I am wondering if I can use animated textures in unreal. I know that I can use the panner and what not but I am looking more at say animated tracks on a plane or such.
Talbot looks like it might need some manual cutting of edges to ensure the hidden edges aren't acting screwed up? Your export settings look fine, same as mine lol.
I have a question too lol. If I'm making a building, is it better to import a building as one complete object or should I import one/two storeys of it and instance it to create more floors? Would each instance have a unique lightmap?
I'm playing with both methods at the moment and I'm favouring towards the one/two storey import because I can make the buildings as tall/short as I need to vary up the scene. I'm wondering if I'll get a major performance hit or not seeing as their just instancing the geometry?
So here is my problem. When I decided to import a door I made in 3ds max in the UT3 editor... I experienced some odd stretching of geometry.
Here is the wireframe in 3ds max.
Here are the 3ds max export settings.
Anyone know what is going on?
Yes you need to turn your triangles so that they are draw in the other direction. That black line usually means that you have geometry that is lying on top of one another/ to close to give accurate vertex lighting.
carlo_C it wouldn't be a bad idea to do both. Create legos to put the buildings together in game but also throw together some assembled buildings that maybe have less polygons so that you can use them in the distance.
Talbot looks like it might need some manual cutting of edges to ensure the hidden edges aren't acting screwed up? Your export settings look fine, same as mine lol.
I have a question too lol. If I'm making a building, is it better to import a building as one complete object or should I import one/two storeys of it and instance it to create more floors? Would each instance have a unique lightmap?
I'm playing with both methods at the moment and I'm favouring towards the one/two storey import because I can make the buildings as tall/short as I need to vary up the scene. I'm wondering if I'll get a major performance hit or not seeing as their just instancing the geometry?
The one/two story method is going to be your best bet as one it will have fewer verts and two your light maps will look way better as you will have less mesh area to map so your light maps will look higher rez.
As for the instancing of light maps, AFAIK they will not be instanced as you each light map will have different shadow and light information as the light will be coming in from different directions/ sources.
Hey just a real quick find that I think you all might like. NVIDA has made some video tutorials that explain in depth how to use the PhysX system inside of unreal 3.0.
The videos are really well done the only thing that I have noticed is that the version of unreal they use, "3.5" is not what is readily available to the public to use. I have been following along using the Unreal Tournament 3.0 editor and everything has been pretty close to what they have minus a few check mark boxes.
3.5 I hope will be shipping with the big Unreal update soon.
I don't think so as the code changes from 3.0 to 3.5 are massive so if a code merge was done it could break a lot of stuff causing a massive re-work of the scripts but I could be wrong and hope that I am.
I bought Mirrors Edge hopping that it would have an editor as its made using unreal 3.5 but no matter what I did I could not get the editor to come up. I can see all the editor files and editor.INI files. But I think they stripped out the code that allows you to access the editor.
Hehehe, yeah, I was willing to buy Mirrors Edge twice (PC and PS3) if it came with the editor... which means Beast .
Haha I have gotten so many games just so I can use the editor. Actually I have never really truly played any unreal game. I just like using the engine because of all the stuff you can do with it.
Well, if you've used Turtle, then Beast is no different. It has a few quirks, but it's something I can put up with for the results.
I just looked into Beast and Damn I have to say that is the shiznit. Ray traced soft shadows through static meshes alpha's!!!!! OMG that is so cool I wish my studio was using this uber uber cool tool.
Ohh BTW I did not know mirrors edge was unreal 3.5 till I looked at the shader libary and say the ambient occulsion shader. But since it uses Beast I can see why it did not ship with the editor.
well in the end what beast gives you is directional lightmaps, so i guess you could easily ship a game with editor and those lightmaps without shipping beast too, just modding would suck quite a bit as you'll never get the same lighting quality
well in the end what beast gives you is directional lightmaps, so i guess you could easily ship a game with editor and those lightmaps without shipping beast too, just modding would suck quite a bit as you'll never get the same lighting quality
Wait I am losing you here as I have never used beast but your saying that its only true power is over the direction of light maps. Like you can control where they are going to come from and what lights source is cast them?
On the website for beast its says that it can do a whole lot more than that. I am just curious as I have never used it but what I read about it on the site it seamed pretty cool.
Directional lightmaps are 3 lightmaps that are computed with the normalmap, so you get something from your normalmaps with static lighting. Unreal does the same, it's not just one lightmap, but unreal can't do the ao stuff, gi, colorbleeding etc.
afaik beast can create better lightmaps because of better rendering techniques, so you can just implement those lightmaps in our packages without a working copy of beast on the target platform
Directional lightmaps are 3 lightmaps that are computed with the normalmap, so you get something from your normalmaps with static lighting. Unreal does the same, it's not just one lightmap, but unreal can't do the ao stuff, gi, colorbleeding etc.
afaik beast can create better lightmaps because of better rendering techniques, so you can just implement those lightmaps in our packages without a working copy of beast on the target platform
Ah I see have you used it? If so can it really cast soft shadows through static meshes?
i baked it in maya and neox got it ingame... it's totally possible, as long as you get all the static models into maya for baking.. shitty workfolw, but without beast...
Ok sorry if this is a dumb question, I've searched everywhere, watched all the videos
that came with my collectors edition of UT3 etc but no luck.
And it seems really basic! But here goes:
I want to import an environment, the ground for instance. Do I import the ground as
a static mesh? Does it need to have a collision object with it?
I managed to import a ground object and made it have a collision object but I couldnt
add a player start option to it...
On Hourences site (the making of Krodan) he makes an environment
in Max but it doesnt seem to work for me. I dont want to use terrain or bsp, I'd jusr like to import an environment from Max.
Again sorry if this is like the dumbest question ever, I'm just not used to UE3!
Thankyou Neox - so the whole scene can be made with just static meshes?
And does the ground have to have a collision object applied to it?
Thanks for your help Neox:)
Yes it can but instead you might want to use a terrain actor as it is a little more optimized to work with than a huge Static Mesh and its collision hull.
Yes it can but instead you might want to use a terrain actor as it is a little more optimized to work with than a huge Static Mesh and its collision hull.
True. Also, if you have rolling hills and stuff, and you want collision, you're gonna run into an issue with Havok getting pissed about the number of collision primitives for that mesh. And possible crashes as well. Better to use the UED terrain like *BILLY$CLINT* said.
it really depends on what you are going for, you can't just use unreal terrain for all terrains possibilities, can't use it for airborn either, only on closed terrain parts, which aren't going to happen any time soon
thanks for the input people!
My reason for wanting to use imported mesh is that I'm having a bash at the comp over at game artist
and I think it stipulates that no bsp can be used. I'm guessing terrain is considered bsp?
Also, as it wont be a playable level but just an eyecandy piece (hopefully..!) it wont matter too much
that it isnt optimised properly. As long as I can manouever the player to a good spot for a clean
screenshot I'll be happy. And once I've got the process down I'll then concentrate doing it "properly" next time:)
Can anyone explain what a vector transform node in the material editor does? It seems to be changing the coordinate reference system?
I've been teaching myself unreal materials while I get some of my stuff set up in it, and everything is really straightforward so far (instant feedback rules!), but I hit a block when I was trying to get some reflections on my building windows. No amount of guess n test seemed to work, but finally I stumbled across an unrelated tutorial that gave up the goods: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Image:Legacy_fakeSkyBoxMaterial.jpeg
So I understand why I want to flip the Z - it's upside down otherwise. By why do I need to switch the coordinate system to world coords first? What do these vectors default to?
Also, what's the difference between the reflection vector and camera vector? It seems that they simply have opposite signs in the X and Z initially, but with some testing (passing each through a worldspace vector transform then multiplying with a vector of 1's and -1's) it appears that once I get them facing the same direction, the reflection vector will give me strange compression artifacts at the edges of my reflection mask, while the camera vector will not.
reflection vector takes in to account objects normals (inc normal maps), camera vector doesnt
is one difference anyway
and yeah vector transform can transform a vector you put in, so if you put in a camera vector node and transform it, you can change it to local space/world space/etc space and so on
think if you force a normal map to world transform its useful for faking lighting sources but dont hold me to that
thanks for the input people!
My reason for wanting to use imported mesh is that I'm having a bash at the comp over at game artist
and I think it stipulates that no bsp can be used. I'm guessing terrain is considered bsp?
Also, as it wont be a playable level but just an eyecandy piece (hopefully..!) it wont matter too much
that it isnt optimised properly. As long as I can manouever the player to a good spot for a clean
screenshot I'll be happy. And once I've got the process down I'll then concentrate doing it "properly" next time:)
thanks again:)
No terrain is not BSP or even remotely related to terrain so you should be good to use it. As for making a "Eye Candy" level don't go to crazy on the triangles and the materials.
Just some food for though...The more practice you get making something that is awesome 'Eye Candy' and runs at an decent frame rate the better off you will be. I cant tell you how many times I have talked to students or seen demo reels that show me great work but its totally unusable in any game engine as its to high poly. So don't do it later when you can do it now you will be better off.
Thanks *Billy$ - I hear what you're saying and intend to follow that process.
I'm using waaay less polys than are available, lightmaps are tiny and it looks
ok so far with the first building in. I've only worked with an in house engine
before that used normals etc but...well it was a strange beast heheh.
Just trying to get a feel for it and you guys are a great help, thankyou:thumbup:
Stupid question here: how do I open the console? I'm trying to take screenshots with 'tiledshot' but typing it into the dropdown box in the bottom left and hitting enter does nothing that I can see. Hitting tilde or tab as this page suggests also seems to do nothing.
Stupid question here: how do I open the console? I'm trying to take screenshots with 'tiledshot' but typing it into the dropdown box in the bottom left and hitting enter does nothing that I can see. Hitting tilde or tab as this page suggests also seems to do nothing.
Suggestions?
ummm, are you in game, or just in the editor? If in game, make sure you name your level "DM-something" that way unreal will recognize it as a deathmatch map and allow you to open console n all that fun stuff
What requirement does this refer to specifically? I dont understand why terrain cannot be used in open parts? Can you explain the open / closed parameters?
ummm, are you in game, or just in the editor? If in game, make sure you name your level "DM-something" that way unreal will recognize it as a deathmatch map and allow you to open console n all that fun stuff
D'oh! I knew it would turn out to be a stupid question. I was trying to do it from the editor, not the game itself. Jumping into spectator mode gives me a console when I hit tilde, as advertised.
What requirement does this refer to specifically? I dont understand why terrain cannot be used in open parts? Can you explain the open / closed parameters?
we want to create good looking floating islands, so unless it's a terrain where you can't see the outer rim from outside, and therefore a closed terrain, we can't use it.
I got one....anybody know If its possible to adjust the field of view/depth of field within unreal? I remember searching around on the udn a while ago and came up with nothing
you could also setup you own postprocess, you need to change the defaultengine.ini or something like that to load your postprocess package instead of the normal one
yeah for stuff like that it should all be in the default post process set up
camera FOV I'm not sure about, I know you can change it within matinee but it seems like a pain in the arse, theres probably a quick and easy way to change the fov with one input field tbh.
I know if you delve in to the ini's you can change the editor FOV and so on
edit: I actually have a question as well; anyone got a list of how expensive each shader widget is? Like, a table of what's more expensive in practical terms? I know that bump offset is quite nasty sometimes, but I'd like to know them all before I start writing large shaders.
hey duders, quick question in regards to particles. In cascade I am trying to get arching smoke trails off of debris. I have placeholder cube meshes spawning in place of the default alpha planes and got them to fly up and arch downwards and bounce and shit so thats all gravy.
I could have sworn ive seen it before where you can have particles spawn a trail of other particles but ill be damned if I can figure out how, iv tried adding a spawn node a trail node etc but nothing is happening.
any ideas fellas?
EDIT: found the answer over at 3D buzz on their free how do i? videos, you just gotta sign up to view them an awesome resource. just scroll down the vids section on the side menu and go to unreal tech. these dudes really know their shit, they made the ut3 collectors edition tut dvd.
I actually have a question as well; anyone got a list of how expensive each shader widget is? Like, a table of what's more expensive in practical terms? I know that bump offset is quite nasty sometimes, but I'd like to know them all before I start writing large shaders.
Not that I know of but inside of the material editor it will tell you how many instructions it takes to make the shader. For example when you look at a shader in the GB you should see at the bottom of the shader a number like 37/47 instructions with 3 textures. This is the amount of instructions that are needed to power the shader along with how many textures it uses.
I do know the LERP's are one of the most expensive things that you can use epically when it comes to terrain so stay away from those. Also don't forget that if you need to change the value(referring to using a vector to color of something) of something do it in Photoshop and not in the material editor as it will blot your shader.
yeah every little helps I guess, but can it not be cheaper some times to use a grayscale image (or even three/four in one texture call) and colour those in through constant 3's in the shader, rather than 3-4 seperate, full colour textures?
As for Lerps, didnt know that they're that expensive. Certainly I've seen terrain shaders be expensive But lerps are just really useful - can't really see a work around from them?
any idea on amount of instructions to aim for, as a general thing? I've always been aiming for 80 or under, as a sort of random figure, with 100+ giving me a heart attack. Obviously it all depends on shader complexity in viewport I suppose...
Replies
You can but its called a flip book.
Here is the wireframe in 3ds max.
Here are the 3ds max export settings.
Anyone know what is going on?
I have a question too lol. If I'm making a building, is it better to import a building as one complete object or should I import one/two storeys of it and instance it to create more floors? Would each instance have a unique lightmap?
I'm playing with both methods at the moment and I'm favouring towards the one/two storey import because I can make the buildings as tall/short as I need to vary up the scene. I'm wondering if I'll get a major performance hit or not seeing as their just instancing the geometry?
Yes you need to turn your triangles so that they are draw in the other direction. That black line usually means that you have geometry that is lying on top of one another/ to close to give accurate vertex lighting.
The one/two story method is going to be your best bet as one it will have fewer verts and two your light maps will look way better as you will have less mesh area to map so your light maps will look higher rez.
As for the instancing of light maps, AFAIK they will not be instanced as you each light map will have different shadow and light information as the light will be coming in from different directions/ sources.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/ue3_physx.html
The videos are really well done the only thing that I have noticed is that the version of unreal they use, "3.5" is not what is readily available to the public to use. I have been following along using the Unreal Tournament 3.0 editor and everything has been pretty close to what they have minus a few check mark boxes.
I don't think so as the code changes from 3.0 to 3.5 are massive so if a code merge was done it could break a lot of stuff causing a massive re-work of the scripts but I could be wrong and hope that I am.
I bought Mirrors Edge hopping that it would have an editor as its made using unreal 3.5 but no matter what I did I could not get the editor to come up. I can see all the editor files and editor.INI files. But I think they stripped out the code that allows you to access the editor.
Haha I have gotten so many games just so I can use the editor. Actually I have never really truly played any unreal game. I just like using the engine because of all the stuff you can do with it.
heard things about beast that make me not that eager to use it
I just looked into Beast and Damn I have to say that is the shiznit. Ray traced soft shadows through static meshes alpha's!!!!! OMG that is so cool I wish my studio was using this uber uber cool tool.
Ohh BTW I did not know mirrors edge was unreal 3.5 till I looked at the shader libary and say the ambient occulsion shader. But since it uses Beast I can see why it did not ship with the editor.
Wait I am losing you here as I have never used beast but your saying that its only true power is over the direction of light maps. Like you can control where they are going to come from and what lights source is cast them?
On the website for beast its says that it can do a whole lot more than that. I am just curious as I have never used it but what I read about it on the site it seamed pretty cool.
afaik beast can create better lightmaps because of better rendering techniques, so you can just implement those lightmaps in our packages without a working copy of beast on the target platform
Ah I see have you used it? If so can it really cast soft shadows through static meshes?
that came with my collectors edition of UT3 etc but no luck.
And it seems really basic! But here goes:
I want to import an environment, the ground for instance. Do I import the ground as
a static mesh? Does it need to have a collision object with it?
I managed to import a ground object and made it have a collision object but I couldnt
add a player start option to it...
On Hourences site (the making of Krodan) he makes an environment
in Max but it doesnt seem to work for me. I dont want to use terrain or bsp, I'd jusr like to import an environment from Max.
Again sorry if this is like the dumbest question ever, I'm just not used to UE3!
And does the ground have to have a collision object applied to it?
Thanks for your help Neox:)
Yes it can but instead you might want to use a terrain actor as it is a little more optimized to work with than a huge Static Mesh and its collision hull.
My reason for wanting to use imported mesh is that I'm having a bash at the comp over at game artist
and I think it stipulates that no bsp can be used. I'm guessing terrain is considered bsp?
Also, as it wont be a playable level but just an eyecandy piece (hopefully..!) it wont matter too much
that it isnt optimised properly. As long as I can manouever the player to a good spot for a clean
screenshot I'll be happy. And once I've got the process down I'll then concentrate doing it "properly" next time:)
thanks again:)
I've been teaching myself unreal materials while I get some of my stuff set up in it, and everything is really straightforward so far (instant feedback rules!), but I hit a block when I was trying to get some reflections on my building windows. No amount of guess n test seemed to work, but finally I stumbled across an unrelated tutorial that gave up the goods:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Image:Legacy_fakeSkyBoxMaterial.jpeg
So I understand why I want to flip the Z - it's upside down otherwise. By why do I need to switch the coordinate system to world coords first? What do these vectors default to?
Also, what's the difference between the reflection vector and camera vector? It seems that they simply have opposite signs in the X and Z initially, but with some testing (passing each through a worldspace vector transform then multiplying with a vector of 1's and -1's) it appears that once I get them facing the same direction, the reflection vector will give me strange compression artifacts at the edges of my reflection mask, while the camera vector will not.
I can post examples if that would help.
[edit]Example of artifacts
is one difference anyway
and yeah vector transform can transform a vector you put in, so if you put in a camera vector node and transform it, you can change it to local space/world space/etc space and so on
think if you force a normal map to world transform its useful for faking lighting sources but dont hold me to that
No terrain is not BSP or even remotely related to terrain so you should be good to use it. As for making a "Eye Candy" level don't go to crazy on the triangles and the materials.
Just some food for though...The more practice you get making something that is awesome 'Eye Candy' and runs at an decent frame rate the better off you will be. I cant tell you how many times I have talked to students or seen demo reels that show me great work but its totally unusable in any game engine as its to high poly. So don't do it later when you can do it now you will be better off.
I'm using waaay less polys than are available, lightmaps are tiny and it looks
ok so far with the first building in. I've only worked with an in house engine
before that used normals etc but...well it was a strange beast heheh.
Just trying to get a feel for it and you guys are a great help, thankyou:thumbup:
Suggestions?
ummm, are you in game, or just in the editor? If in game, make sure you name your level "DM-something" that way unreal will recognize it as a deathmatch map and allow you to open console n all that fun stuff
What requirement does this refer to specifically? I dont understand why terrain cannot be used in open parts? Can you explain the open / closed parameters?
Thanks for the help.
we want to create good looking floating islands, so unless it's a terrain where you can't see the outer rim from outside, and therefore a closed terrain, we can't use it.
view -> World Properties -> DefaultPostProcessSettings
or if you want to do it in a certain areas, use a PostProcessVolume to achieve that.
camera FOV I'm not sure about, I know you can change it within matinee but it seems like a pain in the arse, theres probably a quick and easy way to change the fov with one input field tbh.
I know if you delve in to the ini's you can change the editor FOV and so on
edit: I actually have a question as well; anyone got a list of how expensive each shader widget is? Like, a table of what's more expensive in practical terms? I know that bump offset is quite nasty sometimes, but I'd like to know them all before I start writing large shaders.
here you go: http://eat3d.com/free
I could have sworn ive seen it before where you can have particles spawn a trail of other particles but ill be damned if I can figure out how, iv tried adding a spawn node a trail node etc but nothing is happening.
any ideas fellas?
EDIT: found the answer over at 3D buzz on their free how do i? videos, you just gotta sign up to view them an awesome resource. just scroll down the vids section on the side menu and go to unreal tech. these dudes really know their shit, they made the ut3 collectors edition tut dvd.
Not that I know of but inside of the material editor it will tell you how many instructions it takes to make the shader. For example when you look at a shader in the GB you should see at the bottom of the shader a number like 37/47 instructions with 3 textures. This is the amount of instructions that are needed to power the shader along with how many textures it uses.
I do know the LERP's are one of the most expensive things that you can use epically when it comes to terrain so stay away from those. Also don't forget that if you need to change the value(referring to using a vector to color of something) of something do it in Photoshop and not in the material editor as it will blot your shader.
As for Lerps, didnt know that they're that expensive. Certainly I've seen terrain shaders be expensive
any idea on amount of instructions to aim for, as a general thing? I've always been aiming for 80 or under, as a sort of random figure, with 100+ giving me a heart attack. Obviously it all depends on shader complexity in viewport I suppose...