Instructinator

UT3 Lesson 1

Introduction to UnrealEd

UnrealEd – What is it?

• A level Editor for the first person shooter game – Unreal Tournament 3
• Used to create geometry and interactive elements that define a level.
• Behavior modifier for Actors in Unreal – adds behavior to objects in the level. This could be Paths, AI, Triggers, etc.

Starting UnrealEd
You can find UnrealEd in the System Directory of your installed version of UT3. To run the Unreal Editor, Edit your Unreal Game Shortcut to read “*\ Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3.exe” editor this will turn the shortcut into a direct link to launch the editor.

You may need to delete INI files if the editor behaves strangely, find them in:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAME\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Config\

Delete these ones: UTEditor.ini, UTEditorUserSettings.ini, and UTGame.ini

Inside UnrealEd
This is the main editor window like in Max, Maya or any other 3D editing package.

There are three orthographic windows, plus a ‘preview’ window. There are also toolbars that give us quick access to level building tools.

Navigating in Orthographic windows

• Left Clicking on any window that will activate it.
• Holding down either the left or right mouse button and dragging in any window will move your viewpoint in the direction you drag.
• Holding down both the left and right mouse buttons and dragging will zoom the window in.

Navigating in the Perspective (preview) window

• Left clicking will activate it
• Perspective view port is does not fully update until you rebuild the level.
• Holding down the left mouse button and dragging in any window will rotate in the direction you drag or move you forward/backward.
• Holding down the right mouse button will pan up or down.

Note: Some things are much easier to do in orthographic than in perspective. You must learn to use all 4 views effectively. Especially when working with BSPs.

Viewport Options

• Change your perspective viewport to Unlit. To see what your doing before you add lights.

• If things disappear or the view gets all messed up there are two things you can do.
  • First click the down turned arrow at the top of the viewport and choose the option at the top ‘Default Show Flags’
  • If that doesn’t work, ‘View > Viewport Configuration> 2X2 split’ will reset DirectX and reinitialize the viewports
    

BSPs

• Unreal defines spaces with Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), which means you build geometry by subtracting or adding ‘Brushes’. CSG is also called Binary Space Partitions or BSPs.
• Like other editors, a ‘Brush’ is a tool used for creating geometry.
• In subtractive mode the black void you see in the perspective window is actually a Solid Mass.  It’s just like digging a tunnel; when you first start a new level, the entire world is filled.  You must remove an area to make it hollow to play in.
• In additive mode (required for most levels) the void is empty space and you add brushes to it to define any filled in areas.
• A BSP is not yet rendered even when placed in the level and a material applied to it, it has no triangles yet. It will be rendered at runtime, this is why they are delicate, and must be placed with precision. This is also one of the reasons they are not as efficient, per-poly, as a static mesh.

Lets Create a First Level:

Map Setup

• For this first map we will use a Subtractive space. File> New. and choose subtractive. the default for UT3 is additive since in most cases it is required.
• The gametype is defined by your map’s file name prefix. (CTF-, DM-, WAR-, or VCTF-) the dash is the delimiter. For this example i’ll use DM- (Deathmatch) since that’s the simplest game mode.
• Go to File->Save. browse to: My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps. (And name it DM-somethingwithyournameinit.ut3)
• UT map names can never include underscores, spaces, decimals… actually just avoid anything that’s not a letter or number.
  

It is wise to make a  windows short cut to that folder your saving things to, so you can back it up each time your done editing. UT3 can sometimes misplace or corrupt files in that folder, so i always save copies.

Creating a Box ‘Brush’

• On the left hand side of UnrealEd, there are a series of toolbars.
• Left Click on the icon that looks like a 3D cube. Notice that it drops a cube into the scene.
• Right click on the same icon. You will get a new dialogue that pops up. This is the cube builder dialogue box. You can customize the brush here.
• We have now created a ‘Brush’ that is, 256 x 256 x 256. Unreal Units big. Right now its just a ‘Brush’. We can add or subtract this from the level.
• 
• Click on the Subtraction Button to remove the box from solid space, or the Addition Button to add one using the cube brush you have shaped the way you want. Make sure you don’t hit the add or subtract buttons twice, this can cause a paradox that will destroy time and space. ..or create a hall or mirrors in your level.

Hotkeys: Ctrl + A = Add, Ctrl + S = Subtract

Moving Brushes

• The first thing to do after hitting add or subtract is to get the red builder brush out of the way so you can see your new BSP.
• You can select a brush by just clicking on it (near the border. Easiest in the Orthographic views)
• To move the selected brush, use the manipulator.  - the same way you do in Maya.
• To change the manipulator to Rotation or Scale hit the Space Bar
• An Easier way: If you hold down the Ctrl button the brush will move according to whichever mouse button you use right for X axis, right for Y axis both held down is Z. This is the same as view port movement.
• After you Move the red brush out of the way this should reveal a Yellow Brush. this is the subtraction that you can now play inside. A blue brush indicates an addition, and for this example is not what we are going for.
• If you got the wrong color one, or accidentally hit the button twice, or just don’t like the brush you can delete it. Select the brush by clicking on an edge (usually in ortho view)  and press delete on the keyboard.

Tip: Want to select a brush itself, and not just the surface? Hold “Ctrl+Shift” when you click the brush’s surface.

Tip: Need a quick measurement? Just drag with your middle mouse button in a viewport to pull up the in-editor ruler.

Rotating Brushes

• Press the Spacebar once and see that the Translation Manipulator is turned into a rotation Manipulator.
• You can also rotate the objects by holding down the Ctrl Key and either the left right or left and right mouse buttons.

Left Mouse = Rotate Object’s Z
Right Mouse= Rotate Object’s Y
L & R Mouse = Rotate Object’s X

Convenient Method for Rotating Objects:

• With the manipulator in translation mode. Select an object, hold down Ctrl and the Right Mouse button, and drag in any orthographic view.

Top View = Rotate Object’s Z
Front View= Rotate Object’s Y
Side View = Rotate Object’s X

Scaling Brushes

• Press Spacebar again to change the manipulator to Scale mode.
• You can also scale objects by holding down the Ctrl key and either the left mouse button in the perspective view.

Note: Scaling with the scale tool can cause brushes to not align to the grid causing HOM errors. Use the Brush’s Builder dialog box (right click the tool) instead whenever possible.

Texturing Brushes

You should now see a room in the level using a default (Checker) texture. We have to get rid of all those default materials to avoid errors.

Generic Browser:

• Open up the Generic Browser; it’s in the top toolbar
• Chose ‘Show all resource types’ at the top left to see the full list of packages unreal ed loads by default.
• Now scroll down to anything that sounds promising in the side menu, like a floor or wall package (Eg. LT Base).
• Right click on it’s name and choose ‘Fully Load’
• If you only check ‘Materials’ from the sorting menu on the left, we can see only the resource type we need for our surfaces.
• You can’t apply Textures directly to surfaces, they must be Materials.

Apply the material

• Now back in the main perspective window, left click on the floor we just created.
• Now select a texture in the browser. The texture on the floor should change to the one selected.
• If a Material has already been selected when you add or subtract a brush, that material will be added to the new geometry automatically.

Choosing a suitable material:

• Some materials are only halfway made, used for specific purposes (like particles) or are meant to me used with a UV map on a static mesh. Don’t use those.
• Use only materials that look plausible. Use materials that are tillable and fit with the look of the area.
• Worse, some materials are transparent, if you use those on a BSP you’ll get a tare in the level or HOM. 
  

Align the Material

• Right clicking on the surface, choose the  ”Select Surfaces” menu, these are things to help you texture more quickly by intelligently selecting multiple faces. Try ‘Matching Brush‘ now.
• Now in the “Alignment” context submenu you can quickly perform basic alignment operations on material to the surface. Try the ‘Box‘ option now.
• You can select multiple surfaces by holding down Ctrl and clicking on each.
• You can perform the alignment operations on those surfaces to line them up across seams that normally appear where brushes meet. Especially on the floor and ceiling.

Basic Lighting:

Adding lights to the Level

We’re now going to need some light in the level, so to do this, right click on a window, and select the Add Light Here menu item. A light- bulb icon should appear in the window.

Light Parameters

• Right click on the light, and choose ‘Point Light Properties’ from the resulting menu.
• In the properties window for the light choose the ‘Light’ tab, under that choose ‘Light Component’. Here we see a large menu for changing attributes of the selected light.
• The Colour of the light can be chosen or set in RGB values
• Brightness this should be adjusted to fit the area and the light source.
• There is a Radius property shown in Unreal Units that determines how far the light will be cast. Remember that a radius is only half the diameter. So your 512 light is actually potentially affecting an area of 1024. you can use the scale tool widget on a light to affect it’s radius Visualy.

Basic Level Lighting Tips:

• Never use the default light color. Light is almost never pure white and this will make your levels look boring and not realistic.
• Conversely, be careful not to over saturate the color of your lights if the color is too strong they will override texture detail.
• Lastly, Never leave any areas of a level Black, or without light. These areas could potentially become ‘unrendered’ leading to tears or crashes in some engines. Also the player will not be able to see anything, so it’s bad for gameplay too. You can make it really really dark, but never completely black in a playable area.
• If a light’s radius is not touching anything, chances are it’s not needed and should be removed.
• If a light’s radius is larger than it needs to be, your build times will get longer and your performance will suffer.

Tip: Want a quick radiosity type bounce light? Hold “Ctrl+L” and click on a surface in the preview window. A dim light will be created at that location, with the color preset to match the surface you clicked on.

Finishing Up:

Adding a Player Start

• Right Click anywhere in your level, and select ‘Add Actor’ >’Add PlayerStart’
• Make sure that this Actor is rotated to be facing the way you want players to spawn in. players will immediately move forward when they spawn in. so point them in the right direction.
• Unreal 3 will generate an error if you have less that 16 player starts. Ignore this error, you only need one to run a map for testing.

Building and Testing

• Click on the “Build All” icon that looks like a Cube and a Light Bulb along to top toolbar.
• There are other build options up there, but build all is the one you should use most so that you don’t miss anything.
• Rebuild to see updates in your perspective view port!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Build all will take a long time the first time it is run on a map, however subsequent builds will be substantially faster. Thank god.
• The level should begin compiling and the additions and changes that you have made to the level.  This will take longer depending on the complexity of your level… it can get quite long.
• Once this is completed, click on the black joystick icon at the end of the top toolbar. This will launch the preview window and allow you to preview your level!
• You can also right click on any surface and choose ‘Preview From Here’ to launch the Preview window and start from that point without a player start being there.
• If the Map is not saved with a game type prefix (Eg. DM- ) it will not allow you to play with weapons. So before testing your map be sure to same it as DM-your name.ut3

Note: If you do not” Build All” before launching the game the player will die when they try to play it. So please remember to Build All before saving your finished assignments.

Adding Pickups

• Open the Generic Browser and chose the actor class browser – the next tab to the right.
• Look for “Navigation Point”, under that choose Pickup Factory>UT PickupFactory>
• If you have Placeable Classes only checked you can place ony of the pickups you see there.
• Important ones are health and armor for keeping players alive after a fight, and weapons and ammo for the escalation of the violence.
• You can choose any of these, once highlighted, go back to your perspective viewport and right click on a surface.
• The actor you have highlighted will the in the context menu about 4 places up, and will say “add X here” where X is whatever you have selected.
• There are some configurable options for pickups but generally we leave respawn times alone to that the maps will be useable by hardcore tournament playing types who rely on precise timing of default respawns.
• After adding your pickups remember to go to the Tools Menu and select “Add Pickup Lights” – this will add lights needs for pickups to build without errors.
  TIP: Got a floating object you want on the ground? Select it and press the “end” key to drop that object to the surface beneath it.

General Editor Subjects

Selecting Multiple Objects

• Hold Ctrl and click on multiple objects to Select them
• Box select objects by holding Ctrl+Shift when you left-drag your mouse, do the same with the right mouse button to box deselect and area.
• You can Open the properties of several objects of the same kind together to adjust groups at a time.

Duplicating Objects

• Select any object and Hold Alt, now move the Object. It will Leave a copy behind
• Ctrl + W to duplicate an object
• Duplication is a fast and precise way to build levels. Use it wherever possible.

Grid Snap

• In the bottom right corner of the editor you can find the 3 Grid Snap Values
• These should generally be left at 4, 5 ,5
• If you change grid values for translation be sure to keep to multiples of 4.
• Changing rotation and scaling are hit and miss. These two tools can easily bring BSPs off the grid causing alignment issues that lead to errors.

Searching for Objects:

• ‘Edit> Search For Actors’ is a powerful tool for accessing things in your map/ you can select multiple things at once to change their properties
• You can double click on any object in the menu to zoom the viewports to it and select it.

Related Resources:

http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/UE3-03B-CSG.htm

Hourences’ UT3 Editor FAQ:

http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3faq.htm

Excerpt from that link:

• What are some of the most frequently used short cuts?

Space bar: Cycles through the movement/rotation/scaling tools.
Home: Focuses the camera on the selected actor.
A: Hold down and click a surface to add the selected actor on that location
L: Hold down and click a surface to add a light on that location in the level.
S: Hold down and click a surface to add the selected Staticmesh in the Generic Browser to that location in the level.
Alt+a number: Cycles through the different render states of a viewport. Only works with the typewriter section numbers (the left upper row).
Ctrl+a number: Sets a camera bookmark on that location.
A number: Recalls a camera bookmark.
Ctrl+drag: Moves or rotates the selected actor without using the widget.
Ctrl+Shift+drag: Moves the selected actor while keeping the camera focused on the actor. The camera moves along.
Ctrl+W: Duplicates the selected actor.
Hold down U: Simulates Maya camera movement.
F4: Actor properties.
F5: Surface properties.

Do NOT EVER use Ctrl+S to “save” the level, as it will not save, but subtract a brush.