UE2 v9.1.17 released - updated

[mcm2boys]

A quick update to fix the collision issue and a small problem loading splines. I was hoping to add some more stuff but didn't have time, maybe later today, in time for the comp.  but unlikely..

See 1st post for new version..

Laurie

[Fixer]

Hey Laurie, we only have 30 days in November over here- how did you guys get an extra day over there?

[Garasaki]

Contest was extended till monday....

Laurie, will simply loading up your track in the new version fix to collision problems?

[mcm2boys]

@ fixer

we asked the EU to change the calender  to give us more  time for the Comp.

@Garazaki
it should. Collision is added during the Pack.

Laurie

[wakestyle21]

When you delete the finish gate UE2 doesn't delete the [EndGate] line from the activity1.aty file. This causes the game to crash when you choose that activity. Other than that UE2 is working awsome...great job.

[mcm2boys]

thanks wake, i'll take a look..

[wakestyle21]

No problem...a couple more things: I think it would be nice to be able to edit all text files in UE2 even if they are files that are handled by UE2. for example the aty files...these are text files but you cannot edit them in UE2 because they are handled by the activity tab.

also it would be nice if ctrl + c, ctrl + x, ctrl + z worked to copy cut and paste values in UE2. A Find feature would be nice for the files tab too.

On the Scene tab the start direction fields should allow negative values. It will display them but if you try to change the value to a negative it says it must be greater than 0. This is a problem because I exported my track from the rainbow editor and the start direction had a negative x value but i couldn't change this to match in UE2.

thanks and keep up the good work. UE2 is becoming very useful and reliable. Hopefully soon you can figure out how to import disp maps.

P.S. Are you making any progress on regaining the graphics device after testing the track?

[mcm2boys]

  i better stop saying thanks, my todo list is starting to look scary..

I just noticed the -ve values this morning and changed the ones i could find - start direction included.

The copy and paste functions are missing from the editor objects that i use, you can right click and select from the popup on the edit fields.

The editable text files that can't be edited are those that need to be parsed again after the user edits them, this is something i was working on but moved to something else after i got the TOY and SCN files to work because i had something more interesting that i wanted to work on and no one was using UE2 anyway, maybe i'll revisit it.

If i just remove the EndGate value from the ATY file, what effect does that have on the track. The way i see it you can place a gate of your choice over the Finish line anyway, so what does the ATY entry really do? trigger something - i can't think what?

I haven't looked at the recapturing the gfx device issue because it will probably be a bit of a headache, again maybe i'll revisit it ..


Laurie

[wakestyle21]

if you dont take the EndGate line out of the aty file the game crashes when you try to pick that activity. To test this open a track that has the finish gate. delete the finish gate then test. The track will work fine in freeride but as soon as you try to change the activity to something with a spline the game will crash.

[Garasaki]

thanks and keep up the good work. UE2 is becoming very useful and reliable. Hopefully soon you can figure out how to import disp maps.

Absolutely amen to that.  At the start of my contest track, I don't think I would endorse this statement - now I do fully.  I would also add minimap's to the to-do list.

As for wakes crashing problem, I've encountered similar crashes too, and sometimes I can't pinpoint why.  But if you export/import your spline it seems to clear up.

[wakestyle21]

Another thing that would be nice is the ability to change the name of the DropGate in the aty files. I have to open my track up with multiex to add this to my activity2.aty file:

[DropGate]
SLTName=RB06dropgate1
RotationAxisLocal=-1.000000,0.000000,0.000000
RotationAngleDegrees=60.000000
RotationRateInSeconds=0.150000

Skinning the dropgate as a new object is the only way i found to make it work ingame.

a property on the activities tab named Drop Gate would be perfect for this.

thanks

[Garasaki]

Dropgate would be good...my track aint got one but I had bigger fish to fry...

[mcm2boys]

To change the dropgate just add a dropgate to your track and if it is a 'good' drop gate ie one that MVA recognizes as dropgate, then UE2 will ask if you want to add it to the (currently selected) ATY. UE2 will then not add it to the SCN file but will show it at the Start position of the current spline. Just come to me that it might not get shown again if you change ATYs though.

I have added minmaps in version 0.9.1.18 at the top, theres a button to generate minimaps, i must admit they aren't too hot, but you can at least also import and export them, so you can create one to use as a template and then reload it once you've tidied it up..

Wake (or anyone else) i think you missed the point in my last question about removing the EndGate entry, what i meant was if i remove the entry from the ATY file but leave a regular object over the finish line the track will still load so what is the point of the EndGate entry in teh ATY file?

Thanks for the kind words guys, without your feedback and in some cases your willingness to take a gamble on UE2 for your competition tracks, it would not have come so far in the last couple of months.

Apologies for not finishing all the updates in time but good luck to you all in the competition..

Laurie

[wakestyle21]

I'm not understanding the process for adding a dropgate your way. Here's what I did:

First of all, I had to skin this as a new object instead of just adding a new DXT to my track because MVA wouldn't recognize the skin unless I put my track in the data folder instead of the usertracks folder.

I took the default startgate (THQsxdropgate.dxg) from the common.pak and renamed the 2 textures it points to inside the DXG. Now I have a red dropgate. I put all 5 files in my CustomModels folder (the DXG, 2 DXMs and 2 DXTs). I opened my track in UE2 and select the stock dropgate. then I selected my skinned gate from the object list on the left. I clicked the replace button and it replaced the stock dropgate with my skinned red one. Everything has worked awsome so far. I saved my track and took it for a test drive. The red dropgate is there and it looks good. I switched the activity to National and I show up on the line with all 5 guys lined up right next to me instead of being lindup in front of a gate, Not good. So the next thing I tried was exporting the activity2.aty file with multiex and editing the dropgate line to use my dropgate. I then replaced my tracks activity2.aty file with the edited one. I tested the track again and Everything is perfect. I didn't want to have to remember to do this everytime I export my track so I tried to add the modified aty to my track in UE2 by clicking add on the files tab. This seemed to work because there were no errors and still only 1 activity2.aty file. So I saved my track and tested again. I was back to having everybody lined up way too close to me again. I opened up the pak and the activity2.aty files still had THQsxdropgate as its dropgate so it didn't work.

UE2 never asked me if I wanted to add my dropgate to the ATY.

sorry for the long post just trying to give you all the details.

thanks

[mcm2boys]

NP with the long post i helps me understand what's going on.

The problem is that you Replaced the existing Dropgate i think, although i have never tested that out myself, i think it probably follows a different code path to simply adding the dropgate as a new object.

You should select your skinned gate from the Resource tab, then place it anywhere on the track. Then while adding it UE2 will see it's a dropgate and ask if you want to add it as the Startgate or simply place it normally. Remember to make sure you have the right Activity selected before you do this, because the gate will be added to the current Activity only. I'm guessing that since the dropgate is set in the ATY files that each activity could have a different Dropgate..

You can add the ATY file in the files tab but UE2 will delete exisitng files that it controls (SCN, TOY, ATY, ATYLIST and MST) and re-build them from it's own info, so it will have got overwritten with exactly what you had before.

Interesting that you have to put your track in the Data folder to get the DXTs to show, makes it sound like MVA always looks for Dropgate skins in the Data folder and not in the track file.. I'd be interested to take a look at that and play with it a little.

Laurie

[JvdL]

The problem is that you Replaced the existing Dropgate i think, although i have never tested that out myself, i think it probably follows a different code path to simply adding the dropgate as a new object.

That I can confirm.

EU2 used to work like that too though. Atleast, before replacing objects got fixed. As it only worked up untill a certain amount of objects. (this is based on experience with the problem)

Now this isn't possible any longer with EU2's replacement object fix. Atleast, not without some manual editing.

John

[Garasaki]

To change the dropgate just add a dropgate to your track and if it is a 'good' drop gate ie one that MVA recognizes as dropgate, then UE2 will ask if you want to add it to the (currently selected) ATY. UE2 will then not add it to the SCN file but will show it at the Start position of the current spline. Just come to me that it might not get shown again if you change ATYs though.

Oh that's simple...I didn't know that though.

I have added minmaps in version 0.9.1.18 at the top, theres a button to generate minimaps, i must admit they aren't too hot, but you can at least also import and export them, so you can create one to use as a template and then reload it once you've tidied it up..

I was not able to get my generated minimap to show ingame ever.  I was screwing around with it at the 11th hour last night, and I saw that there was an extra line added to the .dxm file that the minimap corresponds to.  I deleted that line but the minimap still didn't show.  And it reset my spline to well nothing it appeared.

Personally I really dislike (especially the fancy smancy ones people put on their tracks) the minimap to begin with so I didn't really sweat it not working.

[mcm2boys]

Messiah

Sry not sure i follow what you said, is there another problem now that the Replace function is fixed? What's the manual editing that needs doing..

Garazaki

The problem with the minmap could be that the spline name (which is used to name the minimap) had a space in it. I need to put a space remover into the file import code to make sure ths doesn't happen, but if you have a space in the minimap name, DXM and DXT then MVA won't recognize the file name..

Laurie

[Fixer]

The problem with the minmap could be that the spline name (which is used to name the minimap) had a space in it. I need to put a space remover into the file import code to make sure ths doesn't happen, but if you have a space in the minimap name, DXM and DXT then MVA won't recognize the file name..
Laurie

Spaces in game file names have always been a bad idea if you want to avoid problems...

[Nikhil]

The friction maps don't work. When they're imported, they appear upside down, and when you play the track, they have no effect.

Everything else is great, splines are so much easier! Is being able to import HD textures without going through the Dillo process something we can expect in a later update?