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.

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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.

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...

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 ;)

Originally Posted by Notorious P.I.G

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.

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

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).

Originally Posted by flkk

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) ?

Originally Posted by flkk

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.

Originally Posted by A-Train

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

Originally Posted by A-Train

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

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?

Well moving textures are usually made with texture panners.

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.

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

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.

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. ;-)

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.

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?

Originally Posted by 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?

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.

Originally Posted by Junkie_XL

. . . 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!

Originally Posted by breakneck

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.

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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.

Originally Posted by Junkie_XL

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.

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.ga...rst_level.html

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

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

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)

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.

quick question, How do you make terrain double sided in UE3? I would like to see the texture on both sides and the materials already double sided so i know that's not it. :x