UT4

DM-Chroma FPS release!

DM-Chroma FPS is now available & I’m happy to share this new version with the community 😀

Have fun 🙂

DM-Chroma, FPS version planned soon

Hello all,

Since the release of DM-Chroma final version. I work non stop on DM-Coda. When I play both of them, even if I’m enjoying very much playing my maps on my main PC, I can’t say the same on my laptop (you can check my pc’s specs here). So, I’ve decide to release a less demanding version of DM-Chroma and maybe DM-Coda too, I’ll see. It depend of the community feedback.

Therefore, there is no magic trick. The only way I can obtain more FPS is by redoing the lighting. And the reason why DM-Chroma look crisp & clean is mainly because the majority of light actors are Stationary instead of Static. After few trials, Static lighting combine with the materials in use in this map is looking, well… hummm… dull & flat. But maybe it’s because of this obsolete engine version, I don’t know.

Still, I hope players with lower end GPU’s would appriciate playing the FPS version. The actual version simply can’t look better with UE4 v. 4.15 and don’t expect the FPS to look as good, it can’t. I expect the FPS release soon, maybe friday.

DM-Coda, progress…

DM-Coda is shaping out nicely. I’m at ±50% done I think? Next area’s to craft are the Minigun, Shock and RL areas. I don’t like the original RL layout so I don’t know yet what I’ll do. I’m also keeping the Invisibility pickup for now and made a big room for it (showed in the second pic).

When the map play area will be completed, then, I’ll start working on the exterior “scenery” aspect. For now, it’s totally empty. You can see there are many new meshes in those pics! Enjoy the dev 🙂

Bio area

Invisibility area

Link area

DM-Chroma, final release!

R1 of DM-Chroma as been in the wild for few weeks and now and it’s time to make it final 😀

This is what as been done for the final version :

  • Fix the lift weird shadows in sector 4, Belt room. I’ve notice a odd rendering issue on this lift.
  • Add ambient sounds all around the map with custom sound cues.
  • Add some blocking volumes at many door steps so the steps are smoother.
  • Perform a full lighting build, production level quality. I also fixed some minors lighting artefacts here and there.
  • Removed the ‘checkerboard’ material and replace it with the ‘remove surface’ material to reduce memory usage.
  • Modified all master materials so when playing on low and medium quality, the map look and perform better than in R1. Still, the changes doesn’t affect playing in high quality. The pics below shows the difference playing in low, med and HQ :

Sector 2

Sector 5

I’m happy to share the final with the community 😀 Have fun 🙂

Next map, DM-Coda

So, now that DM-Chroma is almost done, it’s time to build something awesome again 😀 Chroma release date is November first!

To start somewhere, I’ve look at some old UT99 stock maps and I found one that I truly enjoyed playing 20 years ago… remember DM-Codex? So, I’m reusing the Modular SciFi Season 1 Starter Bundle. I also add many assets I didn’t use the last time 😀 DM-Codex is already available from the community by Metalfist here but it’s a direct UT99 port and I want to play a map that look and feel like a 2019 map should be.

To be clear, it’s not a remake. DM-Codex was a really nice map at the time, therefore, time as pass and many things can be improve by much. I intend to add more variety to gameplay and up-to-date visuals of course. There are things I don’t like about the UT99 version which are :

1. The low ceiling in many areas.
2. Few corridors are to tight and don’t worth the risk of using them.
3. Few dead zone.
4. I always found the rocket Launcher area somehow disconnected and pretty useless.
5. I like the invisibility pickup but I might replace it, not sure yet. In all case, I won’t add a door to collect the powerup.

In all, I intent to add headroom in each area, the newer weapons and remove all dead zones. Meanwhile, enjoy the very early pics (Flak area + new Grenade Launcher area), note that I’m using only 1 dull pointlight per area just to see something and once I finish meshing, I add the blocking volume :

DM-Chroma, R1 release!

The first release (R1) of DM-Chroma is here 😀

Also, the map size is very descent, ± 325 MB. I’m very comfortable with that taking into account the extra big amount of custom assets include into this level.

If you want to post something, please, post your comments here, in this post. I won’t share it on the UT4 forums. Since only 4 players as show interest for my work.

TY and have fun 🙂

DM-Chroma, post # 3

The first release (R1) of DM-Chroma is very close, in fact, I’ll release it this week-end 😀

Gameplay is awesome and the level look fantastic so I’m going to share a first release which is a almost complete, near final version just to gather some feedback before the final version. Only thing missing is a audio pass and maybe some bugs / issues that I’m not aware that the community will let me know…

Taking into account the huge amount of custom assets include into this level, the map size is pretty much descent which is around 330 MB. I’m not using stock assets at all (well, yes, the sky sphere static meshe and audio lol).

I don’t think I’ll share it on the UT4 forums. Simply put, because only 4 players as show some interest so check the map page often to download it 😉

DM-Chroma, post # 2

Pursuing the making of DM-Chroma, I must say I found it extremely difficult to mesh this map. The map layout examples included in this fabulous Modular SciFi Season 1 Starter Bundle are very linear but in UT, it’s something that you must avoid.

Anyway, the layout is done, item placement also and meshing the last part is the most challenging part to date for me in this map which is the belt area. The belt area is sector 4. To give readers an idea of the mesh work, there some pics of sector 3 (top) and sector 2 (bottom), before and after meshing 🙂