March '98 UnrealI.u resources (everything besides default properties which I didn't manage to hack)

Misc. notes describing lost content:

• There used to be an alternate Vortex Rikers made by Inoxx. It was supposed to feature an autodestruction trigger which would cause the entire ship to be illuminated with red light. It has probably existed as early as October 1996. There's no footage of it.
  
  
• Leo's memory of a lost March or April 1998 beta:
  "I wanted to say here, this must be the March/April beta that I played back in 1998.
  Indications: More gore and gibs in general, especially vortex rikers, larger lesser brutes at nyleve, other effects/map differences about the same. I believe this can be the version which has the force field wall in vortex instead of the execution room. I believe in coop this force wall served purpose of that you could open it from other side to other players, as in the specific version i played vortex 2 and nyleve were somehow joined together into one big map. It's not far fetched because the surrounding of vortex2 changed quite a few times and in final version remember there is a music event at start of nyleve which sets the music to silence. Now why would this happen? Because originally it was required to change the music from the vortex theme to silence before switching to the outside dusk music?"
  
  
• Leo's memory of a lost March or April 1998 beta:
  "Vortex was always the most atmospheric, you can hear even some other sounds if you stay at area for longer time, such as the security team to sector..etc sounds, though too bad there is unused the forcefield activated and deactivated sound, I remember in the beta I played back in 98, there was acgtual forcefield, it was down in the prisoner rooms, there where is in final version the lift leading down to the electric chair room, but the wall wasn't closed like in final, instead there was this forcefield and behind it monitors and stuff, I think even living humans, I didn't discover there was this lift, so maybe after you electriocute that guy and do something down there, the forcefield goes down?
  In the avaiable beta there are also used the access denied and permitted sounds....but not the forcefield ones as the door is closed permanently in the area where it originally is.."
  
  
• Leo's memory of a lost March or April 1998 beta:
  "There was somewhere a weaponpowerup in chizra, must have been because we didn't get the one in dig but then when my mom's boyfriend played further i remember him suddenly having the dp doubled (it still fired the double shots). I have no idea which version had the powerup, but one version of chizra must have had. Remember it also had the prelude to chizra as a separate level, maybe it even used the chizra shareware track that became the watcher of the skies music."
  
  
• Leo's memory of a beta he played:
  "...Because in that beta the healpod mover wasn't a whole piston but more like a mover like in this [UT 221, probably referring to DM-Cobalt] version.
  
  And if you were quick enough you could reach a secret up, otherwise it also crushed players i believe...."
  
  
• Myscha's post about his maps
  
  "San (of UNA) recently asked Myscha in #unreal about what maps he created for Unreal. Here's his reply:
  
  Chizra-ancient nali temple to the water god, ISV-KRAN crashed earth survey ship, ALFA62-Mercenary battlecrusier, HAL Mercenary scout ship, Acerack-Nali Temple to the fire god, Bluff Eversmoking-Nali Castle-now under skaarj control, Cellars of dasa-nali castle now under skaarj control, Tonatiuh Nali Acolyte warrior proving grounds, 12 deathmatch maps two teamplay maps, and 2 secret maps------etc..etc..."
  
  Out of those:
  • ALFA62 and HAL are lost, but their detailed description was preserved in Unreal-Levels.doc.
  • Acerak[sic] and Tonatiuh are lost and are possibly the unknown Ancient-themed map seen in trailers and one screenshot. The eightball room in The Ceremonial Chambers is speculated to have been copied from Acerak.
  • It's unclear what "12 deathmatch maps two teamplay maps, and 2 secret maps------etc..etc" refers to. This screenshot could be a lost DM map. The secret maps may have used the "Secret Area" song.
  
  
• The "Skaarj in a cage" seen in the trailers is confirmed by Inoxx to be a part of Cryox.
  
  
• There was a lost Skaarj-themed map by Inoxx called Ketzen, which wasn't very good according to him.
  
  
• At some point around March-April 1998, Trench, ISV-Kran, and possibly another unknown map were probably combined. As evidence, there are many leftover TriggerMarker and ButtonMarker actors that mostly line up with triggers in ISV-Kran, which were absent from the February beta. Considering the way they overlap, the entrance to ISV-Kran must've looked different.
  
  
• According to GW Press strategy guide, in Serpent Canyon there used to be a ghost Nali that would lead the player from the dock to the tombstone.
  
  
• According to GW Press strategy guide, in Harobed there used to be a mover that could be destroyed to drop a SuperHealth inside the well:
  "Look up and fire your Eightball Gun at the crossbeams overhead to drop the Super Health Pack down to you."
  
  
• According to GW Press strategy guide, there used to be Skaarj Gunners with Eightballs in ISV-Kran and the ones spawned before the turbo lift were also Gunners instead of Troopers. There was also a Minigun in SkyCaves and two Krall guarded the door to SkyTown instead of Skaarj Officers, there was also a Skaarj Berserker right after.
  
  
• According to earlier design docs, the Nali Prophet originally wasn't called Haute, but Kantis, and his depiction can be seen on the sKantis textures in SkyCity.utx.
  
  

Cut engine features:

Feature	Functional when	Leaked builds?
MS-DOS support	1994-Aug 1995	✘ unless there's some leftover code in ED2.EXE
Software antialiasing	1995	✔ with REND SMOOTH
Specular light on level geometry	1995	✔
Additive geometry (i.e. starting from empty space)	1995-1996	✔
Sphere-mapped skybox	1995	✔
Doom-style darkening with distance	1995	✔
UE3-like water waves	1995	✔
Sky reflection effect	1995	✔
Quake-style water waves	1996-1997	✔
Cloud-cast shadows	1996	✔
Mesh texture dither	1995-1996	✔
Sprite texture dither	1996	✔
More advanced and temporal level texture dither	1997	✔
Different (palette-based?) transparency modes	1995-1996	✔
Bumpmaps	1997	✔
Alien texture, tech texture	1997	✔
More advanced sound system with randomized pitch, etc.	1996	✔
Visual Basic-style UnrealScript	early 1997	✘ (only a primitive version with variable declarations, no game logic)
Heightmap-based terrain	early 1997	✘ (only some commented out code remnants, and some suspected heightmap files)
Hub system	not sure if ever	there's a remnant of it in the final version
Possessing creatures	1995-1996	✔
COM editor API	1995-1998	✔ (in retail UnrealEd1 moved to a DLL, in UEd2 removed)