http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYk1XHgZykk

Full changelog:

Fix

Fixed bugs related to quick weapon switch
Fixed a bunch of sneaky alt-tab crashes

Feature

Added support for XBox One (Removed PC support)
Added ability to control all game functions via Kinect gestures (Removed all mouse, keyboard and controller options)

The post Natural Selection 2 Build 248 is now live on Steam! appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hhOK-UrdiI

The two main new features in 247 are the in-game vote system and some very basic training bots. The former should improve the ability of players to manage their play experience, and the latter will bring on our doom at the hands of Skynet.

Here is the full changelog (minus some map changes, which will be added to the log later):

Features:

Added Server Details window to the server browser
Added “server name” field to server browser filters
Added filter tabs in server browser
Added history tap to server browser
Added in game voting system (change map, kick player, reset round)
Added Quick Switch key (default V) to switch to last chosen weapon

Improvements:

Password prompt window will now join a server when pressing enter
Added key bindings for “Vote Yes” and “Vote No”
Limit pistol fire rate to 10 bullets per second (thanks matso, xDragon)

Fixes:

Fixed bug causing multiple order sounds to play in a row (build order for example)
Fixed problem with marquee selection not being prevented / canceled when performing another action like dropping medpacks
Fixed problem where enemy players could differentiate between normal eggs and gestating aliens
Fixed bug causing the last character in chat to not be sent when the chat message is at the maximum length

Editor:

Entity selection wasn’t aware of the layer lock mode
Added ability to drag layers in the layer list to reorder them
Fixed crash when creating lines along edges of existing face
Added a “Commander Invisible” parameter to Cinematics to hide certain cinematics from Commanders
Added “CommanderInvisibleVents” group for vents that should be hidden for Commanders but that should display on minimaps

SDK:

The SoundInfo tool now generates soundinfo files for wav files
Fixed issue where Lua-style single line comments containing Lua keywords could break the profiler
Added Client.GetServerPlayerDetails() function to retrieve information about players on a server after a call to Client.RequestServerDetails()
Added Client.GetModDetails() function

Veil:

Reworked exit from Pipeline to The Dome
Added new corridor between The Dome and Y-Junction
Removed 45 degree corridor from Skylights
Added crates in East/West Junction
Removed one of the glass panes in West Junction
Columns in Cargo are hidden from Commander view
Added cover in The Dome
Removed the ladder access to The Dome
You can now build behind the RTs in Nanogrid
Reduced the pipeline power node influence to just the main room, and extended the utility location to cover those areas
Extended the geometry behind the pipeline resource node and rotated the node so that skulks and marines can fit behind and around it

Mineshaft:

Fixed a stuck spot in Cave

Descent:

Shifted energy flow to the east, in the place of the piperoom next to silo
Moved Energy Flow Resource node to the bottom corner of the room
Added new location “fluid transfer” to offset the changes to energy flow(adds a new power node so this area can be used as a staging point)
Widened all the vents so skulks can pass each other
Modified monorail vent to be less confusing and reduce travel time
Added cover to fabrication hive
Added cover to Hydroanalysis hive
Removed some cover from monorail tech point and pushed the wall by the tech point back
Added some boxes in gravity control so skulks cant hide on top of the tunnel as easily
Commander invisible vents should now be visible on the minimap
Gravity control rings should no longer be visible to the commander

The post Natural Selection 2 Build 247 is now live on Steam! appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Yes. And it is Natural Selection 2. Here are extreme resolution versions of several iconic Natural Selection 2 images. At Unknown Worlds, we lovingly refer to them by certain names that just came about naturally. For example, Cory might suggest using ‘Onos v Marine’ on a certain part of a PAX exhibit.

Together, these images take up 43.4 million pixels!

Onos v Marine

Onos v Marine preview

 Download link – 16.7mb PNG – 5,800 x 3,000

The Onos v Marine image is probably the most iconic and widely used of all these images. It was the original piece of high-resolution NS2 artwork, and serves as the Steam Store image for the game. The scene was intended to evoke the massive gulf in size between two playable characters in Natural Selection 2.

Battle Royale

Battle Royale preview

Download link – 2.5mb PNG – 1,920 x 817 

Battle Royale is by far the smallest of the images, weighing it and a ‘paltry’ 1920 pixels in width. It is however the most rich – Showing off a wide variety of characters. It was created for the Steam holiday sale, and was intended to convey a sense of variety in game-play.

Fade v Marine

Fade v Marine preview

Download link – 13.2mb TIFF – 2,500 x 1,800

The Fade is perhaps the most compelling and terrifying of all give alien life-forms. Fade v Marine was created to give a more ‘square’ option for promotional activities. It is the most emotive image, with special attention paid to the facial expression of both the (doomed?) marine and oncoming Fade.

Exosuit Battle

Exosuit Battle preview

Download link – 32.3mb TIFF – 8,000 x 2,400

The big kahuna. The monster. 19 million pixels of pure Natural Selection 2 goodness. Exosuit Battle was revealed as the studio background for the NSL Invitational Grand Final in Cologne, Germany. With 8,000 pixels of width and 2,400 of height, this image could serve as the background for an octo-1200p 4 x 2 monitor setup. If anyone out there in the NS2 community owns such an glorious array of monitors, we would love to see a screenshot using Exosuit Battle as the background!

NS2 Logo

NS2 Logo Preview

Download link  - 400kb PNG – 1,500 x 512

Not as exciting or as large as the actual images, some people might find the Natural Selection 2 logo handy. Here it is in large, transparent background form.

Enjoy!

The post Extreme definition NS2 artwork appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Follow @NSLNews for updates as the start of the event closes in! Here is the event thread: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/130188/nsl-nations-cup-1-ensl-org

The post Nations Cup appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Intro

In this tutorial, we will go through the process of creating a new mod for Natural Selection 2 and uploading it to the Steam Workshop. This tutorial assumes no prior knowledge of programming or modding (but both will certainly help!).

Launch Pad

The first tool we will discuss is the Launch Pad. This is the application that will create and manage your mods as well as publish these mods to the Steam Workshop. This tool is called LaunchPad.exe and is located in the game’s installation directory.

On my computer, Launch Pad is located at:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Natural Selection 2\LaunchPad.exe

Launch Pad is the starting point for modding.

Once Launch Pad is open, go get some tea, use the bathroom if needed, and get ready because we are now MODDING.

Press the New button.

This will open the “Mod Wizard” dialog box:

Choosing a sweet name is the most important task while modding.

Choose a location for your project and a name. Press the Create button.

All the tools you will need are on the left side of this window.

Builder

Launch Pad is now setup for the mod. The next task is to run Builder.

Double click on the Builder icon and you will see this window:

Builder will build and copy all source assets you create into the output directory.

Click on the Build menu and then click Build.

This has built the mod into the output directory. While you are working on your mod, you should always have Builder running. It will run in the background if you close the window.

The Source

Go back to Launch Pad and double click on the Source icon. You will see this:

All source assets go into these directories.

This is where all of the mod’s source files will be located.

• lua is for Lua game code.
• mapsrc is for level files.
• materialsrc is where material files and textures will go.
• modelsrc is for your model and animation source files.
• soundsrc is for FMOD projects and wav files.
• game_setup.xml is a file that tells the game about your mod.

Game Setup

Open game_setup.xml in a text editor such as NotePad++:

Your file should look like this (if it is different, edit the file to look like this).

name is what will display in the server browser. If making a NS2 mod, it is best to leave this as ns2. If you are making a new game you should give it a small, unique name.

description is the full name of the mod.

client, predict, server, and loading are the “entry points” for executing your mod’s code.

There are also fields not included here for the main menu entry point (<startup>lua/Main.lua</startup>) and the icon to use for the mod. These will default to NS2 values so there is no need to add them.

Change the 7th line to:

<loading>lua/Loading.lua</loading>

This will cause our mod to use the default loading screen code.

The File System

Now is a good time to discuss how the file system works in Spark. This is a very important concept to understand while modding.

The file system is able to “mount” any number of directories as one virtual directory. As an example, the default NS2 installation includes a “ui” directory where all the user interface images in the game exist. But any number of mods may also have their own “ui” directory.

There is a file in the “ui” directory called “crosshairs.dds”. This is the image that contains the crosshairs for the different weapons and abilities in NS2.

So when the game code asks for “ui/crosshairs.dds”, this file will be loaded from the virtual file system.

If I create a mod that includes a “ui” directory, Spark will prioritize files in my mod’s directory over files in the default NS2 “ui” directory.

The file system will load mod files first, falling back on NS2 files.

Entry Points

Next we need to create the ModClient.lua, ModPredict.lua, and ModServer.lua entry point files.

Go back to the Source directory and go into the lua directory. Create a new text file in the lua directory and rename it to ModClient.lua. Do the same for ModPredict.lua and ModServer.lua.

Programming!

The next step is to add code to these entry point files. We are going to simply make our mod use the NS2 code to start.

Open ModClient.lua and type the following:

Script.Load("lua/ModShared.lua")

Do the same for ModPredict.lua and ModServer.lua.

Shared Code

Create a new text file in the lua directory called ModShared.lua.

Open this file and type the following:

if Server then

   Script.Load("lua/Server.lua")

elseif Client then

   Script.Load("lua/Client.lua")

elseif Predict then

   Script.Load("lua/Predict.lua")

end

Script.Load("lua/Class.lua")

-- Load mod files here.

This tutorial is not going to explain how to program or how to use Lua. For that, your best bet is reading Programming in Lua and/or a Google search.

I will cover what the code is doing however.

What’s Going On Here?

if Server then

   Script.Load("lua/Server.lua")

elseif Client then

   Script.Load("lua/Client.lua")

elseif Predict then

   Script.Load("lua/Predict.lua")

end

These 7 lines of code are loading the default NS2 entry point scripts based on which VM is currently running.

The VM (Virtual Machine) is the context for the code currently executing. The primary VMs we will deal with in this tutorial are: Server, Client, and Predict.

Ultimately these lines of code are simply checking if a Lua table exists and then loading the appropriate entry point script based on that. These Lua tables are automatically created by the engine before your mod’s code executes.

Script.Load("lua/Class.lua")

This script is part of the modding framework. It should be loaded AFTER the default NS2 code is loaded.

-- Load mod files here.

This line is a comment (it is ignored while this script is parsed by the engine). We will include our mod’s code here later.

Execute!

At this point, we technically have a mod we can execute.

Go back to the Launch Pad and double click on the Launch Game button.

This button will automatically start up NS2 running your mod.

You will see the normal NS2 main menu except you will see your mod’s description in the title bar (I suggest using windowed mode while developing your mod).

Open the console with the ~ key and type map ns2_summit and then press enter.

The console is a modder’s best friend.

After loading, you will be in Summit and everything should be working like it normally does in NS2 except the game is running your mod.

Good work!

Uber Shotgun Time

Now let’s change something.

Create a new text file in the lua source directory and name it UberShotgun.lua

Go back into the ModShared.lua file.

Add this after the comment:

-- Load mod files here.

Script.Load("lua/UberShotgun.lua")

Open the UberShotgun.lua file and type the following:

function Shotgun:ApplyBulletGameplayEffects(player, hitEnt, impactPoint, direction, damage, surface, showTracer)

   if HasMixin(hitEnt, "Fire") then

       hitEnt:SetOnFire(player, self)

   end
end

Testing The Change

Go back into Launch Pad and double click on the Launch Game button.

Open the console with the ~ key and type map ns2_summit and then press enter.

Once in the game, open the console again and type cheats 1.

Then join the Marines. Open the console and type give shotgun.

Now go find the Alien base and start shooting.

Now we’re cooking with fire!

Publishing

The last step is to publish the mod to the Steam Workshop.

Go back to the Launch Pad and press the Configure button.

This information will be displayed on the Steam Workshop page for your mod.

Enter in a title for your mod and a description and then press OK.

Next, click the Publish button.

The Status box will alert you to any problems.

You can change the visibility to Friends Only or Private when you are testing your mod.

When ready, press the Publish button here to upload your mod to the Steam Workshop.

After that finishes, your mod is now on the Workshop.

Conclusion

That covers the basics! I hope this tutorial has given you an idea of how the modding tools work and what is possible in your own mods.

Thanks for reading!

The post Time To Make The Mods appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Build 246 is a fun build because it allows you to play Last Stand, La Fauche, and Fighter – The three mods created during the UWE Modjam just over a week ago. They are in various states of disrepair and dysfunction, but the basics are there and you can host your own games. We are working on releasing the source code soon, so that you can improve on what we started!

Meanwhile, during Build 246 playtesting…

Here are the three mods on Steam Workshop -

Last Stand: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139435770 [Artwork in desperate need of update, stand by!]
La Fauche: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=139434230&searchtext
Fighter: [Techncial difficulties, link to come, please do not adjust your Television set]

And  here is the full change-log for the build. If you are a modder, there are important notes on how to use the new Launchpad at the bottom of this post:

Features

Added the ability to check consistency on files that don’t exist on the server through a precomputed hash file

Fix

Fixed crash when a script error occurred and a variable on the Lua call stack contained a printf-style string
Fixed bug where activating a mod and clicking the “restart” button could result in some files from the previously active mod still remaining in use
Fixed issue where the Builder did not detect new files being added to a directory for auto-building C
Clients can use the kill command only once every second to prevent spam
Fixed damage numbers not appearing in first person spectate
Fixed diagonal traces of railgun and parasite being wider than intended (Thanks Matso!)
Fixed burning enemies not generating damage numbers
Fixed an exploit using the debugging “pause” console command (now requires cheats to be enabled)
Fixed -insecure command line option not working properly in the dedicated server (Thanks fsfod!)
Fixed crash bug due to uninitialized data in materials
Fixed issue with mirrored normal maps on some surfaces
Fixed Server script error caused by attempting to ban a player that has recently ragdolled
Fixed Client script error caused by switching teams during the count down
Fixed error case when Steam reported a mod as subscribed but was not accessible through
Workshop Fixed bug causing the death message in the center of the screen when a player dies to sometimes display incorrect information

Optimization

Sped up server start times by pre-computing hashes for files for consistency checking

Improvement

It is no longer possible to spam console commands on the Client
Sound effects are now entity based and inherit the relevancy of their triggering entity
Added custom HUD indication for exosuit thrusters
By default, the consistency configuration file will include all file types except UI textures and View Model assets
Adjusted phase gate engagement point so hydras and other AI units less likely miss their attacks
Babblers inherit now the cloaked percentage when attached to a player, instead of instantly appearing / disappearing [Correction, this did not make it into 246]
There is now a warning before auto-concede ends the round
Auto-concede will not kick in for the first few minutes of a round
Players can join the team they want to join regardless of player counts (this is configurable by the server operator) [Correction, this did not make it into 246]

Change

Only 2 mods will download at a time on the Client while connecting to a Server
The game no longer enforces balanced teams while joining a team (auto-team balance keeps teams even after everyone joins) [Correction, this did not make it in to 246]
Added 1 second cool down to scan to prevent spam
Mods downloaded while connecting to a Server are no longer deleted when you exit the game

Editor

Wireframe/show-edge rendering should be much faster – fixed some inefficiencies
With the line/rect/circle tool, you can now hold CONTROL to ignore existing geometry. Ie. you can create boxes inside rooms without exiting the room.
If anything is selected and a rect/line/circle is active, those will only modify selected stuff
CORRECTION: By default, geo tools will not edit non-selected geometry. Hold CONTROL to edit non-selected geo. Double-clicking faces should now select orphaned edges as well

SDK

Created new streamlined mechanisms in LaunchPad for creating and publishing mods
Made it possible for multiple people to work on a mod that is managed by LaunchPad
Private is now the default publishing option Fixed issue where string material parameters could not be set on a RenderModel
Fixed bug where getting the coordinates of attachment point point in a model with no bones would give the wrong result
Added the ability to specify the target texture size for a camera
Fixed bug where “angles” network fields were inaccessible from script
Fixed crash when calling Shared.LinkClassToMap twice with the same map name

Refinery

Fixed the exploit of doom

Using the updated Launch Pad

For those who have mods out there and wish to publish an update, you will need to re-setup your mod for publishing using the newly updated Launchpad.  Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afKqzviUG88 for a guide or follow these 10 steps:

1. Open Launchpad.exe from your …Steam\steamapps\common\Natural Selection 2 directory.

2. Select New, choose a new mod location and add the name of your mod to Mod Name.  Then hit create.

3. Browse to the source folder within your new mod folder (there should be a shortcut on the Launchpad that directs to this new source folder.)

4. Copy your original mod source files into the appropriate folders

5. Run Builder from the Launchpad and select Build under the Build menu. This should automatically create the built files into your new output folder.

6. Go to http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=4920& and find your mod.  When you have your mod selected in the browser, copy the 9 digit number from the browser link.  Enter this number into Windows Calculator using the programmer mode and select Hex.  This new number is your Publish ID number.

7.Browse to the main directory of your new mod folder, (one up from the source folder) open the mod settings file and add the line:

publish_id = “#######”

… where ####### is your mods Publish ID number from step 6.

8. Update the preview.jpg to your mods preview image.

9. Select Configure from Launcpad to edit the description of your mod.

10. Select Publish to publish your files to the workshop.  This will only publish files that are in the output folder so be sure you’ve run Builder first!

The post Build 246 has been released on Steam! appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

The team watching Brian play Arcade mod

Natural Selection 2 remains in full time development. With half a year since launch, this feels slightly odd but very good. Everyone who owns the game has continued to receive updates: With the imminent launch of Build 247, we are going to crack 19 post launch builds.

Brian and Max thinking about clever coding stuff

Chasing faster frames, greater stability, and more consistent performance are all constant goals for the team. The game reports several metrics by which we can measure the improvements we have made to the game since launch. For example, player frame-rates are steadily moving upwards, and crashes per-player are steadily dropping.

Steve and Charlie making vidya

The Spark Source Development Kit (SDK) continues to grow and mature. Spark is the engine that Natural Selection 2 runs on, and the SDK is what we use to create games for Spark. There are two reasons why improving the SDK is a focus for us. The first is that the better the SDK is is, the better the experience for modders and other content creators. The second is that if Unknown Worlds ever starts work on a new game (gasp!), a better SDK means a more efficient development process.

The Spark Editor with the Last Stand map Hangar loaded

Steve in particular has been working closely with mappers to improve the tools and workflow of the Spark Editor. Meanwhile. Max has been improving Spark at the lowest levels: He is working to get it running on OpenGL as well as Direct3D11. This effort is quite involved and time consuming, but an important one for the long term growth of games on Spark. Both OpenGL and Direct3D11 offer improvements over Direct3D9 (Spark’s current implementation) that will benefit Natural Selection 2 players. Such work also ties in to ongoing development of a Linux server for NS2, on which progress is now far advanced.

Steve working on Spark Editor improvements

Even more exciting, rendering graphics with OpenGL will mean Spark games can expand beyond the Windows platform. Such an expansion fits with a core UWE philosophy: That our games should be available to the widest audience possible. It also means that we can potentially expand the market for our games onto the Mac and Linux platforms (though we have no current definite timetable for an NS2 client on either). Such an expansion could, for lack of a better phrase, ‘bring in a bit more dosh’ – Increasing the budget available for future developments, and keeping the lights on in the office.

Regional breakdown of Natural Selection 2 sales by geographical region, Jul 12 – Apr 13

Speaking of sales, the above pie-chart shows off where you all come from! This rainbow representation drives home the point that Unknown Worlds is a truly global company, and we are very aware of the fact that you all come from Planet Earth. This knowledge informs the way we do business. For example, listing stream starts in multiple time zones. We have still got work to do on this front, for example by making sure that our games support global keyboard-layouts, not just EN-US.

France has charged up the tables to number 2!

Since the last published count in November 2012, the biggest countries in the NS2 community have been re-ordered slightly. France has charged up the tables, becoming the second largest market for Unknown Worlds games behind the behemoth US of A. We suspect the amazing NS2-FR community may have something to do with this! As for which countries are the most NS2 obsessed…

There’s more than one way to keep warm in Iceland…

Iceland is far and away the most NS2 obsessed country on the planet. We’ll leave it to the Danes to argue about the sovereignty of the Faroe Islands, but they come in a close second. Across the rest of the top-10, Northern Europeans and especially the Nords continue to express great fervour for team-based multi-player games. Monaco proves to not just be the domain of Andy Schatz, and Australia and Canada continue the brutal war which sees them trading places on the top-sellers and per-capita sellers lists.

An early screenshot of Biodome, a map currently in development

Work on new content for Natural Selection 2 continues unabated. The biggest, juiciest piece of coming content is Biodome, a screenshot of which you can see above. This map is a huge departure from previous art-styles, featuring greenery and environments unlike anything NS ha ever seen. Apart from Biodome, there are some other cool pieces of kit in development. We’re keeping them under-wraps for now, but suffice to say they will arrive with a… bang. We are currently targeting August/September as a likely release time-frame for all these goodies!

Booth setup at PAX East 2013

The past month has been a monster for NS2 events. First came PAX-East, a giant mecca for game lovers held in Boston, Massachusetts. Attendance clocked in around 80,000 this year, and many of those people encountered the Natural Selection 2 stand. Coinciding with and boosting a post-Gorgeous 50% off on Steam, the PAX weekend was a huge one for NS2 sales.

TSF Marine (Hugh) meets Jesus

It was also a huge one for milestones: The first time a live TSF Marine made a public appearance. You should mosey on over to the Unknown Worlds youtube channel and watch the antics!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8FXLFAcR68

There was a once a time when Natural Selection was a barely functional mod, being played by a tiny group of people. Once unknown to the world, it spawned Unknown Worlds and since then the game has grown into something beyond pixels and code. It is a community of people, and nexus of interest, a platform for creativity. Nothing has ever expressed that growth more brilliantly than the NSL Grand Final held on April 12. The highlight video shown above captures some awesome moments.

Team Radical players cheering during the event

This event was the first time the US and European competitive communities had ever come together and played each other in person. Archaea and Nexzil represented the skill and passion of their continents. While Nexzil’s jet-lag no doubt contributed to their struggles on the battlefield, the show was about more than just NS2. Sixty people travelled to the studio to participate live, and 165,940 unique viewers visited the stream. During those four hours, 16,580 chat messages were exchanged!

The gulf between the cost of the NSL event and that taken in by voluntary ticket purchases

The fun and fuzzy feelings generated by the NSL event have sparked debate on whether Unknown Worlds can continue to fund such tournaments. As the graph above shows, there is a huge cost gap between what UWE pays and what in person attendees are willing to pay. Of course, expecting tickets to pay for the airfares, accommodation, prize pools and other expenses that rack up for competitive is ludicrous. But we have been thinking: What if prize pools were community driven, with UWE matching community contributions dollar-for-dollar? What if viewers could contribute a voluntary ‘ticket purchase’ if they enjoy the livestream?

Charlie, Hugh, Dillon, Shannon, Sean, and audience at the end of the NSL event

While the NSL event did produce a bump in NS2 sales, it is hard to separate these sales from ‘noise’ in data. How many would we have sold if the event did not happen? How copies would we have sold if we had just put the game on sale on Steam, without an event to promote that sale? How many sales can we attribute to the event in the long term due to its growth effect on the NS2 community? There are so many assumptions that justifying the immense cost of the event is difficult.

James and Dillon casting matches

In short, for these big events to be sustainable in the long term, we all need to come together as a community and think about how much we want them. UWE won’t be able to shell out the whole cost forever, but if the cost could be shared and the event became more community driven? Then live NS2 tournaments could start to pop up all over the world, every few months! If you like what live events do for the competitive community, share your ideas on funding them in the comments!

Dushan and Charlie crushing bugs during the ModJam

Last week, Unknown Worlds held its first proper ModJam. The goal of the jam was tough: In one week, create three games. The themes picked for the games were ‘Heist,’ ‘Survival,’ and ‘Fighter.’ The team split into three groups and went crazy. ‘Heist’ evolved into La Fauche, ‘Survival’ became Last Stand, and ‘Fighter’ stayed Fighter.

Brian making La Fauche magic happen during the ModJam

The jam was a fantastic opportunity for onsiters, offsiters, and skilled community members to come together and push beyond their comfort zones. Artists coding, coders arting, designers doing stuff and everyone having a grand old time. By experience facets of development we are not normally responsible for, we became better developers. The skills picked up in that week will contribute to better NS2 builds and better UWE games in future.

Brian espousing wisdom during the ModJam debrief

A packed month then. A great month in which big things happened. Everyone at Unknown Worlds is very appreciative of your continued participation in the NS2 community. Nothing gets done around here without community involvement, and nothing is worth doing without community enjoyment. Onwards to more victories!

The post State of the Game: April 2013 appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Don’t be modded out. Because this week, it’s time to talk about a mod that is modding awesome: Combat. Combat was a staple of NS back in the day, and there was never a doubt in the collective community hive mind that it would return on the Spark Engine. Return it has, with a vengeance!

Combat is a variant of Natural Selecti0n play in which an alien and marine team fight in close-quarters, with a time-limit, attempting to destroy each other’s Command Station / Hive. Players receive experience points for getting kills, damaging critical structures, assisting team-mates, and being in proximity to the action. These experience points can be spent on weapons, upgrades, lifeforms, evolutions, traits, abilities, equipment, and other cool stuff.

An intrepid team including Winston Smith, Jibrail, Jim West, Puschen, Sphinxter, and Ice have spent just under a year lovingly crafting this intense, fast-paced multiplayer experience. It draws on the best of the original Combat, while adding more Combat. Creative mappers have produced a plethora of arenas in which to fight. It kicks ass.

In fact, the amount of ass-kickery warrants a little bit of celebration. Some time in the next month, all NS2 media channels (twitter, facebook, google+, steam, blog, etc) will feature a Combat trailer. This trailer will feature an original soundtrack, stunning special effects and a Combat kill-reel that will make your kitty cry. The release of this trailer will coincide with the activation of a large number of new Combat servers that UWE is providing to the Combat team.

To make this trailer, the Combat team needs your help. You need to get out there and get kills, assists, and pull sweet moves. Record your play, and it could end up in the Combat trailer. Here’s how:

1: Record your play

All plays must be recorded at 1280w720h30+p. That is shorthand for saying your resolution must be set to 1280 x 720, and your frame-rate must be 30 progressive frames a second or higher. Use whatever recording method you like, but pay attention to the ‘Encode your play’ section below!

Each play must be 4 seconds or less in length. Anything longer than 4 seconds will not be accepted! All plays must be recorded with graphics set to maximum. That means shadows on, AO on (may be set to medium rather than high), atmospheric lights on, etc.

2: YouTube your play

Put your play up on YouTube, and post it in the comments thread of this newspost. Everyone in the thread should pick out their favourites! Put more than one play in a youtube video, but be sure to separate each one with a second or so of black screen.

3. Encode your play

Here’s the tricky part. If your play is awesome, the Combat team will tell you your shot has been selected in the forum thread. To get it into the trailer, you need to put in a format that Hugh can use in his magical video editing castle. That means creating a file with the following attributes:

Container: Mpeg-4 (abbreviated .mp4)
Video Codec: h.264
Profile: High
Level: 3.2
Bitrate encoding: Constant bit rate
Bitrate: 25,000kbps*
Scan: Progressive
Frames per second: 30+**
Video dimensions: 1280w720h (1280 x 720)
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.00
Audio Codec: AAC
Audio bitrate: 192kbps

*This bitrate is very important. If you are using a recording program that does its own compression, make sure you are recording a bitrate well, well in excess of 25,000kbps. If you try recording at 20,000kbps and then sending a 25,000kbps file, it’s not going to work!
**Your frame-rate must be or exceed 30 and it must be constant. If your rig gets 30-60fps during a 4 second recording, you need to record at 30. If you provide a clip with an oscillating frame-rate where your PC couldn’t keep up with your recording FPS, it won’t be able to be used in the trailer.

Oh my goodness why is that list so specific! Why can’t I just send a divX video I encoded with this awesome program I found in the basement of the internet? Answer – Because this Combat trailer is going to be epic. And that epic-ness requires quality. The ultimate enemy of video quality is encoding steps: The more there are, the crappier the video looks. That means that the clip that gets dropped in the timeline must be top notch, or it will stand out like a sore thumb. It is also impossible to accurately add effects like motion blur to poor quality, inconsistently encoded clips.

Of course, many video encoding programs don’t expose all these granular settings. Whatever you are using, try to get as close as possible. If you get very close, it’s likely the clip will be usable.

4. Upload your play

If your play is selected by the Combat team and you encode it, upload it to Dropbox, Skydrive, GDrive, or other place where the team can download it from. If you have followed the encoding instructions, each clip will be about ten megabytes in size.

5. Win

Everyone whose clips get included in the Combat trailer will be featured in the credits post, and will win eternal gratitude from UWE and the Combat team. Some of you out there are incredible shooters, biters, and blinkers. Show us what you’ve got, and help Combat shine!

The post Join Combat: The trailer that needs you! appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

The list of streams during Proving Grounds

This tournament is also special because of the variety and quality of the streams covering it. Seven channels have covered various matches, with Virsoul carrying the headline matches. It is wonderful to see the depth and breadth of streaming talent in the NS2 community increasing all the time. You can find Videos on Demand (VODs) of all matches covered on the right hand side of each channel. Click Videos, and then the VOD you want to watch. Here is a YouTube copy of some games from Day 2 as cast on the dev channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2reuZfxXTU

Results from this first weekend can be found here. The top twelve teams get to go through to a singe elimination tournament next weekend, and play for the Asus and Multiplay prizes. At time of writing, the final twelve had not been decided, but Breakfast Klub, Vetus, Damage Networks, Precaching, hard.day!, RadicaL, and Forward! are amongst those who have qualified.

Tune in next weekend for the finals!

The post Nexzil Proving Grounds Tournament Weekend 1 appeared first on Natural Selection 2.

Starting on http://twitch.tv/naturalselection2 in 45 minutes!

The post Nexzil Proving Grounds Tournament Streams appeared first on Natural Selection 2.