Limitations of Unreal Engine

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jakoozie
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Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Hello,
I want "remake" a game made in Unreal Engine (UT99) but I just want fix some bugs, clean up the code, and add more edges to the models, and change the textures for cartoon textures but all with some higher quality. My question is, what is my limitations of UE for what I want to do?
Thanks!
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TheDane
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by TheDane »

For bug fixing and code optimization there are no particular limits. When it comes to models and textures you will be increasing the polycount so there's your limit. Build your mod on a low end PC or laptop, if it runs without lag on it you should be on the good side regarding performance.

Its up to you to decide what system specs to code for, I am always developing something - though most of it never gets released haha.... but I've thought about the same, and I've posted the system specs I use for the mod I am currently making here: https://forum.unrealtournament.info/vie ... f=10&t=238

Today is 31-08-2014 - no reason to still support hardware that goes back to the release date in November 1999 right?
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Hellkeeper
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by Hellkeeper »

Textures must be 8-bit, 256 indexed colours the height and width of the tex must be powers of two up to 1024, so 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024.
Polygons should be a non-issue because nowadays computers can animate tons of them.
You must construct additional pylons.
jakoozie
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Thanks!
Make cartoon textures 8-bit and 1024x1024 should not be a problem, correctly? I would like to make textures like Team Fortress.
Should I use the UT Community SDK? What are the disadvantages? Will change anything in the original game?
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Shadow
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by Shadow »

You may use it.. yes. But cell shading isn't supported yet. The coming release focusses on better map editing support.
Disadvantages: It needs a seperate render and render driver.. mh. It changes only that stuff you wish it to change.. it's a toolset. You don't want to use a hammer, don't use a hammer.
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jakoozie
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Shadow wrote:You may use it.. yes. But cell shading isn't supported yet. The coming release focusses on better map editing support.
Disadvantages: It needs a seperate render and render driver.. mh. It changes only that stuff you wish it to change.. it's a toolset. You don't want to use a hammer, don't use a hammer.
Thanks for your reply! The SDK supports textures with more than 8bit/256colors/1024x1024?
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Shadow
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by Shadow »

Nope not yet. I'm going to work on it in the versions after the september release (it needs: new import code, new texture browser, new render code .. will be effin' tough). But you get with it at least better texture support to some extent (basic material system like in ut 2004 and stuff)
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jakoozie
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Shadow wrote:Nope not yet. I'm going to work on it in the versions after the september release (it needs: new import code, new texture browser, new render code .. will be effin' tough). But you get with it at least better texture support to some extent (basic material system like in ut 2004 and stuff)
Thanks! I know you work and have other things more cool to do, but you will release more frequently builds?
Is possible to do nice textures like Team Fortress 2/Warsow and other cartoon games with 8bit/256colors/1024x1024 textures?
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Shadow
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by Shadow »

I'm not able to put out more builds more frequently because that leads to newly added features that stay unfinished, and there's still "unfinished" stuff to complete too.
UT already supports 8bit Textures up to 8192x8192 dimensions, see this driver http://www.cwdohnal.com/utglr/, my SDK driver is based on the codework of that driver.
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by Dr.Flay »

For those interested UEd2.1 will actually let you import 24 bit bit textures ;)
Because it can compress to DDS/ DXT / S3TC 24 and 32-bit during import, your 8-bit images are converted upwards anyway.
Here is a screengrab from UEd 2.1 of the quick test I did recently.
Action Cruiser
Action Cruiser
PC Computer - Cartoon Network Universe FusionFall - Action Cruiser.zip
Action Cruiser model
(471.95 KiB) Downloaded 66 times
I tend to use 2.1 for importing/exporting meshes, as it supports more formats and can be used to prepare stuff for UEd2.

Some of UEd limitations are defined by the import options or process, and some are defined by the core.
eg. new video and audio renderers bypass many old restrictions. Indeed with the new audio renderers, you can now simply import an OGG file for music, without having to mess around creating a fake tracker file from a huge WAV file.
jakoozie
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Thanks!
I use UEd from UT GOTY I guess, I don't know if it is updated :/
I export textures from Warsow for see if the cartoon textures still good on UT99 and I have one problem, I open the map I import the texture but it had some problem, I didin't import normals and specular, should I import and I need to change something else?

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TheDane
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by TheDane »

I'm pretty sure you don't use the stock editor from UT GOTY release? I have never seen that X,Y and Z axis Graphics in any of my (many) versions?

I can't help you but only suggest you double check that your images are 8bit color depth when importet, and I found .bmp images was imported better than .pcx format.
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by papercoffee »

jakoozie wrote:Thanks!
I use UEd from UT GOTY I guess, I don't know if it is updated :/
I export textures from Warsow for see if the cartoon textures still good on UT99 and I have one problem, I open the map I import the texture but it had some problem, I didin't import normals and specular, should I import and I need to change something else?
Spoiler
Image
Normal and Specular mapping is not supported by UT.
jakoozie
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by jakoozie »

Thanks!
Where I can download the last UEd?
What's the easiest way to see color depth on Windows/Mac?
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TheDane
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Re: Limitations of Unreal Engine

Post by TheDane »

jakoozie wrote:Thanks!
Where I can download the last UEd?
What's the easiest way to see color depth on Windows/Mac?
Ued is not something you download - it's an executive file protected by copyright. You have to reinstall your UT in order to reset the Ued version to the default version. You can also install a new copy to a temp folder elsewhere and then copy/paste all Editor.* files from the new install into your old install and overwrite the "old" ones.

If you do not have a legit copy of the game, look here: http://www.forum.unrealtournament.info/ ... f=11&t=198
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