Release of UE2 v0.9.4

[mcm2boys]

After quite a few months of development the next release of Unleashed Editor Too v0.9.4 is ready for release.

There are a few bug fixes, a few new or enhanced feature and for me at least the most interesting improvement is the new ATV test rider. I know there are MX fans out there that will heave a big sigh of disappointment, but i have started with an ATV because learning the PhysX system on 4 wheels is a little easier. I plan to start working on adding a bike next now i have more experience with the physics settings.

The new test rider is driven by nVidia's PhysX engine and you will need to install the PhysX system software unless you already have it installed. You can download the latest system software from nVidia here PhysX system software. If this is not installed before you run this version of UE2 then UE2 will not start and you will get an error message.

Most of the physics adjustments for the model have been included in the Physics rollout under the Options tab, which is opened automatically for you when you start the test rider. There are a lot of physics settings to play with so it will take a while just to find your way round. I would start with one feature of the physics, sliding or rider control, engine, gearbox or suspension and play with those settings only. I found it a slow process to find the best settings since they all interact with each other a little. So i have included 4 sets of physics settings, if you click the 'Open' button on the Physics rollout you can load a new set of physics by looking in the UE2\defaults folder. They are numbered 1..4 and are a progression of the physics as i tweaked them to get the best ride i could, right now i use 'DefaultPhysicsSettings4.rmx'. Once you load or save a new file UE2 will use those settings each time you run it in the future.

You can download the new version of UE2 from here: UnleashedEditorToo v0.9.4.4


Have fun with it..
Laurie

PS My server can be a little slow to start the download but it should get there in the end if you're patient.

[JvdL]

Ooooh! Tasty! *goes to check this out!*

Thank you Laurie for your continued modding of this game, I love you!

[mcm2boys]

Thanks John,

It's still early days but at last i feel like i'm heading in the right direction with this now..

[JamieT]

  Great update! Thanks for allowing us to import disp maps to each tile. This has saved me a ton of time for testing my 5 tile track! Thank you!

[yzmxer608]

Awesome!  So no more dealing with RBW files for each tile?  That will save TONS of time!

[mcm2boys]

You still need to use RBW files for the final track but for testing you can just use ue2s import

[yzmxer608]

Ah cool, that helps a ton with the amount of time it takes to test a POV-ray 6 tile track .

[mcm2boys]

Well i'm happy to hear that i've made you life a little easier.

Has anyone tried the test rider? Any comments, both good and bad, would be welcome..

[nt816nt]

I installed then tried to run the program and an error message pops up saying "Failed to get data for '2.8.1'" then after i click ok on that message a directx message pops saying "Can't initialize DirectX Unleashed Too cannot run"... im not really sure if i needed previous versions of ue2 or what??? and fixes for this?

[mcm2boys]

The first error seems to indicate that nVidia's PhysX system software hasn't been installed. The second message would indicate that you haven't got DirectX 8.1b installed, but since that is included with most versions of Windows after Win2000 it might be caused by the first error. I haven't heard of anybody with this problem so i'll take a look at the code and see if i can see anything that might cause it..

If you have PhysX already installed then i would ask you to check that you have a new enough version, like the message says you need at least v2.8.1. If you installed PhysX a while back then it might not have a high enough version..

You don't need previous versions of UE2, everything you need, excet for PhysX and DirectX it will install for you.

[yzmxer608]

Does anyone know how the UE and UE2 height and terrain scales correspond?  Are they the same?  Also, are the height scales (units) from UE2 and 3ds max the same?

[mcm2boys]

UE2 uses 1 unit=1ft, which is what all of the MCM/MXU/MVA series of games use for modelling and terrain, as far as i know. The units for UE i'm not so sure about since I don't use it very often.

I believe, but you might want to check this out to make sure i'm right, that the elevation scaling in UE has to be multiplied by the grid scaling (which is 3.5 for indoor and 4.5 for outdoor tracks) to arrive at the height scale value for UE2.

So an elevation scale of 10 on an indoor track in UE is 3.5 * 10 = 35ft Max elevation in UE2 (which is the height in feet that a pure white pixel in your Disp Map will represent)..

I have never renered shadows using 3DMax so i'm not sure how that would work, but you will need a different Y scale (Up axis in 3dMax) to the X and Z axis. If you use a scale of 1 for the X,Z axes then for Y scaling you can use the value from UE (not UE2). If you use a scale of 3.5 or 4.5 (depending whether it's indoor/outdoor you can read this value from Grid scale in UE2) for the X and Z axes then you can use the Max elevation value from UE2. Whether these scalings are applied as the Disp map is imported or as a modifier to the imported mesh i don't know since i don't use Max (though i would be interested to hear from anyone who has done it)..

Hope that helps..

[yzmxer608]

That does help.  I have never heard of the grid scale before, so that is news.  In max I think you set the resolution for the x and y axis', then the y axis is in the same units.  I think the height from UE2 would be correct, not sure though.  I would have to test it out and see if that's how it works or not.

[mcm2boys]

Grid scale is from MCM2/MCM track making days, it's still there in MvA but it is hidden and fixed to the values mentioned above by UE (i think) so that all you can adjust is the height scaling..

..though thinking about it i have read people saying they have set the scale to 6 or 10 (i'm thinking aFace's early Daytona designs) so maybe it is possible to use UE to change the grid scale unless he used UE2 for that.

[yzmxer608]

You can set the track scale (1-10) in the UE.

I tested this out in Max, I made a plane with the height and width the same res as the disp map (769x513) and also made the height and width segs 769x513.  I made a displace modifier and for the height I used the UE2 value, which is 90.  That didn't work out right, so since it's a nat I took 90 and divided it by 4.5, which is 20.  Using 20 in Max looks to be about the same as it is in UE2 now.

[mcm2boys]

Thanks for letting me know, that makes sense if you use a height only modifier then that the same as using no grid scaling (in the X,Z axes) so you would use the UE value which is as you calculated the UE2 Max elevation divided by the UE2 grid scale..

Good luck with the track..

[SubbotaFew]

Do southpaws do anything custom to their guns for mag release?

Is it possible/feasable to have a lefty mag button? Or do lefties use their index finger for mag release?