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Unreal Developer Kit - MASTER THREAD

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  • Rurouni Strife
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    Rurouni Strife polycounter lvl 10
    Ok sweet thanks Oniram. Just kinda...clutters up the package viewer stuff...whatever I'll deal.
  • Oniram
  • Revel
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    Revel interpolator
    Hi guys, I have no idea on how UDK works and interested in knowing more about it. Recently I downloaded the video tutorials from the UDK website page. After a long wait (internet is a bit slow in here) only I know that 1 of the file was corrupted, the file that I mention is:

    "01_-_User_Interface__03_MainToolbar__002_TranformationWidgetButtons.mp4"

    Under the 3D Buzz Video Tutorial - Using UDK/ User Interface section.
    So did any of you guys have downloaded that video before? if yes so please can you upload it just that video so that I can easily download it with not-so-big file size. Or is there any place I can download it separately from the rest of the video in the set?

    Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

    _Revel
  • sebas
  • Revel
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    Revel interpolator
    sebas
    Cool!..how come I forgot about YouTube?..lol
    Thanks man.

    _Revel
  • Will Faucher
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    Will Faucher polycounter lvl 12
    Is there any reason in particular as to why lightmass tends to totally destroy normal maps? When I use regular lighting it's fine, but once lightmass is checked, all my normal maps become super weak. I've tried adding a constant variable linked to a multiply node to boost the normal map values, but to no avail. The only way to get it working is to boost the normal map's intensity with crazybump.
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    try turning down diffuse boost, there's also a wold property called indirect normal scale.

    Its less apparent because there's light bouncing around rather than harsh 1 direction lighting
  • Chai
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    Chai polycounter lvl 17
    hey I'm really stuck with this.
    I have an isometric game, the camera is zoomed out so among other things dynamic shadows switch to low quality, and AO get turned off.

    Is there any way to turn this silly lighting LOD off ? it's pretty useless to use UDK for my project if I can't see any decent lighting and effect ...


    q_udk_shadowfade.jpg
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Change your light type? Move your assets to another lighting group?
  • Chai
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    Chai polycounter lvl 17
    Lamont wrote: »
    Change your light type? Move your assets to another lighting group?

    It doesn't matter what I do, because of the FOV the game thinks the camera is very far away ... it switches to lowest quality dynamic shadows and occlusion regardless of what lights or settings I use ...

    I'm really surprised there's no way to do this, there has to be a way to force occlusion always on for example.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Occlusion is a PPE, so that may be something to do with why the quality is so low on things further away from the camera. Will take a look at the PPE chain and see if there is anything that can be done.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    I'd start looking here...

    PPEChain.jpg

    And if that doesn't work, then we can take a look at the Material itself, just realize that this affects everything in UDK.
  • Chai
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    Chai polycounter lvl 17
    Thanks Lamont ! I didn't see the panel.
    I was able to turn off fading for AO, but unfortunately the quality is very bad (there's bizarre shadows everywhere)

    I think the main issue is that my FOV is low, and my camera is set way back, this screws the scene depth up which is crucial for AO and effects calculations. :(

    q_udk_shadowfade2.jpg
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    I'm new to the UDK, so forgive me if this seems like a stupid question.

    Is there a box selection feature that lets you select multiple objects at the same time in one of the viewports? As in, you click and drag and it makes a selection box and everything inside the box is selected?
  • Snight
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    Snight polycounter lvl 16
    No stupid questions here.

    Hold down Ctrl Alt and then left mouse drag to select objects. Hold down Ctrl Alt and right mouse drag to deselect objects. You can only do this in the Top, Side, or Front viewports.
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Chai wrote: »
    Thanks Lamont ! I didn't see the panel.
    I was able to turn off fading for AO, but unfortunately the quality is very bad (there's bizarre shadows everywhere)

    I think the main issue is that my FOV is low, and my camera is set way back, this screws the scene depth up which is crucial for AO and effects calculations. :(
    I'll dig on it some more after work.
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    Snight wrote: »
    No stupid questions here.

    Hold down Ctrl Alt and then left mouse drag to select objects. Hold down Ctrl Alt and right mouse drag to deselect objects. You can only do this in the Top, Side, or Front viewports.

    Ah, I see. I was holding down Ctrl or Alt separately. Thanks!
  • Parkar
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    Parkar polycounter lvl 18
    Chai wrote: »
    Thanks Lamont ! I didn't see the panel.
    I was able to turn off fading for AO, but unfortunately the quality is very bad (there's bizarre shadows everywhere)

    I think the main issue is that my FOV is low, and my camera is set way back, this screws the scene depth up which is crucial for AO and effects calculations. :(

    q_udk_shadowfade2.jpg

    Yep, this is the problem. What you would want is to move the near clipping plane away from the camera and closer to the scene. Unfortunately you can't control it in the UDK.

    I had the opposite problem in my game as I wanted to move it slightly close to the camera. Since I only wanted to move it a short distance I simply scaled everything up 2 times. Works perfectly fine in my game but not sure if it would work in this case. scaling everything way down might do nothing if the far end clipping plane is not adjusted so you would still have the same problem and just introduce scaling problems instead.

    I think I read somewhere (might have tested it to) that there is a console command to change the clipping plane. Maybe there is a way to trigger that from code as well every time you start a level.
  • LMP
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    LMP polycounter lvl 13
    I've got a question about normal maps...
    remember reading somewhere that normal maps baked in xnormal for UDk have some kind of special setting... but I can't remember it...
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    AFAIK just swizzle the green channel to be -Y
  • Mypeople
    Hey Jordan, what do you mean by swizzle? What's that word mean in your context? Sorry I'm unfamiliar.

    I'm use to using normal maps the opposite way unreal wants the green channel. They look fine in modo but I always have to flip the green channel for unreal. Anyway to flip it in unreal? Maybe its cheaper just doing it in Photoshop. Any suggestions anyone?
  • Uly
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    Uly polycounter lvl 15
    hi_UDK_2sidedshadowcast.png

    hey, i've got this corrugated ceiling started in my scene. so far, i'm making the scene purely for indoor shots, so I haven't been making backsided assets which helps me keep the polycount low. because of this, the sunlight is shining right through. is there a simple way in UDK to make a type of static mesh that will cast shadows 2 sided for sake of lightmass, but only render single sided in-game?

    i also plan on alpha'ing out bits so I can get some bits of sky peeking through. (thats what the black blobs outlined in red poorly represent) if there's a cool way to get lightmass working well with all of this, that'd be real nice. : ) thanks
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Sorry Chai, I have not found anything that would help yet. If you could make a dummy scene for me to test with that's set up the same way, I might be able to do more.
  • Chai
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    Chai polycounter lvl 17
    Parkar - thanks I think it's the issue as well, UE3 has no way to adjust near/far clips unfortunately :(

    Lamont - hey you've done way more than enough, thanks a lot !
    I've asked a few experts with UDK and they all came back saying it's an issue with scene depth getting messed up, and UDK limitation of not being able to adjust it.
  • Froyok
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    Froyok greentooth
    UDK June is here ! :)

    http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=734876

    A new nice bloom and better performances (I get 15 more fps inside the editor on the gdc map) ! And more stuffs of course...

    clip_image004_0001.jpg

    LowThreshold2.jpgLargeKernel2.jpg
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    Custom normals! Hell yeah :thumbup: Awesome work Epic.
  • sebas
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    sebas polycounter lvl 14
    Going as (too) slow as the May version to me... April is which works faster and better, in my case.
  • jocose
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    jocose polycounter lvl 11
    I'm having trouble painting vertex colors on FBX meshes I import from 3dsmax. The models are very simple, ones just a sphere.

    I can paint fine on all the models that come with UDK but anytime I try to use my imported meshes no paint circle appears when I select and hover over the mesh. If I try to click CTRL and paint something nothing happens :(

    Is there something special I need to do to get this to work?

    EDIT/UPDATE: I tried useing an ASE instead ( was unware that that was, and has been, built into max) , and it worked. So apparently there is some sort of problem vertex painting on fbx meshes. :(
  • Snight
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    Snight polycounter lvl 16
    You have to setup the material of that object with 2 textures lerped together with a color channel from a vertex color node plugged into the alpha in order for mesh paint to work correctly.
  • jocose
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    jocose polycounter lvl 11
    Thanks for the reply snight. Like I said I am able to get it working on existing meshes. So its not an issue of me knowing how to set up the shader.

    The issue was that I can't paint vertex colors on models imported as FBX files.
  • Mypeople
    Quick question.

    I use modo and i export my mesh with 2 uv maps. uv1 and uv2. i am using uv2 for light map baking, its a empty uv map when created.

    do i need to additionally unwrap my mesh for the light map uv channel as well? i was just hoping unreal had an automatic unwrapping or something for the light map channel? i'm asking because i dont think modo has an automatic unwrapping (like in maya) any info would be really appreciated.
  • rasmus
    Custom normals! Fuck yes!
  • SanderDL
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    SanderDL polycounter lvl 7
    jocose wrote: »
    Thanks for the reply snight. Like I said I am able to get it working on existing meshes. So its not an issue of me knowing how to set up the shader.

    The issue was that I can't paint vertex colors on models imported as FBX files.

    I don't think you can export vertex colours with .FBX

    Just using .ASE should solve your problem.
  • Chai
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    Chai polycounter lvl 17
    Mypeople wrote: »
    Quick question.

    I use modo and i export my mesh with 2 uv maps. uv1 and uv2. i am using uv2 for light map baking, its a empty uv map when created.

    do i need to additionally unwrap my mesh for the light map uv channel as well? i was just hoping unreal had an automatic unwrapping or something for the light map channel? i'm asking because i dont think modo has an automatic unwrapping (like in maya) any info would be really appreciated.

    you can use unwrap on atlas (or atlas 2), but it definitely waste a lot of space.
    to be honest I just use the same diffuse unwrap, and separate the duplicated areas, i then use pack on stretch so it's all evened out.
  • ColinR
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    ColinR polycounter lvl 9
    Got an issue here where I've got this strange AO like effect around objects in my scene, and I've no way of curing it. The effect seems to ghost a bit when moving the camera in the scene as well.

    UDK_ghosting_AO.JPG

    I have previously edited some post process effects through the UTPostProcess in FX_HitEffects, and more recently I've updated UDK to the latest version hoping it would cure the issue. But no luck.

    I keep getting confused about how to go about editing any PostProcess Effects, and whether I should just leave the UTPostProcess in FX_HitEffects completely alone and instead just go through the View > World Properties and edit anything there.


    I'm also having some real issues lighting this scene the past few weeks, and I'm still unable to get my head around how to get things just 'looking right'.

    My big question here is in reference to using LightMass in interior/enclosed scenes. Lighting exteriors seems to be fairly easy with using DominantDirectionalLight's. But when it comes to interiors and how LightMass works I'm hearing conflicting ideas about how to light a scene.

    Should I only just be placing lights that would represent actual physical lights in the scene (ie, desk lamps, ceiling lights), and let LightMass deal with the bounce light and making sure the rest is visible, or am I still required to place other point lights to achieve the look even if these lights aren't even physical lights in the scene.

    Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. As I'm really getting to the point of just being totally disheartened with this piece of work.
  • haiddasalami
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    haiddasalami polycounter lvl 14
    ColinR wrote: »

    Should I only just be placing lights that would represent actual physical lights in the scene (ie, desk lamps, ceiling lights), and let LightMass deal with the bounce light and making sure the rest is visible, or am I still required to place other point lights to achieve the look even if these lights aren't even physical lights in the scene.

    Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. As I'm really getting to the point of just being totally disheartened with this piece of work.

    Well start off with putting the lights where they logically make sense then let lightmass deal with bounce lighting but go in there and add lights where its too dark. I think of it almost as painting with light and you've probably heard that a lot. Suggest checking out Gnomon's lighting dvd as there's tonnes of info to take about lightmass.
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    What have I done guys? :(

    I seem to have broken the UDK translation widgets, they don't actually move anything any more. I know I have done this in the past, but can't remember how to fix it! I'm going to slap myself when I find the answer!

    Any ideas?
  • gamedev
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    gamedev polycounter lvl 12
    To the left of your move, rotate and scale widgets, make sure you don't have the mouse pointer / selection icon enabled. This allows you to select lots of objects without accidentally moving / rotating / scaling them.
  • DOG-GY
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    DOG-GY polycounter lvl 12
    Alright, I've got some problems with Unreal Ed 3 (unreal engine 2.5).

    1) I've got some specular maps that want to use. The issue is that they always come out too bright. As a matter of fact, the textures themselves seem to be brighter in the editor.

    2) I can't get my opacity maps to work correctly. It's not inverted, it's just not working at all. I'm just doing the standard white is opaque/black is transparent. Is it something weird? My model winds up showing up as flipped faces on parts of it (or at least that's how it seems).

    3) Can I pull animations off of models that are already in the editor and use them on my own? Would I have to change the naming scheme of my bones? It's a basic, default Max skeleton because I don't have time to set up bones and ik myself.
  • ColinR
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    ColinR polycounter lvl 9
    Well start off with putting the lights where they logically make sense then let lightmass deal with bounce lighting but go in there and add lights where its too dark. I think of it almost as painting with light and you've probably heard that a lot. Suggest checking out Gnomon's lighting dvd as there's tonnes of info to take about lightmass.
    Thanks for the explanation. I think my fundamental issue here is my understanding of lighting needs improving. I've taken your advice and placed lights where they would physically be and then I've gone in and added to that with point lights to sort the rest.

    I did purchase the Eat 3D UDK Lighting DVD when it came out, and I've gone back through it again and I've corrected the ghosting AO issue and learnt a bit more about how the post-processing works. My only issue with the DVD is that like here I'm trying to improve my knowledge of how to light an interior scene in UDK using LightMass, and it doesn't do a quick run-through how to effectively do that...which before purchasing I was hopeful it would feature that. I guess I need to be a bit more unruly with the lighting and learn what works and what doesn't.


    Here's a completely separate question though if anyone can answer. Is it possible to exclude objects from a PointLight in a scene, so they only light what you want it to light when baking. For example I'm lighting an object that is placed on the floor, but I can't exclude the floor surface.

    In the UDK lighting DVD is goes through an option to do this, but in the latest build this box is not present in the PointLight's properties.
  • fullofclovers
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    fullofclovers polygon
    I started to dig through here and gave up.

    How do you batch export static meshes from Max (2010) to UDK? And better yet are there any plugins that allow you to create packages inside of Max to be exported to the editor?

    I do know about Epic's ActorX plgin, but to my understanding that only deals with exporting rigs and animations from Max.
  • dn-revenge
    I started to dig through here and gave up.

    How do you batch export static meshes from Max (2010) to UDK? And better yet are there any plugins that allow you to create packages inside of Max to be exported to the editor?

    I do know about Epic's ActorX plgin, but to my understanding that only deals with exporting rigs and animations from Max.

    no udk package exporter for max as far as i know

    yea ActorX only exports rigs and animations (skeletal meshes)

    and i guess batch exporting static meshes from Max to the UDK would mean batch exporting .ASE files from max itself. i don't know if or how that is possible. :/
    maybe using a custom script or something?
  • Lamont
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    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    Batch export is possible, mentioned on UDN. Only for 3DS Max. Maya folks have to do it the hard way. But FBX is supported, so just batch export FBX out of Maya.
  • fullofclovers
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    fullofclovers polygon
    Lamont, you found that info on this page:
    http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorXMaxTutorial.html#Batch exporting using _MaxScript
    ?

    That example only appears to be for animated meshes, not static.

    EDIT: Corrected link
  • Lamont
  • fullofclovers
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    fullofclovers polygon
    Yeah I did try that the other day. It does not work in 2010 unfortunately :( .

    Eh, its cool then. Thanks though dude.
  • ColinR
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    ColinR polycounter lvl 9
    ColinR wrote: »
    In the UDK lighting DVD is goes through an option to do this, but in the latest build this box is not present in the PointLight's properties.
    Still needing an answer to this as to how you set an Inclusion Volume for a light.

    I'm following the documentation on Light Volumes but the option present here as 'InclusionVolumes' with the highlighted text in blue is not present.

    lightvolumes.jpg

    In my scene I've added a LightVolume hoping the option would then appear for any lights, but there seems to be no way of excluding/including certain objects for a light.

    No_InclusionVolume_toggle.JPG

    Am I just doing something wrong all together, or has this option been replaced in the latest UDK builds?
  • JordanW
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    JordanW polycounter lvl 19
    AFAIK light inclusion volumes aren't supported. Static lighting ignores channels and any sort of volume or inclusion settings since it bounces around now. Dynamic moveable lights will still use channels.
  • NathanA
    I looked around but couldn't find any mention of this, and didn't want to start a new thread because it seems like something that is probably solved fairly simply.
    That said, every time I try to place a skybox all of my lighting goes to pure black, anyone ever had this happen? I watched several tutorials and they always just drag and drop the skybox and it works.
    I'm using one dominant directional light and terrain only at the moment in the scene as well as a lightmass importance volume.

    Thanks for any help :)

    blackTerrain.jpg
  • NathanA
    Never mind :) Figured it out, knew it was something simple. My skydome was set to cast shadows. :poly142:
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