Legacy:Corran/Developer Journal

July 29, 2003

I've been meaning to getting round to doing this for a while now. There are often things which I am working on which would be easier to work out if I down the problem, you never know, people may even help me with it. Feel free to comment on any of my postings.

I've spent most of today (I'm still not particulary advanced) working on GUI stuff and trying to work out saving information to an .ini file from within the menu. It was loading variables correctly but when I clicked the Back or Play buttons (I'm writing a new tab for the instant action page) it wasn't saving. I couldn't work out why it wasn't calling the InternalApply() function. It appeared that as I had edited my InstantActionPage incompletely, there were still some references back to the old tab.

Still, I sorted that out and my code is back from being 'trying to get it work format' aka messy with commented out code all over the place, to 'phew, got that working now format' with it all nice and neat.

Still, I'm only learning.

Comments

Corran: If you want to comment on any of my postings, do it with these kinds of headers to keep it consistent, thanks :D.

July 29, 2003

Wow, it's 12:30 in the morning and I've only just started coding. I've spent most of the day trying to get my Linux installation working.

Now I have INI saving/loading working, I'm going to try to get a list of classes from an INT and display some information in a GUIListBox and have the selection saved. I'm pretty sure I know exactly what I have to do, I've been looking at the weapon loading class for some bits.

Hopefully it will go off without a hitch. I'll see what I can get done tonight and continue tomorrow.

August 2, 2003

I took my first forray into the UT2003 mapping world today. I figure that there's no point at only being able to do one aspect of editing/modding and be totally incompetent at the rest. I also started modeling as I found that there were things I needed in my level that weren't supplied in the default meshes.

I thought I'd do a JailBreak styled map ready for when JB2003 is released. Obviously in the meantine I can't test it fully as I dont have the necessary actors and zones and stuff (unless Mychaeel wants to give me any sample code :D). As I'm still learning I'm trying to test as many things in the editor as possible so I can learn my way around, but I'll take out anything which is not necessary before/if I release this map.

Back to my coding, I completed my GUI page I was working on a few days ago, It's got a preview of the mesh using a similar method to that used in the character selection page (the SpinnyDude). It also now correctly extracts the list of classes from the INT files and displays them in a list box. When any item is selected, the description is shown in a text box. It's all good!

October 18, 2003

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything in here. Now the UnrealEngine2Runtime has been released, I thought I'd have a go at a stand alone project. I noticed that the runtime comes with Karma 1.2 so I think I'll have a go with writing a pool/billiards type game. I don't want to do anything too similar to a FPS because that's what UT modding is for :). Having to write from quite a low level should do me some good for my general coding.

They say the .uc's will be released tonight, but that will probably be tonight in America, which will mean I'll likely miss it. I guess I'll have to wait aroung 'till tommorrow and in the meantime play around with what I have.

Comments

GRAF1K: Are you going to be using UnrealEngine2 Runtime only for coding experience, or are there other advantages you're considering. I really don't understand the big hype about Runtime anyhow. It seems to me that nearly all mods would do well to begin with 2K3/4 instead, especially because UnrealEngine2 Runtime doesn't include multiplayer support.

Corran: Yeah, I'm mostly doing it for experience. It would probably be easier to make with UT2003 but this gives me a bit more of a a chalenge. Plus this way, I can make it downloadable to people who don't have UT2003. The Runtime does come with basic multiplayer support, you can join one of the epic servers and talk to other people on the server (everyone is represented as boxes though).

Foxpaw: Graf1k, I pointed this out on the UnrealEngine2 Runtime page but I thought I'd mention in case you missed it, the UnrealEngine2 is exactly what you get when you buy an Epic license, except for the actual license and source. It does include the full network support, Karma, and all the "goodies" except for DE's specific stuff like xemitters.

October 31, 2003

The recent developments with the Runtime EULA have prevented me from doing what I had planned with the runtime. I'll probably continue making the game as a mod for UT03. It should prove easier this way but no doubt I'll experiance a few hicups along the way.