c
Unreal
Tournament 2ºº³
IRC Chat on #XGR.com
ETG with Epic and DigitalExtremes
This is the excerpt of an IRC chat on XGR.com “Extreme Gaming Radio” Webradio, which
took place in parallel and after an interview
with James Schmalz from DigitalExtremes on XGR on April 3, 2002. The
IRC chat lasted for almost 4 hours (!) and the guys from DE and Epic answered
tons of questions. Thanks for taking the time. :)
I took the original complete
log
(which is about 3 times as long as this excerpt), weeded out all the crap, put
the Qs and As in the right order and sorted everything by topics to make
answers easier to find. (The questions within a topic are usually in the order as they
were asked on IRC, which often doesn’t make sense. I could have sorted them
too, but ... Hey, I wanted to get this done today! ;))
The involved people answering the questions are:
<MarkRein[Epic]>
Mark Rein, Epic, VP
<Drakken[DE]> Mike Bastien, DE, Mapper
<XceptOne[DE]> Pancho Eekels, DE, Mapper and Game
Designer
<Cruciform[DE]> Mike Wagner, DE, Writer
<[de]SteveS> Steve Sinclair, DE, Programmer
<Gwot> James Edwards, DE,
Modeller and Animator
<[de]ono> Anthony Pilger, DE,
GUI/HUD/Website Designer
<[Goose][DE]> Scott McGregor, DE, Mapper
<Orpheus> Robert Headly, Outhouse Production *)
*) Orpheus was voiced all the time, even when the channel was moderated, so I treated him like the devs. When you read his answers, be aware that his answers are not "official" thought, since he is not Epic/DE staff, but "only" somebody who works on an UW engine game.
Okay, ... now ... prepare for a looooooooooong read. :)
Tetris L
BeyondUnreal
5.4.2 ShieldGun / Impacthammer
6.10 Demo Recording & Spectating
6.11 NgStats & Copy Protection
12.2 End of official moderated part
1 Betatesting & Demo
[22:25] <MACK-WeBHaZArD> Mark, hey what
about beta testers, is that public or in house?
[22:25] <MarkRein[Epic]> Mack--> Beta testing
is handled by Infogrames
[22:25] <MarkRein[Epic]> Mack--> and it's all
in-house
[22:25] <Drakken[DE]> ah sorry
[19:37] <khyron|hv> is the topic of the
ut2k3 demo's release/contents under gag order tonight?
[19:37] <[de]ono> i think that Mark Rein might
know the answer for that.
[19:37] <[de]ono> heh
[19:39] <MarkRein[Epic]> Khyron--> I think the
topic of UT2003 demo content is under the "not figured out yet"
order. If DE guys want to talk about it they're welcome to
[19:39] <MarkRein[Epic]> Khyron--> I just
don't think it's been figured out yet
[19:52] <North`> When will the demo be
released?
[19:53] <Cruciform[DE]> when it's ready for
public consumption North'
[19:53] <Orpheus> in the infamous words of Mark
Rein "When its done"
[22:25] <Bonzai> MarkRein: So is it still
set that the Demo will be released in May or is that up to DE OR the date not
official? Like, a rumor.
[22:27] <MarkRein[Epic]>
Bonzai--> We're hoping for a demo in May but we're not there yet so who knows
if that is optimistic or not.
[23:28] <|UP|Soldano> Mark/DE: tentative
demo release date? :D :D :D
[23:29] <MarkRein[Epic]> Soldano--> tentative
release date for what?
[23:29] <Drakken[DE]> |up| I 'think' you can find
that info on Infogrames site
[23:29] <|UP|Soldano> UT2k3
[23:29] <[cmi]grif> dmeo
[23:29] <|UP|Soldano> UT2003 pc demo
[23:30] <MarkRein[Epic]> Soldano--> Don't know
for sure on the demo but I think we'd like to see it mid to late May. There's a
lot of work to do before we're ready for the demo.
[23:30] <Drakken[DE]> um sorry, sometime after E3
I believe. But nothing official there.
[23:30] <F|RE[POWER]> how you gonna get
dfeedback?
[23:30] <F|RE[POWER]> in one month
[23:31] <MarkRein[Epic]> Fire--> I think it's fair
to assume, based on past experience, Epic and DE will get thousands of
valueable feedback emails within HOURS of release of the demo. We don't need a
month's worth of feedback :)
[23:32] <PiTHON`> whats the LATEST ut2k3
will be out
[23:32] <Orpheus> PiTHON`, Dec 31 2003
2 Community Support
[20:45] <XGR-TSM_FETT> <SeVN> hey
dude.. ask em "Will UT2003 be more mod friendly then the previous unreal
based games?" and "Is the rumors true that they are going to put out
a new Unreal Tournament every year like a sports title?"
[20:46] <MarkRein[Epic]> Guys, let me take the
Sports Game thing....
[20:46] <MarkRein[Epic]> This is a long speach so
allow me to finish before any more questions come up, OK?
[20:46] * MarkRein[Epic] wants the floor
[20:46] <XceptOne[DE]> Go MArk GO!!
[20:46] * XGR-North nods.
[20:46] <MarkRein[Epic]> Ok, here we go....
[20:46] <MarkRein[Epic]> Imagine that we had
named the original Unreal Tournament game UT2000
[20:47] <MarkRein[Epic]> Then the Game of the
Year edition would have been UT2001
[20:47] <MarkRein[Epic]> Infogrames went out of
their way to make sure existing users knew that
[20:47] <MarkRein[Epic]> they could download all
the new stuff that came in UT2001 and didn't need to
[20:47] <MarkRein[Epic]> re-buy the game
[20:47] <MarkRein[Epic]> BUT a whole huge buncha
people bought UT2001 because they had heard such good things
[20:48] <MarkRein[Epic]> about UT2000 and wanted
to jump in and play
[20:48] <MarkRein[Epic]> So....
[20:48] <MarkRein[Epic]> If there is a UT2004 it
will likely be a update version like UT2001 was and
[20:48] <MarkRein[Epic]> if that's the case we'll
make sure people know what stuff is in it and where they
[20:48] <MarkRein[Epic]> can download it like we
did for UT2001.
[20:49] <MarkRein[Epic]> So it was UT2000, then
UT2001 and then we rested for 2 years and DE is making a completely (100%) new
game for 2003 - UT2003
[20:49] <MarkRein[Epic]> It's likely UT2004 will
be a update and then, who knows, maybe UT2005 will be next or maybe waiting
another year to UT2006 and it's a whole new game
[20:49] <MarkRein[Epic]> BUT....
[20:49] <MarkRein[Epic]> (This is a big BUT)
[20:50] <[de]ono> hughjass
[20:50] <[de]ono> HEH
[20:50] <Gwot> =P
[20:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> so not only can we do more
maps for newer versions of the game BUT, as users' machines get more
[20:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> and more powerful we can
throw more and more detail into the new stuff. So this is really a
[20:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> cool franchise that can
do something no other franchise has done yet and expand not only
[20:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> with more stuff but also
with much cooler stuff over time.
[20:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> That's the end of it :)
[20:52] <XceptOne[DE]> Did everyone get that?
[20:52] <MarkRein[Epic]> Did it make sense?
[20:52] <XGR-Paligap> well explained i think
[20:52] * XGR-North appluds :)
[20:52] <Orpheus> well said mark.
[20:52] <MarkRein[Epic]> When we go unmoderated
again everyone can tell me what they think of that.
[20:52] <Drakken[DE]> can you say that again
Mark?
[20:53] <Drakken[DE]> :p
[20:53] <MarkRein[Epic]> Drakken--> You're
kidding right?
[20:56] <XGR-North> In regards to your
speech Mark =-=-=-> <Nechronix> That's a great idea. Not only does it expand on the game and help
extend the lifespan of it, but it makes sure you don't split the community
because of the game changing too drastically.
[20:59] <MarkRein[Epic]> Yes we don't want to
split the community. Part of the value of doing the game more often (I doubt
that we'll do it every year btw) is that it keeps people playing with something
fresh and makes gradual transitions. This engine can last a long time so we
want to take advantage of that
[21:00] <MarkRein[Epic]> Just so people know
UT2003 is 150-200x time more detailed than UT was. There's nothing in the
engine that prevents us from making content that is 500x more detailed once
people have hardware that can handle it :)
[21:00] <Orpheus> 150,000 polygon scenes, no
problemo
[21:01] <Cruciform[DE]> my new video card just
wet itself in joy at the thought.
3 Hardware Requirements
[19:43] <cygnus`> DE, EPIC GUYS: Will UT2003
run on my 1ghz athlon with 64MB Radeon and 512 RAM?
[19:43] <MarkRein[Epic]> Cyrnus--> Sounds like
a good system to me
[19:43] <Cruciform[DE]> cygnus: i think it's safe
to say yes :P
[19:49]
<XGR-TSM_FETT> <Devastator|irc> what are the lowest processor
speed/ graphics card needed to run the game with good performance (don't care
about graphics)?
[19:50] <XceptOne[DE]> Epic is optimizing as much
as they can so, the lowest machine etc is still being looked at..
[19:51] <MarkRein[Epic]> Radio Shack Color
Computer will definitely not be enough :)
[19:51] <Cruciform[DE]> it runs REALLY sweet on a
ti4600 though :)
[19:56] <XGR-TSM_FETT> <[aa]Bonecrkr|irc>
ask them which videocard they think plays it better, Radeon 8500 or Geforce 4
[19:58] <Cruciform[DE]> bonecrkr: don't know how
it plays on the 8500, drakken can tell you that... but on the GF4 it flys at
1024x68 :)
[19:58] <[de]ono> x68!
[19:59] <MarkRein[Epic]> UT2003 plays great on
Radeon 8500
[19:59] <Orpheus> I use a 8500. The engine runs
fine, But I dont know about UT2003 (hint hint)
[19:59] <Drakken[DE]> Orpheus[1]:[1]
it does... I currently use one
[20:00] <North`> will the ATI Radeon 64Mb DDR be able to run the game in a decent
res?
[20:01] <MarkRein[Epic]> North--> Yes Radeon
runs fine, we already answered that
[20:01] <North`> what about UT crashes with
D3D, even with TI4600 cards?
[20:01] <XceptOne[DE]> UT never crashes..
[20:02] <MarkRein[Epic]> North--> This is a
very different engine than UT and I have NEVER seen UT crash on a ti4600 - I
suspect it might be more sound card related than video card related
[20:03] <[de]ono> yes.. i run a gf4Ti4600 and no
crashes at all
[20:08] <XGR-TSM_FETT>
<IGL-e|^chicken|stonage> I'd like to know if Voodoo3 users are doomed or
if a fast cpu such as an AMD 1700+ will even it out for a good framerate.
[20:09] <MarkRein[Epic]> I don't think anyone has
even tried our new engine on a Voodoo3 at all
[20:11] * MarkRein[Epic] is calling Tim Sweeney on Voodoo3
[20:15] <MarkRein[Epic]> Guys --> Tim says NO
Voodoo3 support at all. The new engine is 32bit only and requires stencil
buffering (two features Voodoo3 doesn't have) so the minimum card would be a
TNT2. Sorry for you Voodoo3 users. Voodoo3 was a great card for us in the past
but technology marches on.
[21:01] <XGR-Paligap> i got a question for
you DE guys
[21:02] <XGR-Paligap> what type of machines
are you running UT2k3 on lately
[21:02] <XceptOne[DE]> Ono? What the hell do I have here?
[21:02] <XGR-Paligap> and what do you expect the
AVERAGE specs should be to get nice juicy screens like you gave XGR
[21:02] <[de]ono> im runnign a 1800xp and a
geforce 4600ti
[21:02] <[de]ono> pancho has a 1800xp as well
[21:02] <XceptOne[DE]> Ah I knew it!
[21:02] <[de]ono> geforce 2 pro thouigh
[21:02] <[de]ono> err though
[21:02] <Cruciform[DE]> heh, 100% load, you can
tell i'm running dnet :)
[21:03] <XGR-TSM_FETT> ono.. ill trade you a geforce 3
ti500 and some cookies for your geforce 4 ti 4600
[21:03] <[de]ono> hehe
[21:03] <XGR-Mumbles> my gf 2 mx ownz j00 all!!!!
[21:03] <Orpheus> Athlon T-bird 1ghz, 320mb o
ram, ATI Radeon 8500LE 128mb DDR. SB live 5.1. Crappy Monitor
[21:03] <XGR-Mumbles> ph34r!
[21:03] <Drakken[DE]> Athlon XP 1500, 512 Ram,
KT7 266pro mo/bo, Radeon 8500, twin 21" trinitrons. Runnin it at 1280 *
1024 with everything cranked.
[21:03] <[de]ono> only if you intervie jessica
ALBA!~
[21:03] <XGR-TSM_FETT> lol!!
[21:03] <[de]ono> i will just give it to you if i
can meet her
[21:03] * [de]Ono droools
[21:04] <XGR-Mumbles> P4 *cough*newb*cough*
[21:04] <[Goose][DE]> ono I am goin to hold you
to that.... one day man one day
[21:04] <gigatron> mumbles hey my parents got it for
me :P it was free heh
[21:05] <Cruciform[DE]> gigatron: *cough*some of
us don't live at home*cough*
[21:05] <MarkRein[Epic]> Cruciform--> Everyone
lives at home. That's why they call it home. :)
[21:05] <Cruciform[DE]> i mean with the folks :P
[21:06] <MarkRein[Epic]> Cruciform--> I knew
that.
[21:06] <Cruciform[DE]> hehe
[21:06] <Cruciform[DE]> i guess that makes the
office home for some people :)
[22:09] <montroursh> Have you said how big
UT2k3 was? 2 CDs? 3? 2 gigs installed?
[22:09] <Drakken[DE]> the size won't be known
till the end
[23:41] <|UP|Soldano> Drakken[DE]: are you
able to release minimum sys requirements or sys recommendations yet?
[23:41] <Drakken[DE]> |up| no
[23:41] <Bonzai[REV]> Would I expect UT2003
to run considerably well with everything on with Text Compression on...with a
GF3/1.4 Tbird?
[23:41] <Orpheus> Bonzai[REV]. yes
[23:41] <Orpheus> No one would make a game that
wouldnt run well with those specs
[23:41] <Drakken[DE]> but Daniel apparently no
has warfare running on a TNT 2
[23:42] <Bonzai[REV]> Orpheus: Try AvsP2
[23:42] <Drakken[DE]> I dunno what details or
settings he has
[23:42] <Orpheus> Bonzai[REV], yeah but thats not
cause its advanced
[23:42] <Orpheus> its cause its crap
[23:42] <Orpheus> LithTech doesnt remotely compete
with Unreal tech.
[23:42] <Orpheus> It used to, back in teh day
[23:42] <Orpheus> but no more.
[23:42] <Xellos-> Drakken. Heres a question.
athlon xp 1800+ 512 pc133 ram and a geforce 2 mx400. how much fps do u think i
would get
[23:43] <Drakken[DE]> Xellos-[1]:[1]
no idea at this point and it's goin to depend on what level you're in plyaer
counts, etc.
[23:39] <k|b-evolution> Hey I've got a
question I haven't really seen a good answer to yet...Nvidia cards have always
displayed very dark with the Unreal Engine...
[23:39] <MarkRein[Epic]>
b-Evo--> Forget anything you know about the original game and Nvidia cards.
[23:40] <Drakken[DE]> k|b-evolution[1]:[1]
the editor and game now allow you to adjust the gamma/bright/contrast from
bound keys
4 Music, Sounds & Taunts
4.1 Music
[19:29] <cygnus`> who is doing the music,
and what will it be like?
[19:30] <Cruciform[DE]> the majority of the music
is done in-house by our composer Starsky. Some real kick ass stuff in there
[19:30] <[de]ono> The Music really kicks ass
[19:35] <Stu_Man> ok dunno if its been asked
before or not, but whats the music gonna be like in UT2003?
[19:35] <XceptOne[DE]> Maybe we'll release some
music for you guys to listen to!
[21:23] <XGR-North> <impakt> Q: who's
making the music for UT2k3?
[21:23] <[de]ono> STARSKY PARTRIG
[21:23] <[de]ono> err
[21:24] <[de]ono> partridge
[21:24] <[de]ono> sorry i cant spell
[21:24] <Cruciform[DE]> our inhouse composer
[21:53] <Mancubus> Has the idea of a built
in mp3 player been introduced? :)
[21:53] <Orpheus> Mancubus, wont happen
[21:53] <Orpheus> Fraunhofer owns the rights to
Mp3.
[21:53] <Mancubus> Why not?
[21:53] <Orpheus> Epic would have to Pay $ for
every copy of their game sold
[21:53] <irix> TetrisL: the log will be on their site
(or so they said)
[21:53] <Mancubus> Why?
[21:53] <Orpheus> Built in Vorbis is feasible
since thats what it uses for sound anyway.
[21:53] <Orpheus> Mancubus, Fraunhofer owns Mp3
[21:54] <beg> built in vorbis would own
[21:54] <Orpheus> you cant make a commercial
decoder without paying a license fee.
[21:54] <Mancubus> Fraunhofer?
[21:54] <MarkRein[Epic]> An MP3 license is NOT
cheap - Ogg Vorbis is just as good and there are converters available anyway
[21:54] <UsAaR33> oh, and is module music
stuff supported?
[21:54] <MarkRein[Epic]> Usaa--> Good
question. I don't think so.
[21:56] <MarkRein[Epic]> USaa--> To mod music
- I don't think it is supported with the new sound code
[21:55] <Orpheus> is the galaxy sound system
totally out ?
[21:56] <MarkRein[Epic]> Orpheus--> Galaxy is
long gone. The new system won't cause so many support headaches.
[21:56] <Orpheus> thats what I thought.
[21:57] <Orpheus> MarkRein[Epic], the Modplug
codec is freely available, you could use that for Tracked audio and have your
cake and eat it too.
4.2 Sounds & Taunts
[19:37] <TRigGeR^HaPpY> in ut03 does it have
a announcer ??? for things like doublekill etc ??
[19:37] <Drakken[DE]> TRigGeR^HaPpY[1]:[1]
yes
[19:37] <XceptOne[DE]> yesyes, Announcer will be
in
[20:32] <North`> <osnap> what is the current situation of including a french
based voice pack?
[20:34] <Cruciform[DE]> osnap: we'll be
localizing, and providing various languages :)
[22:13] <MACK-WeBHaZArD> Mark - dumb
question probably. speech binds are making it to UT2003, correct?
[22:15] <Drakken[DE]> Mackk: yes
[22:18] <Xavier|HV|jedimastah>
MarkRein[Epic][1]:[1]
thats a good question orbitalshock brought up.. will there be kickass announcer
things when you go on sprees like in UT? I wanna hear UT2003's version of
"Godlike!" rockin the apt complex :>
[22:18] <Drakken[DE]> Xavier|HV|jedimastah[1]:[1]
yes
[22:37] <Mancubus> will there be CUSSING
taunts?
[22:38] <Drakken[DE]> Mancubus[1]:[1]
yes, but there's also been more focus on positive comments
[22:39] <Drakken[DE]> there was a distinct lack
of that, that many in the community wanted to see
[22:39] <Mancubus> i need a "fuck you
newbie" taunt
[22:39] <Drakken[DE]> Mancubus[1]:[1]
no
[22:39] <Drakken[DE]> make a sound pack ;)
[22:39] <cygnus`> How does the sound
department go about making the noises? Especially the bangs in the guns. How do
they do that?
[22:40] <Drakken[DE]> cygnus`[1]:[1]
that'd be a question for Starsky, our sound engineer whom isn't here
[22:40] <cygnus`> grr
4.3 VoiceCom
[19:34] <Pulk> Will UT2003 definately have voice
comms? (broadband optimized would be nice)
[19:34] <Orpheus> Pulk, Unreal Championship will
have Voice comm, so UT 2003 it would be likely
[21:54] <Rhakka|uu-bizzy> i heard voice comm
was going to be on board UT2003, is that true?
[21:54] <MarkRein[Epic]> uu-bizzy--> Undecided
5 Gameplay
5.1 Physics
[19:32] <CreatuR[11]> MarkRein[Epic]: are
the physics different from UT in ut2003 ????
[19:32] <JimmyK[DE]>
Yes.
[19:34] <cygnus`> Will it be possible to
send a guy flying 80 feet across a map?
[19:34] <[de]SteveS> yeah... lots of momentum
[19:40] <cygnus`> DE: Since the physics are
going to be more realistic, will there be any type of ROCKET JUMPING mechanism
usable?
[19:40] <Drakken[DE]> cygnus`[1]:[1]
yup!
[19:59] <North`> If i fall down a huge
building or structure, will my legs collapse like my legs are broken?
[20:00] <Cruciform[DE]> no, your legs won't
collapse, lol.
[19:57] <XGR-TSM_FETT> <Vorlonesque>
how fast do you run, and if characters have different running speeds how fast
is the fastest (me likes fast :))
[19:59] <XceptOne[DE]> You run as fast as in UT
(or very close to it) By default everyone online will run at same speeds.
[20:22] <North`> <Solaris-inc-> Does UT2k3 involve as fast-paced gameplay as
UT has? ie. dodging, piston jumping,
jumpboots, etc.? Games like Quake and HalfLife are just too slow-paced and
boring :-/
[20:23] <XceptOne[DE]> Yes! UT2003 IS FAST action packed first person
goodness!
[20:39] <North`> <Nechronix> For general gameplay, are you paying more attention
to phsycal interractions this time around?
For instance, are things like the piston-boot-jump, the
dodge-piston-jump, and other things like this being more thoroughly
investigated?
[20:40] <XceptOne[DE]> It is very hard to take into
account what crazy stuff the community will do with your game, but yes, we are
giving these things a lot of time yes.
[22:16] <_Riff_> Mark (or DE): probably
answered in the interview or earlier in chat but will the Havok physics engine
definitely be integrated into UT2003 before release? The interviews I have read seem to imply that it is on the to do
list
[22:17] <MarkRein[Epic]> Riff--> It's the
Karma physics system (from MathEngine) and I'm pretty sure DE will be making
some use of it for UT2003 but it will be limited because of time constraints.
[23:07] <MACK-WeBHaZArD> Mark --ok another
question, will our screen shake when someone "runs" on us?
[23:08] <Drakken[DE]> no the screen won't shake,
unless you bump your table ;)
[23:30] <IGL-e|^chicken|stonage> I know you said UT2k3 is "fast paced" but is it any fas