UDK August 2011

JordanW

http://www.udk.com/news-beta-aug2011

I'm really excited about this release. UDK now has material functions which I think is going to be huge for anyone who makes materials. We also included a library of functions that we've made over the past month.

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


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6UkNN-LRi0&feature=player_detailpage#t=33s

at this point in the video you can see how using/editing functions work. You can place them like regular nodes and double click them to open and edit them.

ibarter

Damn that's really fucking cool

ZacD

I just finally downloaded july

xvampire

thats not terrain mesh right? it uses Advanced Vertex Blending material lol

ekimose

Materials Functions was a must in a game production pipeline! I'm happy to have it now... I would now love to see Deferred Rendering not only on DX11 so we could use real-time lighting on current generation consoles.

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Jesse Moody

MATERIAL FUNCTIONS FTW!!! Thanks for sharing Jordan. This is going to be VERY useful

Maph

Kickass update! Keep rocking Epic!
Love me some Material functions, being able to compound nodes is such a huge timesaver!

Also, agreed with ekimose; bring the deferred pipeline to DX9 as well plez!

Vailias

I'm psyched for the material functions for sure. Going to make a package I've been thinking of making to share even easier.

Edit: HA! and of course you went ahead and made the photoshop blend material functions as part of the update. Good on ya.

rasmus

Yeah, looking nice!

thatanimator

TeriyakiStyle wrote: »

The movie capture feature looks really handy.

hell yeah!
if nothing else, it would have stopped me from creating a thread or two in the tech talk section! :poly122:

Jeff Parrott

Wow, material functions a pretty big addition! Downloading now.

haiddasalami

Material functions is definitely an awesome addon. Its like material instances inside the material editor

Andreas

Because I'm stupid, I was putting off learning an engine until CryEngine came out; but until CryEngine gets settled and theres enough video documentation for it I'll jump on UDK, every month the release is substantial. The R&D guys and programmers must be really busy!

Oniram

im so glad video output is finally an option. though i may still use benchmark for higher-res stuff.

PogoP

Good stuff, I hate all the math and technical wizardry behind games engines, it's a bit of a roadblock for artists. Hopefully this should alleviate that a little!

Also, I really want to try Cryengine as well... I love the deferred lighting it has, it looks as good as if not better than UDK. UDK needs to get off the 'baked lighting' band wagon, it's so last year!

EmAr

ZacD wrote: »

I just finally downloaded july

same here lol material functions look too good to not download though

Andreas

I'm not understanding why material functions are so good... can someone explain? What kind of application would it have.

JordanW

Andreas, MaterialFunctions let content people build their own nodes. For example I built a node that projects a texture in world space from all 3 axis and blends using the normal. You could also build a node for a special type of shading you want to share with other people. Another useful aspect of functions is being able to update the functionality of a node at a later date. So if you had a flame effect you need to put on multiple materials you can make a node for it, then later when you change your mind about the look or need to optimize you only have to edit the function and not the many materials you implemented it in.

The concept is nearly identical to functions in code. If you see youreself remaking the same tree of nodes over and over you should make a function for it.

VoxHousedotnet

I just made this video covering all the newest 2011 features of UDK (until this month).

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWNQMreJb8[/ame]

Hope you enjoy it.

EmAr

From what I understand from the video, it helps a lot when you are testing your networks. You know, you try and build a network of nodes, you plug it into the emissive slot to see if you got it the way you wanted. Then you unplug and adjust connections to get the final setup. You don't need to do that anymore. Just build parts of your network in a function and connect the function as you would in the final setup(the result slot). If you need to check if the function is doing what you want, just get into the function to see. No need to unplug and re-plug.

EDIT: better explanation two posts above, I type so slow

Andreas

Cool, thanks for the explanation guys Thanks for the video VoxHouse!

Alberto Rdrgz

That video was awesome! *coughdeferredlightingcough*

teaandcigarettes

Christmas came early this year. First CE3 and now UDK full of sweet updates.

You guys are crazy

Btw, in the part of the video when you show off the landscape tool I've noticed that the blending between layers look a little bit different. Did you add a support for blending masks? I know it was always possible, but the solution was a little bit "hacky" (using the Layer Weight nodes as a black and white mask and plugging them into Lerp as an alpha).

VoxHousedotnet

Who are you asking, tea? Does someone here work for Epic?

EmAr

VoxHousedotnet wrote: »

Who are you asking, tea? Does someone here work for Epic?

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49362

JordanW and many more polycounters work at Epic.

VoxHousedotnet

gotcha.. thx!

nervouspixels

This is probably obvious but is "landscape mode" used to create terrain for outdoor env's instead of "terrain editing mode" now?

Oniram

nervouspixels wrote: »

This is probably obvious but is "landscape mode" used to create terrain for outdoor env's instead of "terrain editing mode" now?

yup. its better.

VoxHousedotnet

The new landscape editor is a dream come true.