UT multi-version co-existence

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Sep 19, 2001
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Dorset, UK
Thought this might help a few people since we're embarking on interesting times with the advent of a new UT patch, imminently on the horizon.

I've been doing this for years on servers and clients (and editors), but thought it worthwhile sharing for others too.

Most people already know that UT is a fairly self-contained game, you can run it from anywhere, so long as it has access to some core directories as indicated in the System\UnrealTournament.ini file, within the [Core.System] section:
  • Paths=../System/*.u
  • Paths=../Textures/*.utx
  • Paths=../Music/*.umx
  • Paths=../Sounds/*.uax
  • Paths=../Maps/*.unr
But, what some people don't know, is that you can capitalize on these "Paths" and split out content accordingly.

e.g. on our servers, I put all maps, textures and sounds common to all servers in a shared paths, then have additional paths for instance specific maps etc.

Where this comes handy for clients is that, with the upcoming 469+ patches, you don't need to take copies of your whole UT folder and the last 20 years of custom content, just for testing, but instead you can tweak your INI and folder structure accordingly.

e.g. Move conflicting textures (LadderFonts.utx and UWindowFonts.utx) into new Textures_436 and Textures_469 directories while leaving the remaining common textures as they are, and have different System folders, e.g. System_436 and System_469 while keeping the remainder of the folder structure the same, then update your INIs accordingly...

e.g. 436 UnrealTournament.ini:

Paths=../System_436/*.u
Paths=../Textures_436/*.utx
Paths=../Maps/*.unr
Paths=../Textures/*.utx
Paths=../Sounds/*.uax
Paths=../Music/*.umx


e.g. 469 UnrealTournament.ini:

Paths=../System_469/*.u
Paths=../Textures_469/*.utx
Paths=../Maps/*.unr
Paths=../Textures/*.utx
Paths=../Sounds/*.uax
Paths=../Music/*.umx

This will also have the benefit of allowing you to have shortcuts to different builds of UT for very quick testing of issues!
 
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