UDK June Beta

Eric Chadwick · Jul 2010

In case you haven't seen it, lots of upgrades in June's UDK Beta:

Skel. mesh UVs
Improved bloom
New HUD tool
Custom normals

Click through to see the entire list of updates...

Oooh, multiple UVs and vert colors... I can't wait to see what Polycounters come up with after they get their hands on it!

Vertex Colors and Multiple UV Sets for Skeletal Meshes

Users can now import vertex colors with skeletal meshes and access them in materials.
Works with both the FBX importer and the latest ActorX plug-in.
Vertex colors only work for GPU-skinned meshes (for now).
Up to four UV sets will be taken when importing a skeletal mesh.
The skeletal mesh vertex buffer only uses the amount imported so as not to waste memory.

Bloom Improvements

New properties: BloomThreshold, BloomTint and BloomScreenBlendThreshold
Bloom blur kernels larger than 64 are now supported
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#Bloom improvements

Penumbra Scale

This option is very useful when trying to remove shadow artifacts when using a low resolution lightmap.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#Penumbra Scale

We've been pushing the next one here in the Polycount Forum and also here on the Polycount Wiki... and Epic has delivered!

Custom Normals with FBX

FBX importer now supports custom vertex normals

This is useful for 'combing' vertex normals on foliage, or when you need smooth lighting continuity between multiple meshes
To use this, first export normals (and/or tangents) using the FBX exporter in your modeling program
Next, enable the new 'Explicit Normals' option while importing the FBX file into UE3

New Tool for Visualizing Render Target Textures on the HUD

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisualizeTexture.html

Multiple UVs for Skeletal Meshes

Up to four UV sets per skeletal mesh is supported
Works with both the FBX importer and the latest ActorX plug-in
You can access these texture coordinates in materials assigned to your skeletal mesh

Game Caster Virtual Camera

Game Caster virtual camera support is ready to use
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MatineeUserGuide.html#Gamecaster Integration

This next one has potentially the biggest impact on productivity of them all... you know you want it...

Auto Texture Reimport

New 'Auto-Reimport Textures' feature that detects source art changes and re-imports automatically
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#Automatically re-import textures

Other New Features and Improvements

Major performance improvements, especially with shadows and animation
New per-level post process chain will override the single per-game chain if set
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#Per map post process chain.
Added one-bounce GI even for areas outside the Lightmass importance volume
Note that this is lower quality than bounced light within the volume
Physical Material Masks for material instances now available in the editor.
Support for Shader Model 2 and fallback materials has been removed
Fallback materials will be automatically deleted
Improved screen-space ambient occlusion with new 'AngleBasedSSAO' setting
This will yield better quality with same sample count
Improvements to skeletal mesh importing of 'alternate weight sets'
This allows vertex data to be shared between different weighted character rigs
The editor's Map Check tool will now also warn you about potential performance issues
Various minor improvements to Scaleform GFx workflow
Gamma correction has been disabled throughout the GFx pipeline in order to better match the output of Flash

UDKGame

DM-Deck has been updated with some new engine features
Added god rays, improved bloom, and a new sky!
Angle-based SSAO is now enabled in UDKGame by default (improved SSAO quality)
Made shield projectile-blocking consistent with the old behavior
Various minor cleanups to PlayerController, PlayerReplicationInfo and Pawn classes

Updated UDN pages

Additional notes, code samples and more are available at the Unreal Developer Network (UDN):
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitHome.html

Community links:

UDK LinkedIn user group: www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123
UDK on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429
Epic Games on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EpicGames
UDK forum on Polycount: www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=63

There you have it folks! A great update for what is already one of the most artist-friendly toolsets out there. What more could you ask for?

ngs616 · Jul 2010

I'm still using February's release! It appears to be time for an update.

Visceral · Jul 2010

Hurrm is this really news polycount? Wasnt this released some time ago? But still June Beta is cool. I still havent figured out how this paint custom normals thing work. I would loove to see a full step by step foilage making tutorial for the UDK.

Eric Chadwick · Jul 2010

Yeah, we're a bit late on this one, sorry folks! Still cool though.

I have something in the works for the bent normals thingy, should be really cool, stay tuned...

gamedev · Jul 2010

July UDK is out