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Getting and Getting with the Program (UE3).

polycounter lvl 17
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Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
I have been looking, and I think I might be out of luck.

Let me specify: I am -not- asking where I can find a pirated copy of anything.

I don't think my computer would even Run Unreal Tournament 3.

P4 2.53Ghz, 1GB Ram, Nvidia GEForce FX 5200.

All this and we come down to the meat of why I am asking anything here.

Seems all the rage nowadays, if you want to be considered hireable and competent is to be able to model your environments in Max/Maya and then import them into UE3.

Where do I get the editor? -Is- there a free/demo version (not pirating). There was I game I heard of RoboBlitz (something like that) -it- has it right?

I don't have a lot of money to spend.

Also, there is this new DVD out by Eat 3D, modeling and texturing a Pillar.,,,

I am not asking if you know of where to -get- it, but do you know of any good tutorials out there that are similar. Again, I don't have the 60.00 to spend on it. I did justify buying Crazybump.

Lastly, say I -do- get UE3; do you know of any good tutorials online that talk about getting your assets in, and what maps and channels and settings to use ect... Something basic(ish) not -as- in depth as the Pillar DVD; not showing me how to model, but how to get stuff in.

I am sorry that I -have- been living under a log, and am especially ignorant in this matter. I am a fast learner and eager to eat up anything you can throw my way.

Thank you,

-Andrew

Replies

  • alexk
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    alexk polycounter lvl 12
    UnrealEditor needs to be bought, is included in Unreal Tournament 3. Also available in Gears of War, but the UT3 is suppose to be more stable, so I'd go with UT3. Here are some tutorials:


    http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/ look under importing custom meshes

    also

    http://www.veoh.com/users/cannedmushrooms is some guy who posted up a bunch of tutorials on some basic stuff including importing meshes, he uses Gear of War editor, but they are practicaly the same

    youtube also have some basic video tutorials on Unreal Editor

    Also nice is http://hourences.com/book/tutorialsindex.htm which has basic and intermediate level tutorials
  • Jason Young
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    Jason Young polycounter lvl 14
    Roboblitz does come with the editor(though it may be an older version??), but it's not a free game. I haven't seen just the editor freely/legally available anywhere.

    If you get the collector's edition of ut3, it comes with a large set of bonus videos that go over building levels, etc. It's only 30 bucks.
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    Yeah, but will my machine run it? It runs the Half Life games pretty well, but I am sure UT3 is more complex, right?
  • Jonathan
    I would surely not try to run it on a 5200. I know of some people who have/do, but they have to turn off about everything that makes it "UE3" to even get it to work right.

    Just save your pennies, and upgrade your machine as you can. :)

    An 8600/8800gt/9600, etc. would run UE3 rather well and be quite cheap.
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    I wouldn't even bother trying to run UE3 on your setup. Parts aren't very expensive these days (Geforce 8600 can be had for $50 these days, and 4gb of ram at about $80), but it looks like you're going to have to rebuild it from scratch with such old components.

    As for tutorials (in the event you end up with access to a comp that can handle UE3):
    http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=598243
    http://book.hourences.com/tutorialsindex.htm
    http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/135306.html
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    This is disheartening, but at least you all are honest. Alright. So I will work on my portfolio for now, and while I do save money and pray for a new PC. Any thoughts on a place that has cheap parts? Also, will those cards support 2 monitors? I dunno what I would do, I have never had more than 1GB of ram before.

    Thank you all for the tutorial advice, I will look those over regardless. Though I will enevitably be making levels in it someday, I would love the satisfaction of getting a model in.

    Another question, I have worked in Source alot where one 1inch = 1 unit; off your heads do you know what the scale is for UT3?

    Any steering at this point is helpful; thank you.
  • EarthQuake
    www.newegg.com is the best place to shop for computer parts, i just got a 8800gt for like $120 from them, just make sure you have a pci-express slot or most of the newer cards wont work in your pc. If you've got an agp port you should look at something in the geforce 6800 range, i think those are the best you can hope for with agp. Any good graphics card these days has 2 dvi outputs, so yes it will support 2 monitors.
  • root
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    root polycounter lvl 18
    I don't think that scale is a real big deal in ut3 as you can scale your stuff inside the editor once it's been imported. that said, what I like to do when I don't know the conversion rates from one application to the next is export a 1-unit cube from whatever I'm creating stuff in and import it into whatever I want to import stuff in to see how it compares. One of the tutorials sites, though I don't remember which (either hourences or UDN) had information on the unreal unit size of characters in UT3 and Gears of War.

    If funds are an issue you might try looking for UT3 on ebay or half.com. I found one auction that's got the collectors edition (which includes the big ol' tutorial dvd) for $25, which is probably better for your purposes than spending $60 on just the game and bundled editor.

    As for the necessary hardware, I just upgraded from a radeon X850 to a radeon HD 2ksomething for about $30 thanks to pricewatch.com.
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    I've got the UT3 special edition (or whatever they call it) with the bonus DVD. The tutorials in that mostly cover everything. UED has been around a long time so it's very well documented online as well. Most questions you can Google and get the answers.

    Some links that helped me get started.
    http://ca.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=98A8C5D356626C71
    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingLevels.html#Getting%20Started
    http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3mover.htm

    The Eat3d tutors are some of the best to come along in a while.

    If your computer is fast enough that you can preview at least basic normal/diffuse/spec in viewport or render, you should have enough tools to get your portfolio together. The benefits of your work being in UT3 is showing potential employers you actual game art experience as well as unreal experience.

    As for upgrading, it's worth it for presenting work in a game.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] polycounter lvl 18
    U3 games won't run on a GeForce 5200 because it doesn't support shader model 3. I was able to run UT3 on a 512MB GeForce 7600 (I got mine for $100 from TigerDirect, and it comes in AGP) on my machine with a 2GHz Athlon XP and 768MB of RAM. The game itself doesn't play well except at the lowest settings with that setup, but it was able to run, and the editor worked fine. With the same system running 1.5GB RAM, the game itself runs fine too, even with the high-detail settings turned on.
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    Well, thank you all again for your advice.

    @ rootdown:
    I bought that copy of UT3; thank you for finding that.

    @everyone:

    Well I got a great deal on a GeForce 8600 (512) from Pricewatch/Newegg. I don't have much money left, so that will have to sit for awhile. My current PC won't like the new card as I need to get a bigger Power Supply.

    I would like to have 4 Gigs of Ram, and a 650+ Powersupply to go with it. I don't know what kind of processor/motherboard is good (and inexpensive); I want to run this game at Max setting and not have to get another computer for 2-3 years.

    I guess that also means upgrading to Vista too (do Vista an Max get along alright?).
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    oh you want to run it at max settings? Then 8600 wont be enough (will run it fine, just not at max), 8800 and above is required to do that.

    As for 3dsmax, v8-9 work well, but those are the only ones I've tested. However, at least pre-sp1, max wont run with Aero turned on (on Photoshop CS2 wont run well with it turned off). but I haven't tried it with CS3 or sp1 so things might have changed.

    Processor wise you'll want a 'Intel Core2' dual core or quad core.
  • Mark Dygert
    I haven't had any problems running 3dsmax2008-09 and CS3 on Vista. I've been using that set up at work for about 3 months now.
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    I have Max 2008, and CS2. I suppose I will need to upgrade to CS3. Bummer on the 8600-8800; I bought the 8600 this morning. How -much- of a difference do you think there will be?
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Well I ran an 8600 till 2-3 months ago, swtiched over to 9800 (which is essentialy just a repackeged 8800). On the 8600 In Vista I ran the game at 800x600, and when using xp at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 (to get about 30-50 fps) depending on the complexity of the stage. Vista drivers may have gotten better sense then, but when I was running the 8600 framerates were significantly lower then xp at the same res. 9800 on the other hand I have everything in the game maxed at 1680x1050 (the highest my screen goes) with no frame dips.

    But of course, the 8600 is a fraction of the price too.
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    Again, thank you for your advice.

    I have read many articles and tutorials, and watched many videos pertaining to UE3. I am admittedly most intimate with the Source engine. However, upon looking into UE3, I am finding that they have many similarities; save for that some terminology is differing.

    I am excited to be armed with such ease in which to populate a virtual space with my own creations. The Material Trees are similar to creation in Max, but with a more visual feel (and I hear the Maya has been that way all this time?).

    It will take me a month to assemble all the parts. In that time I will begin to create the scene.

    Tell me though. Knowing what I know of asset creation, of materials and light, of Highpoly to low; how is it the the Tutorials at Eat3D are so superb. What lesson do they impart that is not common knowledge to all seeking this field (though I do profess that their images are most sexing to the eyes).
  • alexk
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    alexk polycounter lvl 12
    I haven't gotten the Texturing DVD yet from eat3d, but the Old Pillar tutorial was very nice. It's one thing to learn by yourself or from school, but to see an actual employed artist do it is another thing. I felt that this DVD was as if I was sitting behind a fulltime employed prop artist and watching him do his work, so this DVD was such a huge help for me, of course your mileage may vary. And I picked up a ton of techniques and methods that I'm sure I'll continue to use for years. I feel their tutorials are superb because they teach you how to make current-gen ready game assets with work ready techniques. I feel their price was great too, I grabbed the download only version which is $10 cheaper than if you order the DVD.
  • Incomitatum
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    Incomitatum polycounter lvl 17
    Thank you all for your help. I got my machine built.

    The 8600 was a cheap piece of crap from an off brand Nvidia dealer; Zogis. It crapped out bad 2 min into every game. As such, I took the opportunity to pay twice as much ant get the 8800(512); I have not been disappointed.

    I am running UT3 and Mass effect at Full Settings. Both games are very inspiring and make me want to reinstall Max and get to playing with how to import stuff. I am thankful for the many links you have bombarded me with and will now commence to digesting all their wisdom.
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