History

1 November 2007 Release Version 2.36

Final Release for UT2004

New Features - Server

• Added Switch Game Type Mode: Priority Shuffle
• The Map List, Games List, Rules List and Mutators List tabs now automatically select the current list in use when you first open the MapMixer Config. So, for example, if you are using a Map List in your setup, then it will be selected when you switch to the Map List Editor tab upon opening the Configuration Menu.  These Tabs also remind you about unsaved changes before exiting the Menu.

New Features - Client

• None

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Shifted the MapMixer Session Stats left of screen when MapMixer Map Info is displayed, so less likely to overlap. Plus other minor HUD adjustments.
• A couple of minor bug fixes in the Config Interface.
• Fixed a possible crash bug when using "Test Play Map" in the Map List Editor.

17 February 2007 Release Version 2.35

New Features - Server

• None.

New Features - Client

• Audible Notifications for leader and equal leader ranking are now available for use with Deathmatch style games, clients now optionally receive an audible signal when they reach and lose equal placing with the match Leader(s) and when they become the Leader.
• A Client's HUD now optionally shows a list of the current top ranking players and their score spread relative to the viewed player.
• The MapMixer Map Loading Screen now shows the map description instead of the game type hints.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Internally MapMixer supports Mutator Lists of any number of entries, however, as a side effect of the way the UT2004 engine stores certain types of data, the lists were becoming corrupted when they reached a certain size. For this reason, the way Mutator Lists are saved had to be redesigned and a side effect of this is that your old Mutator Lists will appear blank with new version.  You may wish to manually record your mutator lists before installing this update, so that you can recreate them.
• When using a Games List for the Auto Create Map List option, if you used a custom Map List as a map source of a game type then the designated map list was not being loaded correctly.
• A couple of Map List Editor Context Menu fixes.
• Activating the MapMixer Session Statistics will now deactivate the UT Scoreboard or Personal Stats displays if they are active at that time.
• MapMixer + BotMixer were treating the Invasion game type as a team game (as reported by UT2004), as far as bot rosters are concerned. Technically, Invasion is a team game but from a player's point of view it is a non-team game. A special override for such cases was introduced. You do not need to do anything as far as the Invasion game type is concerned but there may be other community game types where this also applies, in such cases, do the following:
  
  To force a team game to be detected as a non-team game for bot rosters, simple open the MapMixer.ini file and located the section "[MapMixer.MapMixer_GameTypeManager]" and insert a line such as:
  
  sForceNonTeamGames="SkaarjPack.Invasion"
  
  NOTE: The above is only an example as MapMixer already has an internal entry for the above, so don't add it!
  
  Also note that the Invasion game type is a bit of a hack on the basic team game type and while Bot Mixer and MapMixer bot rosters are able to be used, there are still some compatibility issues that cannot be avoided. However compatibility has improved in version 2.35 over 2.30.

18 November 2005 Release Version 2.30

New Features - Server

• Custom Game Types now have a Map Source option.  Choose either Standard Map Prefixes (now with an optional Map List Filter), or a Custom Map List.
• You may now set Player Count restrictions for each game type, using either Custom Game Types or Rules Lists.  See Player Counts documentations for a full description (this also now gives a full description on how MapMixer deals with Player Counts).
• Setup Tab - Player Counts: The "Number of Players" setting "Specify Number" now permanently sets the Player Counts for the entire session. Use this setting to statically set the player counts so they cannot be overriden by any other setting.
• The ability to recognise Team Games of more than 2 teams has been added.  This is important for team balancing.
• You can now override the Default Link Setup for an Onslaught Map when no Link Setup has been specified.  See Overriding Default Link Setups.
• The option to Shuffle a Custom Map List has been replaced with a drop-down box called "Map Order". It now includes two extra options: "Distribute" and "Distribute Shuffle".
• The Map List Repeat option has been replaced by a drop-down list labelled "End of List". This enables you to choose what action to take when the end of the map list is reached.
• Map List Editor: Added Map Name Formatting feature to the Available Maps List. See the button labelled "F".
• Map List Editor: Added an alternative Mini Map Preview that can be displayed underneath either map list.  One way to activate it is to Right-Click on a list's associated "?" button.
• Map List Editor: F8 on either list acts as a shortcut for "Cue as First Map".
• MapMixer now tracks how many times a map has been completed. You can view this in the Map List Editor in the Map Info/Preview Viewer. As well, you can now toggle the 2nd column in the Available Maps list to show the Match Count for each map.
• The Matches Played value (above) also appears as a Map Filter option.
• Added Player Count option "Players vs Bots" - to be used in multiplayer team games only.
• Added "Lock Session Stats" and "Clear" to the MapMixer Options Menu. (Previously this option was only available by editing the MapMixer.ini file). This option stops the MapMixer Session Statistics from being cleared, regardless of whether you are starting a new session or continuing the previous one. The "Clear" button manually resets and initialises the stats.
• New Console Command: "initmaplist". Reinitialises the map list according to the options in the Setup page of the Config.
• New Console Command: "help".  Displays a list of MapMixer Console Commands and their parameter options. Useful if you forget the name of a MapMixer Console command.

New Features - Client

• Clients now have the option to automatically perform the "ShowNext" command (ie show next map in list) at the end of a match for the remainder of the current map.  In this instance, a full preview of the map is shown. This function is configured in the Client Config Menu.
• Added Map Author to MapMixer Client Loading Screen. It appears just below the map name in a smaller font size.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• A problem was uncovered with mapmixer regarding a limitation imposed on it by the way the UT2004 engine stores certain data. This was causing the game to crash. As a result the way "Game Rule Lists" are internally stored has changed and you will have to re-edit all your Game Rule Lists as their data will be lost in the transfer to MapMixer 2.30. This is unfortunate but I had no choice.
• Client HUD: If no mutators were used and BotMixer was active, then the Bot Team name(s) would appear one line below where they should have.
• When launching the session from MapMixer, after editing a mapmixer custom game type, the custom game type's new settings were ignored for the first map.
• Map List Filter: You can now specify only a Min Map Rating to filter only maps with ratings of this value and above. Previously if you only specified the Min Rating then it would swap with the Max Rating. This also applies the other way round as well.
• Any mutator that does not specifically set a "FriendlyName" property was appearing on the Client HUD as an empty line. In this case the Class Name is shown.

Notes

• Note that Game Rule Lists created in previous versions of MapMixer will need to be re-created, as they were redesigned in this version to fix MapMixer compatibility with some game types (eg AM/TAM) and a UT2004 engine limitation.
• The MapMixer Client Package has been bumped to 2.30.  If you are installing over the top of a 2.10 installation then you can manually remove the ServerPackages line for MapMixerClient-210 (if it's there).  The Client Package is now automatically added to the ServerPackages at run-time.
• It is recommended that you use the latest UT2004 patch (currently 3355).

24 Jan 2005 Release Version 2.20

New Features - Server

• Now contains support for an optional MapMixer add-on called BotMixer to manage custom bot rosters.
• Added Session Statistics feature.
• Added Map Rating feature.
• Reworked the GUI for the Map List Filter in the Map List Editor, so it is a little quicker to recall and use a Filter.
• The Map Filter Edit menu has been expanded to incorporate new features. For example, you can use drag-n-drop to change the order of items in the Filters List. In previous versions, filters were always displayed alphabetically sorted.
• Mutator Lists now contain a place holder called [Default Mutators] that allows you to apply a set of mutators regardless of game type.
• You may now launch an offline spectator mode session by Shift-Clicking on the "Play" button in the MapMixer Config.
• Added Map List Repeat option.
• Added Admin Options List.  When launching the MapMixer Config via the shortcut in the Main Menu, the External Game Launch options are replaced with some Admin stuff. (The EGL options are not relevant in this context.) Now, you can create and select a list of Admin Options for network games.
• Server Packages for each current mutator can be automatically added to a map upon loading (including an exclusion list).
• In the Map List Editor, Middle Mouse Button on the lists now toggles map info.

New Features - Client

• A client's player setup (PlayerName, Character, Team, Voice, SmallWeapons, Handedness and FOV) can now be stored on the server and reloaded on any client for standalone or network games using the loadplayer and saveplayer console commands.
• At the end of a match, if the client manually brings up the ScoreBoard, Game Stats or MapMixer Session Stats then the automated countdown displays (setup in Client Config) will be aborted.
• If using the BotMixer add-on, Bot Team names will be shown in the Client HUD.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Dedicated, Listen and Play buttons now appear as standard footer buttons and are visible at all times in the Config.
• The Available Maps Context Menu Filter shortcuts were not functioning properly in the Map List Editor when the list was sorted differently.
• When you launch the MapMixer Config from the Shortcut in the Main Menu, the Map Source "UT Map List" is no longer available, as it isn't relevant in this situation.
• ServerPackage lines for MapMixer (and BotMixer) are no longer required in the UT2004.ini file.  If the server is using BotMixer then the BotMixer package is required client-side, so clients will receive this small file as well as the MapMixer Client package.
• Removed the "Incompatible Game File" warning when enabling the MapMixer MainMenu shortcut and MapMixer Loading Screen - no longer required after the 3339 patch.

Notes

• The MapMixer Client Package has been bumped to 2.20.  If you are installing over the top of a 2.10 installation then you can manually remove the ServerPackages line for MapMixerClient-210 (if it's there).  The Client Package is now automatically added to the ServerPackages.
• It is recommended that you use the latest UT2004 patch (currently 3339) as you will now no longer receive "Incompatible Game File" warnings in net games when the MapMixer Menu Shortcut or the Loading Screen are enabled.

1 Oct 2004 Release Version 2.10

This version contains some things that I wanted to originally put in v2.00 but didn't have time to because of the MSUC Phase 3 deadline.  A lot of internal behind-the-scenes stuff has changed to allow the incorporation of some new features.

New Features - Server

• You can now create your own Custom Game Types.  In short, these are special game types based upon the standard game types that are user-customised by specifying default map prefixes, game rules and mutators.  The names of these custom game types are used and displayed in MapMixer anywhere a standard game type could be used before.
• The game can now be launched from the MapMixer Configuration in either Single Player, Listen Server or Dedicated Server modes, via three buttons located at the bottom left of the screen in the MapMixer Config Setup page.  Note that the First Map and Reload First Map options now become obsolete when starting the game from here.  You may also manually cue up the first map in the session.
• A shortcut for the MapMixer Config is now optionally available from the UT2004 Main Menu.  This makes getting into the MapMixer config a lot easier!  See instructions to enable this.
• Added console command "menu", which allows you to open up the MapMixer Config in-game, as long as you are either playing an offline game or using the host machine in a Listen Server.
• Auto Created Map Lists have been extended to allow more flexibility as to how each game type is chosen from your Games List when generating the session map list.
• You may now specify what bots are chosen for a map.  This applies to both Custom Map Lists and Map Defaults.
• The Map Defaults section now has at the top of the list of Game Types and entry called "[Default Properties]". This acts as a default set of properties for a map when no specific Game Type override has been set.
• Added keyboard shortcut <F1> to Map List Editor as a shortcut to the Map View for the respective list.
• Added keyboard shortcut <F2>, which acts as a shortcut to EditMap in the Custom List.
• Added "Test Play Map" function.  Simply right-click on any map in either list in the Map List Editor and select "Test Play Map".  Note that any new unsaved lists, ie Map List, Games List, Rules List, Mutators List will need to be saved first or they will be lost.

New Features - Client

• Added a few extras to the Client HUD.
• Renamed console command show to shownext and introduced command showcurrent to show the current map on the HUD.  See the description of the Client HUD for more info.
• When joining a match that has not started, the Current Map Info displays until match start (like the showcurrent console command). When joining a match that has started, the current map info displays for the time set by the client.
• The next map's screenshot (ie from map list) can now be displayed on the HUD.  Please read about the Client HUD for more info.
• MapMixer now has it's own Loading Screen - looks and acts just like the original one but shows the Game Type!  Please note that there is some information on this that you MUST read before using this feature.
• Level Change Countdown now changes colour from green to yellow to orange and red from 15 to 5 and flashes from 10 to 0.
• Changed the style of the in-game Admin Menu Rules and MapMixerSettings sections to make things a bit easier.  Can't do the same with the other similar lists in the MapMixer Config Menu because the style is a little more complicated.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• AddMap console command now instead adds maps either at the current navigation index or if none has been set then after the current map.
• Bot Skill has been placed back on the game url for compatibility with the some new gametypes.
• Fixed a bug where admins were not able to alter mapmixer settings using the AdminMenu when using a dedicated server.
• When editing a map, the BotSkill would sometimes not retain it's new value.

Notes

• The MapMixer Client Package has been bumped to 2.10, so make sure you adjust your ServerPackages line if you do a manual install.
• If you enable the MapMixer Loading Screen and Main Menu Shortcut then you will receive "Incompatible game file" errors if you play on-line.

4 June 2004 Release Version 2.00

This is the first official release of MapMixer for UT2004.  This mutator is now exclusively developed for UT2004.  Please refer to v1.21 for the UT2003 version.

MapMixer 2.0 has been overhauled both inside and out for UT2004.  It was not a quick conversion and many things needed to be changed to be compatible with the new game.

New Features for the UT2004 version

• Pretty much all of the ini file formats have been changed and are much easier to read now.
• The tabs Game Rule Maps, Mutator Maps and Player Count Maps have been consolidated into one Tab, called Map Defaults. This should hopefully make a little more sense now and make it easier to edit global map overrides (ie default settings for maps).
• The "Map Database" has been removed as Epic have natively implemented with their Cache Manager the functionality that the Map Database provided.
• The Map List Source "All Game Type Maps" has been replaced with something called a Games List (Anything more descriptive would take up more space in the GUI :D ) This is a big new feature that, amongst other things, allows manual game type switching.
• Game Rule Lists have been simplified and now automatically contain all game types - to reflect the changes introduced with Game Type Lists.
• Game Rule Lists now show ALL game rules that are not from the "Server", "Bots" or "Chat" groups.
• MapMixer now supports the link-setups in Onslaught. The Map List Editor now displays a tree-type list for the Onslaught game type, similar to the UT2004 Map List Editor, but in this instance it still contains the usual Player Count and Author columns.
• The Map List Editor now supports Drag-n-Drop.
• Context Menus have been added for the MapList Editor and Mutator Listings.
• MapMixer now displays the next map and countdown on the HUD, so it is clearly visible.
• MapMixer console commands can now be typed without the "Mutate" command if you are in-game.
• New console commands "keys" and "showkeys".
• New console command "list" to display list names. Useful if you want to change the maplist at the console using the "source" command but can't remember the list name.
• New console command "show". This simply displays the map that has been selected as the next map to switch to.
• New console command "findmap".  Finds map(s) full names using various ways.
• New console command "addmap".  Add map(s) along with game type, similar to "findmap".
• New console command "delmap".  Delete map(s) from the map list, similar to "addmap".
• New console command "savelist".  Save the current maplist.
• Key Bindings are no longer displayed in the UT Key Bindings section.  They can be accessed in the MapMixer Config (Keys Button).
• MapMixer settings are always saved when exiting the config - previously if you pressed Escape then no changes would be saved. I'm not 100% happy about this but it makes things a bit easier and consistent.
• Lots of other little things and other stuff I forgot to write down.

Notes

• If you were using MapMixer v1.0 for UT2003 (the version entered in the  Make Something Unreal Contest, Phase 2) then also refer to v1.21 for UT2003 for past additional changes.
• The main MapMixer file has been separated into two packages: MapMixer.u and MapMixerGUI.u.  The Client Package remains as one file (MapMixerClient-200.u).