Rankin Remastered

A long time favorite map of mine from Unreal Tournament 2004 was Hourences' DM-Rankin. So what better map to consider for a remake/port to UT4 than the prolific factory! In this remaster, time has worn down the old factory, nature reclaiming its rusted remains - yet it remains a tight and embattled arena.

I started by bringing in the geo from the 2K4 map and remaking it with BSP to clean up player collision. My first pass was too large, leaving big empty spaces and lots of running in the open (a byproduct of UT2004's more floaty movement), so I adjusted some proportions in a second iteration to tighten up spacing and flow. UT4's enhanced mobility also adds lots of new paths through the map, making clearing the large open pits easier for the skilled player. Once the layout was cemented, I exported the BSP geo to Blender for refinement and reimported the polished level geo back into the engine as pieces and components.

A few additional changes were made as well; a new vent from the top of the hall down to shield belt, more cover on the ramps next to the link gun, additional ledges above the UDamage, a central pillar in the flooded lower area and wall jump paths overtop the shock arena.

This project was allotted about 2 weeks of work as of the second iteration, and with just one day over I consider that a success! The majority of the assets are marketplace sets kitbashed to make the majority of components, but a few custom meshes and materials were used to shore up highly particular areas of the map.

The map is available for download here: https://utcustomcontent.com/map/1840-DM-Rankin-Remastered
If you are looking to get UT4 yourself, check out https://ut4ever.org/

Credit to Hourences for the core layout from the original map, and Kevin Riepl for the music used (original from UT2004).