You can take your files forward to a newer version but not backward to an older version.
I've moved my files to each newer version of UDK in succession, no problems so far.
EDIT:
I've moved files made with UT3 to UDK without any problems as well, though they weren't very complex just maps, static meshes, textures, and materials.
interesting.. perhaps then i shouldnt worry about that then.. i dunno what it was but when i made a package in the November release, i got errors when i brought it into december.. but i may as well give it a shot. thx.
Anyone getting the same screen/menu drawing nonsense? It's been going on for a month, and now I'm on a fresh install of Vista64 Ultimate. Still going. It's just really freakin' annoying, I can't see what I am trying to select.
I'm not having any draw issues here, Vista 64 as well.
You're not using the Nvidia 196.75 drivers are you? They might cause some major problems or even lead to hardware failure. I noticed you posted issues with Photoshop in another thread as well.
I'm running Nvidia 195.62 drivers without any problems.
I'm running 196.21. But before I was on 195's before I did the OS install. The issues started popping up a few weeks ago, I only just go around to posting about it :P.
The PS issue is all good. Just have to run Aero all the time.
Holy crap. I think I know what it could be. The last time I ran UDK was before I got my 295 videocard...
TO THE BAT-CAVE!!!!
**EDIT**
I found the issue: Multi GPU was enabled for UDK. So for UDK I changed it to single, and everything looks awesome. I'll go search UDK forums to see if this is an issue with other people.
this has prrrrrrrrobably been asked before plenty of times...
but i had a normalmap seam which was present because of UV islands (most people know the type) and seeing as it was on a cranium i simply blocked it out with 128,128,255. In the unreal viewer the seam is still present even though it was gone in all the max shaders.
Is there a common way of approaching this kind of ballsackdom? http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2861/fuckj.jpg
is it mirrored?
if so you might need to turn the geometry on your mesh.
seen this problem before with mirrored normal maps, once you turn the geometry accordingly it sorts it.
is it mirrored?
if so you might need to turn the geometry on your mesh.
seen this problem before with mirrored normal maps, once you turn the geometry accordingly it sorts it.
i'm using a dominant light to light my scene but my shadows are quite soft - here are the settings i have. not sure if they are right for my "sun" - not sure how to do it.
when i rotate it a bit so it breaks my lighting, it has the hard look but once i render lighting it goes soft
Sweet New UDK adds fbx import to the mix so i can use modo with unreal without any hacky side trips(click save click load yess). woot.
@Sampson
Try this. raise the lightmap rez of your geometry (default is rather soft but light in resources)
Right click, Surface Properties, lightmap resolution (for bsp)
ContentBrowser, double-click static mesh, change the value under lightmap resolution(for static meshes)
CAUTION try to be conservative, high rez lightmaps will kill rendertimes and performance.
Also lightmass bounces light around alot maybe dynamic light will give you what your looking for.
The Light Map Resolution setting of a static mesh seems to affect the accuracy of shadows cast by a dominant directional light but not the sharpness. Larger lightmaps do take up more memory and take longer to build.
I'm really sure how this works but here are some examples (Light Map Density overlay on top of Lit screengrabs):
~8192 x 8192 static mesh plane.
Light Map Resolution = 128
Light Map Resolution = 256
Light Map Resolution = 512
This section of the Lightmass article on UDN seems to explain it.
Sorry to say fbx out of Modo 401 doesn't quite work with UDK. Or at least it isn't working well for me. I'm not getting proper edge smoothing/hardening from Modo with fbx, baked vertex normals or not.
EDIT:
If you want to add your voice to speaking out about this here's a recent thread over at the Luxology forum that might be getting some traction with the developers over there.
Just make sure the light is using one lighting channel and the static mesh doesn't have that same lighting channel checked on, then the light shouldn't affect it.
As for cameras check out this tutorial on Hourences site, that might be what you are looking for.
Yeah that would be the problem then. You could give auto unwrap a try, but the results will probably be poor. Check out this post I made earlier on the subject, there are a couple of links to tutorials that should help.
Okay, I've been searching for hours on rigging in Maya for the UDK, and really haven't found much more than "get your custom rig here!" type info.
So here's my thought process/question:
I realize that you don't want any of the actual control rig connected to the bound skeleton when importing, so what am I supposed to do? Any skeleton I have ever built in the past is the control rig and is bound to the mesh. Unreal doesn't like that for varying reasons, so I've found out that I should make a dummy rig that is controlled by the control rig. Okay, there's my problem-- how might I constrain the bound rig to the control rig in Maya, that any keyframes assigned to the control rig for animation will translate to keyframes for the bound skeleton? Or does the UDK simply not care about actual keyframes when looking at the PSA file, but only cares about the location of the joints in 3D space throughout the timeline?
My thought is that if it is the latter, then all I would need to do is Parent Constraint the bound mesh joints to their Control Rig counterparts, that they will move when and where the Control Joints do. Is that wrong? How should I be doing it, then?
Also, if I am building this rig for a Total Conversion, should the Root joint always be at Origin?
If anyone has any links, books or DVDs on custom rigging for UDK they could share, I would greatly appreciate the help.
I got the basics on how to prepare and bake lightmaps but still pretty new to lightmap baking. The question I have is that does every object in my level have to be baked? Also I seem to have problems baking lightmaps from transparent or masked objects. Stuff like decals, puddles, etc. Any solutions?
lightmaps seem to be a common source of confusion, myself included. Anyone have a simple explanation for these questions.
1. when to use a lightmap?
2. how to make a lightmap? eg a max tutorial on how to set up the correct uv coordiantes, best unwrap etc
3. how to use this lightmap in udk?
I'd say use lightmaps when you need detailed shadows, and when you don't have enough verts to capture the amount of shadow detail you need with a vertex lit light map.
Also use them when they would be more memory efficient than vertex based light maps.
You don't have to light map everything but I'm not sure how well vertex based lightmaps retain all of the lightmass information.
Dynamicly lit objects don't need lightmap UVs either, but I bet you guys already know that, just putting it out there.
Making lightmap UV sets can be a pain. I've found a good way to start on them is to do your regular unwrap first then duplicate that one and edit the duplicate to get what you need. Usually all it takes at that point is some merging of a few shells, sparateing others, and re-laying them out so they all get some unique space with enough padding between each other.
Here's some lightmaping tutorials that go over the how and why of the process:
Sorry I haven't used the decal system or lit translucent materials much.
If you've got the Blend Mode of your material set to BLEND_Translucent, below that setting under the Translucency settings you could try to turn Cast Lit Translucency Shadow As Masked on to see if that helps.
More info on Tranluscent Shadows on UDN if that's the kind of thing you're going for.
To take some of the advice Ben gave on lightmaps further.
Don't use vert lightmaps, they look like ass and cant express the complex GI lighting that lightmass provides. They also can potentially be more memory intensive than lightmaps and they don't stream.
They also do not get the dominant light advantages of sharp shadows that blend correctly with the character shadow.
Ben you're like the Encyclopedia of Unreal. Thanks for all this useful information, lighting is real high on my list of things I can't do well and your info is really helping.
My vote would be for the info to go into the Wiki-- much easier to hunt down specific info if it has it's own page and a link within the Table of Contents.
And so my question doesn't get lost in the ether, Any TDs out there have any advice on rigging for the UDK? Original Post here.
My vote would be for the info to go into the Wiki-- much easier to hunt down specific info if it has it's own page and a link within the Table of Contents.
And so my question doesn't get lost in the ether, Any TDs out there have any advice on rigging for the UDK? Original Post here.
When I do rigs for UDK, I use a simple rig to drive the mesh, no IK/FK mixed in, and then a complex rig to drive that rig. No more than 4 influences per vert. When you are done, I always bake the keys even though there is an option in UDK export. If you've rigged before, there really isn't nothing new to learn really, just follow UnrealED's guidlines. Out of habit, I put my root at 0 90% of the time.
You just need to use Orient Constraints (look in the animation section under "Constraints") to match the movements from your control to your character rig. Then bake it down when you are ready to export. If you are doing a total conversion, then you set up your rig how you want. Keep in mind you won't be able to use the default UDK animation sets.
When I do rigs for UDK, I use a simple rig to drive the mesh, no IK/FK mixed in, and then a complex rig to drive that rig. No more than 4 influences per vert. When you are done, I always bake the keys even though there is an option in UDK export. If you've rigged before, there really isn't nothing new to learn really, just follow UnrealED's guidlines. Out of habit, I put my root at 0 90% of the time.
You just need to use Orient Constraints (look in the animation section under "Constraints") to match the movements from your control to your character rig. Then bake it down when you are ready to export. If you are doing a total conversion, then you set up your rig how you want. Keep in mind you won't be able to use the default UDK animation sets.
Awesome! Thanks for confirming my thoughts, and just in time too! I was just playing with the constraints on some of the joints to see which would work best (Orient, Parent, etc). Not 5 minutes ago, I figured I'd gamble on Orient Constraint until someone gave me an answer
That was my main concern, too. I figured the bound rig shouldn't have any controls or other influences aside from the constraint added to it, so I duplicated the skeleton I just built last night and am about to begin setting up the FK/IK and controls.
I have some very mild experience in rigging, but it's been a long time and never for a game-ready character until now, so I wanted to be sure I'm doing it right. I am keeping my root at origin, though, just because I've found it makes it easier to center the character in the engine, even though I have no intention of using the default anims.
I think all will be well when we switch over to the new polycount site. UDK/UE3 is supposed get it's own sub forum category at that time. Then information will be better organized and much easier to find by thread topic.
Adding the info to the wiki and/or first post is probably a good idea too.
Ben you're like the Encyclopedia of Unreal. Thanks for all this useful information, lighting is real high on my list of things I can't do well and your info is really helping.
Thanks, I'm glad the info I pass on is helping. I'm always learning new stuff about this engine too and with UDK it evolves a bit more every month. There are tons of aspects of Unreal that I have very little or obsolete experience with, but I suppose that's what keeps it interesting.
Is it possible to attach a volume to a player? What i want to do is have a sound bound to the player (sort of like radar) Tried looking online into attaching volumes to players...
havent had time to do much but just a quick question
how come when I bring in a static mesh with no lightmap uvs and I put it into one of the default ut3 levels with lightmass and build the lighting it still has a nice shadow?
I don't know, my models look completely black if I don't have any UVs mapped in the light map UV channel that I'm attempting to build light maps with using Lightmass.
Maybe it's building vertex based light maps? or set to use your regular texture map UV channel as it's light map UV channel.
Check you mesh in the static mesh viewer to make sure that the Light Map Coordinate Index is set to the proper UV channel. Unreal starts counting UV channels from 0.
I'm not sure what app you are using to make your stuff but a UV Unwrap modifier in Max set to channel 1 will be Coordinate Index 0 in UDK (channel 2 in Max will be Coordinate Index 1 in UDK and so on).
Also make sure the Light Map Resolution setting is set to a number higher than 0. Setting it to 0 will tell UDK to use vertex based lighting for that object's light maps.
One other thing to check is if the static mesh in the level is overriding it's own settings from the asset browser. Select your mesh in the level and press F4 to bring up it's properties. Scroll all the way to the bottom to the Override Light Map Res check box and make sure it's unchecked.
Note:
You can use that Override Light Map Res check box and related settings are useful to increase or decrease a specific instance of a static meshes' light map resolution where you need to within a level.
Alright, so I'm planning on modeling a water bottle, but I'm not sure on how to handle the translucency of the plastic. What's the best way I could achieve this? I'm not too familiar with shaders in unreal, and could use a little advice. Here's what I'm going for: http://www.geakz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/dasani-oldvsnew.jpg
Obviously, I'm not doing all the detailed swirly design stuff on it. Just flat plastic. Any takers?
Just wondering why the shadows dont look right in my UDK level.
Is this because my rocks are one sided? If so is there a fix to get "correct" lighting/shadows?
Do you have to build bsp behind the rocks to keep correct light calc?
I don't think you need two sided geometry or BSP on the other side to get proper lighting and shadows.
Are you using Lightmass with a Dominant Directional Light to build your lighting?
Is your Environment Color under the Lightmass Settings in the World Properites something other than black? That has a big impact on bounced light brightness.
Are you baking UV mapped light maps rather than vertex based light maps? It looks like you are baking vertex based light maps to me.
Do your objects have proper light map UVs on them?
Are you objects set to bake light maps to the proper UV channels?
I made a post one page back which has more info and some links to tutorials about this kind of stuff.
K So I got the sound attached and all. The sound is attached to a static mesh (ambientsound movable), the static mesh is hidden and has no collision so its just running in the background. Now its working in editor and ingame but doesnt play for other players.
I thought it might be because I have the sound saved within the file so I made a package and still same problem. Only the host can hear it and yeah the other players have the package and all. Am I missing something?
Yeah It has player only options but I tried without both and still nothing. Also tried adding a ambient sound in there and a simple sound. The simple sound worked perfectly just the ambientsound wasnt working. Was gonna try and post on udk forums but I need to be activated by an admin -.-
Replies
I've moved my files to each newer version of UDK in succession, no problems so far.
EDIT:
I've moved files made with UT3 to UDK without any problems as well, though they weren't very complex just maps, static meshes, textures, and materials.
You're not using the Nvidia 196.75 drivers are you? They might cause some major problems or even lead to hardware failure. I noticed you posted issues with Photoshop in another thread as well.
I'm running Nvidia 195.62 drivers without any problems.
The PS issue is all good. Just have to run Aero all the time.
Gonna keep Googlin' till I find an answer.
TO THE BAT-CAVE!!!!
**EDIT**
I found the issue: Multi GPU was enabled for UDK. So for UDK I changed it to single, and everything looks awesome. I'll go search UDK forums to see if this is an issue with other people.
but i had a normalmap seam which was present because of UV islands (most people know the type) and seeing as it was on a cranium i simply blocked it out with 128,128,255. In the unreal viewer the seam is still present even though it was gone in all the max shaders.
Is there a common way of approaching this kind of ballsackdom?
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2861/fuckj.jpg
if so you might need to turn the geometry on your mesh.
seen this problem before with mirrored normal maps, once you turn the geometry accordingly it sorts it.
nope. it's just a UV seam
when i rotate it a bit so it breaks my lighting, it has the hard look but once i render lighting it goes soft
@Sampson
Try this. raise the lightmap rez of your geometry (default is rather soft but light in resources)
Right click, Surface Properties, lightmap resolution (for bsp)
ContentBrowser, double-click static mesh, change the value under lightmap resolution(for static meshes)
CAUTION try to be conservative, high rez lightmaps will kill rendertimes and performance.
Also lightmass bounces light around alot maybe dynamic light will give you what your looking for.
You've got some pretty weird numbers plugged into the Lightmass settings of your dominant directional light.
Try setting:
Lightmass Settings
Indirect Lighting Saturation to 1.0
Indirect Lighting Scale to 1.0
Light Source Angle to 0.2
Shadow Exponent to 2
ImSlightlyBored:
The Light Map Resolution setting of a static mesh seems to affect the accuracy of shadows cast by a dominant directional light but not the sharpness. Larger lightmaps do take up more memory and take longer to build.
I'm really sure how this works but here are some examples (Light Map Density overlay on top of Lit screengrabs):
~8192 x 8192 static mesh plane.
Light Map Resolution = 128
Light Map Resolution = 256
Light Map Resolution = 512
This section of the Lightmass article on UDN seems to explain it.
3devo:
Sorry to say fbx out of Modo 401 doesn't quite work with UDK. Or at least it isn't working well for me. I'm not getting proper edge smoothing/hardening from Modo with fbx, baked vertex normals or not.
EDIT:
If you want to add your voice to speaking out about this here's a recent thread over at the Luxology forum that might be getting some traction with the developers over there.
i changed to your setttings looks exactly the same :S maybe its the way i let light into the scene? its a static mesh with a hole in it
yes i think this is exactly the problem see image below. its not baking the shadows well on my static meshes but it does on bsp
how to fix?
Thanks!
Have you set up proper lightmap UVs for those static meshes?
OBlastradiusO:
I think if you pair up objects and lights using the different lighting channels under their respective properties you can do it.
For lights the settings are in:
Light Properites -> Light -> Light Component -> LightComponent -> Lighting Channels
For static meshes the settings are in:
StaticMeshActorProperties -> StaticMeshActor -> Static Mesh Component -> Lighting -> Lighting Channels
Just make sure the light is using one lighting channel and the static mesh doesn't have that same lighting channel checked on, then the light shouldn't affect it.
As for cameras check out this tutorial on Hourences site, that might be what you are looking for.
So here's my thought process/question:
I realize that you don't want any of the actual control rig connected to the bound skeleton when importing, so what am I supposed to do? Any skeleton I have ever built in the past is the control rig and is bound to the mesh. Unreal doesn't like that for varying reasons, so I've found out that I should make a dummy rig that is controlled by the control rig. Okay, there's my problem-- how might I constrain the bound rig to the control rig in Maya, that any keyframes assigned to the control rig for animation will translate to keyframes for the bound skeleton? Or does the UDK simply not care about actual keyframes when looking at the PSA file, but only cares about the location of the joints in 3D space throughout the timeline?
My thought is that if it is the latter, then all I would need to do is Parent Constraint the bound mesh joints to their Control Rig counterparts, that they will move when and where the Control Joints do. Is that wrong? How should I be doing it, then?
Also, if I am building this rig for a Total Conversion, should the Root joint always be at Origin?
If anyone has any links, books or DVDs on custom rigging for UDK they could share, I would greatly appreciate the help.
1. when to use a lightmap?
2. how to make a lightmap? eg a max tutorial on how to set up the correct uv coordiantes, best unwrap etc
3. how to use this lightmap in udk?
Ive got some great udk tutorials already but most of them hardly mention lightmaps. heres the best bit of info Ive found so far http://eat3d.com/forum/general-discussion/creating-custom-lightmap-mesh-will-be-exported-udk
Also use them when they would be more memory efficient than vertex based light maps.
You don't have to light map everything but I'm not sure how well vertex based lightmaps retain all of the lightmass information.
Dynamicly lit objects don't need lightmap UVs either, but I bet you guys already know that, just putting it out there.
Making lightmap UV sets can be a pain. I've found a good way to start on them is to do your regular unwrap first then duplicate that one and edit the duplicate to get what you need. Usually all it takes at that point is some merging of a few shells, sparateing others, and re-laying them out so they all get some unique space with enough padding between each other.
Here's some lightmaping tutorials that go over the how and why of the process:
http://stephenjameson.com/tutorials/lightmap-uvs-tutorial/
- Keep in mind this tutorial was made for UT3, now with UDK you don't need padding around the outer edge of 0-1 UV space, you only need padding between each UV shell.
http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3lightmap.htm
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LightMapUnwrapping.html
It would also be a good idea to read up on how lightmass works:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3lightmass.htm
OBlastradiusO:
Sorry I haven't used the decal system or lit translucent materials much.
If you've got the Blend Mode of your material set to BLEND_Translucent, below that setting under the Translucency settings you could try to turn Cast Lit Translucency Shadow As Masked on to see if that helps.
More info on Tranluscent Shadows on UDN if that's the kind of thing you're going for.
EDIT:
Also related to all of this, a recent thread on light map resolution.
Don't use vert lightmaps, they look like ass and cant express the complex GI lighting that lightmass provides. They also can potentially be more memory intensive than lightmaps and they don't stream.
They also do not get the dominant light advantages of sharp shadows that blend correctly with the character shadow.
thanks Ben Apuna will check that out when I get to my next environment. Yeah lamont that would be cool or add it to the polycount wiki as well?
And so my question doesn't get lost in the ether, Any TDs out there have any advice on rigging for the UDK? Original Post here.
When I do rigs for UDK, I use a simple rig to drive the mesh, no IK/FK mixed in, and then a complex rig to drive that rig. No more than 4 influences per vert. When you are done, I always bake the keys even though there is an option in UDK export. If you've rigged before, there really isn't nothing new to learn really, just follow UnrealED's guidlines. Out of habit, I put my root at 0 90% of the time.
You just need to use Orient Constraints (look in the animation section under "Constraints") to match the movements from your control to your character rig. Then bake it down when you are ready to export. If you are doing a total conversion, then you set up your rig how you want. Keep in mind you won't be able to use the default UDK animation sets.
Awesome! Thanks for confirming my thoughts, and just in time too! I was just playing with the constraints on some of the joints to see which would work best (Orient, Parent, etc). Not 5 minutes ago, I figured I'd gamble on Orient Constraint until someone gave me an answer
That was my main concern, too. I figured the bound rig shouldn't have any controls or other influences aside from the constraint added to it, so I duplicated the skeleton I just built last night and am about to begin setting up the FK/IK and controls.
I have some very mild experience in rigging, but it's been a long time and never for a game-ready character until now, so I wanted to be sure I'm doing it right. I am keeping my root at origin, though, just because I've found it makes it easier to center the character in the engine, even though I have no intention of using the default anims.
Thanks again!
Adding the info to the wiki and/or first post is probably a good idea too.
Thanks, I'm glad the info I pass on is helping. I'm always learning new stuff about this engine too and with UDK it evolves a bit more every month. There are tons of aspects of Unreal that I have very little or obsolete experience with, but I suppose that's what keeps it interesting.
here the attached is just a post volume
EDIT: I was reading the thread and forgot about the Lightmass importancevolume, so it is working w00t!
It just a little dark at the moment so I have to play around with the settings.
Also my emissive isn't as glowy as it used to be in UT3 it just a solid color in Lit mode.
edit: I'm sure this varies depending on the actual size of the texture sample right? so lets say... 512x512
create 2 bones:
b_root
b_rotator
I parent rotator to root
I create a dummy and parent b_root to that
then put a freeze transform/zero position on b_root
I create two dummies (dummy 1 and 2) adjacent to b_root
I parent dummy 1 to dummy 2 and freeze transform/zero position on dummy 1
I then wire the xyz of the Zero controller of b_root to dummy 1
I animate dummy 1
I bring it all into Unreal and nothing moves. Acording to what I think is right this should work. Has anyone else seen this?
edit: what works is if I DONT parent b_root it's dummy and just put "XPosition -250" in the wiring parameters. That seems link of lame though.
See the image now. Thanks
how come when I bring in a static mesh with no lightmap uvs and I put it into one of the default ut3 levels with lightmass and build the lighting it still has a nice shadow?
Maybe it's building vertex based light maps? or set to use your regular texture map UV channel as it's light map UV channel.
Check you mesh in the static mesh viewer to make sure that the Light Map Coordinate Index is set to the proper UV channel. Unreal starts counting UV channels from 0.
I'm not sure what app you are using to make your stuff but a UV Unwrap modifier in Max set to channel 1 will be Coordinate Index 0 in UDK (channel 2 in Max will be Coordinate Index 1 in UDK and so on).
Also make sure the Light Map Resolution setting is set to a number higher than 0. Setting it to 0 will tell UDK to use vertex based lighting for that object's light maps.
One other thing to check is if the static mesh in the level is overriding it's own settings from the asset browser. Select your mesh in the level and press F4 to bring up it's properties. Scroll all the way to the bottom to the Override Light Map Res check box and make sure it's unchecked.
Note:
You can use that Override Light Map Res check box and related settings are useful to increase or decrease a specific instance of a static meshes' light map resolution where you need to within a level.
Obviously, I'm not doing all the detailed swirly design stuff on it. Just flat plastic. Any takers?
Is this because my rocks are one sided? If so is there a fix to get "correct" lighting/shadows?
Do you have to build bsp behind the rocks to keep correct light calc?
bAnimRotateOnly
I hate myself
I don't think you need two sided geometry or BSP on the other side to get proper lighting and shadows.
Are you using Lightmass with a Dominant Directional Light to build your lighting?
Is your Environment Color under the Lightmass Settings in the World Properites something other than black? That has a big impact on bounced light brightness.
Are you baking UV mapped light maps rather than vertex based light maps? It looks like you are baking vertex based light maps to me.
Do your objects have proper light map UVs on them?
Are you objects set to bake light maps to the proper UV channels?
I made a post one page back which has more info and some links to tutorials about this kind of stuff.
I thought it might be because I have the sound saved within the file so I made a package and still same problem. Only the host can hear it and yeah the other players have the package and all. Am I missing something?
heres my kismet screen: