[Teflon]

Thanks!

A few other things of note:

- There are three levels, Autorun, FRED, and Unreal. Unreal and Autorun are a small, textured cube with a Skaarj in the middle, while FRED is the level that Gizzy showed in his screenshot.

- Your character uses the modified 1996-era Woman model as a player model. You can see it when you die.

- Unreal.ini has switches for blood, profanity and nudity. Apparently, you were able to disable nudity and profanity at one time. The nudity flag probably would've saved quite a few kids from the infamous nude Velora image in Temple of Velora and the DM tutorial level nude angel textures in UT99.

- Unreal.exe is much smaller than UnServer.exe, which actually runs the game.

- Trying to use the editor makes it bitch about a file that doesn't exist in the prototype's files.

- None of the final's console commands work. However, you can load levels by clicking on "Open Saved Game" in the top bar and clicking on the level you want to play.

- There doesn't seem to be any weapons, but trying to press the 1-9 keys doesn't generate an error, which suggests they're partially supported in this prototype.

[Delacroix]

Unreal95 has a fifth level, I made sure this won't get overwritten by creating a fifth bat and copying Unreal.unr to maps.

Now in Unreal97, the exes are simply misplaced, Unreal.exe and UnrealEd.exe should stick outside the System folder AND the regfile must be applied. UnrealEd.exe still won't work on my Win7. Will test it on Win98 later on tomorrow.

In Unreal97 there are two levels not three: Autoplay and Unreal are identical files, check MD5 even. There's just Unreal and Fred, autoplay was created when the original user tried to play Unreal.unr via UnrealEd.

EDIT:

I extracted the loadscreens.




The first one was hidden in UnServer.exe but was unused.
The second one is used by UnServer.exe.

[AlCapowned]

Those loading screens look kind of cool, but I prefer the font/U logo Epic put in the final version.

I'd love to look at this myself, if at all possible.

[Gizzy]

Delacroix, I've tried moving the UnrealED.exe into /system, applying the regfile and installing all the vbruntime files included and I still get the same error I posted previously. I've tried running in compatibility mode for win95 and win98 (I'm running WinXP)

Running UnServer with -editor:






Which goes back to what I first said, that this is version has again been stripped down and crucial files needed to run the editor have been taken out. I will be interested in this Alpha again if someone manages to get the models/textures from it or finds a way to get the editor working.

EDIT: The sound file for the skaarj shooting is in .UFX format, not the final .UAX format that was used. The design document reveals LOADS of info, as UB said. It also confirms my suspitions that the GESBioRifle was once a flamethrower. (Shown by this line of import code

Code: Select all

ANIVFILE=Models\Napal3_a.3d

)

EDIT 2: Open the .utx and .unr files in a notepad and look at them. It seems that maybe unreal code required to load them was embedded into each of these files when they were saved (explaining the 5.7mb filesize)

[AlCapowned]

If you have 3D Ripper DX and a version of Windows lower than Vista, you should be able to get the models and textures. It's what I used to get Damien's skin from the PS2 version of UT. Unfortunately, I don't think it can capture animations, unless you capture a model frame-by-frame.

In case you don't have it: http://www.deep-shadows.com/hax/3DRipperDX.htm

[Gizzy]

If you have 3D Ripper DX and a version of Windows lower than Vista, you should be able to get the models and textures. It's what I used to get Damien's skin from the PS2 version of UT. Unfortunately, I don't think it can capture animations, unless you capture a model frame-by-frame.

In case you don't have it: http://www.deep-shadows.com/hax/3DRipperDX.htm

I have WindowsXP and I tried that, but it didnt seem to do anything at all. Maybe I'm just being retarded

[AlCapowned]

No idea as to why it wouldn't work. Maybe I just got lucky.

[UBerserker]

The old Unreal design doc is the devil, I SAY.


This is him, the Gargoyle, and evidently the same demon shown in those Crypt textures (the texture with the big demon face). Obviously, this is an alpha of the Warlord. Almost every other Unreal monsters we know (Titan, Warlord himself and even the Queen) were quickly modelled between years 1996/1997/1998 (not really confirmed but we're there in some way).
The cut Warlord scene where the player (SHE) encounter him eating a human corpse was thought early, all the way from 1995 until all of a sudden they removed it in the final version (last full Unreal Beta having the Nyleve map with more vegetation still had it).

By the way, the bosses were always supposed to be the Stone Titan (which was going to be different and invulnerable to firepower; also Titans were defined Skaarj Titans, but not because they were Skaarj, but because they were under control by the Skaarj themselves), the Skaarj Warlord (you'll encounter him several times before the real battle) and the Queen, named Mother Skaarj.

Oh and the guy who had the Alpha and Beta stuff (see the first post of this thread) lied totally. All the info he said was false.

[AlCapowned]

That could make the theory about Titans having armor more likely. The Skaarj could have given them the armor.

Any chance that this stuff will be released at some point?

[Gizzy]

That could make the theory about Titans having armor more likely. The Skaarj could have given them the armor.

Any chance that this stuff will be released at some point?

Not sure. It's really not much to be honest. I can't see any way of extracting anything useful or even getting the editor working. That screenshot I posted is prety much everything there is to see/worth seeing. There was more content in the 95 alpha (Music and backdrop files, along with a strange header file) whereas with this alpha, there seems to be nothing salvageable.

[Delacroix]

Try this. Courtesy of LEO.

[UBerserker]

Anyway Leo recovered all of this stuff.

He managed to run the editor (through hacking), but the Unreal.ucx is what actually contains the source classes. Anything in those maps is mylevelled.

[integration]

Is that the stuff he was speaking about here?

I have been chasing down someone for the betas, because of someone who I know had the CDs, but after a long wait it turned out they weren't there, but they exist and I know more about it. Those builds were originally leaked, they are Unreal Alpha Monster Preview, 96 complete beta with UnrealED (the build was about August 96 IIRC), 97 beta build dating to around July and some pre release 98 build (possibly the one I played back in 98) with some additional stuff, possibly the addon pack.

[UBerserker]

Exported skaarj skin, it is in two files instead of one.
skaarjskin.rar

Look at that. Also has txt file which includes the command form needed to export.

It doesn't work with the final model, although it can be remade to be compatible with it. I think people such as Turboman can do it, etc...