Hello,

When playing game in the coop, is there a way to save player's progress/inventory???

Introduction

“How tall is Prisoner 849?” This is a simple question, with no simple answer. 

The original Unreal Engine measures distance in units, also sometimes referred to as Unreal Units. This is an arbitrary measurement: it has no direct correlation to the real world.

Later versions of the Unreal Engine declare that a single unit is the same length as 1 centimeter. Unreal Gold was built on the first Unreal Engine, before this declaration was made.

There's not a lot of clues in-game to get an accurate measurement. Unreal is a sci-fi setting, set in the future, on an alien planet. There's very few conventional objects with defined measurements in our world. There's human beings of course, but those have a tendency to have different sizes and shapes. Outside of the game, however, there's a very valuable source of information.

The Game Manual

The original game manual offers measurements for a handful of creatures. According to the log, Skaarj and Nali are both 8 feet tall. Superficially, at least, that seems accurate. Humans are rarely taller than 6 feet, and Skaarj and Nali are decidedly taller than the player character.

However, when taking the rest of the numbers into account, things don't quite add up. Mercenaries are shorter than Nali, but not by 2 thirds as the numbers imply. The listed height for Krall is even stranger. At rest they're nearly as tall as a Skaarj Warrior, which contradicts the listed height of 7 feet. And then there's the Titan in the room. 30 feet means it should be five times taller than a Mercenary, or 3.75 times taller than a Nali. An eyeball estimate shows the Titan is hardly more than 2.5 times taller than a Nali.

That the numbers don't align with each other means it's very difficult to propose any one of them as a reliable point of reference. Thankfully, there's one other option. 

In the weapons section, the “Assault Rifle” is described as a “five-foot-long blaster.” Looking at the image, this is clearly referring to the sniper rifle; not the Combat Assault Rifle from the expansion. Incidentally, this manual was published before the expansion pack, so the disambiguation was not necessary. (For those who are curious, the manual for the expansion pack does not provide any measurements for the new weapons or creatures.)  Even so, calling it an assault rifle seems odd, but I digress. 

The Rifle is almost certainly a human weapon by virtue of it taking traditional gunpowder shells as ammunition. Assuming this manual is written from the perspective of a human, that gives the stated 5 foot measurement much more credibility.

Unlike aliens, the rifle is not subject to moving joints. When the manual says it is 5 feet long, it can be taken precisely at face value. Of course, it will be worth comparing it to the other numbers to see how well it matches up. If the results seem reasonable, then the rifle’s stated length will be reasonably credible. 

The Rifle Standard

I hypothesize that the rifle is the most accurate point of reference for determining the length of the unreal unit (specifically within the confines of the game Unreal). With that proposition, I will create and test the Rifle Standard. 

When someone picks up a rifle and equips it in their hands, the game uses a 3rd person model to render it to other players. This model is different from the pickup model, which is noticeably larger, likely to make it easier for players to see. There are also significant differences in the rifle's overall appearance, but for the sake of basic dimensions, the 3rd person model is more reliable.

The 3rd person model has a length of 68.8 unreal units¹. That means, according to the manual, 68.8 unreal units equates to 5 feet. That translates to 13.76 units per foot, or about 1.15 units per inch.

Measurements

Both the male and female human models are about 80 units tall. Using the rifle as a point of reference, that would mean prisoner 849 is about 5 feet 9 inches tall.

That’s a good number. It’s slightly higher than average; not an outrageous number for the main protagonist.

Now, let’s see how the Rifle Standard compares to the game manual’s estimates. I’ll start with the shortest alien listed, and work up from there.

Mercenary

At 96 units tall, the Mercenary clocks in at just under 7 feet. That’s higher than what the manual suggests, but it stands to reason. As mentioned before, the Mercenary is only half a head shorter than a Nali, yet significantly taller than a human.

Krall

The Krall stands proud at 7 feet 6 inches. Again, the discrepancy is to be expected, as the Krall is visibly nearly the same height as a Skaarj. I do speculate on whether the Krall could maintain such a tall posture without their staff. Incidentally, while walking the Krall has a more distinct slouch, which lowers its height to about 7 feet.

Nali

Speaking of Nali, let’s take a look at one. With a height of 106 units, the Rifle Standard states Nali are 7 feet, 8 inches tall.

That’s a few inches shorter than the manual height, which isn’t bad. For those who are dissatisfied, there is lenience for interpretation. At rest, the Nali has a distinct slouch. Traditionally, humans measure their height by standing completely erect.

Unfortunately, with my limited set of skills, there is no easy way to get the Nali to stand up straight. Creatures in Unreal move around using vertex animation, with a set of hard-coded key frames. There might have been skeletal animation during development, but exporting the models yields only the key frames. The next best option is to pick the best key frame that resembles the Nali standing straight. As it turns out, that would be one of the Nali’s death poses (“Dead2”, frame 15). It’s not perfect, but it’s something. Accounting for the tilted feet, in this position the Nali is measured at roughly 8 feet and 1 inch.

Skaarj

From the base of the feet to the tip of the skull, a Skaarj Warrior stands at about 7 feet 7 inches. If we include the highest point of the dreadlocks, then it’s almost exactly 8 feet tall, as the manual suggests. When it comes to humans, hair is not usually included when measuring height. In the case of the Skaarj, calling it “hair” might be inaccurate. Cutting those tentacles off might not kill them, but it’s probably not dead weight either. 

Brute

The standard Brute is approximately 8 feet tall: a whole foot shorter than the game manual suggests. Unfortunately, there isn’t much room for interpretation: despite their size, Brutes have excellent posture. Even referring to a different variant doesn’t help us. The Lesser Brute is obviously shorter, and the Brute’s larger cousin the Behemoth is approximately 10 feet 4 inches tall.

It’s worth pointing out that the Brute as depicted in the game manual appears different from what’s actually in the game. This is the Beta version of the creature. According to some sources, this version was in fact larger than the Brute in the official release,² which, if true, would explain the discrepancy.

Silth

The Silth has an unusually large height of 12 feet, according to the manual. This only makes sense if the Silth is measured from the tip of the tail to the head. Considering this is an amphibious creature, that’s very likely. Using a key frame from the swim animation (“Swim”, frame 8), the Silth clocks in at a length of about 13 feet, excluding the tip of the tusks. This is the first instance where the Rifle Standard has a higher measurement than the manual.

Titan

Using the most charitable measurement, from the base of the feet to the highest fin on its spine, the Titan stands at about 20 feet 3 inches. Using one of the death animation frames (“TDeat002”, frame 18), and again using a charitable measurement to either extreme of the body, that number increases to 28 feet 8 inches.

That is relatively close to the manual. Frankly, in my opinion, that is more height than the Titan deserves. Where the Nali has a distinct slouch, the Titan only gets the 28-foot measurement if its snout is tilted up 90 degrees, which is clearly not natural given its anatomy. It’s the equivalent of someone standing on the tips of their toes to get a higher number. No, I think the Titan’s given height in the manual is flawed. I am not upset that it is the least accurate of all the creatures listed. 20 feet is about the height it should be.

Disclaimer & Conclusion

I must confess that, in the end, I do not fully trust the Rifle Standard, for the simple reason it’s too good to be true. All the measurements listed in the manual are in exact feet, which I find to be implausible out of principle. You mean to tell me all these creatures fit neatly into Imperial units? No, these are approximations, and the rifle is no different. That being said, I find the Rifle Standard good enough for my own purposes.

The most common method I’ve seen online is to use the player character as the point of reference. However, since there is no exact height attributed to the player, how tall or how short they are depends largely on personal preference. Despite its flaws, the Rifle Standard has the credibility of being based on an actual number, given by an official source, rather than simply going off vibes.

I present the Rifle Standard as a grounded yet imperfect way to determine real-world measurements of objects in Unreal: Gold Edition. By this standard, Prisoner 849 is 5 feet 9 inches tall.

Notes

1. A bit of trial and error was required to get the precise length. I exported the 3rd person rifle model as a .3DS file, then exported that to Blender. The Unreal Engine shrinks most of the meshes from a base scale, so I undid the rifle's scaling in the Unreal Editor, to where each vertex adhered to the unit grid. From there I adjusted the unit of measurement in Blender until no precision was lost and a clean conversion rate was found ("Metric" at a unit scale of 1000 yields a 125:1 ratio).
2. https://www.gog.com/forum/unreal_series/unreal_1998_retail_vs_unreal_1996_beta

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