DCUG - Canceled

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 05:02:54 AM

Wow! Ha, I am away for an evening and some interesting things happen. First, thank you so much to Goggles and the others who defended my efforts. Even though I'm sure IPS and Vertex didn't mean anything antagonistic with their observations and questions, it is still really nice to see such support for my piddling efforts. Second, let me say that I've broken the mod into pieces, and I am uploading them as we speak. I'm at about 50%, so it will probably be done tomorrow morning (my upload speed is REALLY freaking slow). We'll see how this works. Hopefully it will make the process go more smoothly. (I'm really happy to hear that it managed to work for you Wyldfyre! That makes me wish I hadn't removed the full thing. Then people could try and download it if they wanted)

Now, let me try and clarify some things. First off, Vertex, the first thing I asked when I began to do this was whether or not I should include the meshes, or just include a list. I got an OVERWHELMING response to include the meshes.

The DCUG is, as I have said before, the inhabitants of the DC Universe as imagined by myself, complete with built in, fully customized FFX set-ups, strings, etc. That was what it was always intended to be, a giant sandbox, at its core. That is what people told me they were interested in a few years ago, and that is what I have done. It is, however, more than that. It was also always intended to be the foundation through which I would tell the thousand and one stories that are floating around in my mind. I started them out just for myself, but people seemed to like some of my ideas, so I decided to include the mods as well. Everything has grown by leaps and bounds. Where first there were about fifty characters, there are now hundreds, where first there was one Batman story-arc, there are now three separate mods. They are not the end, however. I included the three mods I have finished, but I've got starts on about five more, and I intend for there to be two in my first expansion pack, and many more after that. The DCUG is the foundation, and no, I am not using everything included in it. It is the base from which I intend to tell stories for as long as I am able. That is why I included the map pack info, because I will be using a lot of FF1 objects and maps, and I want to be able to use them, mix them, and combine them freely. I've already used my fair share of them in the three mods included, but there are, I'm sure, many more that I haven't used. There are TONS of meshes included that aren't actively included in my mods (although a surprising number are), but I thoroughly hope that, even if I never get around to telling the story of, let's say the Blue Beetle, someone will. They'll be able to use my efforts as a springboard for their own creation. As you say, it is the responsibility of the mod maker to trim fat, and I have certainly tried my darndest, to the point of exhaustion. I've tried to cut out redundancy, I've tried to remove things that are unnecessary, and I've tried to keep track of everything, but this is a massive project....and I'm only one guy. I've done my best, but there is probably still some fat somewhere. Still, that fat is not the characters who don't appear in the mod, as that was what started all of this. I understand that the size will certainly be a turnoff for many, and I am very sorry that this is the case. I do hope that the rest of you enjoy it, and find it worth the space and the wait.

Vertex · January 16, 2009, 05:37:33 AM

I don't think my original meaning got over that well. My comment was more towards why people tend to wanna release huge mega files instead of ... as you have now done a set of smaller files EVERYBODY can handle. You have in essence done what I was suggesting. Never meant to imply that the overall final result shouldn't and couldn't be exactly what it will be. Just mean that it's a lot easier for all those people you wanna reach when they don't have to deal with such a large file that often.. won't allow those you wish to reach.. to be reached.

Now back in the day however, many mods for a reason I never did understand INSISTED on material that only could.. only should be released in their mod. I never could wrap my head around that, because it implied that the mod wouldn't be worth as much if it didn't have specific meshes and so on to "lure" people to it. This sort of thinking I blame many bad movies on.. when studio execs insist that they need that big box office actor who soaks up their entire budget (and isn't that good an actor to begin with) instead of finding someone who really can act and fill the part.
A mod is a TON of work on oh so many levels, You have the drudge grunt work of gathering everything to together doing oh so much editing and .. well the list goes on. Beyond that though is the more artistic side, the creative work of story telling and creating the experience that you want to share with others. The thought that they need to drag people to that... well honestly it degrades the work done in the mod.
Bear with me, like I said this went on more back in the day with mods not NOW so much because those of us that are left are more in it for the creative art and love of the genre than glory of pure numbers. What you've done is a labor of love and never implied it was anything but. However, I think you realized when peeps started reported problems.. those mega bloated downloads are hell on people.

GogglesPizanno · January 16, 2009, 05:54:29 AM

Sheesh Vertex...
How are we supposed to blow these things all out of proportion when you go and be all... logical.

Now Im gonna have to go and find something new and different to grumble about.... Wheres Prev???

Volsung · January 16, 2009, 10:55:56 AM

Gosh! I missed the release!!!

kkhohoho · January 16, 2009, 01:27:26 PM

How many parts are there supposed to be? There's 7 parts uploaded so far.

TaskMasterX · January 16, 2009, 02:22:56 PM

Congrats, BG! You've put alot of effort and time into this and I know it feels great to see it all come to fruition. This is why I love hanging around here - too see all these great ideas and hard work on expanding this game! Thanks, BG!

catwhowalksbyhimself · January 16, 2009, 04:30:23 PM

Hmm, a single 800 mb compressed file shouldn't translate into 15 separate files that add up to 1.3 gigs.

Well, we'll figure it out, never fear.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 04:45:28 PM

Grrr! Well, 15 parts is what is supposed to be there. They should all be the same size, except for the last one. I just double checked all of the files I uploaded, and they are all the right size, so it doesn't look like any of them got mangled on upload. I can't actually see the files in my online folder, however, which troubles me. When I go to upload them, though, it tells me that they are there, and the right size.

Well everyone, these SHOULD be working as far as I can tell. My suggestion is, that if you download it, you should check each of the archives to make sure they are the same size (except for #15), and if any of them are not, redownload that piece.

Okay ladies and gentlemen, here's hoping it works this time.

Vertex, no harm done. I hope you enjoy it!

Cyber Burn · January 16, 2009, 05:03:25 PM

I think I must have blinked, where is the download at?

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 05:39:53 PM

Whoops, sorry!

dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.part01.rar

And all the way to

dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.part15.rar

catwhowalksbyhimself · January 16, 2009, 05:41:48 PM

You know, it might make things a lot simpler if you put up a download page with the links, even if that was all that was up there.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 05:48:20 PM

Cat, that's a great idea....but I don't have a clue how to do that! Ha, my wife knows a little about that kind of thing. I'll see if I can't talk her into doing that for me.

Man IPS....all this stuff is giving me a headache. I haven't the foggiest as to what could be causing that. Is the shortcut pointing to the right place? What exactly happens when you try and start it? Where does it hang up?

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 06:00:44 PM

Thanks for the details IPS, I appreciate you taking the time to fight with this thing. I'm going to do a little testing on my end, and then I may upload a file with just the .dats in it, and see if that helps.

Previsionary · January 16, 2009, 06:05:17 PM

Quote from: ips on January 16, 2009, 05:55:58 PM
yup. i even made a new shortcut to test my own. it launches the game as normal ... black screen comes up. green genie would normally appear flying through the IG logo, but she never does. the game becomes unresponsive and hangs on the black screen.

did you get any errors, IPS? Anything reported in your logs? My initial thought is that it's loading a lot of data your comp hasn't *seen* before, and because of that, it's slowing down and becomes unresponsive.

This is based on the theory that too many meshes and herofiles tend to slow the game. The mod seems to have an influx of meshes, skins, fx, and missions, so the wait time will be longer for you until your computer adjusts to it...or something. I dunno....where's Tutie-Shirley and the tutelettes?!

Blitzgott · January 16, 2009, 06:08:26 PM

http://dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.zip redirects to a page with all fifteen links.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 06:13:42 PM

Blitzgott, you're the man! Ha, thanks for finding that. IPS, I'm still testing, I should know something definite in a moment.

Previsionary · January 16, 2009, 06:17:30 PM

Quote from: ips on January 16, 2009, 06:12:30 PM
Quote from: Previsionary on January 16, 2009, 06:05:17 PM
Quote from: ips on January 16, 2009, 05:55:58 PM
yup. i even made a new shortcut to test my own. it launches the game as normal ... black screen comes up. green genie would normally appear flying through the IG logo, but she never does. the game becomes unresponsive and hangs on the black screen.

did you get any errors, IPS? Anything reported in your logs? My initial thought is that it's loading a lot of data your comp hasn't *seen* before, and because of that, it's slowing down and becomes unresponsive.

This is based on the theory that too many meshes and herofiles tend to slow the game. The mod seems to have an influx of meshes, skins, fx, and missions, so the wait time will be longer for you until your computer adjusts to it...or something. I dunno....where's Tutie-Shirley and the tutelettes?!

no there are no logs because the game doesn't actually launch. logging begins when a mission of some kind starts not when the app first opens right?

The game actually starts logging when the game is launched. It's just rewritten during every new mission/session.

Also...yay for a new site!

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 06:22:42 PM

Okay, I've done a little testing, and it is working fine on my end, but the game does take a while to load, and it seems that the usual Green Genie thing doesn't play. That's got be baffled, but seeing as it is working, I can live with it. Also, if you chose the "Extract to DCUG" option while having all of the files selected, apparently it gives you a double layer of folders, so you've got DCUG INSIDE another DCUG. I figure that you probably would have caught that if it had happened, but it is just the kind of simple thing that would escape my notice, so I figure I'd better mention it.

catwhowalksbyhimself · January 16, 2009, 06:23:11 PM

Quotehttp://dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.zip redirects to a page with all fifteen links.

Yeah, but that's an error page. Hardly the way to go.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 06:35:50 PM

True Cat, ha, but beggars can't be choosers. At this point I will happily accept it, and hopefully I'll be able to replace it with something a bit prettier soon.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 07:03:03 PM

Hooray!

Redwolf · January 16, 2009, 07:05:36 PM

Well, I've download all 15 pieces and it turns out to be almost 5 Gig extracted!!! Wow! I don't see a DCUG folder within a DCUG either. The "art" folder alone is 4.73 Gig. Is this right?

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 07:48:35 PM

Yep, 'fraid so. The DCUG is a beast. You've got around 2.5 gigs of meshes and 2.5 gigs of art/map stuff. If you've already got the mappack installed, you don't need all of that, though. Maybe I'll upload a version without that stuff for people who already have the mappack, if Cat agrees it is a good idea.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 08:18:41 PM

Well, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I just KNEW that despite testing those missions like crazy there would be errors...but I have to admit, I sorta' hoped that they'd be a little later on.

Alright IPS, I will start looking into this immediately.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 09:36:00 PM

Okay IPS, from what I can see, the game is loading the 3rd mission for some reason, instead of the 2nd. That would definitely explain why it won't start (the game is looking for Superman, and only finding Batman). I don't get it, because the campaign is pointing in the right direction, and the right files are in the right place. I'll do some more testing and see if I can turn up anything out of the ordinary.

On another note, I have been informed that some of the content creators here are unhappy about my little project. The very last thing I want to do is misuse someone's artwork, so I very much hope that anyone who is dissatisfied will contact me. I have never made any secret about what I was doing here, but it seems that there have been quite a few misconceptions. I hope that we can sort everything out, but if someone is well and truly unhappy with their work appearing in the DCUG, I will certainly remove it immediately.

:EDIT: Okay, it looks like SOMEHOW, a line was added between "the" and the rest of the script in the opening encounter, thereby losing the Unfade command...hard to play the mission when you can't see anything. I'm uploading a fixed mission script now.

:EDIT2: So, hold on a sec., apparently something really weird is going on with this mission. There are spaces skipped randomly throughout it, missing lines, all kinds of oddness. I'm checking the others. This has somehow happened since I tested it, and I haven't touched the mission since then.

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 10:35:35 PM

S'okay IPS, I believe I've found the issue for the 3rd mission too. It looks like the game can't find Jimmy's head.nif. That's because at some point in time I accidentally copied in another copy of his mesh, which DIDN'T have the head.nif. All you have to do is copy the head.nif from any other folder in custom/characters, and drop it in jimmy_olsen. I'll upload a new mesh folder just for ease of fixing it.

GogglesPizanno · January 16, 2009, 10:59:17 PM

Oh the joys of debugging....

BentonGrey · January 16, 2009, 11:06:48 PM

Yeah, the fun part is that I've already done all of this.

Anyway, the first bug fix is up:

http://dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.UPDATE.rar

Xenolith · January 16, 2009, 11:41:27 PM

I don't want to know who is upset over this or why, but I just wanted to say that your mod is exactly the kind of thing that will hopefully bring more people into our community and admire the hard work you and the people that created the meshes, skins, keyframs, voicepaks, and other aspects of the game worked so hard on.

Thanks, Benton.

kkhohoho · January 17, 2009, 12:11:23 AM

So I played a rumble room match to test things out. I decided to play as Lex Luthor, The Joker, Cheetah, and Zoom. My opponents were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Barry Allan. However, unlike how this match probably would have played out in the comics, Lexy and Zoom were the only ones left standing, along with most of the buildings. One building was nearly brought to the ground.

So far, this is a pretty good mod.

Just one real issue at this point which might be impossible to fix: the fliers often fly away when I try to use ground melee against them. It's rather annoying.

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DCUG - Canceled