Further Disclaimer: The following information is taken from the official website and may change on an ongoing bases as determined by changes that may need to be made during the course of the development of the game Urban Terror.
How many new weapons are planned so far?
The current load out is being updated to meet the demands of the MD5 animation and rendering system. New weapon additions will be crafted and fitting of the game in both game play as well as their relevance to a Hollywood based shooter. Adding weapons is always under consideration but it needs to be more than just adding another stick.
However.
Half the players want new weapons and half don't so we are looking for ways to keep both sides happy and have a few ideas of how new additions can be implemented as part of the overall styling of the game.
Will we be able to use the scope seen on the UMP in HD when it is released?
With MD5 animation now included and the availability of over 75 base actions as well as hundreds of possible over ride combinations it's going to be near impossible to not hint to some form of practical use.
In general the overall weapons design is to make them a bit more accurate to it's real world counter part visually but with all weapon additions the design will be crafted in a way that adds to the overall feel of the game even if it's purely cosmetic. Urban Terror is a run-N-gun and not a stop-N-aim. Use optics not use optics will most likely become a player option.
Now that we know that all the maps apart from Casa are not going to be released for HD due to frozen sand not having permission to use them, roughly how many maps are we looking towards having?
As delivered with the game there are about 12 maps considered to be of HD quality that we have the necessary assets to either update the map or rebuild it from scratch.
However there is no intention to prevent 3rd party map builders from making and distributing a HD designed map using a type of system in place with a 4.X build.
What changes are being made to the visual style of Urban Terror if any?
The overall look of the game will more or less stay the same but will look different due to the enhancements to the lighting and texturing system. Most noted though with the available overhead due to processor scaling of a ten+ year old engine things will become a bit more rounded in shape with little or no impact to frame rates.
What will be the difference between the maps we have now for 4.1.1 and the new HD maps?
With what’s in place now in the form of spec and bump/normal maps updated lighting techniques will need to be used to supply the necessary requirements of these texture maps as well as maintain the high contrast to background of the player textures as rendered through hardware.
Other than the addition of bump, normal, specular maps and world models to the engine, are there any other features that the new maps will use?
The older .shader system is still usable under the old system and our shader system is being added as an extension. What it does now with those three maps alone is more than enough to increase in game visuals with the ability to add more if need be.
Also by using meshes with simplified clip brushes we can make very high resolution maps; i.e. maps with a lot more detail. The engine has many optimizations making it run faster even with conventional brush and patch maps.
What changes to the Hud and game menus are to be expected?
These are still in the design phase.
What will the overall audio to UrT be like by comparison to what 4.1.1 currently has?
Current audio development is under the leadership of our sound engineers as to what they need and what will eventually be build.
Are there to be any changes to the game play?
Urban Terror is baseball and in baseball there is no running to first base then eating a sandwich. UrT is by design a run-N-gun and is an alternative to even those who play more realistic shooters.
Will HD have any new game modes? And what will those game modes involve?
What will be part of the game as delivered is still to be decided but with the availability of the Urban Terror network system game types can be added or removed based on popularity.
Is Frozen Sand considering a single player mode? or a mode that will specifically be there to "practice" without other players?
First and foremost Urban Terror is an on-line game and building a stand-alone aspect to the game would require a from scratch approach that we cannot currently support at this time.
Will the bots be supported upon release or at any point in the future?
What to do about bots is still under consideration. However for internal testing they are still required and if they do improve then it's only be done to serve that purpose.
What optimizations have been made to the engine that will help users with older machines be able to keep playing even upon the release of HD?
Being able to roll back to processor assisted rendering as well the future inclusion of LOD's for both weapon and player models and to down grade to simple shaders should make the game playable for the few running dated hardware.
However.
To get the most out of the game one will need to at least upgrade their video card to a more recent specification to take advantage of the huge performance increase that hardware rendering has to offer.
More information later once we determine the best entry point but for most its going to be more about OpenGL version matching and any required hardware updates will most likely involve an update to the video card over and above the current system needed to play a 4.X build.
Something else to consider.
Due to the nature of openGL some tweaking of the basic setting is required and if you see your present configuration in this topic then to get the most out of your card you will need to do some tweaking.
Also be sure to update your video drivers as it is not uncommon for a stock Windows install to load in its own make-it-work drivers and is up to the end user to download the current drivers from their manufacture.
Will a physics engine be incorporated into Urban Terror at any point, or is such a thing even being discussed?
Adding physics has been discussed but no decisions have been made. In general adding a feature that requires any form of calculation needs to take into consideration the need to maintain the speed of the graphics engine. Also "good" physics requires hardware and brings us back to the problem of making the game playable to all.
Will the character animations be more dynamic than in 4.1.1 and what are the specific improvements of using md5 over using md3?
In general Urban Terror HD is a totally different design rebuild of the 4.X build that was about bolting on and the making the content work with the game.
This created the need for custom built solutions creating segments of the game that were difficult or impossible to fix bugs as well as make improvements that would land up breaking some other part of the game.
Adding MD5 is not just about player animation but rather a single channel event driven system based on the availability of an event tag. If a player is reloading or firing a weapon for example not only animations can be applied to both 1st as well as 3rd person models but unique sound hits can be added as well.
The bulk of the improvements are done under the hood to provided a much bigger content pipeline as well as a restructuring of data files to create a common naming convention.
How this directly relates to md5 as a means of animation is a desired event can be tied to a animation clip or blended with others to make different combinations.
The resource hit comparison between md3 and md5 you get back about 75% for the same amount of content.
In hardware rendering the md5 player model over the md3 the speed and amount of bandwidth becomes more of a factor and since the animation was done at 30 fps this has little bearing or impact of maintaining a desired 125 fps. Hardware simply renders at the speed in which the data is inputted at and its effect on frame rates is zero regardless of the mesh density.
To complete the long answer md5 started out as a means to add more and improved animations but has grown in its design concept to become the md5 pipeline that other elements of the game engine can tie into.
What changes are being made to the netcode?
None at this time. If it works don't fix it......just yet.
Have any changes been made to the hitboxes?
The hit mesh is one of the animation system that had it's own design and one of the first things converted over to the MD5 channel. We now know where the hitmesh is at all times in relationship to the player model and is going to be one of those things players will have to get use to. Hits are occurring and if anyone can produce video proof of a clearly no-hit situation it's something we would like to see right away.
What is an "Account" and what are it's features?
Accounts put quite simply is Urban Terror centralized control system. Formerly known as "Passport". It is designed for the most part to add a layer of control for server admins and clans over their servers to help reduce the insane abuse we have seen in the 4.1 franchises.
With the central control system in place, it opens the door for a lot of community / cooperative and player interaction, both inside and outside the game. The system is built directly into Urban Terror, and as such it is scalable, designed to be more or less anything at all and with massive investment into its ability to handle large client numbers will be able to expand to what ever player base number that the community can muster!
Will the auto updater automatically apply new updates to everyone’s game once they connect to the Internet?
Yes. One of the issues that has been seen by the 4.1 / 4.1.1 franchise of the game is that security updates need to be taken more seriously. Especially considering we now take direct responsibility for that. The update system is in development, planned to be released with the next "version" of UrT HD released. From this point, all updates and such will be deployed through this network.
Why did Frozen Sand decide to open the Alpha to the community this time around?
Urban Terror HD is a totally redesign of the franchise in the addition of new technologies in both software and hardware and as such the current QA department in place was simply not large enough to handle at the very least the testing involving hardware alone across a broad enough range to be of any benefit.
This would represent a huge investment in both time as well as cost which we as a small team could not afford considering the shear size of the this project.
Urban Terror HD 1.0.3 is in the Alpha stage of testing, will the community see the most change to the look and feel of the game when the development enters the Beta stage of testing? And will the Beta testing be open to the community in the same way the Alpha was?
Most assume that the current QA program in place is an "Alpha" stage test when what we did was to simply opened the doors to the QA department to any and all who wish to take part in the program.
To date we consider this program to be such a huge success based on both the information as well as the behavior of those taking part that there is no current plans to discontinue the program and to allow players to continue to make improvement suggestions with the possibility that they might even be used.
As for Beta testing with the open QA program there is no need for such a program as the current goal is to make a stable HD build equal to the playability of the 4.X build.
In other words at some point the HD build will simply replace the older 4.X build.
Frozen Sand is now an official Q3 licensee, what does this mean for the community and for Server admins?
What this means for the community is really up to them to decide. With the doors to the QA department open wide they have the opportunity to play a part in the continued development of the game.
What is significant having license to use the idTech3 engine allows the team to modify the engine with out concerns to maintain backwards compatibility as required by the EULA in which Urban Terror was originally developed under as a mod to Quake 3.
The biggest impact to the community at large will not come from the game it’s self but from the “Urban Terror” network as well as the anti-cheat component that would not have been possible under the GPL open source license and still maintain backwards compatibility with Quake 3 under the EULA.
How this can only come about is only through the generosity of id software to make a huge accommodation to our team of rebels where the plan was to finish off the last build of the game and call it a day.
Why call the game Urban Terror HD?
Urban Terror is the name of the game and there is no need to add suffix type branding.
Adding the HD to the end (and no it does not stand for High Definition) was done because.
a) They are the two coolest letters in the alphabet when put to getter and easily recognized.
b) We needed a means to separate the internal ideas of the older 4.X builds from the new designs needed for the HD build.
Will UrT HD be 100% GTK Radiant compatible?
Frozen Sand uses off the shelf software solutions that works best for the content creators by passing the need for an edit layer. As such tools being used to create maps and content in a 4.X build of the game can be used to build such items for HD.
What has changed is the techniques required to get both the best performance as well as looks with the addition of updated texturing, hardware rendering and optimization variables that will require future documentation.
Any future modifications to the development tools will be released as per the EULA, GPL, or as a continuation of the tradition of id, or is currently available to the public in general.
The FR-FR1 was originally announced as the replacement for the sr8, but the team shortly after decided that the FR-FR1 will be introduced as a new weapon to Urban Terror alongside the sr8. What was the thought process behind this decision?
Due to the community's reaction when we announced that we were going to replace the SR8 with the FR-FR1 we decided to keep both in HD.
We now have to make a new SR8 as a result. Every single weapon that is in 4.1 has to be remade for HD. So, eventually there will be a new M4, LR and MP5K as well.
If Frozen Sand intends on HD being the future in regards to the development of Urban Terror then for what purpose is 4.2 being developed?
HD is a completely different branch of development. It is on our own engine.
We need to do an update to the ioUrbanTerror engine(4.x) correcting the master server address and to fix some security issues; so there will be a 4.2 for that.
HD will take some time to reach beta, so we still need to support 4.x so that people have something reliable to play during this time.
Can we see new items? (like for example a multi ammo bag and the capacity to give some ammo)
There are no current plans to expand load out items beyond what is necessary to bring HD up to the same standards of the 4.X build.
These are ideas best serve once we have the ability to do updates.
Original page:
Urbanterror.info
