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[u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

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watcher_of_the_skies
Skaarj Lord Skaarj Lord
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 25 Oct 2017, 16:38

It happened before.... This kind of "sudden-leavin'" thingy.

User avatar AlCapowned
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2020, 16:07

LeoTCK has released an extremely early alpha build of Unreal 2. This particular build is actually based on UT99's engine.

Some interesting tidbits:
-It has early version of the Drakk homeworld, the Hell facility, the Atlantis, the CTF map that would eventually become XMP's Freefall, and more
-The whole thing is built with BSP because static meshes weren't supported yet, and some of the maps are really impressive for the time (check out AS-Purgatory in particular)
-It has working early versions of the assault rifle, energy rifle (u2weapons.weaponenergyrifle), and rocket launcher (u2 weapons.rocketlauncher)
-The particle salamander system was implemented in this build, and you can see it in action in Hell and a lot of the test levels
-The grappling hook is partially implemented (use with left ctrl)
-The izarians were originally aligned with the Drakk; they appear in Drakk level as defenders, and their energy rifle in this version has the same color scheme as some early Drakk meshes in the E3 alpha
-The few enemies there are mostly use placeholder models, but the medium araknids use the same model from the E3 build (with their size, speed, and model, they're scarier to me than the ones in the final game)

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 14 Jun 2020, 21:24

Oh ok so this is finally out for real.
Not mentioned above but there's Shian-related materials too - their starship textures and two drafts of what was going to be their Mission 7.
ImageImage

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 15 Jul 2020, 21:56

https://glendahlgren.home.blog/unreal-2/
A blog from one of the Unreal 2 devs detailing what happened with the development of Unreal 2. In few words, Legend Entertainment had a very strong vision for the game, they had extremely talented people in the art and mapping department. However:
1)Epic, as much as they wanted Legend to do a great game, giving them all the time they need, were shipping out UE2 updates which broke everything every single time (Epic wasn't the gaming engine team they are now back then); plus, as a small company, they weren't funding development.
2)Atari, the main scumbags, were the ones to fund the project but wanted things to be done quick. Classic "publishers are bad" routine at work. Atari also pushed gameplay and level design decisions that Legend didn't agree with; Grayson Edge (Hexephet mapper who in U2 made maps such as Hell and Janus) was apparently pissed at Atari for example, his maps went from non-linear structures ala Unreal 1 to simplistic short designs.

If the game went as Legend wished, it was probably going to be very decent (being overshadowed by Halo aside, like how U1 was overshadowed by HL1). Maybe probably not polished in various departments: UE2 was young, Legend wasn't a cutting-edge devteam... but at least an extremely respectable end result, especially if XMP was included beforehand (the longstanding community for that obscure and complex game mode was testament for its unique quality).

How things were going to go?
Unreal 2 had much more to do with Unreal 1 in terms of references, including U1's own cut content. Flak Cannon and the Shock Rifle were going to be in, as well as the Skaarj Razik (which met the same fate in Unreal 1, anyway). Stun Baton was also going to be a weapon (when the Razik was still planned for U1, it was something of an upgrade over a bonesaw weapon). The Izarian Shock Lance was originally named after the cut Unreal 1 weapon "Impaler" - it was likely changed to have Shock in its name as fanservice.
In general, the whole Unreal 2 arsenal is fairly close to the regular Unreal one; the Shotgun and the Flamethrower were based off the Quadshot and the Napalm Gun, the RTNP weapons returned in an improved fashion; the Leech/Spider Gun seemed like a BioRifle replacement. The Singularity Cannon was new as well as the unused MindClaw, a lifedrain weapon that was also capable of creating anti energy shields (forcefield much? Its energy is purple too).

The Unreal 2 campaign was very different in level order as well as the story. As read in the blog, there was a massive narrative facelift to make up for the stuff that didn't make it in the game (either cut or never developed in time).
Anyone who has U2 realized that the filenames don't make sense. Sanctuary (the first level) is Mission 8, Hell (the third level) is Mission 1, Nakoja/Drakk (9th and 10th level respectively) are Mission 3 A and B. The filenames were based off the original mission numbering.

There isn't info on what was changed in the story, the ending was different too. The crew dying was at least set in stone since the beginning. And pretty sure Legend took inspiration from anything Unreal content, including unreleased or novel stuff. They were aware of the Unbible era content, so likely the Drakk were inspired by the cyborg enemies Unreal was going to have. The Artifacts were also a concept straight from Unreal's early materials.

Atlantis intermissions aside, here's the original mission listing. One can tell by looking at the files, like texture/meshes package named after the missions.
  • Mission 1 was Hell. Before its IsvKran-styled song was conceived, there was an unused and creepy music file which let out a much darker atmosphere (almost like playing Doom 3...). As always you were to fight the Araknids there.
    If you played Unreal Resurgence, you might have seen them but with an altered look: much more rough/mechanical, bigger, meanier and with an Alien-style head on top of the body. That's the alpha Araknid, which was already known since the U2 E3 build (the alpha build leaked lately has them too but function properly).
    There was the alpha Araknid only for the regular pawn; the Major Araknids and Araknid Queens never had an available alpha model (the artstyle change occurred before they were made, probably). The alpha Araknids played exactly like Spinners, including arc acid shots, with more rushdown tactics (finalized Araknids, save the Queen that had an unique moveset, only used melee).
    In the final Unreal 2, the Araknids were a laboratory accident caused by the Artifact but I strongly believe they were their own unique race before. See next mission.
  • Mission 2 was set in a desert, made by Matthias Worch (he at least did the meshes). Why Worch said it is because his name was credited in a XMP map despite doing nothing; the XMP map in question is Sirocco and it used whatever visual resources made by Worch for the cut desert map.
    In this mission you would fight hordes of Araknids; this would confirm they started out as a unique alien race, not artificial.
    In terms of available content for M2, there's XMP-Sirocco itself with its static meshes and various rock/desert textures across U2 builds.
  • Mission 3 was the actual Drakk homeworld. You were going to meet these guys early and they had a bigger role within the story.
    Legend hired a very talented artist for the design of anything alien in Unreal 2, however there were discussions on how the Drakk visual style was going to be. If you looked at the Drakk textures, you see the known blue stuff and then the brown industrial stuff. Originally the Drakk theme was a crossbreed between the Skaarj and Queen ones from Unreal 1, then eventually the more unique Matrix style theme was chosen ultimately.
    The Drakk homeworld map was also going to be used for multiplayer, under the name "Purgatory".
    From the alpha builds it appears the Izarian, and Skaarj too, were allies of the Drakk, defending their homeworld. The Izarian Lance original design was styled after the Drakk theme, too. It's unknown if it's a deal or the Drakk did some indoctrination (i don't want to bring much Mass Effect comparisons with U2). The Drakk back then in Legend's minds might have not been the Drakk we're seeing, too.
    As for Nakoja, it was made later. This is one of the few cases where a mission is separate in two parts, A (Nakoja) and B (Drakk homeworld, if it was their homeworld anyway).
  • Mission 4 is the most obscure one. All there's to it is a rock texture, a texture from the PlayerShip package and four static meshes, one of them named MINELIGHT. There's no mine in Unreal 2. It's presumed that you were going to revisit Na Pali, or perhaps a close relative. An Unreal 1 callback.
  • Mission 5 is another obscure one as there's no related texture package. However it has its own static meshes pack, and it contains all the meshes for the marsh mission you do in Unreal 2 after Sanctuary.
    That marsh/swamp environment had so its own level and it was supposedly the Kai planet (there's Kai themed archi in the M5 static meshes package).
  • Mission 6 is Acheron, followed by Obolus aka Kalydon.
    Acheron is Acheron. However there's something weird about it. In the area where you get the Artifact, there's a bunch of static meshes that don't seem have much to do with the environment around. You think they're Izanagi-made but if you take a look over the M6 static meshes package, you see these specific meshes have the Tosc prefix.
    The reason is that most probably a Tosc was first going to be revealed there. Maybe they guarded the Artifacts, and the one you find in Acheron is the only Artifact found in its original position (the other Artifacts were all spread around the universe). Maybe you'd find a dead Tosc, or the planet itself was going to eat it alive. Tosc also had a alpha model which was different but I'm not sure if there's anything involved with this.
    As for Kalydon/Obolus, you were probably going there for the same reasons as in the final game. The alpha version of Obolus contained more structures in the style of Sulferon.
  • Mission 7 was Severnaya. The Shian mission.
    This is one of the biggest things cut out of the game, and as far as I know they did reach an advanced development state. As far as the Shian go, per the E3 build there were going to be Light/Medium/Heavy units too but we only know of the Workers and the Warriors, whose concepts leaked. The third unit was likely a boss pawn. No model for the Shian have ever leaked, however the skins for the worker exist in the final game (the Warrior skins are all blacked out sadly). All the important Shian textures exist in the pre-release builds (the E3 one has them all), with very few of them making their way to XMP. There's nothing like the Shian visual theme in the rest of the Unreal series, it's recommended to take a look. They were made by the same artist behind the Drakk visuals.
    Some static meshes are still in the game; for some reason one of them use a Drakk texture so there was probably some lore relation between the two races.
    The leaked Unreal 2 old alpha has M7 map drafts; as you might expect, it's large red outposts in the middle of an infinite ocean planet. You would use a submarine to explore the waters, fight Shian ships, visit their locations. Shian themselves would fight by sending marine creatures at you - creatures all present in Unreal 2 but with no code.
    The design of the level advanced into a mere underwater research facility which gave birth to the Severnaya we know in Unreal 2, aka Waterfront.
    Unless I'm getting it wrong and Severnaya was a separate branch of Mission 7, and then you'd visit the Shian planet called Hadal.
  • Mission 8 is Sanctuary. Debut cutscenes for Izarians and Skaarj were repurposed into this level as they appeared already in the original mission listing.
    Not much to say except it was going to have more jungle content. The E3 build of U2 has a M8 texture pack with shittons of unreleased textures.
  • Mission 9 is Janus. Originally had a more complex and nonlinear map design.
    It was going to house Human vs Skaarj battles as seen in the old alpha build. Therefore a bigger Skaarj role overall in the game.
  • Mission 10 is Avalon but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Avalon to begin with, just repurposed in that.
    Instead it appears it was another research centre; from the story a bunch of Strider were locked into research buildings and this is likely the mission where you would finally meet these guys. This race was referenced in one of the characters' bio in the UT Ladder.
    From the description the Strider was an aggressive race capable of biomass eating features in order to grow armors, weapons, and spaceships too. Not sure if they were like the typical parasite race needing other races to replicate but they seemed more of a normally intelligent alien species.
    Just like all the major races in Unreal 2 minus the Tosc and another one, Strider had three units: Pods, basically walking small spiders that played out like the regular Araknids, then Villains and Nemesis (latter was originally named Nexus). Pods were able to combine themselves into a single Villain and multiple Villains could combine into a Nemesis. Bigger, more intelligent and with weapons. If the space around was too small, they could defrag into smaller units again to pass through and then recombine.
    No concept art for the Strider was ever released, and likely Legend only ended up making models of them that never made it to any U2 build. The only resources existing for Strider are three decoration meshes (which seemed to have some use including health regeneration) and two fleshy textures for said decorations. That's it.
    Avalon itself seemed fairly unfinished. Bunch of unused static meshes as well as most locations within the map not accessible in any way (even blocked with WALLS).
  • Map 11 was the Dorian Gray itself, assuming it was named like that originally.
    It was made by the same person behind the Drakk and Shian visuals... wasn't that guy doing alien stuff only?
    This is probably the place where the last cut race, The N, was going to appear. Other than the Tosc, they were the only ones with one single unit, no L/M/H variants. The N seemed final boss worthy from the media descriptions: only three N existing, able to appear anywhere with multiple copies, and impossible to kill (all attacks blocked by space-time fields). No concept art ever released but the description was "Borg-like" (Star Trek). The Dorian Gray's interior is seemingly inspired by the Borg's ship design too (especially that large area with the long middle bridge). What made it in the game was their weapon, the Mind Claw, albeit not working but model and texture were available; the texture style matches the color style of the Dorian Gray too.
    Most probably they were looking for the Artifacts, probably faking being Hawkins and all that. Mind that the final level got changed massively story wise.
    The hilarious part is that M11 ended up being M12 in the final game while M12 (named "The Vault") is the Kai->Tosc transformation chamber area (aka M11 in the final game). What a fucking mess.
    The Vault portion was made later, given the related files are named after the title itself while the other older stuff is named after the numbered mission. No idea how things were going to play out, probably you'd fight The N (The eNd?) in M11, some artifact shit happen and Tosc are all let loose, then I have no idea how you would fight N without a Singularity Cannon in the way they were described.

There were no other pawn or weapon in Unreal 2 that we didn't know beforehand. Legend set the plan super early in development.
If the game was going to be longer, having more missions or submissions, that's unknown. They even planned a faction system where you could ally with an alien race against others.
Last edited by UB_ on 16 Jul 2020, 16:54, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar AlCapowned
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 16 Jul 2020, 16:42

UBerserker wrote:Recently a XMP map based on Nyleve was also leaked.

Is that accurate? I know there was a Nyleve map for one of the early Unreal Championship builds that Leo converted to XMP, but I haven't seen anything beyond that.

It's a shame Na Pali wasn't revisited so much in the later games. Maps like 2004's Rrajigar were nice, but Na Pali would've looked great in Unreal 2.

UB_
Nali Priest Nali Priest
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 16 Jul 2020, 16:54

AlCapowned wrote:
UBerserker wrote:Recently a XMP map based on Nyleve was also leaked.

Is that accurate? I know there was a Nyleve map for one of the early Unreal Championship builds that Leo converted to XMP, but I haven't seen anything beyond that.


It's the one Leo has recently posted, I initially thought it was XMP related but looks like it isn't.


By the way I'm not sure where Sulferon would have been initially, guess it was either going to be something separate or ending up as M4 or M5... ironically it's the level with the most Unreal-sounding music of the game (Waterfront doesn't count).

watcher_of_the_skies
Skaarj Lord Skaarj Lord
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 18 Nov 2022, 18:01

This thread might have died, but the topic is very alive as of now.

A Short Essay on the Origin of the Skaarj Warlord
Image

The Skaarj Warlord is one of the most iconic enemies in the retail game, sporting a colossal stature and demon-like wings. The Warlord oversees the mining operation on Na Pali and crosses paths with the player two times during the original campaign. The first fight takes place in a cave under the Nali Castle, where he teleports away but finally meets his demise when the player infiltrates the Generator.

The newly recovered design documents/proto-manuals offer us a glimpse into the early stage of the Warlord's development. (Last revised: 12/10/1996)
Image
Image
While the retail model has an overall muscular-armored-bat-like appearance, this one looks a bit leaner and has no armor on his upper body. He holds his weapon in his right hand while the retail one is left-handed. Kinda like that pink-demon stuff from Doom.
Image
It also lacks the final model's iconic wings but does have a horn on each side of his head those of which look towards, curves a bit to the median-sagittal plane and descends while doing so.
Image
The document states that the mesh is ready to be used, but was untextured and unanimated at the time. The poly/vertex count reassures this fact. (Please note that the horns got removed in favor of the wings, and the different head shape.)
Retail Warlord - Polys:511 - Vertices:262
Horned Lord - Polys:507 - Vertices:255

I hastely removed the wings, and the skin-folds from the back of it's head, made his shoulders a bit narrower, and also removed the shoulder plates that were sticking out.
Also made the posterior part of the skull a bit flatter to give it a more menacing look. (I have a gut-feeling that the Horned Lord would have a flatter skull.)
The overall shape of the head got a bit leaner. Also removed the tusk like structures.
Image
The general shape of the prototype's head is also very different from the retail's.

The next step was to take a look at the retail gibs as they seem to belong to another model. I was hoping that the further investigation would reveal more.
The gibs use 2 lower resolution textures. These sport a greyish-light-brownish color scheme, similiar to the color palette of the "Iron-Underweared-Skaarj". Being a medicine student, I have a fair medical knowledge at my disposal which I could use to give an overthinked explanation to the pale skin. I don't want to elaborate on the topic tho, we all know what I am refering to. It seems unlikely that the creators thought about this tho as every other gib in the game has a fresh reddish blood-muscle tone to them, and they left the skin untouched.
It's also worth mentioning that the textures seem to have these "rectangular" parts in them that came from other textures. (They got copied over with a rectangle-selection-tool.)
Image

The second gib texture shows the same rectangular "copied-over" parts. (wing)
Please note that the wing is not the same as the one on the retail texture. We can also see a blackish-leathery part, which will be on the Leg-gib.
I am sure it's not just a hastely pieced together part, as it seems to fit the leg well.
Image

Let's take a look at the gibs themselves.
Image
The hand does not have a glove on it while the retail model does.
The foot is much smaller, and "hoove"-like. The texture is different, and fits the gib model well! Please note that the retail model's sole is untextured while the gib has a proper, well fitting sole texture. The foot uses the "rectangular, different part" from the gib texture.
The head has one of it's tusks broken. Please note that the tusk looks a lot like the alpha skaarj's. The Warlord has brown tusk-like offshots, while the gib has one that actually is colored like a bone/tusk.
The leg is thinner, and has a black texture with a line running down on it's side. (Leather?!)

The overall stature, and the hoove-like gibs gave me an idea. What if the minotaur model from 1995 is the real proto Hornlord? The great grandfather of the Warlord.
Retail Warlord - Polys:511 - Vertices:262
Minotaur - Polys:456 - Vertices:256
The hand gib is 100% identical to the minotaur's hand.
Image
Comparisons of the overall statures.
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Image

A comparison between the retail feet gib and the Minotaur's hoof:
Image
It's basically the same model, a bit modified tho.

Let's see how strong the overlap is between the models:
Image
Image
Image

One of the most identical areas is the region around the scrotum. The overlapping is almost 100%.
Image

Another strong point:
Image

All of this makes me believe that the Hornlord is the result of the minotaur's direct evolution. The models are of the same origin.

User avatar AlCapowned
Skaarj Elder Skaarj Elder
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 19 Nov 2022, 02:28

Nice analysis! It's always cool to see what could have been, though I much prefer what we ultimately got. The original design looks too close to Doom's cyberdemon for my tastes.

GamesHarder posted chunks of the creatures document here: http://www.oldunreal.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=101486&sid=40aaf6a3915a7a3bb5c15a32331b552a#p101486
I've uploaded the full document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I16M9OzOIovDmT_87Lj2l_holTKLGBQF/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=100903191122465917720&rtpof=true&sd=true

There are a lot of interesting little tidbits.
-The gasbag's eat animation was made with rodent creatures in mind
-The nali are portrayed as purely benevolent
-There are multiple references to the player's ability to transform into other creatures
-The dragons were going to be skaarj who were unable to transform successfully
-The hawks were going to be large enough to carry players
-We get a look at the unfinished robot enemies, ambient rodents and rats, and the original nali cow

User avatar Darkon
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Subject: Re: [u1] Unreal Alpha and Beta version discussion

Post Posted: 21 Nov 2022, 20:46

Thanks.. that was an interesting bit!
Never trust a Dutchman in a tulip fight.

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