Mapping from UnrealED to v12 and worldcraft

#1 Getting a UnrealEd to v12 exporter in place is a pet project of mine but it is proceeding slowly b/c I have a ton of other things I am working on at the same time. I will be sure to post anything I get done.

#2 howdy,

thanks mate, with an app like that nothing will stop people from joining v12 and creating fantastic games.

how long have you been trying to develop the convertor?
i can imagine how difficult it is porting from one completely different editor to another, is there an eta on when you think it might be ready for beta testing? After christmas?

thanks again,

#3 I personaly would love to see a u-ed to tribes converter.
hate to say it, but the unreal editor is easier to use. (at least for me anyways)

#4 I've been working at it off and on for about a month now. I've prolly only put in about a weeks worth of work so far since it is a back-burner project of mine. I will try to step up my work on it since so many people are asking after it. Basically, I am currently working on converting the UnrealEd text export (t3d) to a Worldcraft 3.3 map file. After I have that wroking reasonably well, I will work on converting it directly into the v12's dif format. I am also planning on getting in touch with Tim Sweeney and crew and seeing if I can get any help with integrating the exporter directly into UnrealEd since it works off of a plug-in system. My goal is to allow you to simply hit Export and choose "v12 dif" from the list and there you go =) Currently, I am able to read in all of the brushes but they are in a pre-CSG state. It is going to take a little tie for me to get the CSG operations working then I should be able to release an alpha that creates .map files without any texture info (i.e. you'll have to pull them into WC and texture them, then convert them to dif). Well, there is the state of this tool. If anyone knows of any good references on CSG besides the Ask Midnight column on flipcode let me know.

#5 Can someoene make a quark exporter too? that would be a lot easyer to make ... quark map files are very similar to WC map files. There are small differences in texture coordinates etc.. so it wouldn't be that hard to adjust the WC exporter to also read Quark map files.
I think it'll be great to have more then one choice. Unreal ed, WC and Quark !!!

#6 why not modify unreal to handle tribes data. In the game wheel of time they modified the way that unreal deals with data and the interface.

This is just and idea but can any one get ahold of the sdk for WOT. If so that might be the best way to do a "conversion" to tribes.

PS. I think deus ex also did the same thing. I'm not for sure.

#7 lol...I could do that if I had the $250,000 to buy the source code to Unreal and UnrealEd =) My hope is that they will be willing to share the source code for the text exportor or some sort of plug-ins SDK. I am emailing Epic about it tonight.

#8 Howdy,

thanks for the info, Looks like the appeal of v12 is bringing alot of people from other games.
Convertors and being able to use other editors will enable the transition from one to another to be far less painless.

thanks again and it looks like garagegames are certainly onto a winner, its nice that we all get to get a share in the fun :)

--FASTDRAW--
fastdraw@boothillonline.com
www.boothillonline.com

#9 I emailed Tim Sweeney last night and he feels that it would not be in Epic's best interest to help build a v12 exporter directly into UnrealEd since it might take some of their licensing business away. I expected that reaction but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask =) He was helpful with some of my other questions though and I am continuing with my plan to make a t3d2dif convertor.

#10 matthew:
Could you ask any of the other developers that have worked with the unreal code for their help in converting unreal to v12. I know that Some of the games have been out long enoght they should not feel any stress with helping out our development.
WOT has been inactive for some time. and paintball has is in the same boat.
I Wonder if they could help us without infrenging on their licence agreements.
(Thanks for all your sweat and blood.)

#11 Howdy guys,

Looking around at how much some companies charge to put an exporter into their apps, ephasis the importants of the work done by people to make 3rd party apps.
Just like to say thanks to these people who are making sure that we are able to use whatever program we feel most comfortable with and then be able to use that work with v12.
Being able to use different apps, i.e. worldcraft, unrealED etc. opens the door for more and more mappers and game makers from all different types of engines and formats to come here and work together.

If you cant guess already, i am really excited about the unrealEd to v12 convertor.

Matthew, just wondering if you have an approximate eta of when the convertor will be ready for testing?

Keep up the great work guys, it is really appreciated :)


--FASTDRAW--
fastdraw@boothillonline.com
www.boothillonline.com

#12 "When it's done..."

LOL...I've always wanted to say that =) Seriously though, this week I am going to catch up on some of the things that I need to do for the next release of the engine and I also need to get a few things done on my current game so I probably won't get much done on the t3d converter this week. I am hoping that next week I can spend a great deal more time on it and then I will be able to give you a much better idea on an ETA. Very tentative guess would be that I could release an extremely rough t3d to map converter (where you would have to pull it into Worldcraft, texture it, and add entities before converting it to a dif) in 2 to 3 weeks.

#13 Hi Matthew,

2-3 weeks? Great, well ok I know realistically we might be talking a tad more, but still that is fast work :)

cant wait to get my hands on this bad boy... err the convertor i mean :S

--FASTDRAW--
fastdraw@boothillonline.com
www.boothillonline.com

#14 <--- brushing up on his ued skillz

been a while since I use it lol


I dont wanna be a wet noodel on this, cause I think its the greatest thing since sliced bread ;)
but are the folks with ut going to be ok with us using their mapping tool on another engin?

(and do they still sell the "professional" version of ued?)

#15 Howdy,

Just a post to say hi and to ask how progress with the unrealED to v12/WC convertor is coming along :)

If you need beta testers for it, my team would really like to try it out.

Thanks,

Anthony
FASTDRAW