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Unreal Developer Kit - MASTER THREAD

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  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    multiple materials are a problem on things that are repeated a lot. It adds another draw call so look at it like this:

    If you have a character that is only on screen twice and has two 2 calls instead of 1 your total draw calls went from 2 to 4, not bad.

    If you have a wall that is used 25 times on screen and has 2 draw calls instead of 1 your total draw calls went from 25 to 50, worse.
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    Alright, so I'll definitely make a better texture solution(have several assets share texture-sheet), I've been a bit puzzled, but I just read Kevin Johnstone's post on enviroments. That helped alot. Thanks for the response though! :poly121:
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    also consider using a vert blend to add a second material to a mesh without doing 2 mat ids, make a lerp and put your 2 materials in it blending on vert alpha, and then paint the verts on teh door black and wall white .
  • wisebrownmonkey
    Taz wrote: »
    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.

    Thank god for that. I was scratching my head for the longest time. I am in your debt. :)
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    Ok I saw that most light have a new version, the dominant ones. I'm doing an indoor scene, and I have 2 very large rooms. I'd like to have one dominant spotlight in both of them to cast shadows. I tried it out, and it works pretty smooth, the only thing is; when I view my scene in light complexity mode, most of the floor and some walls are red, where I only have used 2 lights.

    Is it really that bad to use 2 dominant spotlights, even if they are pretty far from eachother?
  • Fang
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    Fang polycounter lvl 7
    @Rhinokey: That sounds pretty cool, thanks
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    Osman, a surface can only be touched by 1 dominant light. So if you have bsp or a large static mesh spanning both rooms split it up.
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    Jordan: Another question for you...

    I have always tried to avoid decals when possible. I've never found any concrete evidence that they are hard on the system, but it's another one of those things I've heard to use sparingly. Would it make more sense to use decals for major cracks in walls or should I use material instances?
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    I usually go with what's easier to make at the moment and can get the best look, if they're thin accent cracks I'd go with a decal. If you need them to be deep heavy cracks I'd go with a vertex painted solution
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    luke wrote: »
    is it possible to select half a map and mirror it? how would i do this if i could?

    Are you trying to mirror BSP or static meshes?

    Edit: Cut my message off short hehe

    Anyway, I usually just select what I want, hold ALT and drag (it will duplicate everything selected) then I just rotate it. I'm sure there's an easier way though.
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    luke wrote: »
    ah ok, was wonder if there was an easier way, can you drag select static meshes? or only can select one at a time using crtl

    Yeah, you can drag select static meshes. As fas as I know, you can drag select anything :)
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    luke wrote: »
    ah i ment like how you do it ^^ just found out its crtl + alt, cheers

    Oh, sorry haha. If you updated your UDK to the new December build their is an option right beside the little eye with PIE under it. If you have that on, the ENTIRE piece of whatever you're selecting MUST be inside your drag select box. It's good to turn on if you have to make small selections. I think its on by default though...
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    Thanks Jordan, will be bugging you with more questions later hehe.
  • 00Zero
    Does lightmass calculate lightmaps with normal maps in mind? like in mirror's edge.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    00Zero wrote: »
    Does lightmass calculate lightmaps with normal maps in mind? like in mirror's edge.
    Mirrors Edge = Beast. And I am not sure.
  • DarthNater
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    DarthNater polycounter lvl 10
    00Zero wrote: »
    Does lightmass calculate lightmaps with normal maps in mind? like in mirror's edge.

    I believe it does, but someone may have to clarify this (wow that statement wasnt much help lol)
  • DEElekgolo
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    DEElekgolo interpolator
    Lamont wrote: »
    Mirrors Edge = Beast. And I am not sure.
    http://www.illuminatelabs.com/

    And yes, it takes normal maps into consideration.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    DEElekgolo wrote: »
    http://www.illuminatelabs.com/

    And yes, it takes normal maps into consideration.

    I think he means just for static lights. I know it does for dynamic. Like if you will see the result in the bakes. The way you can find out is just loading up a mesh with a normalmap run lightmass and look at the result.
  • 00Zero
    yea, tried it out, i dont think it does. or maybe my XY was wrong as far as normal map channels. X = right to left and Y = up for unreal right? havent used it in such a long time i forgot.
  • feanix
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    feanix polycounter lvl 7
    DEElekgolo wrote: »
    http://www.illuminatelabs.com/

    And yes, it takes normal maps into consideration.

    I'm not sure if you're referring to Beast or Lightmass when you say it does. Lightmass definitely does though.

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

    You can even use the IndirectNormalInfluenceBoost variable to conrol how much the normal maps affect the indirect lighting.
  • 00Zero
    ah, cool. thanks feanix.
  • Szark
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    Szark polycounter lvl 12
    Does anyone know of a basic material setup to get a rim lighting effect working?

    I've seen Neox's tf2 shading tutorial, but I was wondering if there was a simplified setup.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    This is in reference to someone asking about outputting movies from UnrealED/UDK. It can in fact render out frames, only when in Matinee mode:
    DumpMovie Command

    Unreal Engine 3 also provides the ability to render out each frame of the cinematic sequence to individual image files that can be composited into a single movie file in an external application. These standalone movie files could potentially be used for purpose of promoting a game or mod, taking legal issues into account of course, by making them available on the Internet or including them in commercials. The process is extremely simple once the cinematic is created. All you need to do is launch the game's executable file from the command line specifying the name of the map file the cinematic resides in followed by the -dumpmovie switch. This will cause a .BMP image file for each frame to be created inside of the Screenshots folder for the game. The -benchmark switch may also be used in addition to limit the game to running at 30 frames per second. If you wish to, you may also specify the resoultion to run the game at using the -ResX= and -ResY= switches. The full command would look something like this:

    ExampleGame CinematicsDemo -dumpmovie -benchmark -resx=1280 -resy=720

    This command would launch the ExampleGame running the CinematicsDemo map at a resolution of 1280x720 and at 30 frames per second while creating images of each frame.
  • larolaro
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    larolaro polycounter lvl 9
    Szark wrote: »
    Does anyone know of a basic material setup to get a rim lighting effect working?

    I've seen Neox's tf2 shading tutorial, but I was wondering if there was a simplified setup.

    Try this, nice and simple! :)

    To control the fall-off, just tweak the exponent in the fresnel node.

    screenshot003f.png
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    Lamont wrote: »
    This is in reference to someone asking about outputting movies from UnrealED/UDK. It can in fact render out frames, only when in Matinee mode:

    Thank you Lamont!! I knew Epic was gonna have this covered, great to see it's this easy!

    LaroLaro: and if you want the Fresnel Exponent to be accessible as a parameter in a MatInstance, leave it at 1 in the Fresnel Node, and manually power it to an external Scalar parameter.
  • Szark
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    Szark polycounter lvl 12
    larolaro wrote: »
    Try this, nice and simple! :)

    To control the fall-off, just tweak the exponent in the fresnel node.

    Thanks mate! Works great! :)
  • Daniel Doerksen
    http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8818/ahhf.jpg

    single point light, each square section is just copied over, not sure why the lighting isnt shading correctly, if i force dynamic its fine. why is the static lighting giving me that effect when its built?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Make sure you're not using vertex, or the lightmap UV's are set up right, there are so many things that could cause that. More info please.
  • Daniel Doerksen
    thanks for the tip on vertex lighting i didnt know udk uses it as default and that makes sence, i remember chris beluhn having a tutorial on that ill check it out
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    First: If your diffuse UV's are not 0-1 and unique it will not work right.
    Second: UDK is looking in the wrong place for UV data, change your UV channel in UDK to 0 if the UV's are 0-1 in UV channel 0.
    Three: 3DS Max/Maya UV is 1, 2, 3 etc. UDK is 0, 1, 2.

    Bitmap, can we start compiling info in the first post of this thread? Some info is getting buried in the posts.
  • Daniel Doerksen
    didnt edit that post in time
  • Daniel Doerksen
    man problem after problem with this floor. how do you go about error colouring if you get errors , is it by know what causes the problems or do the colours mean anything?

    http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7410/helpzz.jpg

    its all unique mapped,
  • Daniel Doerksen
    i woke up knowing what was wrong this morning, so its all good :) i guess the different colors are just to differentiate between more then one error
  • Razorb
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    Razorb polycounter lvl 15
    I dont know if anyone has posted these yet.. but i found them very helpful so far compared to most other videos ive seen! finally got some animations imported and playing ingame thanks to him.

    http://www.youtube.com/raven67854#g/u
  • AlanSMitchell
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    AlanSMitchell polycounter lvl 14
    Just really quickly I dunno if this is a double post or not but what is the naming convention for the collision in unreal

    was it UCX_objectname
    or was it UXC_objectname

    I always forget

    ^^;;
  • Ben Apuna
    It's UCX, there are a couple of other types as well, UBX and USP for box and sphere collision. There are some limitations on those, check that link if you're interested.
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    UCX, from UnrealConveX
  • 00Zero
    what about MCDCX? what are the differences? UBX is for a box, USP for sphere, and UCX for convex mesh primitive.

    Ben, that link says that you cant move the verts on a UBX mesh, it has to be a rectangular prism. But you can move them if its MCDCX.

    so which is better?
  • Ben Apuna
    MCDCX is the old naming convention from Unreal 2 days. Not sure how Unreal 3 handles them...

    Most of the time you just want to use UCX, I remember reading a long time ago that UBX and USP were more efficient collision methods, the main catch being they can't be used for detecting collisions with the player.
  • 00Zero
    hmm good to know. thanks
  • 00Zero
    is it possible to change the cubemap of objects based on their location? for example, if an object is in one volume, then it uses the reflection cube for that room. but if the same object is in another volume it uses the reflection cube for that room.

    would it be possible to set this up with kismet and volumes?
  • Ben Apuna
    I'm not certain but you should check the following material out.

    If you own Unreal Tournament 3 then open the map CTF-Nanoblack in the editor then the material M_NEC_Nanobolack_Liqiud_Master which resides in the package NEC-Nanoblack -> Materials.

    There's a section with the description World_Cubemap + the stuff above it which I believe will do something similar to what you want. It looks like it's essentially lerping between 7 different static cubemaps based on world position defined by a blend texture.

    Sorry I'm too lazy to screenshot the whole thing for you atm.
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    question for anyone who has the answer.

    in the material editor, if set a value for emissive, i am able to see what it does to the color of a material, but i am unable to see the bloom effect it gives off, which makes it hard for me to determine the strength. i am also unable to see this in the static mesh editor. the only time i can see the bloom from an emissive is if i am looking at the mesh or material in the Content Browser, or if i am looking at the mesh or material in the world with Game Mode enabled.

    is there any settings i can change to see bloom in the material editor and static mesh editor?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Oniram - since bloom is determined by the lights in your scene, this won't be possible. Could be wrong, but makes sense why you can't see it.
  • breakneck
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    breakneck polycounter lvl 13
    i'm getting weird shadow separation between my modular pieces, I hope someone can help.
    this is a shot of lighting only,
    each piece of floor and the facing wall show my problem.
    all i have in the scene is one directional light.
    lighting_problem_01.jpg

    -thanks for any help!
  • 00Zero
    Oniram - since bloom is determined by the lights in your scene, this won't be possible. Could be wrong, but makes sense why you can't see it.

    ive always been able to see the bloom from the emmisive map in the mat editor with the UT3 editor. but not in UDK.
  • 00Zero
    breakneck, what size are the lightmaps on the ground pieces there?

    i tried to find a solution, but the best i could do was change the lightmass quality to production, that makes it a lot less noticeable.
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    00Zero wrote: »
    ive always been able to see the bloom from the emmisive map in the mat editor with the UT3 editor. but not in UDK.


    yeah ut3 had no problem. but i dunno, maybe its just something they disabled in udk.
  • breakneck
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    breakneck polycounter lvl 13
    00Zero wrote: »
    breakneck, what size are the lightmaps on the ground pieces there?

    i tried to find a solution, but the best i could do was change the lightmass quality to production, that makes it a lot less noticeable.

    lightmass is set to 64. However, switching to production while building lights does fix the problem. should of tried that before I posted. thanks though!
  • brandoom
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    brandoom polycounter lvl 13
    Lamont wrote: »
    Make sure you're not using vertex, or the lightmap UV's are set up right, there are so many things that could cause that. More info please.

    Where might I find the option to unforce vertex lighting?
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