[PROTOTYPE] DM-SpaceNoxx [WIP][Updated: 11-13-16]

[MΛuL]

Map Name: DM-SpaceNoxx
Current Version: Alpha 3.4e
Current Version Release Date: 11/12/16
Download: HERE

Alpha 3.4e: Just a quick recook for the latest game update.

Alpha 3.4c Update Summary:
Rebuilt for 4.14 UE build. Lighting is substantially different with this build with more realistic sunlight (screenshots are out of date).

I agree that this content constitutes a Submission under the Unreal Engine EULA ( https://www.unrealengine.com/eula).

Server Settings:
This is playable on the Unreal Carnage Hub already. Here's the info for other admins.

Game.ini

RedirectReferences=(PackageName="DM-SpaceNoxx_A3_4e-WindowsNoEditor",PackageURLProtocol="https",PackageURL="redirect.playunreal.com/ut4/users/UnrealCarnage1ff0/DM-SpaceNoxx_A3_4e-WindowsNoEditor.pak",PackageChecksum="eb7577edae0d2a9b81865a524dcbf0ba")

Rules .ini

CustomMapList=/Game/RestrictedAssets/Maps/WIP/DM-SpaceNoxx_A3_4e

Background:
This is a completely scratch built version of SpaceNoxx (not a conversion). It's going to be a while before I get to the beta phase since I have limited time.

Credits:
Obviously this is a remake of DM-SpaceNoxx in UT99 by Cedric “Inoxx” Fiorentino. The other lineage is from Fuegerstef's DM-FST-SpaceNoxx from UT2004. He gave me the green light to use that as inspiration for my scratch built DM-MCC-SpaceNoxx. People that played the UT3 version will notice that this is smaller but correctly sized for UT4.

Version A2.16 8 Player Mayhem:

Version A3.4 Screenshots:






















Version A1 Notes and Images:

 

Spoiler

Background:
I built this completely from scratch to learn UE4 since I haven't had time to map much these days so I thought I would take on something small. Although I have meshes in it, I consider it really pre-alpha since every single thing might change. Materials, lighting, gameplay, skybox etc need a ton of work. Mostly I'm just playing around having a blast in the editor but I thought I'd get it playable so people could start having fun with it.

Scale:
To get a feel for scaling on my own, I used the Malcolm/Taye method of measurement (i.e. Malcolm mesh in UT3/Taye in UT4) and measured certain distances in my DM-MCC-SpaceNoxx for UT3 to the same number of Taye's and came up with 2.2 which is a number I've seen others use. From there I built the BSP and lo and behold, it felt terrible. The main thing I think is the eye height in UT4 made me feel Liliputian at that scale. So, I dropped Rattlesnakes' awesome MapScaler in and started playing with different scalings until it felt just right (for me anyway). It turns out that about a 25% reduction from the 2.2 scale felt best. Once I had the scale correct, I realigned all of the brushes to the grid the best I could (still a bit messy).

The other big thing of course is that the mix between no double jump and the desirable level of gravity change up things in UT4 quite a bit. The key distance is being able to jump across the center pit area and grab the amp at just the right height with only a single jump. I don't like the gravity too floaty so I may change it a little still but it's getting close. I really haven't added in any UT4 specific movement stuff and I'm not sure if I will so it's kinda old school anyway. Without the pipe meshes on the towers you could wall run on them but it kinda flings you out into space so its not really useful there. I've considered some DM-RGB style rings around the play area but I'm not sure I'll go there for this one.

Bots:
I still have a lot to learn about the nav mesh and might have to break it up into pieces as others have done. I feel like I'm missing some of the easy controls on the old pathnodes. I can't get the bots to go for the amp yet and they are doing weird things everywhere. If there's a "force path" equivalent, I'd like to know what it is.

Ladders:
Okay I know Clawfist joked about this but just for laughs, I added a real ladder on the back of some of the towers. I know people liked getting to the upper ring like that in UT99 but I didn't have that available in my UT3 version. The only way I could currently get it to work is by using a physics volume with the "water" box checked. The problem with it is that if you jump when you're in it, you'll hear a water splash. I tried all of the different physics related volumes and couldn't getting around that yet. If I uncheck "water", it doesn't work as intended. Alternatively I could massively change the slope of the the backsides of the towers.

Weapons/Powerups:
I intend to add the secret areas at some point with some blueprints. Not sure what I will put in there yet. Nothing more fun than getting an elevator launch and dropping the deemer on everyone tho lol! I'm playing around with the belt down a ramp on the back. Not sure if I'll keep that. Currently the ramp is too steep for bots to want to come back up unless you entice them.

Misc:
Dialing in the sunrise over the planet was an interesting challenge. Essentially I used the sun position from the directional light/atmospheric fog to get the light position dialed then disabled the built in sun. I then placed 3 planet meshes in, one to be the sun, one to be the planet atmosphere, and one to be the planet of course. I then created material instances of all 3 that I could modify. On the main planet, I had to figure out how to move the fake sun/shadow positlion and also on the atmosphere glow, I had to adjust that just right. I then modified the intensity and color of the fresnel settings on all 3 meshes/materials to get it dialed in. Tedious but fun.

[Frostbite83]

M^uL perfect Work i can not wait to see the Final Version from the Map

[Danko955]

looks great

[PayBack]

That looks really cool, I hope it plays as good as it looks!

[GGaben]

yesyesYES!

[[FnG]Bawsy]

Yeee-ha cowboy! The ultimate fun map

[MΛuL]

Yeee-ha cowboy! The ultimate fun map

"Happy Fun Times Maul" at your service.

[mastrok]

Awesome, I loved this map back in the day, this looks fantastic

[ÐutchSmºke]

UnReal map! Will be testing it with m8's on the LoPing Arena server.
FuN Blast down Memory Lane on this one!! & now for the run down;

• Nice weapon placement all around!
• Even more nice shield belt addition!
• Great addition of roosting spots on/around the towers!
• Came across a blocking issue on the spotlights on each of the towers. You can shoot the lightbeam (& blow yourself up drop'n/shooting down on it & Sludge actually sticks on it in midair like)
• Some issues with loading on server, still loaded though:
• Initialising Body : Body is mirrored but bGenerateMirroredCollision == false:
  AddConvexElemsToRigidActor: [/Game/RestrictedAssets/Maps/WIP/DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1.DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1:PersistentLevel.BlockingVolume34.BrushComponent0] ConvexElem[0] invalid
• 0]LogPhysics:Warning: Initialising Body : Body is mirrored but bGenerateMirroredCollision == false:
  0]LogPhysics:Warning: AddConvexElemsToRigidActor: [/Game/RestrictedAssets/Maps/WIP/DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1.DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1:PersistentLevel.BlockingVolume34.BrushComponent0] ConvexElem[0] invalid

A guess on my part for fix'n the swimming up the outside of the towers, the angle you used on the shieldbelt ramp works fine. Maybe pulling the bottomend on the tower angels back some, towards the outer edge would allow you to apply the same as you did with slope towards the shield belt?

BiGUp for bringing this map back in style!

[MΛuL]

UnReal map! Will be testing it with m8's on the LoPing Arena server.
FuN Blast down Memory Lane on this one!! & now for the run down;

• Nice weapon placement all around!
• Even more nice shield belt addition!
• Great addition of roosting spots on/around the towers!
• Came across a blocking issue on the spotlights on each of the towers. You can shoot the lightbeam (& blow yourself up drop'n/shooting down on it & Sludge actually sticks on it in midair like)
• Some issues with loading on server, still loaded though:
• Initialising Body : Body is mirrored but bGenerateMirroredCollision == false:
  AddConvexElemsToRigidActor: [/Game/RestrictedAssets/Maps/WIP/DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1.DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1:PersistentLevel.BlockingVolume34.BrushComponent0] ConvexElem[0] invalid
• 0]LogPhysics:Warning: Initialising Body : Body is mirrored but bGenerateMirroredCollision == false:
  0]LogPhysics:Warning: AddConvexElemsToRigidActor: [/Game/RestrictedAssets/Maps/WIP/DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1.DM-UC-SpaceNoxx_A1:PersistentLevel.BlockingVolume34.BrushComponent0] ConvexElem[0] invalid

A guess on my part for fix'n the swimming up the outside of the towers, the angle you used on the shieldbelt ramp works fine. Maybe pulling the bottomend on the tower angels back some, towards the outer edge would allow you to apply the same as you did with slope towards the shield belt?

BiGUp for bringing this map back in style!

Thanks for checking it out Dutch. I noticed the same thing on the light cones last night. Stuck a goo on one lol. It's added to my long list. I actually thought the exact same thing that the shield ramp, while steep, still works so it might be possible to pull out the bottoms of the towers. Thanks for the server log output. Will check into that.

[MoxNix]

Good job on the remake. Not the type of map I normally like to play but it looks good, performs well and playing it immediately brought back memories of the original.

The ladders are a nice touch BTW.

Well done, you nailed it!

[Laambo]

did a quick fly through testing the redirect on the Hub server and noticed 1 small BSP hole....see below for location!



.... end of right side of blue panel strip with "01"!

[khaosdemon]

Woah man sick map. A lil Phobos reference from UT99 and of course a nice remake/ or whatever you call it forone of my favorite map from UT99 DM-SpaceNoxx, i was waiting for someone to tackle this! Will give it play and report with feedback. Thanks for your contribution!

[Mr Van]

Thanks for this map M^ul!

Just gave it afew round's in 6pl DM against bots and had quite some fun. Found 2 things:

- due to low gravity, when you get hit by minigun shard 2nd fire, it almost blows yoou out of the universe, nice to watch as your ragdoll-body is racing with the shard bullet into the void. No idea if you should place an overall limiting blocking vol. in distance around the map

- bots seem to somehow get stuck down the ladder/pathway shortly before the shield belt. In the UT stream today, Epic mentioned bot AI improvements for the new build, so i will re-check with the commming build, but maybe you can check this in the UTE if the navigation path down there is fine.

Besides this, great work! I'm not really sure if if likethe grey-yelow-browinsh color of the platform, as it a bit conflicts with the blue labels and underside, maybe e.g. more greyish to dark gray or gray with green would fit better. But i would definitely not try to use the same kind of color scheme for platform the planet's asteroid ring like it is right now. Maybe go for grey-anthrazit or blue-violet for the ring .... or give us various color versions .

An maybe the fluctuation effect of the force field in the middle of the platform could be a bit larger in size, faster fluctuating and more 'dangerous looking' in color compared to the now harmless, inviting baby-sky-blue


Anyway, a BIG thanks for this one!

[MΛuL]

Thanks for this map M^ul!

Just gave it afew round's in 6pl DM against bots and had quite some fun. Found 2 things:

- due to low gravity, when you get hit by minigun shard 2nd fire, it almost blows yoou out of the universe, nice to watch as your ragdoll-body is racing with the shard bullet into the void. No idea if you should place an overall limiting blocking vol. in distance around the map

- bots seem to somehow get stuck down the ladder/pathway shortly before the shield belt. In the UT stream today, Epic mentioned bot AI improvements for the new build, so i will re-check with the commming build, but maybe you can check this in the UTE if the navigation path down there is fine.

Besides this, great work! I'm not really sure if if likethe grey-yelow-browinsh color of the platform, as it a bit conflicts with the blue labels and underside, maybe e.g. more greyish to dark gray or gray with green would fit better. But i would definitely not try to use the same kind of color scheme for platform the planet's asteroid ring like it is right now. Maybe go for grey-anthrazit or blue-violet for the ring .... or give us various color versions

Anyway, thanks for this one!

Thanks for checking it out. Yeah the shard problem kinda sucks because putting a blocking vol out there will be kinda weird too but I think I will have to put one at some distance. I plan on changing the angle of the ramp to the shield belt anyway because it is just too steep.

I'm not set on the coloring/lighting yet either. I was trying to go for a grey metal battleship-esqe look instead of the "space concrete" of old but I'm having a tough time with the lighting at the moment. I could potentially go with a white sunrise over the planet which wouldn't look as good as the orange as a backdrop but the play area would look better probably. The underside lighting is probably fine since that accurately portrays the reflection off the planet below.

Unfortunately "metal" materials are really hard to light in UE4 I'm discovering. That's why in darker spots, chrome pipes look black like on the ceiling in Face. The tough part is that it takes about 45 mins to build the lighting now so it's really hard to iterate. Seriously need to get a new puter.

I've still got a long way to go since I'm using this as my UE4 learning map but I figured it was playable enough to put out there.

did a quick fly through testing the redirect on the Hub server and noticed 1 small BSP hole....see below for location!



.... end of right side of blue panel strip with "01"!

Hey thanks for catching that one Laambo!

Good job on the remake. Not the type of map I normally like to play but it looks good, performs well and playing it immediately brought back memories of the original.

The ladders are a nice touch BTW.

Well done, you nailed it!

Thanks for checking it out Moxnix. It's always good to have a Noxx or Morbias around as a palate-cleanser .