Screenshot! You may be reffering to the extremely intense SSAO that's in UDK by default or I may be crazy. EDIT: Also, post in the UDK sub-forum, geez! :)
Not by default. You will probably have to check out highend3d.com and search for a planar script. I'm pretty sure one exists, but I don't have the details.
@gizmo1991 Are you sure you set the gradient type to NORMAL? That way it will falloff according to the direction of the normal, giving that fresnel-type effect. Otherwise at default settings it will use the UV's like you said, which is not what you want. Also, set self-illumination to 100% to remove any influence of…
maya has custom cages as well :) they are called envelopes. make sure to turn off "reset envelopes on bake" why that option is default, is absolutely beyond me
Did you end up fixing the light complexity visualiser? I've found that going to Show -> Use Defaults in the viewport tends to fix those sorts of issues.
By default your object will have Lambert material applied to it. Can you show image of the settings for your UV snapshot? And the full UV editor screen too.
Now you don't need to add -dx12 to the shortcut. Instead, go to the project settings, search for "default rhi" and set it to dx12. Restart the engine and it should work.
Is the camera still retarded and broken by default? Do the pallet windows still have no close buttons? I think it would be great to see some of that stuff fixed.