Proto:Unreal/0.83 Prototypes/Levels

The October 3rd build comes with two levels made for Emissary, while the October 18th build has a single test level. This article only covers content related to Unreal, so the Emissary levels will not be shown.

Unreal.unr
Unreal.unr is a decent-sized test level that shows off the various lighting effects available in in the Unreal Engine at the time it was made. It shows off colored lighting, flashing lights, strobe effects, skyboxes and flashing, colored lighting.

The map itself is extremely basic. The player starts in a large box with yellowish lighting that connects to four other rooms. Three of them lead to large rooms that have a single color. Another one leads to a room with strobing red lights that leads to a room with yellow lights that rotate. The last room leads to a long path containing various lighting effects combined. There are no enemies and no items in this map.

The most interesting part about this map is that it has several textures that didn't appear in the final game. Textures from the scrapped SkyCity level, a previously-unknown area called the Marsh, and old Mine textures (which appeared in pre-release screenshots taken in 1996) appear in this map.

Other Levels
The Emissary archives that both versions of the 0.83 prototype came with contain many levels, most of them for Emissary. However, buried in Emissary's map files are three early Unreal levels designed in 1996; Batset, Seti, and Siobhan. All three of them were last modified on October 22nd, 1996. However, they were imported from earlier t3ds and compiled by the Emissary team for reference. The standalone t3ds show that siobhan was exported from 0.7 while seti from 0.82. Meaning Siobhan is actually older than this version of Seti. They work just fine when played with either version of 0.83.

Batset
Batset is the first of the three early Unreal levels included in the Emissary archives. It is a small, castle-themed level with multiple floor centered around a large, square area with water at its bottom. It is very incomplete, as it's filled with dead ends, rooms with nothing in them, and has no items.

The player starts on the third floor of the map. On the other side of where they start is a walkway just like the one they start out on. Near the player is a hallway that leads to a dead end. One of the walls between the two sides has a ledge that can be used to cross over. The ledge has a path that leads nowhere.

Seti
Seti is the first of the two, vaguely-Egypt levels worked on in 1996. This is easily the most complex and complete out of all the 1996 maps released.

The level starts in a large square room with pillars everywhere. This is a sundial-looking texture in the center of the room that has an Automag on it. Opposite of where you start is a clip pickup and a staircase that leads to a square room with an opening on the left and right. The right leads to a barebones room with a Quadshot on some sort of raised floor. The left leads to a long staircase that goes down. At the bottom of the staircase is a medium-sized room with a box of shotgun shells just chillin'. There is a door at the bottom of the staircase, but that'll be explored later.

That's all for Seti.

Siobhan
Siobhan is the last of the three levels made in 1996 that works with Unreal 0.83. This map uses the same textures that Seti uses.

The map starts off in a small room with unusual walls and a door on the other side. Near the door is an Automag. Past the door is a huge and tall octagon-shaped room with with a pillar in the center of it, a bridge connecting two walkways above where the player first enters the room, a small walkway leading to a door on the other side of where the player is and lava at the bottom. There is a switch behind the player, on the left side of the door, that lowers the bridge, allowing the player to reach the other side. However, this switch is timed and the bridge will revert to it's original position a few seconds after the switch is hit. When the player gets close to the door on the other side, the wall with writing on it that's to the left of the door will open, revealing a Quadshot and a box of shotgun shells. If the player jumps over and grabs the Quadshot, the wall behind the Quadshot will lower, exposing an alternate path into the next room.

There is nothing else in this map.

An earlier version of this map appeared in some pre-release screenshots. Comparisons between the pre-release screenshots and how they appear in the 0.83 prototype are below:

It seems that the version of Siobhan that appeared in 1996-era pre-release screenshots is from an earlier version of Siobhan than the one included in the Emissary archives. The pre-release screenshots show no shadows and a Brute in the statue room. There is no Brute in the 0.83 version of Siobhan's statue room.