 
 PLEASE NOTE:  This is a demo, a proof of concept that one can use warpzones
               to create a level in which one can walk on all outside surfaces
               of a cube (top, sides and bottom).  That is all it is.
               It is a variation on my earlier DM-DEMO-Walk-On_Walls demo,
               but a heck of a lot more fun (especially with low gravity
               and fat boy mods turned on).
               No claim as to playability or polish is made.
               In compressed downloadable form, it is less than 120K in size,
               so you are not out significant time, cost or inconvenience.
               If it sounds interesting, try it.  If not, delete it.

================================================================
Title                   : DEMO - Walk On Cube
                          CAUTION:  WARPZONE AREA
Author                  : Michael Harris (AKA Springfield)

Date                    : Feb 28, 2000
Version                 : Version 0.2.

Filename                : DM-DEMO-Walk-On-Cube.zip  (compressed)
File contents           : DM-DEMO-Walk-On-Cube.unr
                        : DM-DEMO-Walk-On-Cube.txt  (this file)

Email Address           : mharris@fgi.net
Home Page		: www.fgi.net/~mharris/mike  (up soon)
Description             : Walk on all outside surfaces of a solid cube,
                          upright, on your side and upside down,
                          such that you are at right angles to,
                          or upside-down from, players/bots
                          located on other surfaces.
                          This is a variation on my earlier
                          DM-DEMO-Walk-On-Walls, in which one could
                          walk on the interior floor, walls and ceiling
                          of a hollow cube.
                          The two make an interesting contrast,
                          open cubic "planetoid" effect vs. 
                          claustrophobic cubic "hollow earth" effect.
                          
                         
================================================================

Accomplishments:

* 0.1.  Warpzoneing six capped inverted pyramidal volumes of space together,
        capped tips-to-cube faces, to create the effect of a single solid cube,
        on which players/bots can walk across the "top", down "sides"
        and across the "bottom".  Players/bots re-orient as they step
        onto each surface, so as to be perpendicular to that surface, 
        with the result that they often wind up at right angles to
        or upside-down from players/bots on other surfaces.
        Note that warpzoneing is used to accomplish this,
        as regular zone's variably oriented gravity vector
        can be used to pull a player/bot to a wall or ceiling
        but fails to result in the player/bot being appropriately
        reoriented/able to walk on the wall/ceiling.
* 0.2.  Used Unreal Tournament's experimental "PATHS BUILD" 
        (and "PATHS DEFINE) to automatically generate numerous paths,
        facilitating bot movement on and between surfaces.

Problems/Issues:

* Bots don't appear to see or react to players/bots on other surfaces
  (I assume that players will see other players in multiplayer).
  They do cross onto other surfaces for a variety of reasons,
  but they don't appear to see you when you are on other surfaces, 
  even if you place yourself directly in front of them.
* Viewed from a distance up the diagonals which appear to support
  the cube in space, cube faces sometimes vanish partially or completely.
* Some weapons work through the warpzones, some don't.  This could
  be considered a problem or a feature.  It introduces some weapons
  selection/restrictions/placement strategy.
* Warpzone sheets apparently must intersect physical boundaries,
  at least where non-rectangular warps (capped triangular in this case) are
  desired, which results in at least thin warpzone "frames" appearing.
  In this particular case, they appear as thin triangular/pyramidal
  framework rising from each corner of the cube, extending into space.
  It would be nice if one could avoid this, so as to produce a completely
  empty space around the cube.  Worst case, one can "thin" the frame as much
  as possible or else beef it up and consider it a feature
  (rationalize it as a frame necessary for generating a warp
   and give it interesting textures/animation/lighting).
* Could one reduce the gravity such that a player could
  literally run and jump off the cube's surface
  and go into orbit around it?  As it is, one can jump and/or be blown
  significant distances over/around the cube.
* What architecture does one fill such a "multi-gravity"\curved space
  with?  
* What size of cube "planetoid" and surrounding "space" 
  best lends itself to this kind of exercise?  
* How practical would it be to further curve/smooth space, via
  larger numbers of warpzones laid out in more complex ways?
  How practical would it be to write a program that could
  automatically grind out some of the geometry and warps required to
  accomplish this?
* Apparently, a maximum of 64 zones can exist 
  per level, with each surface/volume of space such as dealt with here
  requiring multiple zones, and one can only see through
  a maximum of 4 warps. 

A Note About Tilting/Rotating WarpZone Sheets:

* Tilting of warpzone sheets must apparently be accomplished
  via manual selection and dragging of sheet corners (vertices),
  rather than rotation of the sheets.  Rotation of the sheets
  around a horizonal axis apparently results in distorted views 
  through the warpzones.
* It is sometimes necessary to spin warpzone sheets 180 degrees
  around their vertical axis, in order to get the proper view through them.
* See warpzone tutorials elsewhere for general information.
  
Advice:

* Try it with low gravity and fat boy mods turned on.
* Avoid leaping into major projects.  Instead, proceed via numerous small
  proof of concept experiments.  By focusing on only one or a few
  problems/issues at a time, using small levels, one can rapidly
  modify/recompile(F8)/test over and over again.

Help Wanted:

* Suggestions as to solutions for above problems/issues would be appreciated
  and will be credited in any subsequent update or spin-off.

================================================================

Play Information	

* Want no or only a few bots in the level when playing/testing it from the
  editor?  Before starting the editor, start Unreal Tournament
  and set the number and intelligence of bots and whether the player
  is a player or a spectator.  This will apply later,
  when playing/testing from the editor.

* This level was developed on a Pentium 166, with 80MB of RAM
  and a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI card.



=================================================================

Installation instructions

* Put DM-DEMO-Walk-On-Cube.unr in unrealtournament/maps. 



===================================================================
(C) Copyright 2000 Michael E. Harris

You may distribute this map via electronic means, providing that it is done so free
of charge and that all files that constitute this map (listed above) are included
and that this text file is also included unchanged.

You may not include or distribute this map in any sort of commercial or non-comercial
product without permission from the author.  You may not mass distribute this level
via any non-electronic means, including but not limited to compact disks, and floppy disks.
This map may not be used, in whole or in part, as the basis of another map, without the
author's permission.

All other trademarks acknowledged.
