Unreal Arena

I like the way you move

2018-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

Here we are with a new snapshot just in time for the new year!

The main focus has been the implementation of VQ3 physics for Q players which we can proudly say it is 100 percent accurate. We have added a red box with proper size as a placeholder for the final Q model to better represent it for the time being. Other than that, characters have now soft shadows, it is possible to unfollow with the right mouse button when spectating and we added exit as an alias for quit.

Other cosmetic additions are a provisional HUD that shows in-game messages and the FPS counter, a beautiful monospace font for the console and a disclaimer at the game startup.

Our map Campgrounds underwent a restyling and it now has a cleaner dev look.

Finally thanks to 5 big updates the engine is now on par with the latest Daemon version (v0.51.1).

Works have already started for the next snapshot which will include UT99 physics and a new map so watch this space for updates!

[NOTE: since there are no menus you should take a look at the instructions on the official wiki in order to know how to properly run the game.]

#ifdef UNREALARENA

2017-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

After almost 11 months of development here we are with a new snapshot!

Once again most of the work has been done under the hood: we conducted a full code review, we removed a massive amount of dead code, we fixed a crash that used to happen with the /listplayers command and finally we updated our build infrastructure so that now we only use compilers that have at least a feature-complete implementation of the C++11 standard.

Furthermore, with the help of q3diff, an in-house developed tool, we also checked for correctness the geometry of our map Campgrounds and polished it.

Last but not least, thanks to 3 big updates the engine is now at version v0.46.0.

Next time we are going to add Quake III physics and a new map from the UT99 pool… stay tuned!

[NOTE: since there are no menus you should take a look at the instructions on the official wiki in order to know how to properly run the game.]

An Apple a Day…

2016-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

The first snapshot of 2016 adds the long-awaited support for OS X!

Now you can run Unreal Arena on any Mac that has OS X Mavericks or newer. The build infrastructure has been updated to take account of this and it is hosted by Travis CI as it is for Linux.

The snapshot includes also some bug fixes along with the classic engine update (v0.43.1).

Spawn!

2015-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

After some months of hard work we have managed to add our teams, Q and U, to Unreal Arena. Players of the former will act as they would in Quake III Arena, with its typical physics, weapons and items. Players of the latter will feel instead the gameplay of Unreal Tournament.

Moreover, with this snapshot we have gone a step further and we have actually made possible to play the game. Now you can spawn into our demo map, Campgrounds, and move around it. We have already ported the original Quake III Arena spawn logic while the other one is coming soon.

Other minor enhancements are the removal of the suicide timer, that had been preventing the /kill command to run instantly, and the addition of the /suicide alias which is better known to Unreal Tournament players.

Finally, this snapshot includes the usual engine update (v0.41.0).

[NOTE: since there are no menus you should take a look at the instructions on the official wiki in order to know how to properly run the game.]

Snapshots

2015-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

From now on we will split the development between a release and the following into smaller stages that we are going to call snapshots. You can think of them as developer previews of well defined features that have just been finished and marked as ready.

In this way it’s easier for our testers to review each feature set and at the same time it allows the developers to deal with any feedback before actually doing the official release.

The main features included in the snapshot 0.1-1 are:

removal of the buildables from the gamecode
refining of the Campgrounds geometry

In addition to those, there are the update of the engine to v0.40.0 and a few bugfixes.

You can find all snapshots @ https://github.com/unrealarena/unrealarena/releases

[NOTE: since there are no menus you should take a look at the instructions on the official wiki in order to know how to properly run the game.]

First Release

2015-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

During last months we have worked hard first to set up what is needed for the project development and then to effectively start working on it.

We have created other two repositories that are going to serve us along with the main one: unrealarena-data for the game assets and unrealarena-maps for the official maps. We have also set up automatic infrastructures for building the game clients: for Linux we are using Travis CI while for Windows AppVeyor (OS X support is coming soon). We chose to use different services in order to provide always native applications for all the supported platforms.

Finally we have focused on making the game run with a minimal set of placeholders only and we have also started working on our first map, Campgrounds, a remake of the original pro-q3dm6 included in Quake III Arena.

Now the time has come to put together all pieces and pack the first release!

Unfortunately this doesn’t mean you can already play the game with your friends, for now you are only allowed to float around through the maps in spect mode. Nevertheless, we have achieved a very important goal because the development process is now stable and this means it is easier to work on the project and new updates will be released faster.

That’s all for now, go and grab it @ https://github.com/unrealarena/unrealarena/releases

[NOTE: since there are no menus you should take a look at the instructions on the official wiki in order to know how to properly run the game.]

The Beginning

2015-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

Hello there!

Today we are pleased to announce the beginning of the Unreal Arena project. It is an open-source FPS (just a hobby, won't be a AAA title) that aims to merge the universes of Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena.

Check it out @ https://github.com/unrealarena/unrealarena