Unreal 2 leaked E3 Demo

[Lord FlatHead]

As you may know, the Unreal 2 demo that was shown at last E3 got leaked last month, and I've finally been able to get a hold of it. I know this has little to do with DOOM, but fuck it - here's a few first impressions:

- It runs decently on a P900 with 128 Megs of RAM and a 32MB GeForce2MX/400. It handles the smaller maps great, though the huge maps (especially the ones with outdoors terrain) run like shit because of the insane triangle counts. I've played it on a P866 with 384 Megs of RAM and a 64MB GeForce3 DDR, and that juns runs like a dream.
- That said, the triangle counts really are outrageously high. The sheer amount of geometric detail is unbelievable, and so is the size of the textures. Most of them are 512x512, with a few 1024x1024 ones thrown in just for the fuck of it.
- Characters aren't as detailed as the ones in Doom3, yet they look pretty spectacular in their own right, mainly because of the highly detailed textures.
- The flame thrower is kinda buggy in this version, and not as immediately impressive as the one in RTCW, though it has a few nice touches. Like when you point it at a wall, pull the trigger and the stream of fire actually 'bounces' off the wall, bending around corners etc.
- The terrain looks good, though not especially impressive. It's comparable to Q3: Team Arena.

Of course, I know this is a stolen piece of software that's not at all representable of the final product, and yadda yadda. But it all looks very, very impressive. As far as I can tell, the only area where it's lagging behind in respect to Doom 3 is the lighting. No bumpmapping, no real-time shading, and the lighting on the terrain looks a bit bland.

Like the Great Zaldron once said, the Unreal 2 engine is a logic evolution over the UT engine - just with loads more polygons, an impressive particle/fire/smoke system, and height-maps for terrain. Doom 3 on the other hand is a revolutionary leap in graphics. There.

[Naked Snake]

...The Great Zaldron...

Hahahahahahahahahaha! OMG! Thats funny. *looks again* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...ok I am done...

[Dark-tenshi]

Like the Great Zaldron once said, the Unreal 2 engine is a logic evolution over the UT engine - just with loads more polygons, an impressive particle/fire/smoke system, and height-maps for terrain. Doom 3 on the other hand is a revolutionary leap in graphics. There.

yep i have to agree with that,but those screenshots still look impressive.how about gameplay?what do you think about it?
how about the Epic's next project Unreal warfare?it will be look much more like U2 or it will have real lighting and shadow same as DOOM3?we will have to wait and see..

the Great Zaldron

yep,he is great..

[Lord FlatHead]

how about gameplay?what do you think about it?

No clue. There's a map where you start off with three other marines you can give instructions, and one or two firefights. Most maps are just backdrops without monsters or items.

Aida, the girl from the early screenshots, is in a few scenes. She talks to you, giving you instructions. You can even have kind of a conversation with her by choosing from a list of replies, adventure game-style. Other than that, there's no real gameplay to speak of.

Oh, and there's also a modified version of UnrealEd included. Sadly I can't figure out the most basic editing functions... So now I know how deadnail feels :)

And don't send me any more e-mails asking for me to transfer it over ICQ or something. It's 600Meg zipped, and even if you have a fast connection, my ISP has these upload limits I'd really rather not exceed.

[Wobbo]

Is burning a zipped version on a cd and mailing out of the question? i REALLY wanna see this bad... $15.00 (US)?

[Lord FlatHead]

Is burning a zipped version on a cd and mailing out of the question? i REALLY wanna see this bad... $15.00 (US)?

I live in Belgium, Europe. Shipping and handling would probably cost more than what you're proposing :)

Look, it's really not THAT cool. Certainly not worth shelling out $15.00 for, IMO. And stop asking me for stolen software before Linguica gets sick of it and starts banning people or something.

[Wobbo]

Dangit!

One more question about it then... what about music and sound?

[Lord FlatHead]

One more question about it then... what about music and sound?

There's no music as far as I've noticed. Just the regular "humming space engine" ambient sounds, trickling water, things like that. Weapon and character sounds are pretty cool... other than that, there's really not much to speak of. Remember, this is a very early version of the game. Sound is probably going to be one of the last things they'll polish up before the final release, so I shouldn't worry about it yet.

[Zaldron]

Not even ONE more post about the availability of this leaked press version.

Glad to see I'm still "The Great" ^_^. No, really, U2's looking pretty good but IMO they should get that game out fast before all those new independent groups start releasing their X-Box games that alreday sport pixel/vertex shaders and shit.

As for the gameplay we can't say nothing till is out, but I really really hope it's not like the first one. Thank God Legend Entertainment went for a "Assault"-like general scope of the game.

[Dima]

I had this E3 demo quiet some time ago and here are my impressions:

1) The terrain is absolutely massive and is unlike anything I've ever seen before and it's also beautiful to look at! (Q3: Team Arena pales in comparison!).

2) As FlatHead said, the game seems to be quiet optimised even at this early stage, and it ran pretty well on my P3 1GHZ with 256mb of ram and a 32mb GeForce DDR (if you don't take the huge outdoor maps into account where the game ran more like a slideshow).

I am positive a GeForce 3 would handle the game a dozen times better.

3) I didn't really pay attention to the size of textures or stuff like that, but I did notice that the enviroments were highly detailed though very non interactive at this point.

4) Characters are quiet good looking, although not near the quality of Doom III (lower polycounts, no bumpmapping, etc...).
The genius textures on them play a much bigger role here than the polycounts.

5) The flamethrower is very nice looking, although doesn't leave a lasting impression as the RTCW one does.
It is also quiet buggy right now and missing steams can be seen in some occasions.


Generally, the game is quiet good looking and is a nice evolution of the Unreal Engine.

Looking forward to playing the final game!

[badnews]

Cool I am also from Belgium, where do u live Flathead?

[Lord FlatHead]

I live in Ieper. So all you young, beautiful female Doomers can begin stalking me now... Both of you.

My ICQ number is on my profile page, by the way, if there's anything you'd like to ask. Except for that particular piece of software I'm not supposed to mention.

[Zaldron]

Both of you.

Are we feeling a little optimistic today? ^_^


I wonder how dangerous would be for DOOM's reputation if an alpha leaked. It makes me wonder if they're actually going to submit alphas to the major sites or just invite people to id's offices kinda like what Blizzard does.

[Lord FlatHead]

I wonder how dangerous would be for DOOM's reputation if an alpha leaked. It makes me wonder if they're actually going to submit alphas to the major sites or just invite people to id's offices kinda like what Blizzard does.

Most definetly. John Carmack showed a very early demo of Quake III Arena at MacWorld 99, and somehow it got leaked as well... I have this version too, by the way :) Imagine what would happen if the MacWorld 2001 demo of Doom 3 somehow leaked to the public.

[Zaldron]

I guess that's why id guys were carrying around the HD looking menacing... ^_^