Drac's Grand Beta Adventure (pic-heavy, spoilers)

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Drac's Grand Beta Adventure (pic-heavy, spoilers)

Post by Draconisaurus »

Here's MY personal thread on beta discoveries. :P This first post will describe my first jaunt through build 96 from start to finish.

A note: I plan to move this thread into the Beta board after the files are available to the public. So keep that in mind when replying.


The adventure begins with installation! I was unable to uninstall retail Trespasser from my system... Calling up Trespasser in the Add/Remove Programs display to be "removed" brings up the error report screen, asking if I wish to send one. WTF? I tried a number of things with this.. but it just wouldn't work.. I had the main EXE set to run in Windows 95 compatibility. I dunno. So, I just deleted the directory. When I then went to the Add/Remove Programs thing, it said that an error occurred and asked if I'd like to remove it from the list. I said yes.

So then I went to install the game, etc. Worked fine. Loaded 'er up... New intro cutscene! :o Missing music in a lot of it, AND the compression is no where near as "dirty"! W00tsauce on a stick, we should def. put that on youtube. Perhaps as part of a beta montage.
The menu.. Not too different, though ingame there is an option to view Credits, which doesn't work.

Newgame cutscene.. Nifty. No music, but the ambient sounds are obviously easier to hear (and I think a bit different). Aaaand, that secret dev-recorded voice of Jill we found in the retail is used :lol: Not sure if it's the same take or not - there's also an answering machine which might be voiced by the same guy.

Beach loads. Same loading image. First new find: A wheel! :| Why was it removed?
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Further inland, I found that the old jungle gym includes the IJ scaffolding supports!! :o
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Some of them work just like the ones in the JPDS1 construction site. Stupid Trespasser Beta, stealing my thunder... :sick:

Then I met up with the long-lost holy trashcan from all those images past! :o!!!
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(9:26 PM) DracoAlpha-><-:
*OMFG
*it's the holy trashcan!
*I am not worthy!!!!!
(9:27 PM) Sir Samuel of England:
*Image , I know!


Warning: Door Not Yet Fuctional. Use this make-shift wood plank opening instead.
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No bakers in place yet...
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It's the giant fallen cuban palm from the JR basement!!! (as featured in East Dock) No physics, though.. Maybe some devs were caught copying objects without their physics. N00BS!!! :lol:
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Well, well! They actually used a crate with a lid! That hunting rifle, still here in the retail, may be found inside...
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The brachiosaur AI is... well, very very dysfunctional. :? This miniature brach was running around like a madosaur.
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This floating log appears to have been set up to allow the devs to get around the bridge puzzle while physics was worked on.. (it has the tendency to kill the player). However, the jump between the log and the other side is generally too great for build 96's jump ability.. :lol:
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Around this time I think, the beta crashed for some reason. No idea why, but after this point (before which I'd done some things like make a savegame), I was never able to load BE again without it crashing within a few seconds after loading!! In general, I found that the beta could not remain stable for more than 5 minutes, though this is very approximate - occasionally it would last up to 15 minutes. Also, the player would often be invisible in BE, in my further attempts to load it from the beta engine.. And here are some pics of what it did to my desktop.
[rimg]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/183/funbetadesktop01.th.jpg[/rimg][rimg]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4527/funbetadesktop02.th.jpg[/rimg][rimg]http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1862/funbetadesktop03.th.jpg[/rimg]

So then, I made a copy of Tres Custom Edition, deleted the data folder, and substituted the beta data folder. This helped considerably - though the experience was not quite the same. :( Among other things, Anne's beta running speed is about equivalent to her retail walking speed, and her beta walking speed is equivalent to tip-toing (or it seems like that anyway). Also, run-jumping in the beta often causes Anne to experience fall damage, so I avoided it altogether, by force. This made the whole experience more gratifying and realistic - I got to take my time, and actually fear the raptors. If the retail had that running speed, I think it would be a great improvement, and Rex agrees...

Moving right along. Here's a shot of the cleavage error in the beta Anne model..
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Love the shirt though, and the skin. :yum: Oh and for my ATX beta stand-alone setup, I used software rendering, turned draw distance a wee bit up, and deactivated jumping raptors, for a more authentic experience.

Finally got to JR... Went around the corner to find the raptor.. Fought it off a bit, ran out of ammo, then came back around.. and found this.
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:lol: I guess they forgot to leave it attached, at first! A note - I discovered in my own modding experiences that the heart animated textures are placed inside the player mesh, just under view, so that they do not mipmap. Otherwise, the health texture becomes blurry in the moment when it appears.

The rex tooth! I found it! It's mine, it came to ME!
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Very handy, this. Just where the walkthrough said it would be. I was able to fend off all raptors in JR with this, as long as they were alone. However - it did NOT work effectively in the ATX stand-alone. :? Sucks!! Could either be that the tooth is not as good somehow, or that the raptors are "better".

I walked up to this chair, which is there in the retail...
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I was holding the rex tooth as I did. When I came right up to it... the chair EXPLODED SO FAST that I did not even see it explode! The next thing I knew, only this remained, and the rex tooth was no where to be seen. XD

There WAS a stego standing right here... But as it turned to look at me, it suddenly disappeared!
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I've heard this reported already. Another occasion in this spot, I was interacting with it a bit, trying to see if he'd swing his tail at me (he did move to make his tail be capable of hitting me), and then finally he disappeared again. My current theory is that some AI calculations are accidentally capable of passing bad bone coordinates, with the result being that the entire dinosaur instantaneously appears (not sure I'd call it a "teleport") in another location. I never did find him. You'll see some other support I have for this as we continue on.

A door! This jeep is missing both its front doors, though I only saw one laying here..
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Found the shack to retain its door. Pretty neat! Aaaand, there were several horse shoes around! With the pole you're supposed to throw them at!
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Ohhhh oh oh! Who's good? Who?
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I call first successful horseshoe toss in the beta. 8)

As has been mentioned, the HOT poster in the shack.. It's pretty awesome. And hott :lol:
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Don't guess anyone recognizes it.. I'm guessing it was illustrated by some artsy developer.

Went to the PH.. Found that it was pretty much the same as retail :( Very disappointed, at this point, that it was not in PV. Then I made my way to the yatch beach.. And became disappointed again.
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Nothing here but the basic assets. Guess they were just waiting for time to pretty it up later.

You can guess where I headed next...
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I was pretty excited to finally be in the hidden valley. But then it just kept... going...
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And going..... And going... And finally the streambed I'd been following just stopped.
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And then I found myself at the monorail in a very smooth transition. Two raptors awaited me there!
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I fended them off for a while with my precious rex tooth. It actually worked - at some point, they both started fleeing from me. One of them took off into the hidden valley of nothingness. I pursued the one which ran back to the monorail.. but he bested me, and I'd not made a savegame. :( But I doubt it would have worked anyway, knowing this engine. After this point, JR would crash within 10-60 seconds. So I switched to ATX and went along the "normal" monorail path this time.

Discovered this jawbone on my way back through the level.. I'm pretty sure this exact jawbone is pictured in the walkthrough under Weapons.
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Many, many objects seem to be missing physics.. A surprising amount, really. The basement will be interesting to see.
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New terrain texture! W00t!!! And the moss object, of which there are only a few left in retail, is used considerably here..
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The monorail journey is moreover pretty uninteresting in build 96. Seems that temporary objects which closely fit the shape of the path are used, and the jumps between them are easy..
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Though, I was able to crush a rap with some good ol' crates. That was fun.
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Thanks to the existence of the hidden valley terrain (and in general), there were some beautiful vistas in this level......
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Entering IJ... The new base terrain texture is just magnificent!!!! :|
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There sure are a lot of fallen trees in IJ. And I mean like, everywhere in IJ1. Oh and this here is the bike that's mentioned in the walkthrough! :D

The falling-jeep puzzle is missing entirely...
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Either Spielberg hadn't suggested it yet, or they were still getting around to it. I wonder if someone at the end was like, "OMFG WE FORGOT ABOUT HIS EVENT IDEA!!!"

There's a transition texture here which would have at one point lead from the grey stream rocks to the testScene-dirt.
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See also:
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I'll try more direct comparison shots another time..

The gorge was a huge disappointment of course. From a distance I couldn't actually tell that it was rock, so I really had my hopes going...
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Oh and bloodsplats do not work in the beta, but they appear in the ATX setup, so the bloodsplats must just be there without being used.

The pygmy-raptor patrol was out that morning. Don't think I had to face off with him, though.
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This view admittedly looks much better here than in the retail, but in reality is about the same..
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Hmmmm. The ATX that Tres CE was based on does not seem to have fixed the bug where ATX stops overriding fog color. Oops. :? The CBackdrop still respects it, though.
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Aaaaand the jump was very uneventful. The scene afterwards was... Remarkably empty.
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But that didn't last long. Found the Gravel Hill, complete with the removed pylon!
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But other than this, it was pretty messed up... Buried barrels, and none of the action was taking place around here. Would have liked to see the crane here, too. Also the powerlines do not continue from it towards PV.

Floating lock has apparently always been floating!
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Interesting...
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What's that crap on the side of the shack? Didn't notice it while playing. Anyway, we can compare this a bit better to that beta image, now..
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Again, I'll do a much better comparison later.

Not only is this pylon here right in the middle of the road, but so is this giant tree, AND the two are intersecting. :lol:
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I s'pose it's a result of 1) not noticing where the terrain textures are 2) delayed clean-up of their automatic foliage application.

The smugglers plane looks a lot more like a plane wreck now..
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But the inside is just as stretched as ever. Ah well.

You can guess where I started heading next...
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Love this view, btw. Terrain looks even older.

Buuuut sadly, no monolith here... :(
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Finally, on into IT!
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Love the color of that distant terrain... But yeah, it even looks that way in the ATX engine, meaning it's a result of those terrain settings in the start trigger.

New town map. Hmmm... Wonder why? It really doesn't show a different layout. But it's funny, Sam once commented specifically in the forum that something as simple as a town map texture would be an easy fix for the devs in photoshop. :lol:
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Okay so here is the keypad input when viewed in the beta engine... followed by how it looks in ATX.
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Notice the difference? :? The player is actually shorter in the retail!!! Damnit. This also made the keypad entry more difficult in ATX. Jeez. Still, it was pretty easy.. I guess I've just had too much practice by now.

Found many new things in the bungalows! including the full shower, the BED, and a completely new dresser.
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The dresser has no physics. Shucks.. Still, it's quite a fine model. I'm sure I'll make use of it.

Yay, 3D sidewalks.. though, the hydrants are a bit.. buried.. :lol:
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The sidewalk into nowhere does not extend quite as far as it does in the retail. Strange! Or maybe it's the street that doesn't go as far?
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Also, the barriers on the West Gate are missing.

New door in the Ops center.
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Found nothing it the maint. room.. in Animal Control, instead of two banana-clip AKs, there are two toxin rifles. 8)
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Hmmmm, neato... Is this the same as the retail? I'm not familiar enough with the retail one, and don't have the textures archived..
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I do notice the terrain is as Sam and I think it is, along with the gates.. Except that the road up in the corner bends towards the Northeast gate, and it doesn't even do that in build 96 yet..

I hopped over to the place where Gate F goes, hoping maybe there would be some remnant of it... But alas, all I found were some disembodied terrain objects, slightly less buried telephone poles, and a hungry beasty.
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New doors...
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Gun cabinet! W00t!
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Oh yes, and I forgot to mention. There's a gun cabinet in the church, and when I tried to remove the uzi from it, I got teleported into nowhere:
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Also unable to move. I've experienced this frozen state before - seems to be a default position.

When I tried to grab a spas out of another gun cabinet, this is what I saw shortly after:
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Could be wrong, but I believe this may well be directly above 0,0,0. And I was not frozen this time. Freaky!!!! Perhaps this is also where that poor, poor stego found himself :lol: Something in the physics seems to be glitchy in location calculation when dealing with large force values, or something, I dunno..

Hockey sticks! WORKING hockey sticks! :D
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Pretty sure these have been seen in a pre-release image.. They have no physics. That wooden thing there is in the retail, now we know what it goes to.. But what was meant to happen? Letting the barrels roll loose onto some unsuspecting raptor outside?
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Well, well, now... Look what I found in the bathroom! :lol:~!!!!
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I had to pinch myself for a second to see if I was really still in Trespasser. How odd. And beautiful, heh.

These generator things are there in the retail, but IIRC without this reverse-side texture.
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I was attacked by no less than THREE raptors in the InGeneral store. How impolite!!!!
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I knew from researching the retail that a raptor was at one point meant to be in here. But THREE! Jeeeeeeez. I managed to escape by tranqing one of them (another died by physics, and the other became eternally trapped in some wall or something).

......Yes, because, you better put that water heater in, before the pipes or anything! That's how it's done!
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New double-doored trailer! With 133t-awesome JP banner and island map inside.
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WTF is this? It has no physics... Idk, but it was important enough to get its own bumpmaps.
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This is a version of the trailers seen in retail.. What are these two things on the front?
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New metal chair!
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Breaks apart just like its wooden counterpart.

Sweet. The dumpsters are fully-physiced. I would not, however, suggest dropping your gun into it as I did.
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You can bet I'll be bringing this into JPDS1.

WTF, the garage door is missing? :(
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These wierd.. picture things.. are in a few different places. Oh and the floors all over the level are NOT terrain objects, meaning both that they are much higher quality (as I'm sure they preferred) but also that they often flickered in z-fights with the terrain.
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Oh and of course that chair is just awesome. You KNOW I'll be using it.

I've noticed that Wu's bathroom in the retail was particularly undetailed in the retail. I mean, the sink is a single triangle sticking up, as are the bathtub knobs. It's so pathetic that I suspect it was actually the venting of a dev's frustration on being ordered to reduce poly. Here, they are in particularly stunning detail.
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Either Wu is much smaller than we realized, or he's got a new fetish that we didn't know about....
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Noticed this from outside the town, too. The terrain is raised to come up to the second level of Wu's house. I wonder why it was raised in the first place?
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Still no P in his Ool. No sign about it, either. :(
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The textures on these rocks are neat, and new! And fully bumpmapped. Though, the keycard is nowhere to be seen... :x
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Hammond's library is quite a site!
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Believe it or not, this is all fully physiced. Though it doesn't "work" very well.

The puzzle of getting upstairs is now totally different. You actually walk up a shifted stair railing that acts like a see-saw, just like the one in Hammond's flea circus. How cool is that?
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More of those pic things.. WTF are these? Maybe I'll find out in TresEd.
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When I placed the diskette on the disc drive, it actually froze into place, just like some puzzles in fanmade levels (like the dynamite in TC Isle). But, no voiceovers played..
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The map is now on a table! Complete with little monopoly pieces and everything!
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(8:40 AM) DracoAlpha-><-:
*3D map!
*on a table!
*with little.. monopoly pieces on it!
(8:40 AM) Sir Samuel of England: I noticed that xD Love all the little blocks all over the place, Image. Do not pass IJ, do not collect $200


The pseudo-PV road starts out here now.. And the purple keycard doesn't work. :(
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Within a few dozen steps away from the gate into the would-be-plains, the game crashed on both engines. I tried this with DINOS on and no change. On the first time it crashed, I noticed what appeared to be strange orange faces criss-crossing the scene. :| Reminded me of faulty-meshed rigged dinosaurs. Kinda sucks cause that Para beyond is awesome - I've no idea if he's the cause, but I'm not sure what else it could be. In flymode, I had to fly entirely clear of the double-rex encounter to avoid a crash. But that was fine - the area between Burroughs and the dam is 100% uninteresting

Approaching the dam, I sense a final confrontation about to begin...
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....FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!
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Oh and the dam lever doesn't do its trick yet, and Harold is not yet in the penstock.



That's it for tonight's adventure! I'll be posting the second half tomorrow, I hope. Next up, the glorious Pine Valley...
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