Migrating from Source to UE4 for level design
interpolator
Heyo, I'm trying to get into making levels in Unreal Engine, moving from CS:GO with Source. My biggest issue is how unintuitive it seems in Unreal. The BSP editor is lacking (in my opinion) when compared to Hammer/Source, and from my understanding you're supposed to construct your level almost entirely from mesh pieces?
Can anyone who does make levels in Unreal give me some pointers? What's your workflow, how do you model the maps, is there some BSP plugin that i'm unaware of, and so on. (Also i'm still on 4.11 due to bandwidth constraints, has stuff changed since then?)
Second thing is the lack of textures and decoration available in Unreal compared to CS:GO (well duh, i'm using a base engine vs modding a game), are there prop/texture packs i'm unaware of that you use? If I was to say map for Unreal Tournament would I be able to use props/textures from other maps like in CS:GO?
Sorry if this sounds a bit noobish, I'm very new to Unreal Engine and I haven't been able to find as many tutorials for UE4 (in regards to level creation) as I did for Source.
Can anyone who does make levels in Unreal give me some pointers? What's your workflow, how do you model the maps, is there some BSP plugin that i'm unaware of, and so on. (Also i'm still on 4.11 due to bandwidth constraints, has stuff changed since then?)
Second thing is the lack of textures and decoration available in Unreal compared to CS:GO (well duh, i'm using a base engine vs modding a game), are there prop/texture packs i'm unaware of that you use? If I was to say map for Unreal Tournament would I be able to use props/textures from other maps like in CS:GO?
Sorry if this sounds a bit noobish, I'm very new to Unreal Engine and I haven't been able to find as many tutorials for UE4 (in regards to level creation) as I did for Source.
Replies
Unreal has a new mesh editor on the horizon that hasn't been officially launched yet, but is available for testing:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Editor/VR/GDC2017/index.html
While the VR editor is mentioned, my understanding is this is a new tool set for non-VR users as well. I've seen posts from years back where people were complaining about BSP on the Unreal Forums. The official response was something along the lines of a Geometry 2.0 tool set to fix the problems. I think these new tools are that Geometry 2.0.
I haven't used it, but I also stumbled on this affordable add-on recently and thought it looked promising:
Personally, I've moved away from using BSP for blockout and am using Houdini Indie in conjunction with Houdini Engine. I'll admit, that's probably complete overkill for somebody looking to do simple, iterative level design though. The houdini engine integration is amazingly powerful, and one could theoretically make their own 3d modeling toolset for use in UE4, but it's not exactly a ready to go level editor.
Your bit on houdini for level design interests me though, I do have Houdini Apprentice, but I've only used it for messing around with particle FX and physics sims. Do you build the levels procedurally/parametrically, or do you do build it with the traditional method? What's the engine integration like? (e.g. does it auto-update meshes as you build in houdini.)
I have been trying to build a level in Unreal recently, Little street scene. It feels super awkward and tedious compared to source, even just doing basic blockout. Might just be a matter of getting accustommed to it. Having to build my own props annoys me though.
Thnaks again!
The short answer is you can use houdini engine to make both procedural/parametric assets, as well as traditional modeling assets. Houdini engine lets you make Houdini digital Assets (HDA). Those are basically just bundles of Houdini nodes with certain parameters exposed for easy editing. So an HDA could be a super sophisticated city generator, or it could be a single houdini surface operator node (SOP) that allows you to work with other HDAs or pieces of geometry as an input. To my knowledge, there's nothing to stop you from just creating an Extrude HDA that will extrude things within the Unreal editor, sort of like an extrude node would work in Houdini. With that said, your ability to select the faces/edges/points you want to extrude may be limited by the selection methods in Unreal.
As far as things updating automatically, there are two ways that could work. If you have a HDA that has a bunch of parameters exposed, you can edit those parameters in Unreal and it essentially updates automatically. You have created an asset that you can modify in engine, but it has to be baked into geometry for gameplay. It's not a runtime solution with parameters the player can change. A user could create a set of HDAs that are explicitly made for level design, and for that matter could probably mirror much of the functionality of how the Source editor works. (At least if somebody had the time and inclination).
Otherwise, if you choose to work in the Houdini editor. You can save out an HDA onto your hard drive, then import that HDA into Unreal, and as you make changes in Houdini, you just save the changes to the HDA, and in unreal you can choose to "recook" the HDA and it'll update the mesh you are working on. This is primarily how I've been working lately, because I'm working on an environment study of a pre-existing game. I'm replicating a finished project, and using houdini to help me block out the meshes and setup instancing. It's a reasonably nice workflow to bounce between Unreal and Houdini and just update the files, vs exporting and importing FBXs over and over.
This is definitely quite 'out there' by most artists standards, but it could be very worth while for you.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?94470-HammUEr-a-Hammer-Worldcraft-map-importer-for-Unreal-Engine
But you'll find using the Unreal Marketplace there are thousands of different things to use in maps, games, and levels. Most of it costs money, but there's top quality stuff in there.