Unreal Engine 3 - MASTER THREAD

[Wahlgren]

So. I tried looking around for an UE3 thread and didn´t find one (With the search button broken and all it makes it kinda hard to search too).

Anyway. I´ve recently begun my journey into Ue3. A couple of years later than most but hey. Watcha gonna do eh?, Anyway, I´ve mostly been using an inhouse engine the last 1.5 years and it´s time to learn.

I didn´t get the collectors edition so i missed out on all the goodies it had. *whine*

So yeah. I was thinking this could be a Q&A / Tutorial thread perhaps. If there´s one like it already just lock this up and destroy all proof of it´s existance.

----------

First matter of business. How do you guys normally show off your models? Do you make a level and place out the mesh or do you just use the mesh viewer?

I´m still trying to find something that works for me and with being new to the program and all i have no clue about the potential.

[Junkie_XL]

I just maximize the quadrant and do a print screen from within the editor...but I have yet to figure out how to change the FOV for the perspective viewport in editor.

Oh and before you print screen hit "G" on the keyboard for "game mode"...it hides the lights, post-processing volume if you made one, etc...

[Wahlgren]

To see if i understood it correctly, you just pull the mesh into an empty level and hide everything around it? Not the generic asset viewer itself?

Is there a way to change the background color though? Black is not the best as we know. Sorry for the nooby-level on my questions. I swear! I´m better on other things ;)

[k3lk0m]

i´m not that experienced in UE3, in fact my targets were to know who to export my meshes into the ed, create their shaders and to light them porperly and a bit more, but for me the bonus DVD that comes with the collectors edition, the online reference in http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SiteMap.html and some tips I got from this forum were a huge help to start with it.

in any case, this is a good idea if there is no post like this. the one about xnormal works pretty well and it is also a good way to keep all the information together and avoid lots of different threads about UE3.

nice one then :P

[flkk]

I create a quick scene (floor + walls + 1-2 small boring props maybe) with 3 point lighting, making sure the focus is solely on the asset I'm trying to show off.

If I know what angle I want and will be doing lots of tweaking, I'll set up a camera and matinee sequence so that whenever I run the level it puts me in that view. I even had a file with 3 switches that would switch cameras once - but that's really something I decide on a case by case basis if I save or lose more time by doing so.

Also set the LOD bias of all textures on the asset to -1 or whatever to make sure the model uses your highest LOD level.

Either disable the hud with Kismet or enter showhud 0 in the console.

Take the screenshot larger than what you want with "tiledshot x" (screenshot resolution = your current game resolution * x) then shrink it to whatever size you want in Photoshop (looks sharper).

[Junkie_XL]

To see if i understood it correctly, you just pull the mesh into an empty level and hide everything around it? Not the generic asset viewer itself?

Is there a way to change the background color though? Black is not the best as we know. Sorry for the nooby-level on my questions. I swear! I´m better on other things ;)

Yeah you don't get much control over the mesh viewer in the generic browser...although I like orbiting control there better.

Drop in a height fog or some sort of fog plane actor if you want to quickly change background color.

[Wahlgren]

Alright. Cool man. Thanks. I´ll play around with it when i get home.


EDIT: Oh anyone know a quick and easy way or tutorial to do an animated texture/effects? For example pulsating glows and what not?

[Jesse Moody]

Well moving textures are usually made with texture panners.

[Davision3D]

Time+sine gives you a pulsating effect
Hourences site helps a lot with such effects:
http://book.hourences.com/tutorialsue3matexpressions.htm

[A-Train]

Also set the LOD bias of all textures on the asset to -1 or whatever to make sure the model uses your highest LOD level.

So if the numerical value is less than zero, is that the maximum resolution?

Is the LOD bias found in the properties of each asset (dumb question I know, had to ask it though)

E.g: -1 equals full resolution (Close LOD/Max resolution), 0 (medium LOD), and +1 (far LOD) ?


Take the screenshot larger than what you want with "tiledshot x" (screenshot resolution = your current game resolution * x) then shrink it to whatever size you want in Photoshop (looks sharper).

flkk: where do you type in "tiledshot x"? A screencap from you with a red circle drawn in the area would even help, thanks! Much appreciated.

[Junkie_XL]

So if the numerical value is less than zero, is that the maximum resolution?

Is the LOD bias found in the properties of each asset (dumb question I know, had to ask it though)

E.g: -1 equals full resolution (Close LOD/Max resolution), 0 (medium LOD), and +1 (far LOD) ?

flkk: where do you type in "tiledshot x"? A screencap from you with a red circle drawn in the area would even help, thanks! Much appreciated.

Only with certain groups would -1 be enough to max res. In other cases you might need -2

[Wahlgren]

Played around with the tips I got in here today and must say that it was a huge success. The thread is already paying off! (And I see it got stickied too! )

It feels like the editor is growing on me. There are some things i´m not happy with but that´s just because I haven´t found out how to do it yet. For example the sine-thing and get that pulsating effect (Something about invalid float samples or not being able to read it). Will study hourances page a bit.

[Junkie_XL]

Everything flows from right to left in the material editor. Put time on the right side of Sine just to understand how it works...now link Time into the right side of input of Sine.

To see what you are doing, check the boxes to the left of the words Sine & Time and then tick both of those little joystick looking buttons at the top of the whole window...they are to the left of the eyeball. I don't remember which is which but this is how you can see animation in your expression nodes.

What you will see is the Sine value now being taken from 1.0 down to -1.0.
Now a value of Zero is also black so that is why it looks like black is more predominately flashing than white at the moment. Make it .5 and it will be smooth...if you wish. Can play with it...

Now drop in a "Multiply" node to the left of Sine and plug it into "B". Above Sine drop in a Constant3Vector and plug it into "A". Change the Constant3Vector RGB values so you get red. Now take the output of Multiply & plug that into Emissive.

There. You just made a stop light. ;-)

[flkk]

flkk: where do you type in "tiledshot x"? A screencap from you with a red circle drawn in the area would even help, thanks! Much appreciated.

In the console. Try pressing Tab, ~ or F10 while ingame and look for a textarea to appear.

You can change the keys its bound with these settings:

[Engine.Console]
ConsoleKey=F10
TypeKey=Tab

in this file: My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config\UTInput.ini

Try that

[Wahlgren]

Thanks a bunch dude. Getting a hang of it now. Could swear i tried it before but i guess not. Figured out i would have to add a clamp after the sine to get the values into a more subtle range than on and off aswell. So... there´s some progress right there.

Next up im gonna try and see if can do something with masks and combine it with the glow to only get specific parts to be affected by the sine.



On another note. I assume it´s only possible to have one "modifier" or whatever we call it go into one of the material slots (Diffuse, Normal, etc). Or do i have to do some fancy hack or change?

Other than that. Tremendous help fellas. I´m really starting to feel it all pop into place! Guess i should post a gif of the finished result soon. :)

[alexk]

When I light my stuff, it looks great and all in the editor, but when I hit "build all", my lights turn duller. Things that were really shiny before, are now not shiny at all. Are there any tips on lighting so that what I see in the editor is actually what would happen after I build?

[salman_fas]

When I light my stuff, it looks great and all in the editor, but when I hit "build all", my lights turn duller. Things that were really shiny before, are now not shiny at all. Are there any tips on lighting so that what I see in the editor is actually what would happen after I build?

maybe "force Dynamic light" would work?(not sure though)

[Junkie_XL]

When I light my stuff, it looks great and all in the editor, but when I hit "build all", my lights turn duller. Things that were really shiny before, are now not shiny at all. Are there any tips on lighting so that what I see in the editor is actually what would happen after I build?

What you are doing is baking a static light map when you click build all. There are a variety of things you can tweak. On the individual static mesh hit F4 to go to the properties, open the static mesh actor rollout (exact name is not coming to me at the moment). Go to the very bottom, open the rollout again, and you need to find something that says "override light map properties" or something...uncheck it. Now the light map resolution will be whatever you specify in the mesh viewer in the generic browser.

It's difficult to explain without pictures...maybe I'll do that later.

In general though, your real-time lights need to be a bit brighter for it to come thru after you build the lighting. That part is not very WYSIWYG to me. Just have to work with it.

[breakneck]

. . . not very WYSIWYG to me. Just have to work with it.

thats the longest wtf i've ever seen. . .

thanks for the lighting info, i've having bitch of a time getting good shadows across static messes, hopefully this will help me figure some things out.

P.I.G. good tread idea!

[Wahlgren]

Alright guys. If you send me a bunch of cool links and resources i´ll put it in the first post. Make it nice and lovely and what not.

[Talbot]

The tutorials that come with collectors edition UT3 are really helpful for people who are just starting out. I'm not going to get into the whole "illegal download thing" but I'm sure... if you looked... you could download them somewhere.

I've been thinking about getting Gears of War for PC... anybody have an opinion on the overall advantage or disadvantage of making a map for GOW instead of UT3?

Thanks.

[Wahlgren]

True enough. Was able to borrow the bonus dvd from a workmate and took a quick peak. Seems like really good stuff. Will try to get through it all this weekend :)

[Ryan Smith]

Talbot, making a map for Gears of War would probably involve more level design theory than it would for UT3.

It also depends on if you were going to make a single player map or a multilayer map. Gears of War plays alot different than UT3... i would say that it would be easier to make a map for UT3 because of it's style... it's mostly run and gun, no need to worry about cover as much.

Gears of War is all about cover, you have to integrate props that act as cover nodes, and then you have to place your cover spots all over the map... so it's a bit more time consuming, but it will make you use your brain a bunch more.

[Talbot]

Another great resource is the Epic Games Forum. Go to the modding/level creating section for the specific game you are making a map for.

Some advice for people who are making maps for UT3 or GOW and are thinking about posting it on the epic forum. Make sure that you understand the community that goes to that forum. They are very different from the people here. People there are looking for gameplay when it comes down to it. Yes a different environment from the shipped levels is appealing to them... but they won't like the map unless it is fun.

So here is a basic timeline of the posts you have on the epic forum when you are sharing a map. This may seem stupid to some people... like "do you really need to follow this?". My response is that it isn't necessary... but it something to think about. Devoted Testers are hard to come by and if you overload them with releases... they won't bother downloading them and putting time into playing it, getting an opinion, and posting their thoughts.

First post: Post your Alpha release. This should be not much more than a BSP. No static meshes are necessary here. Test it with bots and make sure there are no clitches and that someone else will have fun playing it. With that said, if you have a friend that is willing to play it for a little while... send it to them. That can be really helpful so that you know that you aren't the only person who enjoys the map before sharing it with the internet.

Second post(s): Listen to what people give you for gameplay feedback. Make sure you don't post another version of your map within a week after your first release. Chances are that you aren't going to get too many devoted testers who are going to want to test every little change. Posting a new version everytime you change something like elevator speeds will make them not want to download the new version. Then when you release the final... nobody will see it.

Third Post: Post a Beta. Your beta should take a sometime to nail that core gameplay. You should have listened to everything people said about your map and really act on what they said. If someone sees that you didn't address what they said needed work... well... you probably just lost a tester. Make sure that your beta really nailed that key gameplay element that makes your map special. Your Beta should also have some life. Even though you want to wait a little bit before posting your beta... I personally think that your beta shouldn't include all of your custom assets... this would take longer than you want and people will forget about the map. The gameplay should be considered done. Now I'm not saying that your Beta should be the default checkered material. Take sometime looking through the assets that come with the game to give it some spice. After your beta... the only thing left to do are the custom assets and ART... yes ART. If you are a polycounter, chances are art is very important to you. Make sure that after you post your beta you start working on your assets. It's going to take a long time to create all new assets and you should get started as soon as you feel comforatable with the layout. I would suggest starting with assets that are going to be in a section of the map that is unlikely to need tweaking. This way you don't waste your time making assets that don't end up getting used.

Fourth Post(s): Same as the Second Post(s), just listen to what people have to say. If you don't get any gameplay critiques then just keep working on the assets. But if you do get a lot of critiques that aren't necessarily "minor problems", consider releasing a second beta (BETA2/B2) that address's those problems.

Fifth Post: Post your final release. Like I said above, this might not be your 5th post... but it is the fifth step in my mind. There is going to be a pretty big gap between the Beta and the final due to all the custom assets you have to make. In that time you should start a thread here and to get art critiques if you haven't already made a thread. There really isn't much to say about your final release... except that it shouldn't be rushed... especially considering you will be doing, what I hope, is your true passion... art.

So that's all I have to say. I know this might not be a perfect workflow but I think it will help get the most out of the people there. Oh and please don't think that I'm classifying them negatively... I'm just saying that the people here (on polycount) are focused on art while the people on the epic forums are less focused on art and more focused on gameplay.

There are a lot of people on this forum that have more experience than me so maybe some people could add to what I wrote.

I also don't know if this is the best place to post this but it seemed like a good idea while writing it. :P

Hope this is helpful to some people. :)

[alexk]

What you are doing is baking a static light map when you click build all. There are a variety of things you can tweak. On the individual static mesh hit F4 to go to the properties, open the static mesh actor rollout (exact name is not coming to me at the moment). Go to the very bottom, open the rollout again, and you need to find something that says "override light map properties" or something...uncheck it. Now the light map resolution will be whatever you specify in the mesh viewer in the generic browser.

It's difficult to explain without pictures...maybe I'll do that later.

In general though, your real-time lights need to be a bit brighter for it to come thru after you build the lighting. That part is not very WYSIWYG to me. Just have to work with it.

I found a tutorial for this, thanks. It's helped increase my lightmap resolution, but yah the lighting, guess I have to crank up the brightness on those.

Okay another lighting question: Is there a way for me to have different light setups in the editor (not the build). Like say, I have 2 lights, one is blue, one is red. But I want to be able to just flip them both to full white, and then back to the blue and red. I want this because I want white lights when I work on my textures, but be able to flip to the colors to see how my texture is like with colored light, and then flip back to white so I can continue working.

[pixelmitherer]

Great idea for a thread Notorious P.I.G!
I'm about to start Using Ued 3 myself.

Not sure if they have already been posted but a few tutorials can be found here...

http://architectonic.planetunreal.gamespy.com/first_level.html

http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/

http://www.artbyjessemoody.com/ue3_tut1.html

[Junkie_XL]

thats the longest wtf i've ever seen. . .

thanks for the lighting info, i've having bitch of a time getting good shadows across static messes, hopefully this will help me figure some things out.

P.I.G. good tread idea!

WYSIWYG = "What You See Is What You Get". Pronounced "Wizzywig" for fun.

It's a term for things that happen like they are supposed to. In this case building lighting in UE3 is not very WYSIWYG because the end result tends to be too dim. What you see is NOT what you always get.

Dreamweaver is also not very WYSIWYG. I blame the devil for all of these types of software problems that plague mankind.

-------------------

Anywho, another thing to do is surround your scene with a post-processing volume and play with the properties. Not so much for the bloom, DOF or motion blur control (while still very cool)...but being able to adjust the saturation, highlights, and mid tone levels comes in very handy.

[sprunghunt]

you can change the FOV in-game with a console command - I think it's just 'fov' followed by a number. You can also use matinee - but that's more complicated.

[claydough]

speaking of shadows.. does anyone know of any "dynamic" shadow tuts?
I seem to get a different experience every time I go into the editor.
Depending if I reinstall windows and do not upgrade to the patches or if I use gears instead of UT3 or if I may be choosing a different light actor thay may or may not support dynamic lights.. and then sometimes I get nicer soft self shadowing and then sometimes ( roboblitz? ) the dynamic shadows only seem to be hard.

Doesn't seem to be any documents out there covering self shadowing soft shadow tips in unreal..

doesn't help that some shadowing documentation at UDN are red linked.



Wish it was as easy as Gamebryo :-(
( set up desired resolution in maya and export beautiful soft dynamic shadows )

[Talbot]

speaking of shadows.. does anyone know of any "dynamic" shadow tuts?

Somewhere in the collector's edition video tutorials they explain dynamic lighting/shadows. Maybe take a look at those.

[claydough]

Thanks, I haven't gone through all of them
nice to know it's covered

[Talbot]

Thanks, I haven't gone through all of them
nice to know it's covered

No problem. I have only gone through the last set of tutorials on how they make a map... I know it is included in that. I'm guessing it is introduced sometime before that.

[Lee3dee]

also www.eat3D.com has some excellent tutorials for Unreal 3

[Exitrockstar]

I actually got the mega pack with includes all the toturials for the unreal.Its pretty decent and has alot of info on how to create your own game in that engine.The only thing i dislike that engine is the glssy textures when you add them in the level design.

[Talbot]

also www.eat3D.com (http://www.eat3D.com) has some excellent tutorials for Unreal 3

Those are pretty good. The only thing I don't like about them is that it is played in fast forward with him commenting on it. I prefer it when they are talking about it while the are making it... live. But I understand that the length of the videos would end up pretty long then.

[Amouro]

Hey guys, I've got a question about materials in ue3. I can't get an alpha channel to render like I want. I've got this character model I'm working on and I imported it as a static mesh just to see how it looked in-game, before I started to fumble with rigging and animating(I just know I'm gonna get frustrated with that) . For being a novice at this stuff I'm pretty pleased with my outcome. I just can't get the hair to look like I want. In Max it looks pretty good, but in UT it looks blotchy and low detail. Here's what it looks like.

in 3DS MAX (http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/animerb/db35.jpg)

in UT3 (http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/animerb/db34.jpg)

my material setup (http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/animerb/materialeditor.jpg)

I've also tried using the opacity slot instead of the opacity mask. And setting my diffuse to emissive and what not. But that of course doesn't light it like I want and it actually made the whole thing partially translucent. It did give me the hair detail that I wanted though. :/

Surely there's a way to make it look more like my max render right?

[Jesse Moody]

I haven't done much with hair but you may need to make that on a seperate material slot so you can do unlit translucency on it?

It's a reach but who knows...

[Amouro]

Well I haven't tried your suggestion yet. But it would seem if I put the tip of the beard on a separate channel and set it to unlit like you're talking about, then it wouldn't shade right and would look out of place with the rest of the model. maybe I'm just not understanding this completely though.

I did however take that alpha and save it out as a separate grayscale map and used that in the opacity slot instead of the diffuse's alpha. For reasons beyond me, the end result was better looking. Still not my ideal perfect look, but for now it's good enough for me.

my latest version in the editor (http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/animerb/db39.jpg)


still lookin for tips and tricks on how to do hair though....

[alexk]

*found my answer*

[ImSlightlyBored]

Well I haven't tried your suggestion yet. But it would seem if I put the tip of the beard on a separate channel and set it to unlit like you're talking about, then it wouldn't shade right and would look out of place with the rest of the model. maybe I'm just not understanding this completely though.

I did however take that alpha and save it out as a separate grayscale map and used that in the opacity slot instead of the diffuse's alpha. For reasons beyond me, the end result was better looking. Still not my ideal perfect look, but for now it's good enough for me.

my latest version in the editor (http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s89/animerb/db39.jpg)


still lookin for tips and tricks on how to do hair though....


that might be because your diffuse, by that time, had been compressed maybe?
Your original process was fine, just make sure your diffuse has been exported with each channel (open in photoshop to check is what I do) and make sure you didnt check the NoAlpha settings when importing (forgotten the specific names off the top of my head, but its obvious.)
You'll always get rough/nonfeathered edges using opacity mask iirc, you can try brute forcing the feathered effect by placing loads of alpha cards (theres something on the UDN about this) as long as they're small I dont think it hurts scene shader complexity too much.

After that, you could do what jesse suggested and fake the lighting/try to match similar lighting.

[Amouro]

hmm that's some food for thought.....I'll have to look into it tomorrow.

oh and another issue I've been having is whenever i close and reopen unreal ed, all my textures in my package appear to be downsampled. they display at the correct size and the info text confirms that. but they're blurry. they look like a texture of half the size that's been blown up. Iv'e been having to reimport my textures everytime I mess with it. it drives me up the wall.

[FAT_CAP]

Amouro - you can't have a multi-bit alpha on a skinend mesh in UE3 as far as I know and that is why you are seeing the opacity mask act differently from the results that MAX produces.

In Max the full range of the alpha channel opacity is used giving you a nice blend and feathering effect to the hair. This is clipped inside UE3 so that any pixel in the opacity channel is either black or white (on or off) and so looses the gradiated opacity.

[ImSlightlyBored]

hmm that's some food for thought.....I'll have to look into it tomorrow.

oh and another issue I've been having is whenever i close and reopen unreal ed, all my textures in my package appear to be downsampled. they display at the correct size and the info text confirms that. but they're blurry. they look like a texture of half the size that's been blown up. Iv'e been having to reimport my textures everytime I mess with it. it drives me up the wall.
texture viewer> force LODBias to -1 or less (if its a 2048 that'll be enough) and it should fix it. Not ideal for actual use but for portfolios its good

[claydough]

I give up... ( on nice looking dynamic shadows )
The collectors ed vids led nowhere.
It's as if everthing out there is written for/by level editors who only lightmap static meshes.

UE3 is a turd wrapped in fancy candy foil.

however if u still think it tastes like chocolate:

UE3 / PhysX Training Series begins January 21st. Sign up now! (http://news.developer.nvidia.com/2009/01/ue3-physx-training-series-begins-january-21st-sign-up-now.html)

[ae.]

oh noes!


Anyone know how to fix this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/armanguy/error.jpg

also something i made:


how to import modeling ingame:

http://vimeo.com/2875902

[ImSlightlyBored]

I give up... ( on nice looking dynamic shadows )
The collectors ed vids led nowhere.
It's as if everthing out there is written for/by level editors who only lightmap static meshes.

UE3 is a turd wrapped in fancy candy foil.

however if u still think it tastes like chocolate:

UE3 / PhysX Training Series begins January 21st. Sign up now! (http://news.developer.nvidia.com/2009/01/ue3-physx-training-series-begins-january-21st-sign-up-now.html)
I did see something comprehensively cover shadowing, if I find out where it is I'll let you know. Don't get disheartened, I'm fairly sure what you're after is possible.

[Psixos]

I give up... ( on nice looking dynamic shadows )
The collectors ed vids led nowhere.
It's as if everthing out there is written for/by level editors who only lightmap static meshes.

UE3 is a turd wrapped in fancy candy foil.

however if u still think it tastes like chocolate:

UE3 / PhysX Training Series begins January 21st. Sign up now!

Try this (http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-crate-dynamic-lighitng-in-unreal-engine-3-0-196621/) and this (http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-use-the-dynamic-shadows-stats-browser-in-ut3-editor-197051/)

[claydough]

thanks, I have seen those ( jason's veoh channel and the 3dbuzz kid )
Not very informative though...

best I can achieve is physically accurate shadows with loads of shadow acne
( looks like what epic's weapons are shadowed with: acne guns )

shadow filter quality: high / projection technique: BPCF
map resolution: 2048 min & max


Can't seem to get my BSP geometry to recieve shadows ( disapears with light builds )

It seems that the shadow lod problem ( shadows disapearing at distances ) is
solved with my hi map resolutions! thats nice, at least my shadow acne won't pop off.
I guess I could just make all my walls and floors a skeletal mesh and call it a day. ( give up on UE3 )

[claydough]

with settings above acne is not bad at distances ( cheated bsp recieve by not rebuilding )

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3331/3219641124_49af0ffb43_o.jpg

[Talbot]

oh noes!


Anyone know how to fix this?


I think that has to do with the saved file location. Maybe try that solution that you found for that problem we both got in mid December. I know that fixed it for me. :)

[Lamont]

Try modulated shadows (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ModulatedShadows.html) Claydough. The best I can think of. You will never get a physically accurate shadows in Unreal w/out 3rd party software.

[claydough]

only gives u 1 shadow correct?

[claydough]

same scene with two modulate shadow casters is psychedelic

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3219101275_44f6e128f4_o.jpg

[Lamont]

You're not doing it right :). You probably clicked and flipped so many options you're tainting the results. Make a new scene, place the model as static mesh, add a light and flick on modulate.

[Psixos]

Not sure if this helps, I don't even know what shadow acne is. This is just Lightshadowmode_Normal, 2 dynamic lights and settings for the lights, static mesh and bsp. No soft dynamic shadows though. I had a go at the modulated shadows but the lights stopped casting a shadow altogether, probably like Lamont says and too many options already messed about with. A reset settings to default option would be nice.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2997/unrealdynamicve0.jpg

[claydough]

shadow acne (http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/gpugems3_ch08.html)
http://http.developer.nvidia.com/GPUGems3/elementLinks/08fig03.jpg

thanks for the responses psixos and lamount,
if u back up in the thread, u will see I was looking for "dynamic" shadows solutions.

Not really interested in environments and level design
but shadows to show off animated character design ( skeletal mesh )

my problem with shadows dissapearing after rebuild was from the
"Use Direct Light Map" setting that is checked on by default when a light is created.

there is no shortage of static mesh lightmapping documentation.

my dynamic shadow notes so far... ( please correct me if anything below is obviously wrong )

2. shadow LOD causing shadows to dissapear at distances.
this may have been fixed ( @ service pack 3 ) as leaving shadow map
resolution @ 0 min and max results in no LOD popping. changing this number results in
LOD problems. either leave it @ 0 or:
upping the resolution to 1024 or above for min max will also git rid of the LOD ( in editor in
game application tests... at least so far )

3. The "Use Direct Light Map" check box in light properties will cause the shadow cast to dissapear from static and bsp surfaces after rebuild.

4. shadow filter quality: high / projection technique: BPCF gives best reults. ( still have shadow acne bias problems. z-fighting floating point errors )

5. force dynamic light checkbox nullifies all the shadow options and makes yer light a stencil shadow. ( stencil shadows will always have the aforementioned LOD popping/dissapearing )

6. Layer brightness. Using mutiple dynamic lights ( one for the ground and wall brightness/shadows and one for the character/skeletal mesh's brightness/self-shadowing ) with lighting channels for light linking assignment gives a lot of control over the final look..

[Lamont]

I don't have any skinned characters to test on.

[claydough]

during import any model can be imported as a skeletal mesh for testing ( import checkbox ) it doesn't have to be a skinned character to be dynamic

[ImSlightlyBored]

anyone know if theres a way to force mip level usage on a texture sample in the material editor?

I want to import a cube map that has various mip levels, using lowest for one material type and highest for another. Is there a way to pull from different mip levels within the material editor? It'd be really useful to save on texture calls..

[Thefirston]

ok guys i accidentally posted a thread about this but my question my get a faster response here

ok so i was wondering about something. i know with linear interpolate and material instance you can make a mesh switch between two different textures. is there a way to do the same thing with more, say about 5 different textures

[Microneezia]

Hello,

I am having issues with UV seams on a static mesh in Ued3. The object does not have a material applied, however all the UV seams are visible.

No split verts. All faces set to smooth group 1. No lightmap. No texture. One single map channel. No overlapping UV islands. Imported static mesh from max as ASE file.

In my search about uv seams in Ued some people talk about using a second map channel to cover UV seams. Although I dont see a detailed explanation on it, also it has to do with lightmaps and im not using any yet. Does anyone do use this second channel to cover seams? What is a common workflow for covering UV seams when working in Ued3?

[alexk]

Micro, you mean when you import your mesh and it puts the default checker matieral you see the seams? I think thats normal because it's just a tiled checker pattern. What happens when you create your texture and put it on?


Anyways, I have a general question:

When I open up UT maps from Epic to check out their props, I notice that pratically all their static meshes are fully enclosed. That is, they don't delete any faces that get hidden. Even when the other side doesn't have any modular use at all. I even see hidden sides mapped with junk images. Is there a specific reason for this?

[3devo]

alexk - i remember reading somewhere on the udn with way that culling (removing polys not seen from rendering) works in unreal engine 3 (each polygon culls all polys behind) works better with closed meshes. may also be other reasons but i'm pretty sure thats it. could be wrong though.

[ng.aniki]

Hi !
I'm having some problems with one of my mesh, here is a screenshot to understand:

http://uppix.net/8/0/1/2e8fc0520f638b7f4d5b19110094a.jpg (http://uppix.net/8/0/1/2e8fc0520f638b7f4d5b19110094a.html)

As you can see, everything looks fine in the Static Mesh Editor(Same in Maya), but in the UnrealEd viewport and in-game, some edges are looking like hard-edges for specular, just between both parts of the symmetry I made.

*There isn't any normal map yet.
*Vertex are correctly welded.
*UVs correctly welded.
*Edges hardness correctly set.
*Faces normals look right.

http://uppix.net/9/6/b/f561a69f410bb450e541aa986e020t.jpg (http://uppix.net/9/6/b/f561a69f410bb450e541aa986e020.html)

I don't know if there is a way to solve this problem... Anyone can help ?

Thanks !

[Microneezia]

Is there a way to select an object from a list comprised of all assets currently in the scene or level? Or, is there a way to change the size of the icons that represent these objects. I am finding that items like skylights way up high in a large level are near impossible to again find by manually looking for it.

or even a selection marquee would do, I know the general area of my assets even but I dont see a marquee selector either and lightbulbs get to be pretty small with 256 sized levels...

[Lamont]

There's grouping and there's the binoculars up top. You can find by searching a string there. Also, name your objects. StaticMeshActorXXX drives some people mad.

[Lamont]

@ ng.aniki (http://boards.polycount.net/member.php?u=19880)- Select those faces and do Normals>Set to Face. The vert normals look wonky.

[Microneezia]

binoculars! woot! haha, im an idiot.

[ng.aniki]

@ ng.aniki (http://boards.polycount.net/member.php?u=19880)- Select those faces and do Normals>Set to Face. The vert normals look wonky.

Thanks ! I'll try that as soon as I get home :)

[Microneezia]

Change the size of the "Play from here" playback window? full screen playback? or is there a size restriction?

[Jesse Moody]

Change the size of the "Play from here" playback window? full screen playback? or is there a size restriction?

you can hit the windows button and then click on the maximize window button if you want to go fullscreen.

[Microneezia]

Hey there Jesse Moody! how ingenious! thank you! I like your hack and slash method... or is that the official way lol...

[Lee3dee]

Change the size of the "Play from here" playback window? full screen playback? or is there a size restriction?

or you can hit ~ and type "setres 1024x768" without quotes. if you want to do it via command line :) Depending on what resolution you want anyways.

[Microneezia]

When I hit the tilde key my Reference Coordinate System goes from World to Local, No console or command line appears. this is of course not during playback. During playback nothing happens

[carlo_c]

Ok I got a quick question, I can't get my static meshes to shadow onto the terrain. I've played about and tried to look up info etc. but no luck so far.

Here's an example, I put it into an existing level and rebaked all the lighting but this is how it turned out still.

http://www.blog.carlocarfora.co.uk/dump/generator.jpg

[Kovac]

Carlo, are you setting a lightmap resolution for your floor asset + generator? You do that within the static mesh browser. Also, make sure whatever light actor you're using to make sure it isn't filtering out static meshes in it's properties (F4).

ng.aniki: did that solution end up working? I had similar issues in the past and the way I fixed it was not how Lamont stated... I just need to go back and figure out what I did end up doin.

[ImSlightlyBored]

There's grouping and there's the binoculars up top. You can find by searching a string there. Also, name your objects. StaticMeshActorXXX drives some people mad.
it makes me happy to hunt down staticmeshactor931.

[ng.aniki]

ng.aniki: did that solution end up working? I had similar issues in the past and the way I fixed it was not how Lamont stated... I just need to go back and figure out what I did end up doin.
Nope, I tried it, and it did not work for me...

If you could find out how you solved this problem before, it would be really nice, that's not the first time I have that kind of glitch.

[Kovac]

While similar I don't think it's quite the same as it was an issue with the normal map unfortunately ... Try adding one to the material and check both 2-sided and texgroup-normal.

If you have an independent spec map I'd also try reimporting that with 2-sided checked as well.

[Microneezia]

Why is it that skylights dont light up my Terrain? the other lights do... I checked the lighting channels and BSP is checked along with static, what am I missing?

[Microneezia]

I have a question about terrain this time... it appears that even though I can add a bunch of Terrain material layers, if I use the paint tool with more than 4 material layers active, Ued3 will crash. Is this an issue? I tried with textures at 2048x originally and just now with 1024x textures. everything works just fine with both sizes until I add that 5th material layer then crash.

Is this a limitation of Ued? cause Horences site states around 6 being the max number...? Is there a way to bake the materials into the terrain bsp? if so then I could maintain only 4 material layers in the editor and take them out when finished with them, then bake and continue?

I have this feeling that its the actual terrain editors window limitation and not the editor itself. The terrain edit window only has space for 4 material layers, however the editor creates a package in the generic browser and I am successfully adding layers to that package, but alas! Crash!

Please help... i dont see how anyone lives with only 4 textures on a wide open environment Terrain!

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

during import any model can be imported as a skeletal mesh for testing ( import checkbox ) it doesn't have to be a skinned character to be dynamic

Why not import it as a static mesh do your testing and then re-export as your skeletal mesh.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I have a question about terrain this time... it appears that even though I can add a bunch of Terrain material layers, if I use the paint tool with more than 4 material layers active, Ued3 will crash. Is this an issue? I tried with textures at 2048x originally and just now with 1024x textures. everything works just fine with both sizes until I add that 5th material layer then crash.

Is this a limitation of Ued? cause Horences site states around 6 being the max number...? Is there a way to bake the materials into the terrain bsp? if so then I could maintain only 4 material layers in the editor and take them out when finished with them, then bake and continue?

I have this feeling that its the actual terrain editors window limitation and not the editor itself. The terrain edit window only has space for 4 material layers, however the editor creates a package in the generic browser and I am successfully adding layers to that package, but alas! Crash!

Please help... i dont see how anyone lives with only 4 textures on a wide open environment Terrain!

You cant have more that 6 AFAIK because of the way that unreal terrain shader system works. It does not work like the regular material editor it takes all the terrain materials that you have and makes one huge shader out of it making it a very costly on your GPU. So if you have a graphic card that's middle range but not top of the line you might just have maxed out your card and that is why you can only have 4. Or you might need to get the latest driver that would be the first thing I would tey.

[Microneezia]

I was talking to Horences yesterday about this Terrain issue in a couple quick emails, he was really busy but is convinced that you can have more than 4 and kind of up to 8 or 12 running. This basically makes it a fact that 4 is not a limit. So something is wrong on my end... Technically there are limitless textures....he said... also that the complexity of the materials determines how many materials you can have running at once... Obviously the "complexity" is a bit vague but I stripped the materials to Diffuse only @ 1024x1024 each. Still the same issue of crashing as soon as I try to paint the 5th mat.. I can set up as many layers as I want but unfortunatley no go once I use them, unless 4 or less... if so everything is fine.

I dont think my CPU/GPU is a problem, I just picked up a Core i7 and the 260 gtx, it is a consumer gamer card, not a pro quadro or whatever but I dont think there is a problem on that front.

The size of my terrain is 256x256 so maybe thats the problem, today (right now) im going to check out if a smaller size makes a difference.

eitherway blillyclint thanks for the time

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I was talking to Horences yesterday about this Terrain issue in a couple quick emails, he was really busy but is convinced that you can have more than 4 and kind of up to 8 or 12 running. This basically makes it a fact that 4 is not a limit. So something is wrong on my end... Technically there are limitless textures....he said... also that the complexity of the materials determines how many materials you can have running at once... Obviously the "complexity" is a bit vague but I stripped the materials to Diffuse only @ 1024x1024 each. Still the same issue of crashing as soon as I try to paint the 5th mat.. I can set up as many layers as I want but unfortunatley no go once I use them, unless 4 or less... if so everything is fine.

I dont think my CPU/GPU is a problem, I just picked up a Core i7 and the 260 gtx, it is a consumer gamer card, not a pro quadro or whatever but I dont think there is a problem on that front.

The size of my terrain is 256x256 so maybe thats the problem, today (right now) im going to check out if a smaller size makes a difference.

eitherway blillyclint thanks for the time

Hum very weird that it is not working now that you just have just diffuse textures only on the terrain. Your card and processor are blazing fast so I am 100% sure that its not them now that you told me what you have. Did you try updating your graphic drivers to the latest ones? Also what are you using UT3 or GOW?

Have you tried making a new test level to see if maybe your level that you are working on is corrupted it could be that. I would make a small room add terrain and then add lots of layers to it and see if you get the same thing to happen.

[Microneezia]

I have UT3 Ued3.

Ok good call...

I have been using the same file over and over, shrinking and expanding the x / y num-patch values from 256 down to 64 and back up to test this out. I think you are right, perhaps ill start fresh... perhaps reimport the textures as well. new bugs are cropping up with the layer textures displaying the wrong material now...

All my materials are made of .tga format textures if thats an issue, i dont know... it looks like they are compressed to something else tho

I just built this rig, however I did use the driver it came with on the cd, i kinda blew it off like this is a new card so not many issues...rookie mistake.... im getting the new driver now... thanks.

be back in an hour... or so lol

[Microneezia]

New latest greatest nvidia 260gtx drivers...

deleted all level files and material / texture packages

imported all textures again, created new materials (diffuse only)...

created new terrain, with default properties except tesselation max set to 8 and patch size 64x64. no lights, no other mesh, just the terrain and the red builder brush in the scene.

Could add 4 material but in the terrain editing window, no more than 4 was aloud. Added one more material in that package terrain creates then added that layer and texture to the editing window by selecting it and using the "add selection to window" button on the editor window. It works, 5 layers appear with their correct textures....so then I paint a stroke... but before anything appears other than the default texture

CRASH! -

I can live with 4 materials, its not end of the world - the only thing that bothers me is that somewhere out there.. behind the diamond encrusted door of UE3 enlightenment, someone else is using 5! GAH! GAH! ack! cough! splat.

[Microneezia]

I've managed to hack my way to 7 simple (diffuse only) materials onto Ued3 terrain. Took me all day, but here is what I have discovered.

Ued3 pretty much hates vista Aero, or so it would appear. Although not totally fixing the problem, it helped a lot with crashiness when aero was off.

Ued3 terrain will not behave well unless all packages you are going to use are loaded first. This must be a no-brainer for some, but I thought I could load a package after loading a level. Sometimes the textures would pop in - sometimes it would crash if you load mat packs after the level.

No matter what I did, after the first time I created all the terrain material layers, if the number exceeded 4, it would 100% of the time crash when I tried to paint the first material. No stopping this for me.

if I load all the Terrain material layers and attach all their terrain textures.

Save level, save material pack then exit the editor, restart it >load material pack first from generic browser > Load Level >Paint, it worked.

I was able to get 7 materials mixing on the terrain this way. If I added a new package (UN_Sky - for the skyboxes) to the browser, crash... then I restart the editor and add that package first, then load the level, everything was fine. So whenever I want a new package added to the browser I must exit the editor first after saving and load every package again first then continue.

Does anyone know if this is common, that all packages must be loaded before you load a level otherwise its risky?

Thanks billy for the help, I am doing more testing here, see how far I can now push the complexity of the materials. I wont post again I guess since I got it working somewhat, but if your reading this and have any information or used Ued3 Terrain a lot, lets chat for a bit please... thanks.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I've managed to hack my way to 7 simple (diffuse only) materials onto Ued3 terrain. Took me all day, but here is what I have discovered.

Ued3 pretty much hates vista Aero, or so it would appear. Although not totally fixing the problem, it helped a lot with crashiness when aero was off.

Ued3 terrain will not behave well unless all packages you are going to use are loaded first. This must be a no-brainer for some, but I thought I could load a package after loading a level. Sometimes the textures would pop in - sometimes it would crash if you load mat packs after the level.

No matter what I did, after the first time I created all the terrain material layers, if the number exceeded 4, it would 100% of the time crash when I tried to paint the first material. No stopping this for me.

if I load all the Terrain material layers and attach all their terrain textures.

Save level, save material pack then exit the editor, restart it >load material pack first from generic browser > Load Level >Paint, it worked.

I was able to get 7 materials mixing on the terrain this way. If I added a new package (UN_Sky - for the skyboxes) to the browser, crash... then I restart the editor and add that package first, then load the level, everything was fine. So whenever I want a new package added to the browser I must exit the editor first after saving and load every package again first then continue.

Does anyone know if this is common, that all packages must be loaded before you load a level otherwise its risky?

Thanks billy for the help, I am doing more testing here, see how far I can now push the complexity of the materials. I wont post again I guess since I got it working somewhat, but if your reading this and have any information or used Ued3 Terrain a lot, lets chat for a bit please... thanks.

Humm these are all quite strange errors that you are getting as I know that this should work for you as its not that complex.

I use UT3 editor at home and the GOW editor and I have never run into this problem where after my map is open and I load a package I get a crash. Have you tried to delete your .ini files in your config folder. I think that this is where they are at I am at work now and I cant remeber where exactly where thet are but sometimes when I have issuse I delete these files and then re-open the editor. If you dont have these files when you laucnh the editor unreal will make a fresh version of them for you. Something in there might be causing the issue also do you get any type of error on your crash or better yet a log you can post?

[Microneezia]

the error is just win Vista saying wiindows is having a problem, then windows has had to close this application. Nothing specific.

I found the config folder, there are some .xml files in there as well, do you trash all the files or just the .ini's?

[Microneezia]

I have it going now if I follow that mess I described... but you have me worried that I will come across a full stop sometime in the process...or my install is corrupt or something.

Anyway, I have another question since I have your ear - I want to pull out, or even just view the UV's for the skybox static mesh objects. This way I can map my own images to them. Is this possible?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

the error is just win Vista saying wiindows is having a problem, then windows has had to close this application. Nothing specific.

I found the config folder, there are some .xml files in there as well, do you trash all the files or just the .ini's?

Just the .ini not the XML ones.

I have it going now if I follow that mess I described... but you have me worried that I will come across a full stop sometime in the process...or my install is corrupt or something.

Anyway, I have another question since I have your ear - I want to pull out, or even just view the UV's for the skybox static mesh objects. This way I can map my own images to them. Is this possible?

Do you mean exporting out of Unreal for use in 3ds Max? If that is what you want to do and my gut is telling me you do I am sorry to say that you cant. Epic does not allow you to export mesh out of packages any more(well in the retail editor anyway I am sure you can do it in the legit version). I remember hearing from someone at work that some took a GOW code drop and took all the meshes, textures, and characters exported them out tweaked them just a bit and put them into another game. So after that Epic took the ability to export anything back out of the engine.

Now there are some things that you can do to get around this.

1: Get 3Ds Max or any other 3D program and learn how to model this and just make your own. (I am totally not trying to be mean I am just letting you know what your options are.)

2: If you are just wanting to move the UV's around a bit you could do it Via the material editor with a pan command and some tweaking.

3: There is this program out there that at run time will capture and save everything that is on your graphis card to a file that you can then open in a 3D program or in Photoshop. But the name of the program tottaly eludes me right now. Ahh I know what it is I just cant think of it. I know I will think of it or maybe someone else knows what I am talking about and can chime in.

[alexk]

2 Q's:

1) Everytime I want to delete a mesh/material/texture from one of my packages that I make myself, it keeps telling me something about it's references. Like say I want to remove a mesh, even though I try to delete every single instance of the mesh in the scene, it'll still say it's linked somewhere and won't let me delete it. How do I completely unlink something I want to delete?

2) How do I move something into a group after I've imported it? Like say I imported a mesh into the main package folder, but later on, I made a "Mesh" folder in my package and I want to move the mesh into that folder.

[Microneezia]

For Terrain, I found that if I wanted to delete material layers, first I had to delete the textures within those layers. It wont work the other way and delete everything inside. You have to logically work backwards from the way you created everything. Also after I deleted those textures I had to save current level again to update that package, then delete. I found some items like that layers would not delete from the package visually, but once i removed all the textures and references from the terrain edit window, they would disapear after i saved the level.

IE: If you want to delete a texture you have imported into a package, make sure its not referenced in a material you have. then also keep your level saved as well, after you remove the references. This will free the item to be removed.

[Lamont]

2) How do I move something into a group after I've imported it? Like say I imported a mesh into the main package folder, but later on, I made a "Mesh" folder in my package and I want to move the mesh into that folder.Nothing is ever removed from a package. It's still "there" no matter what you do to it. Best bet is to have a solid workflow for your Unreal UPK's. No one really talks about having a good UPK workflow, but it's freakin' important to have dicipline on that shit.

To move an item from folder to folder or UPK to UPK, you have to rename it. Just change the folder/UPK name. Keep in mind that you still need to keep the originating UPK/folder as it redirects Unreal to the new UPK/folder. If an item is there of the same name (no matter what it is), it will get overwriten.

So as soon as you rename save the originating UPK first, then the new UPK. If UnrealED crashes and you didn't save the originating UPK, but you did save the new one, you're in for a world of hurt.

[ae.]

Hey guys awesome thread! lots of info.

I have a quick question:

basically as everyone knows when you import your textures in ue3 it compresses them and you lose alot of detail, is there anyway i could get around this issue with a hack of some sort.

[alexk]

thanks for the answers to my q's!

Hey guys awesome thread! lots of info.

I have a quick question:

basically as everyone knows when you import your textures in ue3 it compresses them and you lose alot of detail, is there anyway i could get around this issue with a hack of some sort.

I've asked this too and the only thing I've found to combat this is to set the LODbias in a textures setting to a negative value. If it's set to zero, then it automatically changes the textures resolution to a certain degree depending on it's LODgroup. So your 1024 is getting resized to 512 if it's in the default world lod group and LODbias is zero. So setting it to -1, will keep it at 1024. and -2 if your texture is 2048, and so on. This is how I understand it at least, and it's suppose to be kept at zero if its intended for play, but setting it to a negative is suppose to be fine for portfolio stuff since you're just showing it off anyways

[Microneezia]

if you cant set negative values, then you could always double the size of the texture? I think you can make the LOD's yourself too, so you can be sure what texture it is LOD'ing to. I havent done any of this... I think I know this through Polycount Osmosis...

[Microneezia]

delete your .ini files in your config folder. I think that this is where they are at I am at work now and I cant remeber where exactly where thet are but sometimes when I have issuse I delete these files and then re-open the editor. If you dont have these files when you laucnh the editor unreal will make a fresh version of them for you.

Hey man, there were 13 ini files in the config folder, when I delete all of them (except DefaultEngine!) it does ask if I want to renew (the ini files are "outdated" in the error message) a bunch of ini's so I accept, however now that I did some testing inside engine (appears to act exactly the same way) and shutdown safely... those 12 ini files I removed, have not been recreated.

The editor is asking me if I want to renew the ini files everytime I restart...

beside all this, the same layering problem is happing, so im just going to restore those files I removed I guess...

EDIT: Another Terrain Error I am seeing follows: I have 8 layers of materials in my terrain editor now, trying to push is a bit further, and found that unless I paint in all four corners of the terrain mesh with the last material in the layer stack (the literal bottom layer) none of the other materials above will appear. I can then go back and remove that last material once the whole stack of layers kind of pops into place on the terrain... I wish I was making this up...

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

2 Q's:

1) Everytime I want to delete a mesh/material/texture from one of my packages that I make myself, it keeps telling me something about it's references. Like say I want to remove a mesh, even though I try to delete every single instance of the mesh in the scene, it'll still say it's linked somewhere and won't let me delete it. How do I completely unlink something I want to delete?

2) How do I move something into a group after I've imported it? Like say I imported a mesh into the main package folder, but later on, I made a "Mesh" folder in my package and I want to move the mesh into that folder.

Ah this is another one of those Unreal bugs that happens only when you do not have good UPK work flow and a solid naming convention going into the project.

When you put something in a package unreal keeps a running total of what items have been in that pack this includes if the item has been "Deleted". I have run into errors where i deleted something from the package to find that I can not re-import that object because its name is in use.

To complicate matters even further if you link from one package to another unreal keeps track of that and down the road if you want to take something out you often find that you cant because of this cross package referencing.

AFAIK there is not "Fix" for this but as one guy in here said already you should have some sort of naming game plan for naming your custom assets. This is also good practice if you are trying to get a job in the game industry. I can't tell you mad it makes me when files don't follow the correct naming convention. -D and _D are not the same and when dealing with lots of files little mistakes like this can mess up the way the assets are displayed and grouped together in Unreal, Explorer, and Perforce.

[Microneezia]

If you really cannot delete anything truly, and as you work you find that there are several materials you will not use in your level. Will your bloated package effect performance on your level even if those materials are not used in the level? Or is it that because the unused mats are in an active package they are taking up performance budgets?

If this is the case I assume packages are rebuilt a lot?

[Lamont]

If you really cannot delete anything truly, and as you work you find that there are several materials you will not use in your level. Will your bloated package effect performance on your level even if those materials are not used in the level? Or is it that because the unused mats are in an active package they are taking up performance budgets?If it's not called in the level, it will not affect performance. Unreal has UPK's with tons of assets and only a few are used in certain levels. But unused assets are a no-no on disk as it does affect load times.

If this is the case I assume packages are rebuilt a lot?We had a custom in-house tool that removed all references from UPK's that we moved to a dummy package.

So yeah, lock down your UPK naming conventions and come up with a solid workflow. If you have a texture named BlahBlah and a mesh named BlahBlah and you moved it to the same folder, it will overwrite it. Also, depending on how your data is packed on disk, it can overwrite it at that stage as well.

My rule is, if I mess up, close down Unreal and start over from last save. I do this at home too... even though I don't have other people to deal with. For instance, when I make a UPK, I bring in the mesh first. Mesh is called MeshName_smesh, textures are called TextureName_TypeOfTexture (diffuse/diffuseA/specular/ambOc/normal/cube). Materials are MaterialName_material and Material instances are MaterialName_matinst. Textures go in "Textures" folder, materials go in "Materials" folder and meshes go in "Meshes" folder.

So my UPK is named PolyCount. My mesh is called polyCount_smesh. Any textures used by the mesh are called polyCount_diffuse, polyCount_specular and polyCount_normal. Materials used are: polyCount_material (or polyCount_matinst). All of these go in their respective folders. You don't have to follow this (this was drilled into my head so...), but it's best to stick to a plan and keep on it through a project.

[Microneezia]

Thanks man, that covers it!

[Kovac]

Yeah that's pretty spot on Lamont... Though I've always done the hack method of removing objects I don't need by renaming them to a random package without saving it, then saving my original package once it's been moved.

[Microneezia]

Kovac your my new BFF! works great!

[ae.]

where is the lod info/bias located couldent seem to find it :S

[Microneezia]

Terrain: it appears I have maxed out my terrain Material layers in Ued3 and would like to hear other peoples maxed out setting in terrain... I can have everything running below it appears. If anyone else has stats on terrain, works regularly with it, or has done some testing, Id like to hear if my findings are similar. I have a decent video card and conjured the following in my tests;

256x256 Terrain map; not sure if size matters yet to the complexity limit of the material layers...

first setup;

8 Diffuse only Materials before things start getting buggy...

or;

6 materials
5 have normal maps
1 is diffuse only.
2 materials have specular maps
2 have a power / constant on the diffuse texture sample to darken it up a bit.

The normal map missing isnt really necesary cause the terrain is outdoor and pretty much ambient lit... but later ill multiply the last 2 texture samples in PS to remove those Power / constant instructions and get that last normal in hopefully, maybe get one more specular node in too.

if I add that last normal right now it appears like the normal map becomes a diffuse, enlarges about 1000 times, and drapes itself to some random terrrain patches.... when I unhook the normal and update it goes back to a-ok.

Thanks for any feedback.

[alexk]

where is the lod info/bias located couldent seem to find it :S

just double click a texture in the generic browser to bring up it's properties, and scroll down the list, it's between "Filter" and "LODGroup"

[glib]

This is driving me nuts, I've been searching all over for an answer, so hopefully someone here can help.

I can't see any bsp brushes other than my builder brush. If I take my builder brush in a subtractive level and click CSG: subtract, I get no change. Same thing with doing an add in an additive level. I loaded up one of the maps that shipped with GoW and I can see everything EXCEPT the bsp brushes. When I press H (which as far as I understand it, should hide everything except bsp brushes? or almost everything?) I get a completely empty level with a couple of directional lights in one corner.

How do I toggle BSP display back on?

Thanks.

[edit] Forgot to mention: if I click subtract in a subtractive level then build geometry for current level, I DO get a warning about Brush_1 having a null material reference, so these things are being created, I just can't see them at all for some reason. And yes, I've tried every display mode from brush wireframe to lit.

[double-edit] I just went and had a coffee and came back. The little down arrow near the top right of each viewport has visibility options, BSP was toggled off. I guess this setting is persistant even after a restart of unrealEd. It's bound to 'Q' so I likely hit it without thinking when I was trying to get a 'select tool'. D'OH! Problem solved.

[Microneezia]

Using Ued3 I assume that it is possible to make a static mesh appear when the player moves close to it, and also disappear when the player moves away from it. maybe a defined radius, when player enters, appear ect.

If I am setting up this situation, is it more going to be a problem to have this object share a texture with an object that is not going to appear/disappear with it? Or will making a mesh disappear mean that Ued also has to clear that texture from the screen? seems unlikely... I assume this object, because of the limited time it will be invisible, will not actually unload from the level.

Any help towards texture question, or pointers on kismet regarding the proximity visibility will be greatly appreciated.

[Lamont]

Using Ued3 I assume that it is possible to make a static mesh appear when the player moves close to it, and also disappear when the player moves away from it. maybe a defined radius, when player enters, appear ect.Yes, use trigger volumes.If I am setting up this situation, is it more going to be a problem to have this object share a texture with an object that is not going to appear/disappear with it? Or will making a mesh disappear mean that Ued also has to clear that texture from the screen? seems unlikely... I assume this object, because of the limited time it will be invisible, will not actually unload from the level.It will not be a problem for the materials unless you want to have the static mesh still be there collision-wise and you just make the material disapear (think Star-Trek cloaking), in that case, you make a new material.

[Microneezia]

Collision wont be a factor, thanks Lamont I'll investigate trigger volumes!

[Kovac]

If you want the objects to remain static you'll probably have to add the specific actors into a separate persistent level (in the Generic Browser/Level tab). You can then add a trigger volume that will set that level's visibility based on it being touched through Kismet. It'd be in New Action>Level>Change Level Visibility. You'll need to probably set up a Variable for the level as well...

I don't know specifically what you're doing hiding or unhiding so it's hard to tell the reason of doing so... but I used the described method for creating lightning that randomly strikes from time to time (random hiding and unhiding of the bolt + post processing volume that encompasses the map).

[Microneezia]

What I want to have actually is a mesh fluidly appear and disappear dependent on how close the player is to that mesh. I would like it to fade out as well, not just blink out of existence. putting this mesh on an entire other level seems to be budget intensive, plus perhaps the fade to disappear it isnt as fluid as it could be. With lightning I imagine it wouldnt matter if one showing wasnt as exact as the next. In fact you may want it to be more random. With this I would want it to be pretty exact (depending on position of player) and a seamless fade out everytime. Am I reaching for too much?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

What I want to have actually is a mesh fluidly appear and disappear dependent on how close the player is to that mesh. I would like it to fade out as well, not just blink out of existence. putting this mesh on an entire other level seems to be budget intensive, plus perhaps the fade to disappear it isnt as fluid as it could be. With lightning I imagine it wouldnt matter if one showing wasnt as exact as the next. In fact you may want it to be more random. With this I would want it to be pretty exact (depending on position of player) and a seamless fade out everytime. Am I reaching for too much?

Ohh to do this you are going to have to get very fancy with Kismet and materials. If I am thinking about this correctly you want an object in the distance to fade in over time till it is 100% visible to the player and then fade out till it's 100% invisible with no popping, correct?

If so you are going to have to do some math(not that much) and come up with a formula that uses the camera's FOV + the players position + players distance form the objet to determine the amount of opacity to add or subtract from the object.

This should be realtivily esay to do with kismet and the material editor but I can already tell that it is goin to take alot of trial and error to get it just right. But this is a great excrise to become more familiar with kismet and the material editor and by the time you get this done you will be a master of both.

[Kovac]

Well said Billy. I've tweaked such things on the script level like fresnel colors for taking damage but I haven't touched Kismet enough to see how you'd pass and object's Scalar or Vector parameters through it. If that's possible it probably wouldn't be as hard, though I'd highly assume you could do a shader that would use the camera and be able to blend in the alpha based on distance directly.

Obviously there's the options in the Rendering tab of an actor's properties that you can set the max draw distance to get it to pop in, but unfortunately I can't seem to find any settings that would allow it to fade in... I'll keep lookin though

[Microneezia]

is FOV going to need to be factored into it? cant we just do it with object position vs player position?

[Kovac]

You could, try setting the blendMode to Masked and use pixelDepth to calculate the the color of an opacity mask you have hooked up. Obviously the object will not be truly culled in this case, just faded in/out.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

You could, try setting the blendMode to Masked and use pixelDepth to calculate the the color of an opacity mask you have hooked up. Obviously the object will not be truly culled in this case, just faded in/out.


Oh snap son that sounds like a winner.

[Microneezia]

You could, try setting the blendMode to Masked and use pixelDepth to calculate the the color of an opacity mask you have hooked up. Obviously the object will not be truly culled in this case, just faded in/out.


Awesome, im a total beginner with Ued3 so im going to investigate these nodes. What you're talking about takes place strictly inside the material editor correct?

[Kovac]

Yeassir, I'd go through the efforts myself to plan it out and send you some shots on how it'd work but I'm pretty loaded up on work atm... if you haven't figured it out by tomorrow or Wednesday I could try to take a stab at it for ya.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Awesome, im a total beginner with Ued3 so im going to investigate these nodes. What you're talking about takes place strictly inside the material editor correct?

Yes all the nodes that where named can be found in the material editor.

[Kovac]

Spent a few mins after lunch to get what I think you're asking. I set it to Blend_Translucent to obtain a smooth fade in, but if you want a sharper/more controlled way the material pops in you could set it to Blend_Masked and then just relink to the opacityMask input instead of just opacity.

I'm sure there's a an even easier way to do this, but I've never learned enough about shader shit. The Clamp is there to restrict the material from going to fully transparent at a distance then starting to invert; I'd recommend hooking the material up without the Clamp first if you're interested in how those kinds of nodes work and seeing the results.

EDIT: Oh, and the 1-x node is called OneMinus in the list... just in case ;)

Hope this helps!
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q156/kovac1274/matShader.jpg

[Microneezia]

oh wow, ok, i'll try to finish my work early tonight to try this, if not tomorrow for sure! thank you so much im really excited as this function will be a very large part of the level im making...

[ae.]

how would i make a subtle black outline on my models/textures in ut3?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

how would i make a subtle black outline on my models/textures in ut3?

Like a toon shader? Or rim lighting?

[Microneezia]

how would i make a subtle black outline on my models/textures in ut3?

Neox and Seforin were trading tips on this a while back; seek out their guidance! I think some node schematic images were posted too... Search function is Polycount's achilies heel but if you can navigate it Im sure I saw postings regarding this.

[ae.]

yeah i was reading them but theres is more for a toon look to there models :S i just want a simple outline ? ill probably try contacting Neox on the matter:)

[ImSlightlyBored]

theres many different ways, but I've used a camera vector with one of the channels masked (cant remember which, I think its Z, or B in the menu) as UV co ords for a line image, which then gets traced around the model.
Very simple and has depth problems with weight of line.

[Kovac]

There's an outline section of Hourence's celshading tutorial:

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3mated3.htm

[Neox]

the problem with this method is, that it's based on the mesh's normal (pretty much like a rimlight, based on a fresnel term) and won't work on flat surfaces, round characters are no problem anything technical will get flat in most angles... also the thickness of the outline is varying based on the mesh density

i'm pretty sure thats how they created the special moves outline effects on the new streetfighter, you can see on guiles flat hair top, that it's getting completly filled with black in some angles

the other two methods i'd try in unreal would be modelled outlines (easiest but sucks up a lot of polygons) or posteffect outline modifying the zbuffer of the scene, damn i wish i could get a worldspace normal of the scene, the outlines for airborn would be so much better...

@imslightlybored: could you show what you did there? i'm definitely interested in that

[alexk]

Is it possible to use 1 static mesh and switchable materials for it? For example, I have a window which is a static mesh, but I want to have one version where my emmisive is turned off, and the other is emissive turned on. I can re-import another window mesh into it and make it's own material, but I'd figure there should be some how to use the same mesh but switch the materials

[Lamont]

Is it possible to use 1 static mesh and switchable materials for it? For example, I have a window which is a static mesh, but I want to have one version where my emmisive is turned off, and the other is emissive turned on. I can re-import another window mesh into it and make it's own material, but I'd figure there should be some how to use the same mesh but switch the materialsYou would turn the emmisive on and off through kismet. There is a "switch" you can add in the material. I wouldn't mind setting up a small scene, but I'm in the middle of a video project.

[00Zero]

alexk. just make 2 mats (one with and one without emmisive). in the model previewer apply one of the materials to the staticmesh so that all of them have that material. then go into the viewport and select all the windows you want to apply the 2nd mat to and select the 2nd mat in the browser, then right click on the selected windows and go to materials>assign from generic browser.

[Lamont]

After I re-read it. It's not something that he wanted a trigger for. You can do this with one material. Just put a constant for the emmisive value. And use material instance.

[ae.]

@imslightlybored: sounds interesting can you make a quick tutorial about setting it up?

also hourences tutorial is really confusing and might not work on the bsp brushes im using:S

[Neox]

it won't work on bsp brushes unless they are round which i assume they aren't as it's bsp i guess modelled outlines would drop too, so you need to "blur" your image/zbuffer

a gaussian blur is basicly nothing more then moving your screentexture (alpha is zbuffer) into every direction by X Units (0.001 will do) and giving these directions different weights via multiply

so your nodes should look like this (from right to left, not from left to right how i'm writing)

texture coordinate > add with (0,001;0) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1)

this will offset the uvs of your scene textures zbuffer by 0,001 into X direction

now what you need to do is, do that into all 8 directions and add all this together with the initial scene texture, so it looks like

scenetextures alpha > divide by (your zbuffer value) > add with:

(here comes the part from before)

texture coordinate > add with (0,001 ; 0) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (0,001 ; 0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (0 ; 0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (0 ; -0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (-0,001 ; 0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (0,001 ; - 0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (-0,001 ; -0,001) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) > add with

texture coordinate > add with (-0,001 ; 0) > plugged into the UVs of your scene texture> divide by your zdepth value, (you should test that value) > multiply by (1) >

all this added together will gve you a hell of a bright image, but divided by the sum all multiplyvalues you'll get a blurred version of your image/zbuffer (depending on if you'd use the alpha of the scene texture or not)

now divide a scenetexture (in this case the alpha) by that blurred image and you'll get some sort of outline, all you need to do next ist tweak it, power it up, clamp it, whatever, until it looks good to you.
to have better control about the outline i added a multiplyvalue into all fomulars connected to the (add with (X ; Y)) part so its Multiplyvalue*(add with (X ; Y)) so the offset can be controlled by just one Node also i added more fancy stuff like the outline getting thinner by distance etc but that's not of your concern right now ^^

try to understand what i did, all in all it's just basic math, no fancy stuff, just adds, multiplies and divisions, otherwise i might not have understood it :D
sounds more complicated then it is

what it does in the end is blur the zbuffer and check the difference of the blurred and the normal image, it's not really super detailed, basing this on the world normals would give way better results but i can't grab those in the post effects, also you might not need to do this in a post effect, haven't tried it but i guess it will work in a normal shader too, this could give you control of the outlines thickness for every object.

[tanka]

I'm new to UnrealEd3 and I'm having an issue with my textures.. My colour map is totally blown out, it isn't in photoshop, or in the textureviewer, only in the UE3 viewport. It isn't the spec or normal because it's still there when I turn it off.. I'm sure it would be pretty easy to fix, here's a picture anyway..

[img=http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5299/problemrc9.th.jpg] (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=problemrc9.jpg)

/edit: just to confuse me even more, I saved everything and quit, then opened the editor back up, now all my textures are really blurry.. :(

[shabba]

Hi everyone,
First time poster on this forum! Unfortunately I have been unable to find a solution to this on here, or anywhere online.

I have made a nice deathmatch level, and I want to do a camera "fly through" of sorts to display it and use it for my portfolio.

Can anyone explain how I could do this? Or where I could learn. I have been hunting for some time.

Thank you,
- Shabba

[Neox]

haha welcome to unreal, how big is your texturesize? it will always get compressed but you can do some things to awoid it a little

[Kovac]

If you could get us a shot of the shader plugs as well... it looks like you have a node ramping the shit out of the saturation of the barrier.

The blurry textures sometimes happens to me as well (failing to go to the correct mip level). Two things to think of:

I'm pretty sure mip levels are determined on an object's pivot point, so if it's a larger mesh you might not get it to mip in at all so check your scale in relation to standard ut3.

Try relighting the mission and dragging the object closer to 0,0,0, as I've seen objects too far from everything else being permanently mipped out.

[alexk]

alexk. just make 2 mats (one with and one without emmisive). in the model previewer apply one of the materials to the staticmesh so that all of them have that material. then go into the viewport and select all the windows you want to apply the 2nd mat to and select the 2nd mat in the browser, then right click on the selected windows and go to materials>assign from generic browser.

that worked perfectly! except I could only seem to apply it one mesh at a time, doesn't seem to work when I have multiple meshes selected.. weird.. but no biggie

new Q:

when I'm working in the editor, sometimes my Generic Browser window doesn't want to close, I can still move it around and unreal is still running fine, but the damn thing will get stuck open... seems like a bug. anyone else get this, any fix for it?

[tanka]

If you could get us a shot of the shader plugs as well... it looks like you have a node ramping the shit out of the saturation of the barrier.

The blurry textures sometimes happens to me as well (failing to go to the correct mip level). Two things to think of:

I'm pretty sure mip levels are determined on an object's pivot point, so if it's a larger mesh you might not get it to mip in at all so check your scale in relation to standard ut3.

Try relighting the mission and dragging the object closer to 0,0,0, as I've seen objects too far from everything else being permanently mipped out.

Here's my shader network, but I can't see what would be blowing out the texture..

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/566/problem2wq6.th.jpg (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=problem2wq6.jpg)

Also, the texture size is 1024x1024, and the model scale is quite small. Should I be using a 2048 texture?

[carlo_c]

that worked perfectly! except I could only seem to apply it one mesh at a time, doesn't seem to work when I have multiple meshes selected.. weird.. but no biggie

new Q:

when I'm working in the editor, sometimes my Generic Browser window doesn't want to close, I can still move it around and unreal is still running fine, but the damn thing will get stuck open... seems like a bug. anyone else get this, any fix for it?

When mine gets stuck I press the generic browser buttton at the top and then I am able to close the window. Odd but it works for me, hope it works for you too. :)

tanka: for the blown out specular, give the specular power a constant vector so you can change the size of the highlight. Your spec map looks pretty white too so it would be quite strong... maybe tone down the brightness of the map itself.

[tanka]

It's not the spec that's blown out, it's the colour map. If I break the link between the spec/normal maps the colour is still oversaturated.

I have barely started the texture either, theyre all just stand ins until I find a solution to this problem.

/edit, I fixed the blurry texture.. It had something to do with the camera. I still have no idea about this oversaturated material. I've searched high and low for more information but I can't find it anywhere. :(

/edit again, I think I've fixed the oversaturation.. Does unreal have a problem with .TGA files? I imported the .PSDs of the same textures and it seems to be working.

[Neox]

i always import tga works here

[tanka]

You're right.. I figured out it had to do with the options i used importing the textures.

[spideyscott]

Hi im new to using Unreal 3. I have a problem with the modular pieces I have created when they a lit in the engine. I dont want the harsh lighting that appears on some pieces like the top trim. Instead I want the same sort of lighting across all of them.

They are not lightmapped and i have also turned of unreals sub division of the mesh as well which helped the middle pieces.

Any advice would be really great. Is it to do with how I have modelled the pieces or my set up in the editor?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, if so I will start my own thread.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4705/lightingproblem1on1.jpg

Here is the wireframe

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5559/lightingproblem2af7.jpg

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hi im new to using Unreal 3. I have a problem with the modular pieces I have created when they a lit in the engine. I dont want the harsh lighting that appears on some pieces like the top trim. Instead I want the same sort of lighting across all of them.

They are not lightmapped and i have also turned of unreals sub division of the mesh as well which helped the middle pieces.

Any advice would be really great. Is it to do with how I have modelled the pieces or my set up in the editor?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, if so I will start my own thread.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4705/lightingproblem1on1.jpg

Here is the wireframe

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5559/lightingproblem2af7.jpg

If you want uniform lighting you will need to either add light maps or add more vertices to your meshes and increase the lighting sub-divisions so that the vertex-lighting is more evenly distributed across the mesh.

[Popeye9]

I am wondering if I can use animated textures in unreal. I know that I can use the panner and what not but I am looking more at say animated tracks on a plane or such.

[praetus]

Hi everyone,
First time poster on this forum! Unfortunately I have been unable to find a solution to this on here, or anywhere online.

I have made a nice deathmatch level, and I want to do a camera "fly through" of sorts to display it and use it for my portfolio.

Can anyone explain how I could do this? Or where I could learn. I have been hunting for some time.

Thank you,
- Shabba

If you just want screen shots then of course play the level as an observer and use print screen to capture what you need. For a movie your best bet is get some type of software that can capture video of your screen and either do the observer route again or make a sequence in Kismet+Matinee. There are tutorials on how to do this on the DVD that comes with the collectors edition of UT3. If you can't get those then may I suggest http://eat3d.com/kismet

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I am wondering if I can use animated textures in unreal. I know that I can use the panner and what not but I am looking more at say animated tracks on a plane or such.

You can but its called a flip book.

[Talbot]

So here is my problem. When I decided to import a door I made in 3ds max in the UT3 editor... I experienced some odd stretching of geometry.
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq304/IamTalbot/asdfe-5.png

Here is the wireframe in 3ds max.
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq304/IamTalbot/asdff2-2.png

Here are the 3ds max export settings.
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq304/IamTalbot/asdffdsafasfd-1.png

Anyone know what is going on?

[carlo_c]

Talbot looks like it might need some manual cutting of edges to ensure the hidden edges aren't acting screwed up? Your export settings look fine, same as mine lol.

I have a question too lol. If I'm making a building, is it better to import a building as one complete object or should I import one/two storeys of it and instance it to create more floors? Would each instance have a unique lightmap?

I'm playing with both methods at the moment and I'm favouring towards the one/two storey import because I can make the buildings as tall/short as I need to vary up the scene. I'm wondering if I'll get a major performance hit or not seeing as their just instancing the geometry?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

So here is my problem. When I decided to import a door I made in 3ds max in the UT3 editor... I experienced some odd stretching of geometry.
http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq304/IamTalbot/asdfe-5.png

Here is the wireframe in 3ds max.


Here are the 3ds max export settings.


Anyone know what is going on?

Yes you need to turn your triangles so that they are draw in the other direction. That black line usually means that you have geometry that is lying on top of one another/ to close to give accurate vertex lighting.

[JordanW]

carlo_C it wouldn't be a bad idea to do both. Create legos to put the buildings together in game but also throw together some assembled buildings that maybe have less polygons so that you can use them in the distance.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Talbot looks like it might need some manual cutting of edges to ensure the hidden edges aren't acting screwed up? Your export settings look fine, same as mine lol.

I have a question too lol. If I'm making a building, is it better to import a building as one complete object or should I import one/two storeys of it and instance it to create more floors? Would each instance have a unique lightmap?

I'm playing with both methods at the moment and I'm favouring towards the one/two storey import because I can make the buildings as tall/short as I need to vary up the scene. I'm wondering if I'll get a major performance hit or not seeing as their just instancing the geometry?

The one/two story method is going to be your best bet as one it will have fewer verts and two your light maps will look way better as you will have less mesh area to map so your light maps will look higher rez.

As for the instancing of light maps, AFAIK they will not be instanced as you each light map will have different shadow and light information as the light will be coming in from different directions/ sources.

[carlo_c]

Thanks for the quick answers, I'll use the one/two storey method for the main buildings then and knock together some assembled ones for the distance! :)

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hey just a real quick find that I think you all might like. NVIDA has made some video tutorials that explain in depth how to use the PhysX system inside of unreal 3.0.

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/ue3_physx.html

The videos are really well done the only thing that I have noticed is that the version of unreal they use, "3.5" is not what is readily available to the public to use. I have been following along using the Unreal Tournament 3.0 editor and everything has been pretty close to what they have minus a few check mark boxes.

[Lamont]

3.5 I hope will be shipping with the big Unreal update soon.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

3.5 I hope will be shipping with the big Unreal update soon.

I don't think so as the code changes from 3.0 to 3.5 are massive so if a code merge was done it could break a lot of stuff causing a massive re-work of the scripts but I could be wrong and hope that I am.

I bought Mirrors Edge hopping that it would have an editor as its made using unreal 3.5 but no matter what I did I could not get the editor to come up. I can see all the editor files and editor.INI files. But I think they stripped out the code that allows you to access the editor.

[Lamont]

Hehehe, yeah, I was willing to buy Mirrors Edge twice (PC and PS3) if it came with the editor... which means Beast :).

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hehehe, yeah, I was willing to buy Mirrors Edge twice (PC and PS3) if it came with the editor... which means Beast :).

Haha I have gotten so many games just so I can use the editor. Actually I have never really truly played any unreal game. I just like using the engine because of all the stuff you can do with it.

[ImSlightlyBored]

yeah 3.5 is decent, didnt know mirrors edge was on it.
heard things about beast that make me not that eager to use it

[Lamont]

yeah 3.5 is decent, didnt know mirrors edge was on it.
heard things about beast that make me not that eager to use itWell, if you've used Turtle, then Beast is no different. It has a few quirks, but it's something I can put up with for the results.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Well, if you've used Turtle, then Beast is no different. It has a few quirks, but it's something I can put up with for the results.

I just looked into Beast and Damn I have to say that is the shiznit. Ray traced soft shadows through static meshes alpha's!!!!! OMG that is so cool I wish my studio was using this uber uber cool tool.

Ohh BTW I did not know mirrors edge was unreal 3.5 till I looked at the shader libary and say the ambient occulsion shader. But since it uses Beast I can see why it did not ship with the editor.

[Neox]

well in the end what beast gives you is directional lightmaps, so i guess you could easily ship a game with editor and those lightmaps without shipping beast too, just modding would suck quite a bit as you'll never get the same lighting quality

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

well in the end what beast gives you is directional lightmaps, so i guess you could easily ship a game with editor and those lightmaps without shipping beast too, just modding would suck quite a bit as you'll never get the same lighting quality

Wait I am losing you here as I have never used beast but your saying that its only true power is over the direction of light maps. Like you can control where they are going to come from and what lights source is cast them?

On the website for beast its says that it can do a whole lot more than that. I am just curious as I have never used it but what I read about it on the site it seamed pretty cool.

[Neox]

Directional lightmaps are 3 lightmaps that are computed with the normalmap, so you get something from your normalmaps with static lighting. Unreal does the same, it's not just one lightmap, but unreal can't do the ao stuff, gi, colorbleeding etc.
afaik beast can create better lightmaps because of better rendering techniques, so you can just implement those lightmaps in our packages without a working copy of beast on the target platform

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Directional lightmaps are 3 lightmaps that are computed with the normalmap, so you get something from your normalmaps with static lighting. Unreal does the same, it's not just one lightmap, but unreal can't do the ao stuff, gi, colorbleeding etc.
afaik beast can create better lightmaps because of better rendering techniques, so you can just implement those lightmaps in our packages without a working copy of beast on the target platform

Ah I see have you used it? If so can it really cast soft shadows through static meshes?

[Neox]

no i haven't used it but why shouldn't it be possible? it's prebaked

[katzeimsack]

i baked it in maya and neox got it ingame... it's totally possible, as long as you get all the static models into maya for baking.. shitty workfolw, but without beast...

[ploon]

Ok sorry if this is a dumb question, I've searched everywhere, watched all the videos
that came with my collectors edition of UT3 etc but no luck.

And it seems really basic! But here goes:

I want to import an environment, the ground for instance. Do I import the ground as
a static mesh? Does it need to have a collision object with it?

I managed to import a ground object and made it have a collision object but I couldnt
add a player start option to it...

On Hourences site (the making of Krodan) he makes an environment
in Max but it doesnt seem to work for me. I dont want to use terrain or bsp, I'd jusr like to import an environment from Max.

Again sorry if this is like the dumbest question ever, I'm just not used to UE3!

[Neox]

just add a player start node, anywhere ob your static mesh, then you should be able to run around on it

[ploon]

Thankyou Neox - so the whole scene can be made with just static meshes?
And does the ground have to have a collision object applied to it?

Thanks for your help Neox:)

[Neox]

yes and yes ;)

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Thankyou Neox - so the whole scene can be made with just static meshes?
And does the ground have to have a collision object applied to it?

Thanks for your help Neox:)

Yes it can but instead you might want to use a terrain actor as it is a little more optimized to work with than a huge Static Mesh and its collision hull.

[Lamont]

Yes it can but instead you might want to use a terrain actor as it is a little more optimized to work with than a huge Static Mesh and its collision hull.True. Also, if you have rolling hills and stuff, and you want collision, you're gonna run into an issue with Havok getting pissed about the number of collision primitives for that mesh. And possible crashes as well. Better to use the UED terrain like *BILLY$CLINT* said.

[Neox]

it really depends on what you are going for, you can't just use unreal terrain for all terrains possibilities, can't use it for airborn either, only on closed terrain parts, which aren't going to happen any time soon

[ploon]

thanks for the input people!
My reason for wanting to use imported mesh is that I'm having a bash at the comp over at game artist
and I think it stipulates that no bsp can be used. I'm guessing terrain is considered bsp?

Also, as it wont be a playable level but just an eyecandy piece (hopefully..!) it wont matter too much
that it isnt optimised properly. As long as I can manouever the player to a good spot for a clean
screenshot I'll be happy. And once I've got the process down I'll then concentrate doing it "properly" next time:)

thanks again:)

[glib]

Can anyone explain what a vector transform node in the material editor does? It seems to be changing the coordinate reference system?

I've been teaching myself unreal materials while I get some of my stuff set up in it, and everything is really straightforward so far (instant feedback rules!), but I hit a block when I was trying to get some reflections on my building windows. No amount of guess n test seemed to work, but finally I stumbled across an unrelated tutorial that gave up the goods:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Image:Legacy_fakeSkyBoxMaterial.jpeg

So I understand why I want to flip the Z - it's upside down otherwise. By why do I need to switch the coordinate system to world coords first? What do these vectors default to?

Also, what's the difference between the reflection vector and camera vector? It seems that they simply have opposite signs in the X and Z initially, but with some testing (passing each through a worldspace vector transform then multiplying with a vector of 1's and -1's) it appears that once I get them facing the same direction, the reflection vector will give me strange compression artifacts at the edges of my reflection mask, while the camera vector will not.

I can post examples if that would help.
[edit]Example of artifacts (http://lgilbride.com/images/forum/reflection_artifacts.jpg)

[ImSlightlyBored]

reflection vector takes in to account objects normals (inc normal maps), camera vector doesnt
is one difference anyway

and yeah vector transform can transform a vector you put in, so if you put in a camera vector node and transform it, you can change it to local space/world space/etc space and so on
think if you force a normal map to world transform its useful for faking lighting sources but dont hold me to that

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

thanks for the input people!
My reason for wanting to use imported mesh is that I'm having a bash at the comp over at game artist
and I think it stipulates that no bsp can be used. I'm guessing terrain is considered bsp?

Also, as it wont be a playable level but just an eyecandy piece (hopefully..!) it wont matter too much
that it isnt optimised properly. As long as I can manouever the player to a good spot for a clean
screenshot I'll be happy. And once I've got the process down I'll then concentrate doing it "properly" next time:)

thanks again:)

No terrain is not BSP or even remotely related to terrain so you should be good to use it. As for making a "Eye Candy" level don't go to crazy on the triangles and the materials.

Just some food for though...The more practice you get making something that is awesome 'Eye Candy' and runs at an decent frame rate the better off you will be. I cant tell you how many times I have talked to students or seen demo reels that show me great work but its totally unusable in any game engine as its to high poly. So don't do it later when you can do it now you will be better off.

[ploon]

Thanks *Billy$ - I hear what you're saying and intend to follow that process.
I'm using waaay less polys than are available, lightmaps are tiny and it looks
ok so far with the first building in. I've only worked with an in house engine
before that used normals etc but...well it was a strange beast heheh.

Just trying to get a feel for it and you guys are a great help, thankyou:thumbup:

[glib]

Stupid question here: how do I open the console? I'm trying to take screenshots with 'tiledshot' but typing it into the dropdown box in the bottom left and hitting enter does nothing that I can see. Hitting tilde or tab as this (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TakingScreenshots.html)page suggests also seems to do nothing.

Suggestions?

[bluekangaroo]

Stupid question here: how do I open the console? I'm trying to take screenshots with 'tiledshot' but typing it into the dropdown box in the bottom left and hitting enter does nothing that I can see. Hitting tilde or tab as this (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TakingScreenshots.html)page suggests also seems to do nothing.

Suggestions?

ummm, are you in game, or just in the editor? If in game, make sure you name your level "DM-something" that way unreal will recognize it as a deathmatch map and allow you to open console n all that fun stuff

[Microneezia]

.....only on closed terrain parts.....


What requirement does this refer to specifically? I dont understand why terrain cannot be used in open parts? Can you explain the open / closed parameters?

[glib]

ummm, are you in game, or just in the editor? If in game, make sure you name your level "DM-something" that way unreal will recognize it as a deathmatch map and allow you to open console n all that fun stuff
D'oh! I knew it would turn out to be a stupid question. I was trying to do it from the editor, not the game itself. Jumping into spectator mode gives me a console when I hit tilde, as advertised.

Thanks for the help.

[MBT]

Glib, you can also jump into PIE and hit tab to bring up the console. It's much easier than having to kill the editor and run the game.

[Neox]

What requirement does this refer to specifically? I dont understand why terrain cannot be used in open parts? Can you explain the open / closed parameters?

we want to create good looking floating islands, so unless it's a terrain where you can't see the outer rim from outside, and therefore a closed terrain, we can't use it.

[bluekangaroo]

I got one....anybody know If its possible to adjust the field of view/depth of field within unreal? I remember searching around on the udn a while ago and came up with nothing

[Lee3dee]

if you want to set the depth of field for the whole level, the settings are

view -> World Properties -> DefaultPostProcessSettings

or if you want to do it in a certain areas, use a PostProcessVolume to achieve that.

[Neox]

you could also setup you own postprocess, you need to change the defaultengine.ini or something like that to load your postprocess package instead of the normal one

[bluekangaroo]

sweet, thanks guys

[ImSlightlyBored]

yeah for stuff like that it should all be in the default post process set up
camera FOV I'm not sure about, I know you can change it within matinee but it seems like a pain in the arse, theres probably a quick and easy way to change the fov with one input field tbh.
I know if you delve in to the ini's you can change the editor FOV and so on

edit: I actually have a question as well; anyone got a list of how expensive each shader widget is? Like, a table of what's more expensive in practical terms? I know that bump offset is quite nasty sometimes, but I'd like to know them all before I start writing large shaders.

[almighty_gir]

anyone know of any tutorials, or any doccumentation AT ALL, of how to get a custom rig into UnrealEd with working animations?

[Neox]

just export psa and psk open the skeletal mesh and assign the animation o.o

[Microneezia]

eat 3d just released free tutorials on that subject using ActorX Mr.Gir.

here you go: http://eat3d.com/free

[PixelMasher]

hey duders, quick question in regards to particles. In cascade I am trying to get arching smoke trails off of debris. I have placeholder cube meshes spawning in place of the default alpha planes and got them to fly up and arch downwards and bounce and shit so thats all gravy.

I could have sworn ive seen it before where you can have particles spawn a trail of other particles but ill be damned if I can figure out how, iv tried adding a spawn node a trail node etc but nothing is happening.

any ideas fellas?

EDIT: found the answer over at 3D buzz (http://www.3dbuzz.com) on their free how do i? videos, you just gotta sign up to view them an awesome resource. just scroll down the vids section on the side menu and go to unreal tech. these dudes really know their shit, they made the ut3 collectors edition tut dvd.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I actually have a question as well; anyone got a list of how expensive each shader widget is? Like, a table of what's more expensive in practical terms? I know that bump offset is quite nasty sometimes, but I'd like to know them all before I start writing large shaders.

Not that I know of but inside of the material editor it will tell you how many instructions it takes to make the shader. For example when you look at a shader in the GB you should see at the bottom of the shader a number like 37/47 instructions with 3 textures. This is the amount of instructions that are needed to power the shader along with how many textures it uses.

I do know the LERP's are one of the most expensive things that you can use epically when it comes to terrain so stay away from those. Also don't forget that if you need to change the value(referring to using a vector to color of something) of something do it in Photoshop and not in the material editor as it will blot your shader.

[ImSlightlyBored]

yeah every little helps I guess, but can it not be cheaper some times to use a grayscale image (or even three/four in one texture call) and colour those in through constant 3's in the shader, rather than 3-4 seperate, full colour textures?

As for Lerps, didnt know that they're that expensive. Certainly I've seen terrain shaders be expensive :( :( But lerps are just really useful - can't really see a work around from them?

any idea on amount of instructions to aim for, as a general thing? I've always been aiming for 80 or under, as a sort of random figure, with 100+ giving me a heart attack. Obviously it all depends on shader complexity in viewport I suppose...

[glib]

Is there a way to set up a flat gray background that I can see in-game, so I can use the tiledshot command for screens? I tried just setting up a bunch of grey bsp around the models I want to show, but then I can't use any directional lights.

[Neox]

use a giant inverted box, sphere whatever with a grey unlit shader applied?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Yeah your right about the LERPS they are use full but expensive to use. I work on an MMO and I have had it pounded into my head to not use them as the game has to scale from shader model 3.0 to 2.0 and for some reason they cant scale from one to the other as the LERP is to many instructions for shader model 2.0 ...or that's what the shader artist who makes our shader’s told me when I tried to use one.

I am not really sure about the performance of grey scale images colored by using the v3 constants...While that is a great idea I was referring to trying to color correct something because you are to lazy to go into Photoshop and actually fix it...I don’t think that the shader system should make up for your broken art work but that's just me.

As we are an MMO most of ours are around 45-60 with anywhere from 1 to 5 texture inputs. The character ones are around 96 but I am not sure if they are the ship ones or still the debug ones. I have seen epic ones (UT3 and GOW 1 and 2) that are 100+ and a lot of what they are doing I have been told could be done in Photoshop. Remember shader’s are one of the most expensive things you call on the graphics card kind of like static meshes used to be. No matter how 'next-gen' something is balance is always key the limits you have set for your self sound totally reasonable stay with in them and you should have no problems.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

use a giant inverted box, sphere whatever with a grey unlit shader applied?

I would do the same thing.

[izu]

Hi,

I have some questions! :)

1) I'm working on a scene for a school project ( you can watch it here (http://blogs.gscept.com/2008/ip5/) ) it's a platform kind of, and I want it all to spin around slowly so I can fraps it when I'm done.
I know how to do a turn table thanks to eat3D's free tutorial about this (http://eat3d.com/free_ue3_turntable_rotate). My question is, how would I go about doing this with maybe 30+ items in there?

Is there some way I can group it all, and then rotate it?
Or, could I put the pivot of all the objects at the centre of the grid and then plug them all in, one by one, in the kismet that makes it rotate?
Or should I just go about it some other way?

I haven't begun playing with kismets at all yet, just wanted some heads up info now so I won't get stuck with the deadline closing in.

2) Second question, when I want to close U3ed, sometimes it asks if I want to save textures.upk (and other similar .upk packages). What are these .upk files? It's nothing I've created so I just tend to click no. Are these files important?

Thanks in advance!

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hi,

I have some questions! :)

1) I'm working on a scene for a school project ( you can watch it here (http://blogs.gscept.com/2008/ip5/) ) it's a platform kind of, and I want it all to spin around slowly so I can fraps it when I'm done.
I know how to do a turn table thanks to eat3D's free tutorial about this (http://eat3d.com/free_ue3_turntable_rotate). My question is, how would I go about doing this with maybe 30+ items in there?

Is there some way I can group it all, and then rotate it?
Or, could I put the pivot of all the objects at the centre of the grid and then plug them all in, one by one, in the kismet that makes it rotate?
Or should I just go about it some other way?

I haven't begun playing with kismets at all yet, just wanted some heads up info now so I won't get stuck with the deadline closing in.

2) Second question, when I want to close U3ed, sometimes it asks if I want to save textures.upk (and other similar .upk packages). What are these .upk files? It's nothing I've created so I just tend to click no. Are these files important?

Thanks in advance!

1: You could pre-fab all 30 items together and then rotate the pre-fab but I don't know if epic allows you to animate pre-fabs. You could also due what your are talking about by moving all the pivots to the center grind in your 3d program and then export them one by one but this is going to take a long time I would just attach all pieces togther in your 3d program and import the whole mesh with all the pieces and rotate that.

2: When Unreal asks you to save something this usally means that the package got marked dirty meaning that you might have adjusted something or cliked on or off a check mark box. I get this alot with epic packages after I have been poking around in them and then close down its normal so dont save them and you will be all good.

[Talbot]

Hey Guys.

I'm having this weird problem. Yesterday I started to make a BSP of a new UT3 map. I've made roughly 15 BSP blocks... non of them are intersecting. When I setup my builder brush in the next spot... and hit control + A to build it... some of my previous BSP disappears. Anyone know what is happening?

Thanks

[izu]

Thank you |*BILLY$CLINT*|

All the meshes in that scene are static so I don't think it's possible to animate them (what I know).
So, I tried doing a matinee in kismet instead, I can't say it's going too good animating a camera. This leads me to a new question:

Is it possible to animate a camera in Maya and export it out to Unreal 3 Editor? With ActorX maybe?
I tried google but didn't find anything of use.

[quyeno]

Hi guy,

just starting out with unreal editor :)

I was wondering what settings i should use in Maya and Max gird setting/metrics to match the units in the unreal editor? also how many units tall is a character in unreal?

Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks
Quyeno

[JackyBoy]

I read this on hourences' website:
Your 3D package should preferably use a type of Generic Units as grid size. The actual unit size doesn't really matter in the end though, as whatever unit you had in the 3D package will simply translate as 1 unit in Unreal. 400 Units width in the 3D package means 400 units in Unreal. Usually the player size is between 80 and 250 units. This depends from game to game, as the size of a character is freely customizable.

Or here is a site that shows you.
Setting up 3DS Max for Unreal (http://fordy.planetunreal.gamespy.com/gradientssmeshtutorials/1.html)

Hope that helped

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Thank you |*BILLY*|

All the meshes in that scene are static so I don't think it's possible to animate them (what I know).
So, I tried doing a matinee in kismet instead, I can't say it's going too good animating a camera. This leads me to a new question:

Is it possible to animate a camera in Maya and export it out to Unreal 3 Editor? With ActorX maybe?
I tried google but didn't find anything of use.

You have to convert your static mesh to a mover also called a KActor to get it to move. With the KActor you can animate(Move around the scene not deform) your static mesh moving but that is pretty much it.

AFAIK you can not export a camera animation from Maya Via ActorX with UT3. This does not mean that you can't do it, it means that this version of unreal can not do it. I think if you go to 3d Buzz they have video tutorials about this very topic or at least you might find something that can help you out. You have to register to get the full videos but registration is free and there is a lot of good stuff on there. In fact that is where I have started my python learing as the video tutorials are just that good.

Don't feel to bad I am an experienced unreal user and even I have trouble sometimes getting the matinee editor working correctly just keep up at it and soon you will be a master.

[quyeno]

I read this on hourences' website:


Or here is a site that shows you.
Setting up 3DS Max for Unreal (http://fordy.planetunreal.gamespy.com/gradientssmeshtutorials/1.html)

Hope that helped

nice one mate, thanks for your help. :)

two thumbs thresh d^_^b

quyeno

[izu]

You have to convert your static mesh to a mover also called a KActor to get it to move. With the KActor you can animate(Move around the scene not deform) your static mesh moving but that is pretty much it.

AFAIK you can not export a camera animation from Maya Via ActorX with UT3. This does not mean that you can't do it, it means that this version of unreal can not do it. I think if you go to 3d Buzz they have video tutorials about this very topic or at least you might find something that can help you out. You have to register to get the full videos but registration is free and there is a lot of good stuff on there. In fact that is where I have started my python learing as the video tutorials are just that good.

Don't feel to bad I am an experienced unreal user and even I have trouble sometimes getting the matinee editor working correctly just keep up at it and soon you will be a master.

Thanks again for taking the time, |*BILLY$CLINT*| :)

I decided to fraps it manually, together with some console commands that let me fly, some slowmo and a steady hand it looked pretty nice. And I had more freedom with frapsing what I wanted. But I'll keep all this in mind for the future. Thanks again!

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Thanks again for taking the time, |*BILLY*| :)

I decided to fraps it manually, together with some console commands that let me fly, some slowmo and a steady hand it looked pretty nice. And I had more freedom with frapsing what I wanted. But I'll keep all this in mind for the future. Thanks again!

Hey no problems it was my pleasure to help you out and I am glad that I could.

[MegaMoogle]

I'm working on importing a character into Unreal, but the textures are on the second map channel because they were projected in Max. I tried moving them to the first map channel slot, but unfortunately Max isn't cooperating. Is there any way to use multiple UV channels in Unreal, specificially when using a Material Instance Constant?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I'm working on importing a character into Unreal, but the textures are on the second map channel because they were projected in Max. I tried moving them to the first map channel slot, but unfortunately Max isn't cooperating. Is there any way to use multiple UV channels in Unreal, specifically when using a Material Instance Constant?

Slap all your textures into a multi-sub object and then make sure the mesh has the proper material ID's applied to match the multi-sub object ID that references the texture that is on that section of the mesh.

Now delete all the textures that are on your mesh and apply the multi-sub object material to the now texture less mesh. You want to do this because A, it helps make sure you did not miss anything or that the wrong texture is applied to the wrong ID slot and B, This will make sure that when you open this in the animation browser it will retain it's material slots so all you will have to do is load the material.

Then export to .PSK format using Actor X

Open unreal import your .PSK data from 3Ds Max into the package with your materials that are needed.

Double click on the .PSK to open it in the Animation browser.

To the left of the window that is displaying your object you should see two properties box that have three tabs each and are stacked one on top of another.

You want the one on the bottom, it should default to Anim Sequence in the tab name when you open the animation browser.

From the tab on the left select mesh and the first input you see is where you would put your multiple textures for your character. Again the materials you assign to the inputs relate to the ID you gave the multi-sub in Max.

Hope this helps let me know if it did not.

[ImSlightlyBored]

er in your material you can just use tex co ord in a shader and set co-ordinate index to X (in your case, 1)
then plug that in to your maps UV nub


is that what you were after?

[MegaMoogle]

er in your material you can just use tex co ord in a shader and set co-ordinate index to X (in your case, 1)
then plug that in to your maps UV nub


is that what you were after?

I've tried messing with the TexCoord, but for some reason when I change the value of the coordinate index it tiles my texture.

[PixelMasher]

MegaMoogle: remember unreal is zero based for most things so Uv channel one is actually 0 and channel 2 would be 1 in the coordinate index inside unreal etc

its probably showing up as tiling because it is looking for a uv channel that doesnt exist.

[sprunghunt]

Yeah your right about the LERPS they are use full but expensive to use. I work on an MMO and I have had it pounded into my head to not use them as the game has to scale from shader model 3.0 to 2.0 and for some reason they cant scale from one to the other as the LERP is to many instructions for shader model 2.0 ...or that's what the shader artist who makes our shader’s told me when I tried to use one.

Well a MMO is usually a lot lower spec than next gen games so fancy shader tricks are probably a bad idea. However can't you use the fallback material system? It's supposed to let you define a simpler material that doesn't have the instructions not supported by the lower spec. UE3 should automatically scale between the two.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Well a MMO is usually a lot lower spec than next gen games so fancy shader tricks are probably a bad idea. However can't you use the fallback material system? It's supposed to let you define a simpler material that doesn't have the instructions not supported by the lower spec. UE3 should automatically scale between the two.

Yes that would be the case but the material system has been completely re-written in house to make use of material instances. But now that I think about it, I think the shader artist meant don't use LERP'S on terrain materials.

[nubnub]

i have mirrored geometry in mesh that I imported into unreal ed.
I can clearly see a seam and black gradient.
how do I fix that.


How come my normal maps look good in 3dsmax and once loaded in unreal the normal map look washed out. its lacking in depth.

whats the cure?

I tried using bump-offset to increase depth.
question : How does the heightmap that should be included in the alpha slot of a normal map look like?
Can a simple occlusion map do the trick?

[MegaMoogle]

Thanks everyone for the help, I was successfully able to get my character imported! :)

[Minos]

Hi everyone!

I´ve been trying to delete some assets from my package but the editor says they cant be deleted because they are already in use somewhere. I removed all instances of those objects in my level but I still can´t remove them from the package. Does anyone know how to work around that?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hi everyone!

I´ve been trying to delete some assets from my package but the editor says they cant be deleted because they are already in use somewhere. I removed all instances of those objects in my level but I still can´t remove them from the package. Does anyone know how to work around that?

Well unreal is technically right, they are in use you just cant see them as they are being referenced by code. Unreal has this nasty habit of keeping track of every single item that is imported or duplicated into or out of your package. They are called object re-directors and they are a pain in the butt to deal with as there is no, non code way, to get rid of them AFAIK.

[Minos]

Well unreal is technically right, they are in use you just cant see them as they are being referenced by code. Unreal has this nasty habit of keeping track of every single item that is imported or duplicated into or out of your package. They are called object re-directors and they are a pain in the butt to deal with as there is no, non code way, to get rid of them AFAIK.

Damn... that sucks. Thanks for clearing this up.

[warby]

the work around is rename the asset and give it a different package name in the dialogue like "fuckthisassetpackkage" save your "real" package/level close unrealed it will prompt you and ask if you want to save "fuckthisassetpackkage" and you will tell it not to. next time you launch your level in unrealed it will be gone.

[Minos]

the work around is rename the asset and give it a different package name in the dialogue like "fuckthisassetpackkage" save your "real" package/level close unrealed it will prompt you and ask if you want to save "fuckthisassetpackkage" and you will tell it not to. next time you launch your level in unrealed it will be gone.

wow that´s quite an ingenious workaround =D I´ll try it, thanks warby!

[c0ldhands]

Hi peeps, been trying to find some good material editor tutorials, have a hard time finding some, I look up Eat3D`s dvd tough on the matter but kind of panicked when I saw the price (50 dollaros!). Right now Im looking up UDN, but would rather have some video to look at...

Any help would do!

[Minos]

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsindex.htm :)

[warby]

what he said ^^

[c0ldhands]

gonna give it a look, thanks dude. Right now im interested in giving more depth normal maps and ways of amplifying the specular in a material.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

the work around is rename the asset and give it a different package name in the dialogue like "fuckthisassetpackkage" save your "real" package/level close unrealed it will prompt you and ask if you want to save "fuckthisassetpackkage" and you will tell it not to. next time you launch your level in unrealed it will be gone.

That is a really good idea and I shall try that out. Thanks for the heads up.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Okay I need some help as I am having an issue that has been stumping me all day and I cant seam to figure out why this is happening.

I have been tasked with figuring out a way to optimize speed tree to run better in unreal. The tech artist before me told the art department to not use billboards when making speed trees so our speed trees at the current point in time are the same amount of triangles whether the player is 1 meter in front of them or 100 meters away. Now I know that there was a reason for doing this or I hope that there was but of course there are no notes to be found on why he decided to go that route.

To make matters even more complex when I do tell all the speed trees to use billboards and set a culling distance on them I lose about 2-4 FPS over all which is weird because one would think that a 2 triangle plan would be less to render and draw to the screen than one that is pushing 900 to 1,200 triangles.

So does anyone out there know what I could possibly be missing and or doing wrong? I have run the same level 5 times each time with a different configuration regarding the speed trees. But no matter what I do to the speed tree settings I still get more FPS when I tell them to not billboard than when I do. All in all its about a 2-4 FPS difference between off and on and its driving me nuts as I know that I should be getting a lot more gains than this.

[Okt]

Is there a max polycount for importing static meshes? Or does it come down to time?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Is there a max polycount for importing static meshes? Or does it come down to time?

There is not a "Max" poly count but the shadow buffer has problems with items that are over 20,000 verts or there about. What this means is that as you approach that many verts on a single object the buffer that stores the verts to make the lighting calculations gets to big for Unreal to handle so you get these weird streaking shadows. If you have something that is that many verts or more I would suggest that you break it up in your 3d modeling program and then import the individual sections and put it back together in unreal as a pre-fab.

[Heart Murmer]

Edit: * Solution Found *

[c0ldhands]

Can anyone answer a quick question? Been hearing that an object imported in the UT3 engine needs to be airtight( like if I have a cylinder going in a box, should the cylinder be closed/solid in both ends?) True or False? I myself havent noticed any diffrence...

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Can anyone answer a quick question? Been hearing that an object imported in the UT3 engine needs to be airtight( like if I have a cylinder going in a box, should the cylinder be closed/solid in both ends?) True or False? I myself havent noticed any diffrence...

Used to be that way with pre gemi but that is not the case any more you can have open edges no back faces. In short your mesh does not need to be air tight.

[MegaMoogle]

I was finally able to get my character work in the engine, all except for when she's in game she looks completely black. She shows up fine in the customize character screen, but as soon as the game starts she's just completely black. How do I fix this?

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I was finally able to get my character work in the engine, all except for when she's in game she looks completely black. She shows up fine in the customize character screen, but as soon as the game starts she's just completely black. How do I fix this?

What kind of material are you using and what level are you using for testing?

[MegaMoogle]

What kind of material are you using and what level are you using for testing?

I'm using just a normal material, it has diffuse, normal and opacity maps on it. When I bring it into a level, I normally use instant action, death match and select the first one on the list, Arsenal.

Also, just recently the ingame camera seems to move around like the mouse sensitivity is way up, when it's not. Any ideas why this just started happening?

Thanks. :)

[Xoliul]

Hey guys, I have this really annoying problem and nobody at epicforums seems to reply to me.
Problem is decals act really really weird on a terrain, they look like they are clipped by the decalactor's bounding box...

screenshot: http://i41.tinypic.com/2m63czl.jpg

Can anybody confirm this is not just me with this problem ? A friend tried and he just didn't see any decals on his terrain. In mine and his case they work fine on staticmeshes.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

Hey guys, I have this really annoying problem and nobody at epicforums seems to reply to me.
Problem is decals act really really weird on a terrain, they look like they are clipped by the decalactor's bounding box...

screenshot: http://i41.tinypic.com/2m63czl.jpg

Can anybody confirm this is not just me with this problem ? A friend tried and he just didn't see any decals on his terrain. In mine and his case they work fine on staticmeshes.

You need to non-uniform scale you decal and make sure that you have the texture that is feeding the material are set to clamp.

[|*BILLY$CLINT*|]

I'm using just a normal material, it has diffuse, normal and opacity maps on it. When I bring it into a level, I normally use instant action, death match and select the first one on the list, Arsenal.

Also, just recently the ingame camera seems to move around like the mouse sensitivity is way up, when it's not. Any ideas why this just started happening?

Thanks. :)

Humm I am not sure what your issue could be with the character can you send a pic of it in a level so I can see what you are talking about? As for the mouse speed do you have separate drivers that came with your mouse maybe those got activated some how or you could try deleting your UTInput.ini and let the engine re-make this for you.

[Xoliul]

Is the non-uniform scale necessary? I thought that's just up to the user to choose what scale to use. Clamping does seem to work, so thank you for that.

And regarding mouse speed: since the patch4 update a few days ago they changed some sort of mouse speed setting. It's no longer a slider bar, but a number type in. Mine was set to 11 and I could barely move my mouse at all, had to pump it up to 2400. Maybe in you case it's the other way around ?

[Neox]

hi guys, does anyone here know how i could create a normalmap dependent specular with custom lighting?
when i create a phong specular it doesn't react on the normalmap, of course as i don't have the normalmap as an input, so how would the formula look like?

what i want is the result on the right, what i get is the one on the left

http://nonpublic.airborn-game.com/wip/neox/spec.jpg

is this even possible with the given nodes?

ok i'm just stupid pluggin in the normalmap into the normalmap slots does the job when you calculate a simple phong >_<

[sinistergfx]

This is how I did it awhile back...
http://www.sinistergfx.com/temp/spec.jpg
You can simplify this if you don't need the fresnel effect. Just plug the power directly into the end multiply.
The exp coming off the power is your spec power.
That group at the bottom is just me reusing my diffuse map, so it would just be your spec map if you have one.
Hopefully that makes sense.

[Neox]

thats exactly what i did for the specular, what i didn't know is, that the normalmap slot for the material is still active on custom shading, stupid me