Mod description

Advanced Model Support is a free modification for Unreal Tournament enabling the use of new custom models. Modellers who use AMS in their models benefit from easy scripting with full support for custom skins, greater team-colour versatility than Epic's TournamentPlayer and SkeletalPlayer classes, and support for scripted skins allowing experienced skinners to alter the model's display settings. AMS also includes Epic skeletal animations from the Playstation 2 version of UT, both Male and Female versions, meaning AMS models shouldn't need Bonus Pack 4. UT players should download the basic AMS package, and modellers should download the SDK as well.

If you are a modeller and want to link your model to Advanced Model Support, please download the Advanced Models SDK, or read it online - see below. The SDK contains tutorials and template scripts relevant to player model authors and mod teams; some simple demonstration models are also available.

AMSDK

The Advanced Models SDK is available to download or read online here: AMSDK Index.

Installation and requirements

This mod requires Unreal Tournament, upgraded to version 436 or later (download the patch from www.unrealtournament.com or a mirror download like File Planet, UnrealCenter or Unreality).

ServerPackages=AdvancedModelSupport

hnFAQ (hopefully not frequently asked questions)

How do I install it?

The UMOD doesn't work!

The UMOD says I need "Unrealtournament 436". What's a 436?

See "Installation" above.

I installed Advanced Model Support and there doesn't seem to be any difference in UT.

AMS doesn't do a lot on its own - it's mostly behind-the-scenes stuff. However, you can now install some cool models which you couldn't before. In version 102+ you also get a menu item (which doesn't do a whole lot) and some extra key bindings under Preferences/Controls (all except Challenge Taunt are actually basic UT features, but Epic forgot to include them in the basic list).

I bound a key to the new Challenge taunt, but it doesn't do anything.

It only works on models which have a Challenge animation sequence. This means models which use the built-in Epic male skeletal animations, or models where the animator has added a fifth taunt.

I bound a key to Third Person, but in third person view I don't get a crosshair.

In third person view my model is in the way when I try to aim.

I get put back in first person view when I die.

Epic wrote it like that. These are features, not bugs. Third person is just for cool screenshots, not for actual gameplay...

I installed AMS and a couple of models, but they won't work in multiplayer! Why not?

To let players use any mod online (this includes models, skins, voices and Advanced Model Support) the server admin must have added them to their server's ServerPackages list. Unfortunately, anyone joining a game will be forced to download any of the ServerPackages they don't have, even if nobody is currently using that mod! This is frustrating for the players, and takes up bandwidth from the server (leaving less for the actual gameplay), so admins are reluctant to do this except for certain very popular models (Bonus Pack 1 is installed on about 50% of servers, in my experience, and BP 4 on about 10%).

UsAaR33 is working on a mod to make model and skin support act a bit more like Quake-engine games (Q3, Half-Life) where any model or skin you don't have appears as some default model, so server admins will only need to install this mod and players will be able to use any skin or model (of course, the less popular your skin, the more likely the other players are to not have it and see you as a default model like Male Soldier anyway). Look out for a mod called "Valhalla Avatar" - at the time of writing (23 September 2001), it's not quite finished but is available as a private beta test.

Known issues:

All issues involving Player Setup also apply to Configure Individual Bots, as the two windows are basically the same from an Unrealscript point of view.

• Version 100 of this mod, which was only available for a few hours and wasn't widely publicised, is incompatible. Version 101 was released to fix sound bugs (missing player sounds), while later versions fixed more bugs. If you have network problems, please make sure other players do have version 101 or later installed (preferably 110).
• If you select an Advanced Model Support model, then select a non-AMS skeletal model (this includes Bonus Pack 4 and its fixed versions, as well as earlier versions of Wraithguard and Space Warrior), the animations may get screwed up. Close and reopen Player Setup to fix this. This is Epic's bug, not mine. All of these models will work fine in-game.
• The last few AMS bots (or other custom bots) you installed may not show up in the bot class list, due to a hard-coded limit for this list (32 classes). This is Epic's bug, not mine. To work around this, uninstall some models you don't use, or use a mod like XBots or EnhancedUT to set up your bots.
• If skinners do very strange things to the model's display settings using scripted skins, these strange settings may "infect" other models which are subsequently selected in Player Setup. This only applies to very strange effects, so you're unlikely to see it in practice, and it won't happen in-game. As before, closing and re-opening Player Setup will fix this.
• If you use the Advanced Model Support menu item to disable "Player Setup safe mode", this "infection" will occur with even more effects. Certain display properties do not take effect in Player Setup, to avoid the bug described above, unless "Player Setup safe mode" is disabled using the AMS menu item. These include Fatness, Style (translucency), and the Unlit and No Smoothing effects.
• The AMS mod menu item will move to the Options menu if you install EnhancedUT (at the time of writing, this is another unfinished UsAaR33 mod). This is a feature, not a bug.
• The button with the URL of my website seems to cause occasional GPFs on some UT installs. Use at your own risk.

Changes since version 102

• The "go to website" button works, at least under Windows with IE. I haven't tested with Mac UT since I don't have a Mac, and it shouldn't work under Linux anyway.
• AMS is not available as a direct download from this site. This is because I was transferring a stupid amount of data, two thirds of which was AMS. Please use mirrors; they are designed to cope with large numbers of downloads.
• The replacement INT file for 102 has been included, so the extra key binds do show up correctly in a normal v110 install. Do not use the 102 INT file - other stuff has also been added to the v110 INT.
• This will almost certainly be the final version of AMS for UT.

Changes since version 101

• Scripted skins get the chance to clean up after themselves, which should have happened in 1.01 but didn't thanks to a couple of missing lines of code (thanks to UsAaR33 for pointing that out).
• AMS now has a mod menu item with which you can set the behaviour of Player Setup or go to the AMS web page.
• AMS now alters Space Marine 40K, if you're using it, to fix a minor typo in the sound effects. One of the pain sounds was spelt wrong and didn't play. It does now.
• You get some extra key bindings in the Preferences screen. These are mostly basic UT features which Epic didn't include an automatic key binding for.
• Certain models have a new taunt called Challenge. This is not available on the Voice menu, only by binding a key to it. This only works for some models (models which use the built-in AMS Male animation set, such as Space Marine v2.01, Wraithguard II, and hopefully future models). This is an Epic feature, not an AMS one - I just made it more accessible.

Contact details

Credits and copyright

UnrealScript

Coded by Simon "Psychic_313" McVittie.

Original code copyright © Simon McVittie, 2001.

Elements copyright © Epic Games, Inc., 1999-2000.

Concept

Psychic_313 and James Green

Animations

Unreal Tournament for Playstation 2 animations by James Green and James Edwards, copyright © Epic Games, Inc., 2000.

Thanks

Big thanks to James Green for animations and expertise, UsAaR33 for cunning ideas and online testing, Josh of ravensite.net for attempting to test online (MS Internet Connection Sharing + UT servers == bad), Richard "tla" Smith for suggesting class-based skins, and everyone at EpicKnights for their enthusiasm.

Trademarks and permissions

You may distribute this mod if and only if said distribution is under the following conditions:

• All distribution must be on a not-for-profit basis (charging for this content is not allowed)
• The entire unmodified ZIP file must be distributed, including the "readme" file and the complete UMOD file. Note that this specifically prevents you from distributing a modified UMOD, a non-UMOD version, or any modified version of the U file. To check whether your copy is unmodified, see the AMS page on www.pseudorandom.co.uk.
• Large-scale distributors (mirror downloads, CDs) must inform the author, including (if applicable) the download location. By mirroring this file you agree that the author may link to your mirror.

Parts of Advanced Model Support may be incorporated into other mods according to the terms indicated in the source code and SDK.

THIS MOD IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THE AUTHORS ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGE, INCONVENIENCE OR OTHER PROBLEMS, WITHOUT LIMITATION, CAUSED BY THIS MOD, EVEN IF THEY HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH PROBLEMS.