| Meta article |
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| The following is a meta-article, which explains a concept which usually falls out of one of the wiki's categorizations, yet it's still important to explain something. |
Derezzing is the phenomenon that occurs when dead players, vehicles, turrets, weapons, etc. are removed from the map after a short period of time.
From a real-life perspective, the main reason derezzing occurs is to free up computer memory. Another reason is that growing amounts of dead bodies could influence gameplay.
Unreal and Return to Na Pali[]
In Unreal and RTNP, dead bodies are surrounded by small flies and then simply disappear. UnrealEd has also an effect that instead of flies uses rats, but this effect was never used in-game.
Unreal 2[]
In Unreal 2, fallen enemies lie for a short while, in some cases emitting a blue glow for a short while, indicating Shield reserves the player can use to refill their own supply if they are quick. Soon after, bodies sink into the floor or ground. This phenomenon is not explained in the story.
Enemies hit with explosive weapons are usually gibbed.
Unreal Tournament[]
In Unreal Tournament, bodies fall when killed, but can be gibbed with explosive weapons. Bodies just vanish after some time while the player isn't looking, unless there are more than three (by default; this number may be adjusted by the mapper) bodies in any particular zone of the map. In that case, bodies may disappear even while players see them.
Like bodies, dropped weapons just vanish after some time while the player isn't looking. A more in-depth explanation: the can-see check is first performed 15 seconds after the weapon landed on the floor and is repeated every 3 seconds, with a 10% chance of removing unseen weapons. In other words, keep an eye on a dropped weapon you've spotted if you want to pick it up.
Unreal Championship, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Unreal Tournament 2004[]
In UT2003 and UT2004, live players can be gibbed, but bodies cannot. Even gibbed players leave part of their lower body. This part, of the whole body, derezzes with a graphical effect that turns the body's surface translucent with pulsing green signal traces like those on a printed circuit board. The body slowly rises from the ground and soon disappears completely.
Dropped weapons disappear as they do in the original UT.
In UT2004, destroyed vehicles leave a burned chassis which simply disappears after a short while.
Unreal Tournament 3[]
In Unreal Tournament 3, bodies can be gibbed when alive or dead, like in the original UT. Dropped weapons also disappear in a similar manner.
In UT3, destroyed vehicles leave a burned chassis as well as a number of pieces broken of at the time the vehicle was fired upon. All the pieces soon disappear with a glowing, orange effect on the surface that looks somewhat like paper being burned.
Etymology[]
The verb "derez" comes from the film Tron, where it is a short form of the word "deresolution". If somebody or something is derezzed, it is destroyed.