Hi!
I've made a little something during my spare times between 'project dead-ends'.
http://www.jkhub.net/project/show.php?projid=409§ion=downloads
The thing about this video is that it is like a little Hall Of Fame surrounding Jedi Knight and what we've done with it (Jedi Knight Then and Now). The thing is that I haven't really followed the history of Jedi Knight's evolution in detail so I just went through the years 2000-2008 picking up the Best Rated levels from Massassi.
The help I'd like from you is to tell me what were the "Highlight levels" (or signature levels) of the following years from Massassi (or level of the year), as well as the "Highlight levels" from JKHub (from when it became big in 2005). Also, maybe correct me if my dates are totally off. Not really sure exactly when 16-bit textures became popular in JK.
For those of you who are like "banned" from JKHub or can't download from there for some other odd reason, here's an alternative link: http://edward.leuf.org/JK/JKThenAndNow.wmv

/Edward
PS. For those who are interested in the song.
PSS. Here's the JKHub side of the Conversation.

Uuuuuuaaaaaawwwwwwww

my eyyyeeeessss

My life is now complete.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

The screenshots are tiny in a big video. They move, so you can't focus on them. And everything is blurry.

Whyyyyyyy

I can't help but be reminded of:

My favorite part is how the whole video HOM'ed.

Welcome 2 teh futUre!!!!!!!!!!11111

I have no idea who or what that video is, lol...but

1- It reminds me of Abba or something swedish

2- That dance reminds me of the GW warrior dance
( [url]www.guildwars.com[/url] )

Each class can type /dance as an emote action; and the warriors look like:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/gw/images/6/65/Male_Warrior_Dance.gif


I think your vid and that dance looks simliar, no?
-PaLi

heh heh

Well, just be glad I didn't HOM it all.

And when did everything end up being about that vid that Grismath posted? Please stay on topic?

I should just be glad you didn't make the video even worse?

That video summed up the bulk of the games industry.

Repackaging crap trying to make it look good when the animations and frame rate sucks

That video was terrible. You couldn't see a goddamn thing. Not to mention that you picked a bunch of ****ty levels. Nothing by BeefeCaike is good by any high standard.

I think I'm starting to see why people aren't uploading any more levels to Massassi...

But anyways, you say the levels I picked are too crap. Then give me a list of the levels that were the HIGHLIGHTS of those years. Otherwise, this video will remain indifferently dark. <.<

Oh, and it would be so much easier if the search at the Massassi levels worked.

Well, anything by Tee. Some things by Slug. Some things from ******. NorthChaos. There are others. Do some proper research.

You're a few years too late to be complaining about a proper search function
Anyway, I didn't notice Savage X's mod (if it was, well then..hah) in there, or DBZ: TDIR. There's a whole ton of amazing levels, mods, and a lot of other random things by the likes of Cavey, Shred18, Hellraiser(64, if you wish) and Savage X (those are the only ones that came to mind.) that would be worth mentioning. I just think you got your information form people who had started in around 2005 (despite what they wish to say). The idea's great, it's just that information you've received isn't as good as it could be, and well.. starting at 2000 isn't when things began.

A shame you didn't include the magnificent SP levels made by AKPiggott (BoaM, ToaM), SavageX (Leeza's Destiny), BSR (Liberating Cloud City) and Matt Surman (Rebel Agent) to mention a few.

Or maybe you did, I didn't watch the entire video. Funky stuff, though.

Or Ryan Bickhart for Imperial Siege on Derra IV! Man, that was the jazz.

Yes, some mods and other crazy stuff by these people. Guess I was a little too focused on levels. And I know it didn't begin in 2000, but of course because of the Massassi accident where everything disappeared and everything had to be put back with a starting date of 2000, I didn't feel like downloading everything just to open them and look at the readmes to find out their real date.
And my information was kinda based on "Best Rated Levels" here on Massassi (clicked levels, sort by rating, picked best looking screen for each year between 2000-2007).



Yes, very nice levels. Problem is that they are MotS levels. My focus here is mainly JK because of the eradication of quite a few limits and the nice scenary we've managed to do (Xzero). (Also that there are more levels around for JK than there are for MotS according to the Massassi list.)

Imperial Siege on Derra IV, yeah, that one was big and nice. Maybe my focus was a little too much on the MP side...
Anyways, more lists. Perhaps maybe highlights between 1998-2000?

/Edward
PS. Could anyone give me an exact release date on that Imperial Siege level?

I don't know any of those levels, and I've been around since the begining. I recognized most of the ones that Edward had in his video though, so at least he's on the right track

The addition of TDIR and other great mods would have been good too... did I see SBX in there? (If not - add it! :P)

Wouldn't exactly call that a problem, but indeed the greatest SP levels were made for MotS. Those few stock talking animations and colored lighting really did the trick.

True, MotS did come with a few speciallities, and those levels are great. Insemountable great in comparison with the original MotS story. But sadly the focus is on JK. I'll do a MotS "Hall of Fame" once we can do Xzero's image in it.

And as for TDIR, well, slight problem. I like Area 21 over TDIR (both 2001) for the reason that it was multipul DM levels in one (a first?), but I see there is a demand for TDIR (which I didn't quite understand how to handle).

Maybe I should put up some kind of poll for all the clashing levels...

/Edward

You have? What were you called before Xzero_Phoenix? When did you join? Your profile says 2006.

Too many names to count. Joined Massassi in 2004 with a different account. Was on the zone in 97, 2000 - end of it's life. I was there for some of 98 and 99 though.

I don't like the way it plays out, with a screenshot of the level HOMing around so that you can't see it even. Even with just a single screenshot, you don't really get a feel of any improvement. However, the last couple minutes was more like what I expected to see. If I were you, I'd try to put this together again taking gameplay footage from a whole bunch of levels progressing from 2000 to now so we can get a real feel.

What, no Killer Weapons Pack @ Empire Night Club?

KWP and Empire Night Club? Are you serious?

Yeah! Or JHS, Drazen Isle..... or Skydive j00 sob! But seriously, Drazen rocked everyone's world. Make the images still in your next vid- even for 3 seconds.

KWP and Empire Nightclub may have been fun, but they don't hold a candle to, say, some of the MLP levels.

JHS is interesting because, by most standards of gameplay and level design, it should be terrible. But somehow it manages to be fun. Well, with some mods at least.

Ok, thanks for the input you guys. And thanks for naming some levels here and there. But please try and give something that was IT for a specific year.



Yeah, I suppose someone will make a video like that. I'd probably do that as well except that it is tremendously tricky to merge together levels into one with 4-32 self-playing players in each, also (if I may spoil a bit) how to throw it into a "secret hall of fame" in an already large level...

Btw, looking for alternative images of Drazen Isle, I came across this.

/Edward

Uh, why not play the level yourself and take a screenshot?

It looks like a home made music video from the 80's. Rick Astley should have played Kyle.

If you want to look at what was hot then, try Level of the Week.

Ok. Gone through the Level of the week, and most of it was JKOutcast. But I did find a few things... Some ended up being tossups.

Place your votes!

/Edward

i always though JHS was terrible unless played with IWP 1/2 or KWP.

grapple hook FTW

SPORK

There were far more impressive levels than those featured in this video. You do have a few good ones though.

I think most of the ones mentioned are all good choices. I wouldn't skimp out on any level/mod for this video.

Yeah, I'm willing to bet we can make a good list, instead of "voting" on whatever.

If you make a video that's actually watchable, and choose good levels (including the Massassian Level Packs), this would be a nice little project.

what does HOM mean? Is it referring to that trailing effect?

HOM stands for Hall of Mirrors.

HOM occurs when a poor level design (or insufficient testing to catch and fix the HOM) causes JK to exceed it's limits for rendering level geometry. JK will render as much geometry as it can until it hits the limit, and the rest will not be rendered. This means part of the screen will not be updated. Because JK does not clear the screen before drawing, you see a bleed-through effect of whatever was on the screen last, instead of the level.

Now the flickering effect you see takes a little more technical understanding to explain. Back in the JK era, to draw to the screen with DirectX you usually had two surfaces, a primary and a secondary. The primary would be shown to the user, while the secondary was hidden. To draw a new frame, you'd draw it to the secondary surface... and then swap them to show the frame. This would prevent the user from seeing an incomplete frame.

JK does this, and the flicker is caused by different bleed-through effects on both surfaces, as they are switched once every frame.