SEXY TIME!!

Now, the part of UDK Modding that has me most excited is the iOS Mobile Platform support!
Mobile anything is the future. We all know it. And honestly, even if UDK wasn’t a fantastic NextGen engine to develop in (which it is), the fact that the engine is updated monthly with such awesome features as iOS Mobile support makes the choice crystal clear. Seeing no evidence to say otherwise, I foresee Epic Games continuing to support Mobile Platform Gaming, indefinitely.

Check this out…

UDK’s highly optimized mobile renderer has support for per-pixel lighting, environment mapping, precomputed visibility and more! And of course, Unreal Lightmass computes stunning light and shadows to bring your scene to life. Harness the power of the same triple-A tools used to build ground-breaking games like Gears of War and iPhone Game of the Year Infinity Blade.

Honestly, gaming on mobile devices is sneered upon by many… even yours truly at times (ironically). But to not understand the exponentially growing Mobile trend out there, nor to fathom any possibility of overcoming such handheld device limitations, betrays a serious lack of creativity. Sign me up Epic! I’m all in…

Using kwaak3 on my Droid 2 (which is essentially ioquake3 under the hood) I can run the same custom maps and connect to other ioquake3 servers!!!!  Yes, even in servers where other users might be playing from their PCs!

There is no word yet on how reliable kwaak is in running 3rd party ioquake3 mods – such as the one I will eventually be making – but I assume basic ioquake modifications *should* work without issue.

Now, I know that playing FPS games on mobile devices is really not there yet, and frankly kwaak is far from polished… nevertheless, I see some awesome potential here.  Once one realizes that an ioquake3 mod *should* probably be designed in such a way so as to be enjoyable on both mobile and PC platforms – the sky is the limit.

I also noticed that on the homepage of ioquake3 there is mention of ioRTCW and ioET (down the line). If and when that happens – HAPPY DAYS!!! I can picture standing up 2 game servers (running ioQ3 and ioRTCW), and being able to connect to them from pretty much ANY type of computer…

Wait… ANY?  Wouldn’t any new machine require Quake3 or RTCW to be installed (i.e. purchased) even before the custom mod could be installed and played?  Technically, no.

The terms of the Q3 source code release basically stipulate that you can use their engine as a base for any new game, and distribute it for FREE online (i.e. no separate q3 purchase required by any end users of your game), so long as all original quake3 media is stripped out of the game.  It must be a total conversion.  If you later wish to sell it, id software will of course then require a licensing fee.

On a final note, a quick Google search indicates that in all likelihood an ioquake3/iortcw port may even be possible to run on an iPhone.  Just, awesome…

To summarize,

• Create two Total Conversion mods based on ioquake3 and iortcw, respectively.
• Mods will feature all original maps, models, weapons, sounds, music and styles of game-play.
• Mods will be Portable/Playable from most any type of computer or mobile/smart phone.
• Mods will be easy to Install and FREE TO PLAY on any supported platform.

Let the brainstorming begin!

Going through my library the other day, I came across a book I had never even cracked open.
…And it turns out its pretty good!

Within short order I was able to correlate the instructions given for the environment setup (which are now 10 years dated) and make my first code changes to the source.
* Homing Rockets!
* Up next? Cluster Grenades, Locational Damage, Jetpacks, Chain Lightning, etc. Fun!

Nothing crazy yet, but a great start (for not knowing a bit of C programming), nonetheless.
Also, as the web resources provided in the book are long since offline, I may document portions of the book to help others (if anyone has issue with this, contact me).

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In VERY related news, I came across this awesome project: ioquake3.
In a nutshell, it is the original Q3A Engine + a whole lot of improvements, security patches, and misc updates.
One of their most attractive features is the massive portability overhaul (their homepage is littered with folks showing ioquake3 running on mobile devices).

Needless to say, this is all very exciting and is yes, VERY appealing to me.

The plan then:
- Create a Q3A mod using the ioquake3 platform.
- Create all new maps, character models, weapons, music, etc (i.e. total conversion mod).
- Host the new Mod 24×7.
- Play the mod on my smart phone.
- I Win.

..And with the updated ioquake3 HD texture packs, q3map2 level rendering enhancements (note: Is ioquake3 compatible with q3map2?), and the insane 7.1 surround sound also provided through ioquake3??!!! – No, I am not regressing in thinking I should do this.

Given the simplicity of Mapping/Modeling/Modding in the Q3A engine, which now includes updated graphics and sound – this may yet just be a stroke of Brilliance!

The next challenge will be to update the content, as it was originally written a number of years ago, and definitely could use some refining.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that parts of the curriculum are taken directly from the publicly available Noesis tutorials. These guys have the real content, be sure to check them out too.

I hammered out 2 more pages of the MOD Tool Curriculum (Modules 12-13). The “Creating a Dynamite Prop” portion of the curriculum is nearly finished, with only touching up the final prop details remaining.

See the Entire Curriculum here.

Woo!