Title: New Danger Girl
Version: 2.00

Description: Danger Girl player model and skins for UT2004.

Filename: NewDangerGirl.zip

Team colors: All team colors supported

Release Date: August 1st 2004

Author of this version     : Orion(Co30), aka Mouse(Co30), aka Francois. Email Address : asimov_orion@videotron.ca

Original author            : David "Frag Cow" Coen.
First conversion for UT2003: Scott A. H. Ruggels
Skin authors               : Malcolm Andrieshyn, Scott A. H. Ruggels, Mark "Makk" Rowan, "Demon Princess"
Animations		   : Default "FEMALE_A" animations from the game.
Scott A. H. Ruggels email  : ruggels@rdwarf.com
David Coen email           : fish_dsc@yahoo.co.uk
Additional Credits to      : Epic Games and Digital Extremes for their  assetts such as the FEMALE ANIMATION_A, and
                             the Collision Ragdoll, and sounds.

Thanks to                  : Skullbox for technical assistance on importing the model into the game, and to Milla for
                             her shiny surface tutorial.


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Installation:

The following files go into your UT2004\Animations folder:

   LauraAnim.ukx, model with boots.
   LauraNueAnim.ukx, barefoot model.

The following files go into your UT2004\System folder:

   NDG_Abbey.upl
   NDG_Kelly.upl
   NDG_KellyNue.upl
   NDG_Laura.upl
   NDG_LauraNue.upl
   NDG_Layla.upl
   NDG_Makoto.upl
   NDG_Unpretty.upl

The following files go into your UT2004\Textures folder

   Abbey.utx
   Kelly.utx
   KellyNue.utx
   Laura.utx
   LauraNue.utx
   Layla.utx
   Makoto.utx
   Unpretty.utx

The following files are included to help in skinning the model.

   NDGBodyMap.jpg
   NDGBodyMapKey.jpg
   NDGHeadMap.jpg

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Creation:

Tools: iPhoto Express, UnrealEd v3.0 and MilkShape 3D v1.7.1
Construction Time: I lost track, a long time.

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Comments:

I liked the Danger Girl model for UT2003 when it first appeared. The character had no armor or other "add ons" that
can be so troublesome when making new skins. Danger Girl was only an unadorned body, hair and a pair of high eel
boots, what could be simpler and easier to skin than this?

However, Danger Girl as originally released had two problems. First, the six original skins didn't have team color
versions. That was no big deal, team colors are easy to do. The second problem was thornier. The boots and eyelashes
could not be retextured. That was because the model had four textures associated to it, instead of the two used by
UT2003 models. This meant that only the head and body textures could be reassigned, the boots and eyelashes one always
appeared as they were when last saved with the model itself. The only way to remedy this would be to retexture the
model, which I decided to do. I emailed Scott A. H. Ruggels to request the .psk file he made and he was kind enough
to send it to me.

I did the work with MilkShape 3D v1.7.0 and v1.7.1. The entire skin mapping was regrouped on a single texture and the
mappings of the boots were separated so they could be textured individually. This became the "body" skin. The
eyelashes were left on their own independant texture and they became the "head" skin. I then converted the original
six skins to the new format. Because I had kept the shapes of the original mappings unchanged, this was only a
question of cutting, scaling and pasting the original images. I also converted two nude skins hidden in the .utx
files, and I then made team color versions for all eight skins. I also made two versions on the model, one with
the boots and one without them. It is possible to make the boots invisible with masked textures, but I felt that
removing them altogether was a cleaner and better solution.

It was now time to try out the new model in the game. Frankly, it looked awful, not because of the skins but because
of the model itself. It was full of kinks, folds, spikes and spurs. That was a big disappointment. I finally traced
the problem to the fact that Scott had used 3dmax to make the model, while I was using Milkshape. In 3dmax, you can
specify "weight" on the influence a bone will have on a vertex. Milkshape does not support that feature yet, so all
weights on my retextured model were set to 100%, which meant that many vertices moved far too much and thus caused
the kinks and spurs. Bummer.

In the end, I had to manually rework the links between the mesh and the skeleton. This took a long time during which
UT2004 was released, which prompted me to complete the work for that game instead of UT2003. The final result is
quite good. The model does not move as well as it could with weighted vertices, but it does move well enough. I have
been closely watching Danger Girl bots in spectator mode, looking for trouble spots and found none. Normal moves
like running, walking, swimming, jumping, crouching and firing all look good, and so does the ragdoll. Only in some
special moves, like the animated taunts, will a problem show up, and even then it will be quite subtle. So I declare
the New Danger Girl finished I'm releasing her now. Someday, weighted vertices support will be added to Milkshape, or
I will start using 3dmax and I will perfect the mesh-skeleton link then. In the meantime, have fun.

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Copyright / Permissions:

UNREAL (c)1999 Epic Megagames, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.  Distributed by
GT Interactive Software, Inc. under license.  UNREAL and the UNREAL logo are
registered trademarks of Epic Megagames, Inc. All other trademarks and trade
names are properties of their respective owners. No copywrite infringement is
intended by the author of these skins.

The Animation  is the  default Human Female_A from the Unreal Tournament 2004 game and is the 
property of  Epic Games. The Skeleton is the default, made by Gwot. Unreal Tournament 2004 is a 
Registered Trademark of Epic Games. The models and associated skins are free to distribute as long as this 
note, and all the credits therein are included with the package. The models and included skins are not
to be used for commercial purposes.