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

---General Information---

Title:            Avalon
Filename:         CTFAVALON.zip
Gametype:         UT2004 CTF
Version:          Final Release Version
Release Date:     -------
Author:           Eduardo "Hieloco" Barillas
Email:            eabarillas@yahoo.com
Description:      An experimental CTF map made for the following purposes:
                  1) To make a highly detailed map, playable in old computers.
                  2) To try making a map where the translocator is not needed.
                  3) To learn about advanced mapping techniques

Other levels by author:

UT2004: DM-Morbias][2k4 (Remake of DM-Morbias][ by Epic Games)
UT2004: MOV-WatchYourStep (Unreleased/ University Project)
UT2004: DM-1on1-Pestilence (Work in progress)

Note for Arthurian Purists: This level is not meant to try to be as accurate
as possible in regards to the story of King Arthur. I picked upon references
that I found interesting from many versions of the story. However, you might
have some fun trying to pinpoint the references that are in there. As for the
architectural styles used, they are a blend of Paleochristian, Romanesque,
Spanish Colonial, and a bit of Celtic.

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

---Credits---

Music:              Mordred                    gameaudio@student-kmt.hku.nl
                         Jakko ter Borg
                         Martijn Frazer
                         Tammo Kersbergen
Botpathing:         SargeDavid                 ****
                    Myself (Assault Paths)
Beta Testing/
Comments:           DAFRANK	               keithkimbark@tiscali.de
                    Hourences                  ****
                    XYZ8000                    ****
                    Anubis "The Shadowgod"     anubisskarn@yahoo.de
                    Cobra                      ****
                    SargeDavid                 ****
                    Dark Clown                 ggfrancagg@terra.com.br
                    Sjosz

All visual assets by Eduardo Barillas except:
     Static Meshes: Pickaxes, lamps, spiderwebs, and buckets by Hourences.
     Weapon & item pickups, jump pads, trees, and foliage by Epic Games
     Textures: Red base floor, church roof tiles, terrain moss, textures for
     the above mentioned static meshes, and textures for particle effects by
     Epic Games.
     Skybox: Skybox textures and static meshes by Ju^sar, from DM-Altena.

All aural assets by Epic Games except:
     Sounds: "Monks", "Chant", "Rustling Leaves"
     Music: Battle of Camlann by Mordred

Resources for base textures:
     http://www.mayang.com/textures
     http://www.lunerouge.org
     Google Image Search

Resources for base sounds:
     http://www.sounddogs.com

Notes:

   * I tried to contact Ju^sar (author of DM-Altena) for permission to use
     his skybox, but was not able to. (Mr. Ju^sar, if this aggravates you,
     please contact me as soon as possible to find a possible solution for
     the issue.)

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

---Technical Information---

Developed on two computers:

     From April to August 2006
     Celeron ~ 2.2 Ghz
     512 MB RAM
     Radeon 9200 128 MB AGP 4X
     Sound Blaster Audigy 2

     From September 2006 to **** 2007
     Pentium 4 ~ 3.0 Ghz
     512 MB RAM
     Geforce FX 5200 128 MB AGP 8X
     C-Media Audio

Programs used:

     UnrealED 3.0
     Alias Maya 6.0 w/ ActorX and Simple SM Exporter
     Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.0

In Game Settings used in both computers:

     All settings on highest possible except:
     Resolution:             800 x 600
     Dynamic Mesh LOD:       Lowest
     Character Shadows:      Blob
     Decals:                 Turned off
     Trilinear Filtering:    Turned off
     Audio:                  Hardware 3D Audio + EAX for Audigy 2
                             3D Audio for C-Media
     Anisotropic Filtering 2X (ATI/Nvidia Control Panel)

Framerate:

     Absolute Max:  >200
     Practical Max: >85
     Avg:           55-60
     Practical Min: 27
     Absolute Min:  19

Notes:

    * Lowering the world detail will not help at all.
    * There are no fallback materials for special textures.

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

---Installation---

Unzip the CTF-Avalon.zip file directly to your UT2004 root folder

or

Unzip the CTF-Avalon.ut2 file into your \Maps folder
Unzip the AvalonMesh.usx file into your \StaticMeshes folder
Unzip the AvalonTex.utx file into your \Textures folder
Unzip the Mordred-Battle_of_Camlann.ogg file into your \Music folder

Notes:

    * The different asset packs were released separately so that other
      aspiring mappers can access them in an easier manner if they wish to
      use any asset contained in them. Custom sounds were so few that they
      did not require a separate pack.

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

---Copyright / Permissions---

This level is copyrighted by Eduardo Barillas, 2006-2007

Authors MAY NOT use this level as a base to build additional levels unless I
specify otherwise.

Authors MAY use assets of this level in their own levels as long as they
give me or my contributors proper credit in their accompanying readme files.

You are NOT allowed to commercially exploit this level, i.e. put it on a CD
or any other electronic medium that is sold for money without my explicit
permission!

You MAY distribute this .zip for free through any electronic network (internet,
FIDO, local BBS etc.), provided you include this file and leave the archive
intact.

----------------------
Unreal Tournament 2004 (c)2002 Epic Games, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
Distributed by ATARI under license. Unreal Tournament 2004 and the Unreal
Tournament 2004 logo are registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. All
other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

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

---Extra Notes for Aspiring Level Designers---

In this section I would like to make a few practical suggestions to other
aspiring level designers, gained from my experience with this particular map. It
would be really cool if this section of the readme caught on and other mappers
did the same, so that everybody benefited from any experience that we as aspiring
mappers ourselves gained through the completion of our maps!

---------------------------

Buy Hourences' Level Design Book!! It has a lot of recommendations that are very
handy. I didn't follow them all in this particular level (specially texture-wise)
and boy did I get a hard time in the lighting phase due to that. Not that you
have to agree with him on everything, but he has been around and has some very
nice suggestions to make! (Free publicity ends here.)

The whole instancing of static meshes deal is half true. If you instance too
much, there will be slowdown, as well as if you instance nothing. Try to strike
a balance!

VERY IMPORTANT!! If your level's scale is not to your liking, finish everything
and ONLY AFTER THAT do a level resize, because the grid does not get adjusted
perfectly, and believe me, it is a MAJOR PAIN to align things or redo BSP
without the grid.

Set a deadline for your project and try to stick to it. I worked at a very
relaxed pace, on and off (hmmm well also I shared the computer with my mom,
who works from the house), so I took WAY more time than was required to make it.
Also, TOO MUCH perfectionism actually made me a little inefficient, so try to
keep that on check. Those two factors prolonged the develpment time into Duke
Nukem Forever levels, when the map could have been done in maybe 2 or 3 months
of hard work.

Try to work only with one monitor, not in the sense of dual monitor setups, but
referring to the fact that back in El Salvador I had a really nice HP monitor with
amazing color saturation and all that good stuff, and when I came to the HKU (an
art school in the Netherlands) I got a crappy Chuntex monitor (yes, Chuntex) and
all my subtle lighting differences went down the drain. (To add insult to injury,
the guy right next to me got an XPS with a beautiful LCD screen, and he was a
Counter Striker, of all things.) I had to readjust a lot of lights so that they
would become visible in the crappy monitor. The deal is that although all
monitor configurations are different, at least you should remain consistent while
in development.

If you can't find something in UDN, UnrealWiki, or the usual sources, dig deeper
with Google! I remember there was a web page with a really nice xProcMesh
tutorial that I found in a web search, that explained a lot of stuff that was
not present in the usual sources' explanations.

One very personal suggestion is: don't go low poly for the sake of going low
poly! I've known a lot of people who drastically reduce the visual quality of
their meshes just for the sake of shaving off a few polygons. I really believe
that if a few polygons more will really make the model better, go for it!
Anyways the Unreal Engine is a vertex cruncher like no other, so I don't
agree with people that say that it was made for low polygon meshes only. For
example I would have preferred that Doom 3 characters had a few more polygons
in their heads. I believe that the perfomance hit would have been relatively
negligible, and they wouldn't look like coneheads in the end. I do agree with
making textured bevels and what not for minute detail, but for really large
and visible detail I would go for geometry. But that is just me.

Not always are forums or reference pages updated, so what was thought to be
possible only in one program (i.e. vertex blending in Max) at some point
also became possible in Maya with ActorX. So don't always settle for what
the forums say; check out the tools' changelogs too!

Do complex geometry in Static Meshes! This will save you a lot in terms of BSP
Hole Hunting! Doing the tomb area was a real pain!
