[Wily Duck]

Been a while, but I have my reasons for stepping back in the scene. See this thread on the impending release of superman2_beta.

A long time ago, I started building a tool that could take a map and fork a new version of it. This is handy if you've say just completed your ut4_coolmap, and started working on a ut4_coolmap2.

Problem is, you have all these resources pointing to stuff from ut4_coolmap. The whole .map is full of yesterday's news. Shaders abound need updating. Was your map relying upon shared models, or maybe you had your own, though still part of the first map? Just spawning a new map from an old one can take an hour before you're absolutely sure everything is in place - just to find it isn't. What a headache. We map for fun, not tedious file juggling and data processing!

My current dilemma was that I need to spawn an instance of ut4_superman2 from ut4_superman in short order. I don't have time to muck about between version releases. Then, I need to fork beta versions from ut4_superman2, and perhaps rc's (release candidates) of those betas. I can already hear the groans of knowing what kind of file management this entails.

Well screw that. I'm done with version hell. I've built The Versioneer, a hero who's task in life is to ensure clean, shiny copies of a map that have no effect upon the original.

This is a script written in perl. I broke it until I was satisfied it was ready for open release, stable and with predictable behavior that can be trusted. It's heavily documented in-code for configuration and actionable commands for one-offs that every map has. It strives to work towards constructing a stand-alone map that functions independently of previous versions or external resources. This way, your map remains portable between UrT versions, and other Q3 mods.

Download the versioneer v1.5. Adjacently, I have a text file of the output showing copying ut4_superman2 to ut4_superman2_beta, and seconds later, to ut4_superman2_beta2. It's a beautiful, wonderful thing. Open the perl file in notepad, and READ. Get comfortable with what's going on. Once you are, a couple variables are all you need to use the versioneer indefinitely. My real regret is not having this tool 10 years ago.

Linux/Mac users, I built this perl file for ActiveState perl on Windows. It's easily portable to *nix, so if you want to use it, feel free to make the changes.

The versioneer does not compile bsp's, add surface sounds, generate readme's, or package a map into a .pk3. There are other tools for that. However, using the "package" mode, the versioneer can put all new map resource files neatly into one stand-alone folder. That makes packaging the pk3 much much easier.

Please enjoy!

[MajkiFajki]

Is this famous WilyDuck or I suffer hallucinations from watching too much TV?

[Wily Duck]

I've been vacant, retired, etc. I'm giving mapping another good go, and while I am, doing what I've done well: help support the community. As mentioned, I don't have much time to devote to UrT mapping - so I'm making the best of it.

[Wily Duck]

You know what... the model migration portion of this tool is well intended, but it doesn't work right. Since most models hard reference their assets to models/mapobjects/modelname/modeltex.ext it's making copying models for independent inclusion difficult to impossible. Ah well. Rest of it works fine.

[Delirium]

This is brilliant Wily!