[Released] Unreal HD Skins [UT] [227]

[gopostal]

I ended up chatting with Bob most of the evening and so had time to do a manual conversion of the textures. I rewrote the online mod and got the texture package down to 72MB without appreciable loss in quality. The lag in the monster corridor is gone for me online now.

I sorted the textures and down-converted all the 2048 and 4096 to 1024, and the 1024 to 512. It's not a perfect solution but the texture pack size is a serious issue. Even at 72MB there will be admins who won't use it but this is doable as a working model.

I passworded my coop server and I have this running on it if you want to see it. Pass is the same as before. I'll work out the rabbit issue in the next couple of days and clean up any issues. If you get a chance pop in and let me know if this vastly improved things for you.

As a point of reference here's a visual for what I've done:

Frome left to right let's number them 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Number one brute is default skin.
Number two brute is downconverted to 1024 and the file size went from 50MB to 683kb. This is the version on my server right now.
Number three is your default uber-large skin directly from the 600 MB package.
Number four is a further test where I went to 512 size and the texture went down to 171kb. Using this I can get the mod in under 45MB or a little less. (Edit: I think I can get that down to ~20MB honestly)

As you can see the tradeoff for perfect visuals is well worth the incredible savings in file size.

**Small update: reworked the code and fixed the rabbits and birds so they work right. The only exception is the biterfish. Since the biterfish school spawns the fish dynamically I'm having issues getting the skin to replace online. (I wonder if this is related to the CanSeeMe thing?) Anyway I may just forgo the biters instead of hacking some terrible thing up to get them to work since they are so small and fast. Oh and I tested using 512 textures and the result isn't satisfactory. There's a big loss in quality from 1024 to 512 so you were right in that 1024 is the lower limit. It's fine, I played MH-SoccerStaduim (sic) and had hundreds of high skin monsters in visual and there was no lag.

[Lightning Hunter]

Sounds good, I think 1024x1024 is the optimal solution.

[gopostal]

Updated both packages and everything is on the testing server. I added the mesh fixes yrex posted at OU for a few of the decos and ammo pickups that were missing polys (I got his permission, thank you Y!). It's ready for detailed checks and for us to discuss the CAR. I know it's a busy time for you so just let me know when you want to look and I'll convert the server back over to the testing setup. I can do it in moments but I'd really like to have the Christmas mods running for people to play if we aren't actively testing anything.

[sn260591]

It is possible to make so that HDSkins2.utx didn't downloaded from the server for players at whom the mutator is initially not installed. For this purpose it is necessary to use DynamicLoadObject for change of textures. For example, need to replace

Code: Select all

A.Skin = Texture'HDSkins2.HDSkaarjw1';

on

Code: Select all

A.Skin = Texture(DynamicLoadObject("HDSkins2.HDSkaarjw1", Class'Texture'));

Then, it is necessary to add check in case of which the mutator will be disabled if HDSkins2.utx is absent:

Code: Select all

function PreBeginPlay()
{
   if (DynamicLoadObject("HDSkins2.SomeTexture", Class'Texture', True) != None)
      Spawn(Class'HDSkinsNotify');
   else
      Log("HDSkinsMut: Package HDSkins2 not found, mutator will be disabled");
}

[gopostal]

Nice sn. I copied that post into my code notebook. I will surely use it at some point.

I wrote this online version so that admins can force the higher quality textures but the download is way, way smaller. If anyone wants to take a peek just PM me and I'll send you the server password. This mod is done aside from whatever issue LH said the CAR has. I'm still unclear about what that is or I'd have fixed it already.

[Lightning Hunter]

Updated both packages and everything is on the testing server. I added the mesh fixes yrex posted at OU for a few of the decos and ammo pickups that were missing polys

Wait, Yrex released some fixes? Do you have a link?

As for the CAR, if you can get the server up and running, I can take a screenshot (if it's still broken). I can check it today/tonight.

[gopostal]

Server is up, just vote the topmost map and it will load the demo map.

yrex posted some fixed meshes at Old Unreal. He did an update already but I don't see anything wrong with the first ones. I think it was perfectionists at OU complaining that some obscure thing wasn't 'just' right.

[Lightning Hunter]

I checked the server again. None of the 1st person weapon skins are working again, but everything else seems ok. I could not find the Titan, Warlord, or the 5 other Skaarj Warriors in the monster gallery by the way. I guess when you are done with all this, you can just send me the file so I can use my own test map (my test map has hundreds of pawns, including all the gibs). That way, I can verify that everything works before the online version is released.

By the way, will this work in UT99 as well? I'm hoping that compatibility is kept for both games, like the original release.

[gopostal]

Sorry LH, it's all good now. The laptop running the server hasn't been restarted in several weeks. I noticed it getting sluggish last night and forgot to reboot. Anyway it's all fixed now and the 1st person weapon skins replace as they should. It was nothing in the mod, it's this Bill Clinton-era laptop I still use.

I extended the corridor where the monsters are at so you can look at individuals a bit easier. When you get to the end of the hallway from before it turns 90 degrees and continues on. It ends in a teleporter back to the hub map.

BTW, I'm sure I could compile this in UT and it would work just fine but it would have a lot of wasted replace code. This project should continue forward into UT as a separate mod if it's something you would entertain. Aside from decorations almost everything else is replaced in UT from Unreal and for this to really be attractive it would need to work with everything there too. I'm not sure how much time you wanted to throw at this for UT but it would surely be used if you did.

[Lightning Hunter]

The 1st person weapons still don't seem to be replaced on my end. How do I vote to change the map to the test map? I don't know what the key/command is. I haven't played online in years.

This project should continue forward into UT as a separate mod if it's something you would entertain.

I was hoping to keep it all as one mod like it already is. After all, UnrealHD works in both UT99 and U227. But anyway, maybe this can be tested once you complete everything. If it doesn't work in UT99, I might just release this as a U227-only thing. In the end, I wasn't even planning on doing an online release at all!

[gopostal]

Here's the bind you can place in your user.ini that will hotkey voting:
X=showvotingmenu
That binds x key to open vote but you can also just say showvotingmenu in console. I avoided forcing it onto the clients who play on my server because I don't think it's right to alter their ini's by forcing a default mapvote key on them.

Voting takes a minute or so to load. You'll see a nag text on the bottom middle of the HUD once it's loaded. Also the texture replacement for the weapons happens after about 10 seconds from when you spawn in. This gives you time to switch to a weapon then watch it get replaced (aside from that shitty sniper rifle I have). That can all be sped up tremendously via the ini file but for the demo I set it slow. Decorations however replace as the map loads so they will be replaced when you enter the map. Ammo, weapon pickups, weapons in inventory...those all will replace on the first timer pass the player is in game for (max 10 seconds between each pass).
BTW, just joined the server and got this:

It may be those horrible MH maps that are messing up the replacement mod. I really need to remove those, they break a lot of stuff including the server stability.

Add: Server testing has been fine so I restored the Christmas mods and also running the HDSkinsOnline stuff with it.

[Lightning Hunter]

Do you have a version I can test offline yet? That would give us a for-sure answer about the weapons.

[gopostal]

PM'ed you the package. Can be run locally though it's not as good as your full size mod (obviously).

BTW, I see the issue on my server with why the mod doesn't load sometimes. I have the HD mod called via my mapvote, not as a default package on the server (it's this weird JGrass setup I use). The end result is that the HD skins mod doesn't load unless you vote for a map and the voting handler handles the map switch. If you hit a teleporter it loads the default setup and I haven't added HD skins into that yet. I'll try to get that done this weekend.

[Lightning Hunter]

The issue you just brought up might be related to this, but I noticed that the weapon skins are only replaced sometimes. I just now tried using your mod offline in Vortex2 first. I summoned all the weapons, including the Upak CAR. all of them were replaced after about 5 seconds like they should. However, I then tried starting an RTNP game, and went to destroy that first UMS dropbox and picked up the CAR. The skin for this CAR was not replaced. Maybe it has to do with the gametype?

Also, is it possible to have the weapon skins replaced instantly? Would it really kill the performance? I understand why the other decorations and objects are replaced in intervals to improve online performance and all, but it looks really odd when you pick up a weapon and the skin suddenly changes after 5 seconds.

Finally, the CAR skin is still messed up on my side. I took a screenshot for you this time. If you are not sure what the problem is, try asking yrex. He could likely solve it, since he created the new meshes and code for it.

[gopostal]

I think something in how your UPAK is replacing the CAR is causing some sort of problem. I just hopped on the server, grabbed a CAR and took a pic in the mirror. I don't at all see what you are seeing:


The weapon skin replacement is *supposed* to be slow so you can see it happen. Like everything else in this I made it configurable. Admins can set the replacement as fast as they want as long as they can accept the hit to the server of running replacement code checks constantly.

You are welcome to use the mod I sent you however you want. I've tested this on my server and I'm happy with the results. It replaces meshes and textures as it should and the impact on the server is acceptable as it can be easily managed. I'll package it along with the source code and post it for use tomorrow.