Package Woes

jocose

At some point, I have no idea when, my map started saving as one giant .UDK file.

I only need this one file which is something like 100mb to open and see everything in map. I would really like to split the map off into its own file and have a septate package.

Does anyone have any idea how exactly this entire system works? I read through the docs on UDN on packages and didn't really see anything.

Any help would be much appreciated.

EDIT: I was able to move everything out of my map and into another package by using the rename and move option found in the right click menu. My guess is that's the best way to do it. This shrunk my map size down to a mere 400k.

However, now, whenever I load my map, I get an empty package in my packages list that has the same name as my map. Is this normal, or is there some way to remove this?

Ben Apuna

I think the package with the same name as the map is for storing light maps for static meshes after you build lighting.

jocose

Thanks for the reply Ben. Is there any way to specify a different package for the lightmaps than that one?

Ben Apuna

This is just speculation:

Maybe, but I don't think you'd want to do that. I think that package is really just a "pseudo" package to represent map related things like lightmaps in the content browser.

Or maybe the content browser just displays packages AND maps but doesn't really distinguish between the two and we just assume that everything is a package.

If you look at your actual files in windows explorer you'll notice that there is no mapname.upk (package) just a mapname.udk (map), or at least there shouldn't be one... UDK (Unreal) does not like things to have the same name even if they have different extensions.

Whenever I'm working on a map+package I name them mapname_map_iteration.udk and mapname_package.upk

But like I said all of that is really just speculation and how I work personally, the last time I tried to read the package documentation (2006ish) it just confused me :poly136:

jocose

lol, i'm in the same boat (being confused that is). Sort of surprised how ambiguous such a fundamental thing to UDK is.

gamedev

Yea Ben is pretty much right. UDK stores everything in the same way. Even though a map and a package have different extensions, UDK doesn't discern between the two. It doesn't really care about the extension, that's just for us humans.

Map specific items, things like lightmaps, are saved into the level file itself. You can view both maps and packages in the content browser provided they contain readable content such as lightmaps.

The ghost package you see in UDK is always there for me. I presume some sort of temp file. You'll see something similar when you create new packages as well.

Just be careful where you save stuff!

Lamont

Names are important in UDK. Always wise to properly name the resources. Never name the UPK the same name as the map name. Never name textures the same as other assets ie: Charactername.tga, Charactername.ase UDK sees it as Charactername. It got burned to disk and you're getting all kinds of errors.

AssetName_AssetType.ext is a good method.

Deleting files in Unreal was a pain. Making a mistake with a name meant NOT saving the package and opening it again.