Descent-1 Level-1 Recreation in UT2004: Full Version!

[sushi.h.a.]

The Lunar Outpost - resurrected at long last!
This is a recreation of the first level of Descent 1. I had a lot of fun making this level, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.
I have added and modified quite a lot since the prerelease. including the addition of weapons.
Weapons have been added, making the map theoretically capable of supporting Death-match, Last-man-standing, and Invasion and such, though it's not compatible with bots, and being a primarily architectural map, the lifts might bottleneck the flow of multiplayer a bit. I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure.


Notes
While this isn't an exact recreation of the original level, down to the cubes, structurally it is very close in terms of the layout. That said, there are a number of modifications and new elements I have incorporated into this remake.

• Lifts!: As UT2004 is not a 6-Degrees-of-Freedom game, most of the vertical travel is aided by lifts.
• The Reactor Room: One of the most notable differences is the scale of the reactor room. The reactor room is much larger than in the original, and the reactor itself is likewise a bit more imposing. While the reactor doesn't explode when fired on, it does respond to weapon strikes.
• The Curved Drop-Shaft: As a result of the size of the new reactor room, the corridor leading to the Curved drop-shaft room has been extended a bit.
• Secret Areas: The original secret areas are definitely here, but I have also incorporated a few new secret areas. For example, there is now a secret passage that allows you to get into the room behind the fan, (which I have wanted to do since I first played the original Descent, and I suspect I'm not the only one to have had this desire).
• As well as a lot of other stuff: Display content, the reactor effect, lighting, readable sign text, new versions of the "PTMC" logo and "Alpha" logo, ambient sound, the energy center shimmer effect, etc.

Download
DM-Descent1-level1-v31.zip - 57.5 MB
(Note: This mission contains a lot of custom content and is rather large as a result.)


Installation
1. Extract "DM-Descent1-level1-v31.ut2" into your UT2004 Maps folder.
This is usually "C:\\UT2004\\Maps".
For the Steam version try "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Unreal Tournament 2004\maps"
2. Run UT2004, and find the map titled "DM-Descent1-level1-v31". That’s it.


Important

• World Detail: To view the level as it was intended, you MUST have the "World Detail" option set to "High" in the UT2004 settings. The level is rather particle intensive, and to make it playable on older computers I have set up the level so that when the "World Detail" option is set to "Low" many of the CPU intensive particle systems will be disabled, (but it won't look quite as pretty).
• The "USE" hologram: All lifts are activated or called with the "Use" key, which I believe is "E" by default, but it can be customized. You will see a floating "USE" hologram near any spot the "Use" action can be applied. The "USE" hologram appears as the word "USE" inside a blue and white ring. Just walk up to it and press your "Use" key.
• The Secret "USE" hologram: All secret areas that require the "Use" action have a dim red single ring hologram instead of the standard bright "USE" hologram.
• The Drop-Shaft: To go back up the curved drop-shaft, you stand in the center of the platform, press "Use" to activate the lift, and then jump almost immediately afterwards, such that the momentum of the lift launches you back up the shaft.

The Images
Full sized higher quality images are available in my screenshot gallery for this map.
I have numbered the images for ease of reference, and I've also added a few comments.


1:

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20: One of my favorite parts of this project was figuring out a way to build dynamic displays.

21:

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37: Like the displays all the text is readable.

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57: The good old fan.

58:

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67: One of a few new areas.

68:

69:

70: The map.


I hope you enjoy the map. Thanks for all the encouragement and feedback.
Take care everyone.
-sushi

[CDN_Merlin]

WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW

[Aus-RED-5]

x2!

Once again sushi.h.a., nice work!

Such a beauty!

[Sedwick]

Excuse me while I forage the floor for my jaw. Would this level work on UT2003, by chance?

[DarkHorse]

Reminds me of the D3 art. I like screen 33, it's impossible to miss that immortal first glimpse of Descent. I first saw that screenshot printed in black-and-white in a shareware magazine in 1995.

Congratulations on completing it. I'd have a browse through myself, but unfortunately I only have UT3 nowadays.

[Sirius]

200 MB. Uhm. Yeah, that's fairly impressive - five times as big as the largest stock level I could find!

It's also the only UT2004 level I've seen that actually lags on this system - I'm taking it due to the sheer number of particle effects going on there. It's really impressive visually though.

[Spidey]

Awesome!

Is this level available for Descent?

[DarkHorse]

It's D1 level 1, so yes.

[Sapphire Wolf]

Diedel made a remastered version of D1FS level 1 for D2X-XL.

[Grendel]

Wow. Still a ground-pounder I assume ?

[novacron]

Just stunning work, Props to you sushi!!!

[Sirius]

It is, Grendel, since he didn't do a 6DOF mod for the game.

[Lobber]

I might actually buy UT4k just to see this level

[DarkFlameWolf]

is it actually playable as a level or more of a 'ooo look at me, I'm pretty!' level?

[Aus-RED-5]

is it actually playable as a level or more of a 'ooo look at me, I'm pretty!' level?

uh huh.....

This version supports death match and any other death match compatible game mode, (i.e. last man standing, invasion, etc).

It's playable, but I would think that playing MP games, one will have to turn off High details to have a smooth game.

The level is rather particle intensive, and to make it playable on older computers I have set up the level so that when the "World Detail" option is set to "Low" many of the CPU intensive particle systems will be disabled, (but it won't look quite as pretty).

[Sirius]

Well... it doesn't have any robots that I can tell, and I don't think the reactor actually blows up, either, unless I'm just doing it wrong. It'd be an interesting level for Invasion mode but the layout doesn't suit player-vs-player too well. (Opinions may vary; think original D1 level 1 but it takes longer to get around it.)

[Aus-RED-5]

In one of his other threads.

He has mention that he was working on a 6DoF MOD for the level.

I am presently working on a 6DOF mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. I plan to build both a plain Descent and a GroupC version. Completion is a ways off, however I do have a few screen shots of working 6DOF flight in the ut2004 Descent1 Level1 I have been working on. The new ship object class I built is based on the karma vehicle code, and is presently called "Descent Pyro". As the "Descent Pyro" is its own vehicle class, I hope to be able to build in all the basic functionality in to this base class, and then extend it into a table modifiable ship class, much like the system Descent3. The main difference is that the objects built on the "Descent Pyro" will be extensible.

Note the bottom right of image 1. For current testing purposes, the Descent Pyro is spawned from a translocation beacon. The remaining images are in flight print screens. The ship model is currently just a standard ut2004 vehicle model. Note that all the shots are taken at roll-tilted angles (i.e. “Banking” from descent) that are not possible from UT2004 vehicles such as the raptor. Likewise, using this new vehicle object you can collide with a wall without instantly exploding, which is not possible with the UT2004 space fighter vehicles. Presently I am working on getting the thrust, reveres, and sliding functionality to behave in a pyro-like fashion.

Finally, I expect to be building a similar mod and perhaps descent levels for UT3 (a.k.a. UT2007), but I will not be abandoning my current work on UT2004. The new UT3 fully supports some of the features I have been finding ways to mimic UT2004, and some effects that simply can’t be mimicked in 2004, such as parallax mapping. I am looking forwards to being able to build classic game level recreations (descent series included of course) with the power of the new UT engine.

As an aside, I have also recently been considering building some levels for Descent 2 and 3. I would likely be building the majority of the textures used in any Descent 2 levels I made (just for fun).

Images of my modified 6DOF flight vehicle in action.







Take care everyone.

So we'll have to wait and see if he continues to work on it.

[sushi.h.a.]

As always, thanks for the feedback everyone.
(I'll try to respond to everyone who has a question, so I apologize in advance for the length.)

With regard to your question Sedwick, I haven't tested the level on UT2003, but I suspect that the updated object classes present in the 2004 game engine might prevent backwards compatibility, although I'm not 100% sure.

Regarding DarkHorse's description of the \"immortal first glimpse of Descent\", very well put. I still play the original from time to time, and that first view, in the first room, of the first level, is still one of the most memorable scenes of any game that I know of. I have amended the description of image 33 to note your especially apt observation if that’s alright.
(I am also now using that image as the header. Thanks again.)

Regarding Sirius's observations as to the size of the level, data-wise, yes it is pretty large. A good portion of that is custom textures, but even beyond that there is an unusually large number of BSP brushes (kind of like descent \"cubes\") making up the geometry of the level. Most stock levels have very little BSP, and instead rely on tons of decorative meshes to fill out the level detail. I decided to primarily use BSP because I wanted the level to have a classical feel that I didn't think could be achieved with heavy mesh usage. Most stock levels are able to remain small by papering their walls with many reusable copies of the same mesh, in some case to the extent that the original BSP level geometry is almost totally covered up. It's a cool way to make UT2004 maps, but I felt that using techno-meshes and industrial pipes galore was not the best way to add detail to this level. That said, I did freak out a bit when I noticed that the folder containing all the versions of this level was over 5 GB.
As for the particle effects, the computer I have been using has changed 4 times over the course of this level's development. A few of those changes were upgrades, and a few were migrations to new computers entirely. Each upgrade allowed for more complex effects, and my most recent computer is significantly more powerful than the computer on which I started this project.
With respect to the reactor blowing up, I experimented with this idea, but as you can imagine it was not an especially convenient feature in a multiplayer map. The reactor does react to weapon fire though. You can test this out by opening up on it with the mini-gun, or to get the larger reaction, you can fire a high damage weapon into the lower red energy ring, (e.g. shock rifle).

For a while I had considered making a game mode based on scoring an energy ring hit on the reactor with the bio-gun. The blocks near the exit corridor will change from showing a dim red bar at the base, to a pair of bright red bars indicating a high damage hit has been registered. It takes 30 seconds to reset I believe. Strictly speaking, that game mode is playable in the level's current state, provided someone keeps score and decides when the attacking and defending teams will switch. I just never got enough time to make it official.

Regarding your question Spidey, the level is available in two regards. It is the first level of Descent 1, (which I recognize not everyone has gotten to play), and as Sapphire Wolf mentioned Diedel has actually made a remake of this remake in D2X-XL. If you get the chance, I definitely recommend playing the original Descent, and also checking out Diedel's D2X-XL project. In my opinion, there is still no game that has quite the same feel as Descent 1.

Regarding your question Grendel, it is indeed a land-dweller's combat venue. As Aus-RED-5 pointed out I did begin work on a 6DOF mod a while back, and while I would still like to see it happen, I'm concerned that I may not have enough time to donate to that project to finish it in a meaningful timeframe.

In regards to your question DarkFlameWolf, it's a bit of both. The level has gone through a few stages. Before starting this project, I occasionally contemplated the possibility of building a remake of this level, mostly because I thought it would be really interesting to see what it would look like on a game engine that was a decade more advanced. Even so, I always figured that someone else was bound to do it. One day I needed a level to test out a few ideas I had for accomplishing some unusual tasks in the unreal editor, and I figured I could build the remake of the first Descent level. So, it started out as an environment for testing new ideas, one of which was the Reactive Light Meshes which allow all the light meshes to automatically match the color of the light they emit, which is not a built in function of UT2004. After working on it for a while I decided to release a beta version that was purely for exploration, and then finally this version which is a death-match compatible level. I actually played this version with some friends for quite a while to fine tune it before release. It was a bit tricky to make a single player map handle multiplayer combat, but we had a lot of fun with the final version. The level is pretty big though, so 1 on 1 deathmatch is going to be on the slow side. Then again, I had fun playing 1 on 1 last man standing and invasion, so as Sirius said opinions may vary.

Thanks again for the feedback everyone. Any further comments or questions are welcome as always.

[Sirius]

Thanks for the explanation, very informative.

I do happen to have one other question; is there any way to get out of the area below the reactor room without using shield gun jumps?

[sushi.h.a.]

Excellent question Sirius. That was actually the one thing I forgot to mention in the included documentation. It requires at least one shield jump to free yourself from the lower reactor area. One to get onto the inner ledge, and from there you can either shield jump again, or jump onto the light fixture and use it as a foothold to jump the rest of the way out. Despite the rather lucrative nature the area, it is quite dangerous to venture down into the region beneath the reactor if you're being actively chased, being that you'll have to emerge at some point, and in a considerably vulnerable fashion. This is one of a few areas in the level where some light team tactics can yield a significant payoff. What I found when playing was that a player's survivability is considerably better if they have an ally cover them from a concealed, or at least defensible, external position. The exterior ally can provide an escape window, by directly engaging the chaser or waiting adversary. This actually turned out to be one of the more interesting confrontation points when I was playing.
In a 1 on 1 match the dynamics are quite different. If you're doing the chasing and your target disappears down into that dungeon, you are faced with a bit of a dilemma. If you wait, they will have plenty of health the next time you see them, and in a 1 on 1 game they will know you’re there because there's no one else for you to chase. If you follow them, then you could find out that they went down there to snatch more ammo for a flack gun or a rocket launcher, both of which you may not want to face in the tight corridors. Surprisingly, one of the best weapons to have in this situation is the bio-gun, as it acts something like a portable instant minefield, made all the more deadly in the claustrophobic corridors by the low ceiling. You can enter through a different drop to collect some health and then begin a cautious but rapid hunt. Obviously the more you know about your target's load out, the better you'll be able to judge the potential detriments and advantages of pursuit. At any rate, that's just my experience with this area.
I hope that helps.

[Neptin]

That looks awesome.. unfortunetly I don't have UnrealT

[Spidey]

Thanks Sushi, But actually the question was in regards only to this particular rendition of the level.

BTW, my brother Ktulu downloaded and gave it a run thru, said he was impressed. (I never played UT)

[Sniper]

Took a look at it yesterday. Looks really awesome!

[Duper]

.. n/m

Nice Job!

[AlphaDoG]

WOW!

[Sergeant Thorne]

No Way!

[Gold Leader]

Btw you can download this level here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?4zy2wygyeqz

Since the original download link is broken

[karx11erx]

I am also hosting this fantastic piece of work on my website.

[DarkFlameWolf]

since you can't fly in UT2004, how the hell you supposed to get around?

[Sirius]

Jump pads and ladders.

[Aus-RED-5]

He was working on a MOD that has a pyro to fly around in.

Guess he never got time to finish it?

[Gold Leader]

since you can't fly in UT2004, how the hell you supposed to get around?

Incorrect my friend

You can fly in UT2004, there are them vehicle maps for Onslaught Mode, that let's you fly the Raptor for example and yes you can tri-chord with these as well man

http://planetunreal.gamespy.com/View.ph ... tail&id=25

Here's the Raptor:


"The Raptor is sort of a futuristic helicopter with great mobility.

Seats: One
Primary Attack: Plasma Projectors - Be careful, it does splash damage, and you can hurt yourself if you shoot into nearby walls.
Secondary Attack: Missile
Jump: Ascend
Crouch: Descend

TIPS: Missiles are especially effective against other air vehicles, such as Raptors and Mantas, because the missiles automatically lock-on to them.

Some players like to fly the Raptor sideways: it's easier to dodge attacks this way. Also, you may find first-person mode (default F4) much more useful for precision aiming. And remember that you can shoot down AVRiL rockets.

When fighting Goliaths, try hovering directly above them: be careful, they can shoot you down. "

That being said, it's also possible to make a Pyro-GX skin to replace the Raptor btw So yeah figure out on how to use that in them ported Descent levels , all you have to do is make them support Onslaught Mode, and you can be quite well underway

[Sirius]

No Raptor in the level that I recall, though it would be possible to put one in there ... except it's a little too small from what I remember.

[Foil]

Also, the Raptor controls are like everything else in UT2004: always relative to the "ground" plane, with no mechanism for 'roll' rotations. So although you can trichord, it's still not true 6DoF.

[@uToPL@y]

Map looks awesome sushi, I'd play it but my game box is toast atm! All I have to work with right now is this gallopy laptop that I installed just the unreal editor on, so I could at least still work on some of my projects.

I mainly do mapping, some texturing and a bit code mutation when I have to, but my point for this post is that 'Brold9999' from the 'Into Cerberon Mod' on ModDB has graciously provided his own version of the 'KShip' Mutator (6DoF Vehicle) on the Unreal Wiki called none other than the 'FlyingDog' (from the replaceable 'BullDog' model he used for the prototyping), that extends the KShip class, which is a working prototype(Base Class) Player Controller of a Descent type space fighter.

LINKS:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:KShip
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Mod ... escent_Mod

I can't believe I didn't find this earlier, cuz I looked everywhere for 'Descent type Unreal' content - except for in these forums!
As I have been doing some planning and a bit of work on an Unreal Descent Mod myself, I already have permission from Deitfreid Mali for his DXX-XL Mod to include a lot of his content in my own Unreal 2k4 Mod - Unreal Descention: Frantic1.2.3. of which I will be making a new thread for soon.

EDIT: I found one of your ships @ imageshack while I was looking for some of my own pics: .V.E.R.Y . C L

Uploaded by: sushi.h.a.

Sure would be awesome if you wanted to add some cool ships to my mod! Maybe a few for player use, and a few others for looks(just models). Got something planned for this one yet?

That's all for now!
*Returns to scouting the depths of a cavernous mine.*

[sushi.h.a.]

... Later that very same decade.

I just updated this post so the download link should work again.
A change in the way Dropbox hosts things may have broken it, and possibly also just the passage of time.

First time I've stopped by here in a while. I hope everyone is doing well.