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Unreal Developer Kit - MASTER THREAD

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  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    Tiros wrote: »
    So, this is more of a optimization kind of question. As I've never done a whole environment before I've never really encountered the problem.

    The preview of the level inside the editor and flying around the environment in the editor itself, with the lighting baked, is going perfectly smooth, absolutely no lag at all. However, once I save the level it starts lagging really bad.

    Could this be an issue with the lightmaps draining my performance or.. any ideas? *shrug*

    Still havn't solved the issue with the artifacts appearing everywhere either, but got it down to a respectable level. So might just have to go with it and hope it won't show that much once it's all done.

    No it's not the lightmaps. I remember somebody telling me they had this and it was something specfic causing it, can't remember what though.
  • DEElekgolo
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    DEElekgolo interpolator
    How can I get Kactors to float on my water volume?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    [iWi] wrote: »
    Do You think We can use UT 3 MALE.max to work properly in UDK ?

    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3CustomCharacters.html

    UDK BROWSER / UT GAME / CHARACTERS /CH ANIM HUMAN =
    ANIM SET - K ANIMHUMAN_BASEMALE
    Probably. I'd give it a shot. Just bind some simple geo to the skeleton, export and add the animations to it.
  • planaria
    so im in a bit of a pickle,

    i have 4 terrain heightmaps that i want to align perfectly inside of udk. i tried using the movement properties to do this but for one thing changing those values gives very odd and unpredictable results. secondly you cant say offset a 512x512 terrain heightmap chunk by 256 units ... because the terrain is much larger then that but nowhere can i find how large the terrain actually is so i cant actually offset any of the other terrains properly due to not even knowing how much to offset them by.

    also tried in display to offset them from origin but this is not optimal and is also quite buggy.

    anyone knows of a good way to line up 4 heightmaps in unreal ?

    and yes this will be used along side level streaming, probably using distance based stuff.
  • MRico
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    MRico polycounter lvl 10
    Hey guys I have a question...

    Is it possible to move the pivot point of static meshes that you import, inside of UDK?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Hey guys I have a question...

    Is it possible to move the pivot point of static meshes that you import, inside of UDK?
    Alt+Middle click to where you want it. OR... right click on the mesh and see the nice "Pivot" sub-menu under Transform. Now this is ONLY for stuff in the scene. You want to change your pivot for all, just re-export the model with where you want the pivot on 0,0,0.
  • MRico
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    MRico polycounter lvl 10
    Freaking awesome, thanks Lamont!
  • planaria
    is it possible to place objects via script or via kismet ?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    planaria wrote: »
    is it possible to place objects via script or via kismet ?
    Yes.
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    hahaha i thought about the same answer and decided that it would be too evil to say just yes

    i guess this post is not better...

    so for kismet, you can use a actor factory i guess, i'm not sure i don't have unreal open right now, but i think thats the way to do it with kismet, but then you need to place some dummies as locators for the spawnpoints
  • 00Zero
    Hey guys. thanks for all the tutorials and advice. theyre really great.

    I got the fracture working and all that, but how do i replace the default material on the inside bits of the chunks to something else?

    EDIT: ah, sorry. read it up on Hourences tut. must have missed it the first time.
  • kernersvillan
  • 00Zero
    When i add a core into a fracture object (concrete pillar with rebar inside), the rebar is dark after i blow away the concrete because when the lighting bakes, its inside the pillar. anybody have a workaround for this?

    do i just have to use a dynamic light just for this asset?
  • Ben Apuna
    Just re-posting a question that was asked in Technical Talk here to keep all the UDK related information together.
    ablaine wrote: »
    Okay, so I'm trying to set up my materials in UDK for this character I've been working on.. and I'm having a couple issues with it.

    First, I'm not sure how to make the metal armor on my character look more.. metallic. I have the specular set up.. I still need to create a quick gloss map... but is there any way to use a cube map for reflections for just those parts, or something? Just something to give them more of a reflective polished armor look?

    Also.. it doesn't look like the CH_base_all material that I have my MIC parented to will allow me to use alpha masks for hair and such. Will I need to create my own special shader for hair to allow for anistropy and alpha and two sided to be turned on? Does someone have an example of a hair shader tree I can look at?

    Thanks!
    Ben Apuna wrote: »
    Hi ablaine you should really ask these questions in the Unreal Developer Kit - MASTER THREAD, it helps keep all of this information together in one place.

    Here's a tutorial from UDN on how to get nice highlights using a cube map, just scroll down to the "Cube Maps with HDR" section. You can probably use your specular or gloss map as a mask for your cube map.

    Your going to have to use a pretty generic cube map on your character as cube maps aren't inherently dynamic. A regular cube map represents reflections from one specific location which won't move with your character. I have seen a material in one of Epic's levels that switched cube maps based on world position, but I can't remember which one it was. Xoliul has been trying to get real time reflections to work with a car, you should PM him to see if he got it working yet.

    Here's a Anisotropic Shader For Hair tutorial.
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    00Zero wrote: »
    When i add a core into a fracture object (concrete pillar with rebar inside), the rebar is dark after i blow away the concrete because when the lighting bakes, its inside the pillar. anybody have a workaround for this?

    do i just have to use a dynamic light just for this asset?


    is the rebar and the pillar the same mesh?

    i was having that same problem except with cloth. when i had a tearable cloth, after shooting at it a bit, it would turn black. anyone found a reason for this?

    also, i wanted to know.. regarding the december beta.. i now have 2 folders in my C > UDK

    one is labeled
    UDK-2009-11-12 and
    UDK-2009-12

    they are both roughly the same size.. 1.24 and 1.04 gb.

    should i delete the first installation?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Oniram wrote: »
    also, i wanted to know.. regarding the december beta.. i now have 2 folders in my C > UDK

    one is labeled
    UDK-2009-11-12 and
    UDK-2009-12

    they are both roughly the same size.. 1.24 and 1.04 gb.

    should i delete the first installation?
    If there is anything in there you want to keep, remove it before you do. I personally make a UDK install per assignment. If it's personal work, it has it's own install (modded ini's and the like). I have a second install for work (again, different ini's). and a 3rd install for me messing around and learning things and experimentation. All of them have the install stripped down to the bare minimum.
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    oh ok. i dont really have anything important other than a few test scenes. i just wanted to know if one effected the other.
  • Adam L. Gray
    Pheeeew, nvm, solved it! :D
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    could you tell us how u fixed it?
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    also. this may be a frequently asked question, and if it is, feel free to redirect me to a post with the answer.. but here goes..

    im working in UDK and i would like my mesh (whether it be static, fracture, or phisx), to collide with a water volume in such a way that it would actually float, or bobble in the water, not just hit the volume and stay on top.

    is this possible?
  • Adam L. Gray
    Well, if you're referring to how I solved my own problem, being that my package got treated as a map, and that my map caused UDK to crash while loading it, then that was simply a case of re-installing. Got the same issue just a few hours later and had to re-install it again.

    Seems to solve it, but I would rather have a perma fix. Seems to be a bug with the new UDK 12 beta.
  • 00Zero
    So is it bad practice to have your package be same name as your map so that you can just open and save your map and it automatically does the same for your package? or should i keep my stuff in separate packages and load them first before opening my map?
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    If you put your packages in the UDK content folder and your maps in the maps folder, when you load the map it will load all associated packages regardless of their name.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    00Zero wrote: »
    So is it bad practice to have your package be same name as your map so that you can just open and save your map and it automatically does the same for your package? or should i keep my stuff in separate packages and load them first before opening my map?
    Unique names for everything is good.

    You name your static mesh Killerdude, and your texture Killerdude, might get screwed up at cook time. Your Map should be XX-Mapname.udk (XX = whatever you set up). Your UPK should be something different that let's you and other people know what the contents are.

    Yeah, I noticed the poster did not properly place the UPK/Package in the correct folder.
  • wisebrownmonkey
    what does "generated/imported vertex count ratio (17998/7012) exceeds expected percentage (156.67 percent vs 25.000 percent expected) " mean? I'm importing a model in.
  • 00Zero
    what does "generated/imported vertex count ratio (17998/7012) exceeds expected percentage (156.67 percent vs 25.000 percent expected) " mean? I'm importing a model in.

    I get this too. Seems like almost all the models i import. well, they were just test models.

    Anybody know?
  • 00Zero
    Anybody else getting the Environment Color to bleed into the corners and edges of both bsp and staticmeshes?

    If i go to View>World Properties and set my Environment Color to something crazy like green or blue (just to test out what the effects of it are), i get green bleeding into my corners, even though its an airtight bsp room. it looks almost like SSAO but its the color of the Environment Color in the Lightmass Settings in World Info.

    I'm downloading the December release of UDK to see if it fixes that problem.

    EDIT: Setting it to black seems like the only way to "fix it". It doesnt really fix it, but black makes more sense in corners. just sometimes it appears in corners it shouldnt and it looks like a flaw.
  • 00Zero
    this is whati mean.

    the lightmap res for the bsp is at 1. the round pillars are static meshes. i dont believe its a padding issue. its just somehow bleeding through.

    environmentbleeding.jpg
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    Does your BSP have thickness(like a box instead of a plane)? If not it should. And a quick fix is to just put a shell around the planes if you don't want to give them thickness :)
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    how do i set an object where it does not bake a lightmap? to it,
  • Kovac
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    Kovac polycounter lvl 18
    EDIT: Rhino, could you go into more detail of what effect you're trying to get from this?

    http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3lightmap.htm

    does a good job explaining varying lightmap resolutions.
  • Gannon
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    Gannon interpolator
    00Zero wrote: »
    I get this too. Seems like almost all the models i import. well, they were just test models.

    Anybody know?


    I'm having the same issue, it doesn't let me rotate or do anything with my models that I import either :-/. Just came across this so I'm gonna play around with it a bit.
  • 00Zero
    I'm having the same issue, it doesn't let me rotate or do anything with my models that I import either :-/. Just came across this so I'm gonna play around with it a bit.
    I can rotate and move mine just fine. I just get that message, but everything is fine otherwise.

    Does anybody still use subtractive levels? hehe.

    mine was subtractive in that green bleeding example. maybe thats why. ill try additive and post a result

    EDIT: BINGO! thanks jordan. I made another level that was additive this time and i didnt get the bleed through. Yea, that make sense now. if its subtractive, the walls are pretty much planes. thanks.
  • Gannon
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    Gannon interpolator
    A quick restart of the UDK let me start moving things around again, but i've looked my mesh over and run a couple of clean ups to check. still not sure why it's throwing me this message.

  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    instead of that detail you should try an do something like the crazy shaders ppl are posting in this thread.
  • Sean VanGorder
    I'm just beginning to learn how to work with engines, so I'm not really sure how expensive some things are. Is it realistic for all the fire in the level I'm working on to give off realistic flickering light? Or should I just scratch that idea?
  • Gannon
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    Gannon interpolator
    sXe Seany wrote: »
    I'm just beginning to learn how to work with engines, so I'm not really sure how expensive some things are. Is it realistic for all the fire in the level I'm working on to give off realistic flickering light? Or should I just scratch that idea?

    Depends on how you set it up, and how many are in view, but it should be possible I believe. Not quite sure how to make it looks awesomely awesome with new lightmass but I know you can keyframe a light back and forth in intensity and size for a decent effect.
  • wisebrownmonkey
    rdmlegend wrote: »
    Depends on how you set it up, and how many are in view, but it should be possible I believe. Not quite sure how to make it looks awesomely awesome with new lightmass but I know you can keyframe a light back and forth in intensity and size for a decent effect.

    edit:quoted the wrong person

    if you look at the unreal tutorial videos it's in particles , the fourth fire video. By videos I mean the ones epic released for the unreal 3 the editor.
  • wisebrownmonkey
    I had this problem a while back and fixed I by importing into unreal then exporting it, reimporting into Maya then re exporting it to unreal. I was wondering if anyone else had this same problem. I was also wondering if maybe I modeled my tank wrong and shouldn't model it a certain way.

    The faces are facing the correct way
    Untitled-4-1.jpg
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Check the "opposite" flag in the attributes spreadsheet.

    Also, select that face and see if it's a quad. It could get fubared if it's not at the time it's exported.
  • AnimeAngel
    So the mod I am working on has decided that they want to port over to the Unreal engine. We were doing the HL2 engine but it is becoming very dated and we want to go with something a little more up to date. . I am sure there is a lot of things that will change from level design to modeling. Although, I think out of everyone on the team I am the only one that really sees that this could be a great switch but very problematic. I get the feeling that most of the others think they can just port it all over and everything will be golden but I do not subscribe to that philosophy.

    One of the issues I see is just in the level of detail in the maps. There is a big difference from unreal to HL2 assets and enviros. I think that the team thinks they can just flip a switch and everything that they ported over will suddenly be more detailed and look like it belongs in unreal. But I am pretty sure that is not the case at all.
    So I am just wondering if anyone here has made this kind of move before and what might some of the pitfalls of such a move? What are some things that we should do ahead of time to prepare for this move? And is there some way I can more clearly convey the work that will be involved in making such a switch.
  • Taz
    wisebrownmonkey: Check the scale of your model. I had the same issue and found it to because the scaling was way above the normal unreal units, by over 100x.
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    Question:
    How do I get a set-up like this below? I want to be able to assign 2 materials to my Static Mesh.

    Seems I need to have 2 elements, but I dunno how to, it always just imports as one Element.

    elmentsmatsCapture.JPG
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    Fang: is there a reason you want 2 materials on 1 mesh? It's a lot easier on the system to just have two different meshes.

    AnimeAngel: I made the exact same switch about 2 years ago (Source to UE3) and it was easy. You could probably up some of your texture resolutions if things look bad because our game ran a hell of a lot faster in UE3 than it did in Source. It's worth re working textures and meshes if you have the time.
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    @DarthNater: I am trying my hand at modular buildings, I could have two meshes, if that's recommended. It'd just be more slick from a level-design standpoint to have it one object.

    Ignore obvious smoothing group issues.

    wdCapture.JPG
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    Fang give your object in max a multi-subobject and assign 2 different numbers to the mesh. Make sure you have different bitmaps loaded for each or else .ase will optimize one out (lame).
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    @JordanW: Ah thank you, worked like a charm :)

    So should a 2 material setup be avoided or is it a feasible option?
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/UE3-07-ImportingMeshes.htm

    Shoot on down to number 8. I've never really used multiple materials on 1 mesh so I cannot speak for HOW bad it is, but I was always told to avoid it.

    The object you created really wouldn't need 2 materials. You could create the material contrast with just your textures.

    EDIT: You guys having that vertex count error on import, check that link and make sure you have the ASE exporter set up right. I've noticed odd errors if I had something checked/unchecked that should/shouldn't have been :)
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    The reason I'd like to do it this way is so that I can reuse my 'Wall Material' for each of my modular wall-pieces. Thanks for the link.
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    Well if that door isn't going to be opened, you could close that hole, re-use that wall and just overlay the door frame and door over the wall bits. If you want to get REALLY modular (Always look for ways to reuse!) you could even make the door a separate mesh and re use the door frame as window frame too :)
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