Radar2004

Radar2004 is a UT2004 radar mutator that tries to combine what I feel are the best features of some other UT radars, notably TacticalDisplay (which is derived from Radar2003), TeamRadar, and the radar from the Deathball mod.

Credits:

Credit must be given to Pfhoenix (radar2003), Cheshire Cat (Tactical Display), and Snorelax and AirMoran (TeamRadar), all of whom contributed significantly to this effort. The Deathball folk also deserve mention for inspiration, though no code or graphics of theirs were used.

Specifically, the original code base for this radar was TacticalDisplay, whose code base in turn was Radar2003. The vehicles and the code for the Onslaught map display were taken from TeamRadar.

Installation:

• After downloading and unzipping one of the download files (available here), put Radar2004.ucl, Radar2004.u, Radar2004.int, and Radar2004.ini into the UT2004/system directory.
• To use on a server, add the line “ServerPackages=Radar2004” to “[Engine.GameEngine]” secion of UT2004.ini. Otherwise clients will not get or use the radar.
• If you launch a dedicated server from the UT GUI interface and have selected the Radar2004 mutator, it will downloaded automatically to clients. If you launch the dedicated server from the command line, include the phrase "?Mutator=Radar2004.RadarDB" after the level name.
  

Features:

General

• Works with all UT2004 modes.
• Is completely zoomable. (Default zoom keys: numpad + and -).
• Zoom starts automatically adjusted to the size of the current level.
• Graphics attempt to be subdued and unobtrusive.

Display

• Displays vehicles and players properly, both on the Radar2004 HUD inset and, in Onslaught, on the Onslaught radar (thanks, TeamRadar).
• All game objectives (power nodes and cores, current assault objectives, flag bases, bomb goals, and domination points) are displayed and color coded in an appropriate manner.
• Indicates position of the ball (Bombing Run) and flags (Capture the Flag).
• Turrets are displayed when manned.
• Most pickups are displayed and color coded. Special pickups are highlighted.
• Player icons dim as they lose health.
• Icons indicate whether a player or base is above or below you.

Options

• Allows either the player or radar to rotate when turning (fixed player direction or fixed world direction). This is settable on startup and also can be bound to a toggle key.
• Radar display itself may also be bound to a toggle key.
• Pickup display is settable on startup and can be bound to a toggle key.
• Has a “TeamOnly” option, allowing display of enemies (or not). This mode is not cheat-proof, however; see the "Problems/Bugs" section.
• There is an option to display the automatic turrets in Assault mode games, but this should only be used in the single player game (see the "Problems/Bugs" section).

Key

Assault Objective, Power Core or Node, Flag Base, Bomb Goal, and Domination Point
Same, but above the player
Same, but below the player
Current player (not in vehicle or turret)
Other player (not in vehicle or turret)
Other player above
Other player below
Leviathan
Goliath or Ion Tank
Raptor or Space Fighter
Manta
Turret
Ball (Bombing Run) and Flag (Capture the Flag). Also used around current objectives (assault) and attacked nodes (Onslaught).
Projectile (Yellow) and regular Pickup (Weapon Pickup: Green, Health Pickup: Blue)
Special Pickup: Bigger and brighter than normal pickups (Shield: yellow, Super Shield: bright yellow, Keg of Health: light blue, Double Damage: purple, Superweapon: bright green)

Notes:

• In the game, these are color coded red or blue by team color, and yellow or white if neutral.
• A circle surrounds a base or player that has the flag (Capture the Flag) or ball (Bombing Run). The color of the flag circle is red or blue; the ball is gold.
• Player brightness dims as they lose health.
• This gold circle is also used around current assualt objectives and power nodes that are under attack in Assault and Onslaught, respectively.
• Vehicles and turrets are only shown when occupied.
• In the single player game, and on the “listen server” player, the pickups dim considerably when they are not there. Unfortunately, I could not get this to work on the client, which simply shows all pickup points and does not indicate if they are there or not.
• Key bindings will be available in the usual place ("Settings/Input/Configure Controls") when the radar is installed on a client. If the radar is downloaded from a server, they will not be available, though the numpad + and - keys will be bound to the radar zoom in and zoom out unless the client has bound them to some other commands.

Screenshot Examples

See Screenshots for some descriptive examples.

Problems/Bugs

• A bug where the radar will crash UTk4 when the power core has been destroyed during onslaught games has been reported. I'm having trouble recreating this problem, though I've seen it once and at least one user has seen it a number of times. If anyone using the radar has seen this (or played onslaught a lot and not seen it), please email me at jkorein@comcast.net with any info that might help me identify the circumstances that make it happen. I'd really like to squash this one, but it's always much more difficult to do this with a bug I can't recreate.
• While the radar is on, the Team Speech menu and any output console text will not display properly. Input will be accepted, but it's still a big problem. Until this bug is fixed, the best workaround is to make sure that a key is bound to the "toggle radar" command (set in "Settings/Input/Configure Controls") and toggle the radar off when using the console or team speech commands. Alas, though, since the keybindings are not available when the radar is downloaded automatically from a server, as opposed to being installed normally, this workaround doesn't work in that situation.

• The Teamonly option is not cheat proof. Any user who has installed the mutator on the client can turn Teamonly off and see enemys. For Onslaught, the TeamRadar mutator is recommended as a cheat-proof team only radar. TeamRadar may be downloaded at http://darksci.net/~Snorelax/TR3/.

• In multiplayer, pickups only show where they are located, not whether or not they are present. In single player (or on the "listen server" client) they dim drastically if they are not there.
• The Assault mode auto turrets only display in single playerr (or on the "listen server" client) . Results on clients are unpredictable, with either incorrectly colored (black) turrets showing up or no turrets at all. It is recommended that this option be turned of in the mutator configuration menu for multiplayer games.  (Manned turret display works in all modes.)

Support

Please email jkorein@comcast.net with any and all feedback: questions, bug reports, wild praise, etc.