The new Unreal Editor and how it works

[Sleepandeat]

After a while of playing with the new editor and watching the first few tutorials from the CE bonus disc, I have to say that the new features and enhancements to UED are great! When UT2004 came out I was used to level design with BSP and felt learning to model with 3DS MAX was going to be a daunting task. After a while of learning on my own I came to love MAX. As the years went by I learned a lot and leaned more towards modeling than mapping. I focused on structural modeling and will always prefer architecture to all other forms of art. So mapping is and will always be what I love to do. Making a level that someone can play is so much more attractive and rewarding to me than programming or making characters (not to mention I suck at those aspects of game design). I was pleased to find that the new UED feels a lot like MAX. The new way of handling scale and moving brushes was easy for me to become accustomed to. In UT3 and GoW there are a lot of great meshes and textures to mess with. Generally I am very happy with the new engine and hope to make a few killer maps for both games.

The bar was raised in terms of skill and learning but this is a good thing in my opinion. Things may take longer to make but it is worth it! Now I am not even too far into the tutorials and want to get right to the materials part because that is what I think is the biggest advancement, but even as a long time mapper I learned a few new things about the engine from the first few basic tutorials. As I get deeper into them I know I will find more things I love about the new engine. As it stands now I am much more enthusiastic about this UED than scared as I was with the last. Though I wasted a lot of my time the past few years following other goals I still want to work in games, and I want to hear what modders who have been fully active from UT2004 till now think about the new engine and how it will effect them.

So please share your impressions of the new engine and your own workflow. I want as much feedback on this as possible! Anything you have to say about UT3 modding is relevant. :cool:

[Jimbo64]

Have you figured out how to import a mesh from 3d studio max yet?

20 hours of video, and nothing giving the steps to import mesh and get the textures to show up on it :(

(Of course the editor crashes on me so often its hard to spend much time trying)

Jim-

[HykCraft]

There's tutorials on how to do the exporting from 3DS Max and into UnrealEd Jimbo. Google it ;)

[Ikaros]

For those without deep pockets, any tuts on say XSI Modtool getting a textured static mesh into UT3 UnrealEd process?

[Halif4x]

I hope the dynamic shadows are fixed. As it stands, there is 14 minute video on the CE disk devoted to a broken feature (which was recognized as broken even when the video was made).

Having shadows that aren't as good as the demo from 2004 is one thing, but advertising a patently broken feature is quite another.

[Sleepandeat]

I hope the dynamic shadows are fixed. As it stands, there is 14 minute video on the CE disk devoted to a broken feature (which was recognized as broken even when the video was made).

Having shadows that aren't as good as the demo from 2004 is one thing, but advertising a patently broken feature is quite another.

Wow I haven't got to this yet, if dynamic shadows are broken that sucks. But at least this engine has great lighting compared to how it was in UT2004.

[Hyperforce]

save it as an OBJ file, also you can go get the 3dbuzz.com's MASTERING UNREAL TECHNOLOGY (UNREAL ENGINE 3) books once they come out (published by epic) that should get you up to speed.

[Denny]

MASTERING UNREAL TECHNOLOGY (UNREAL ENGINE 2)

Corrected, the book(s) for UE3 isn't released yet. ;)

[ls206]

does anyone know how to clip brushes?
I can't find out how

[Ikaros]

I used to make a additive brush solid to use as a cutting tool larger than the brush plane you want to clip. Then take your red builder brush and align it against the solid brush so the part you want cut off the builder brush is completely inside the solid brush. Don't forget to do a build first before you do the actual clipping via a deintersect. The builder brush will be reshaped and then you can use that to make a new solid additive brush or subtractive brush whatever you want to do.

[ls206]

Cheers, I'll use that way.
Does that mean there is now "clipping" in the new editor?

grah! the damn thing keeps crashing

[Ikaros]

I don't know yet. Still checking the new UnrealEd myself. The last time I seriously edited that way was before UT2004 came out with the custom mesh thing going on.

[Hyperforce]

Corrected, the book(s) for UE3 isn't released yet. ;)

thats what I said :P

"ONCE THEY COME OUT"

[Sleepandeat]

Kinda got hijacked and taken off track but that's cool... :p

So getting back on track what do you all think of the interface and any other thoughts on the engine?

[Sniper1231]

does anyone know where exactly the materials are that are referenced in the early tutorials....when he says to open the environments file....where is that exactly, i keep defaulting to "cookedpc" and contents and yes i know this is a nubtastic question, but i have the ce and it seems that i havent loaded all the resources or something...

[Ikaros]

I posted this in another thread but the answer applies here for you Sniper1231:

The file locations being in separate areas (users my documents folder and program files area) leads to confusion. It would have been easier to have everything (like UT's of the past) under a main UT3 folder instead of program files but hey. The environment files are located at c:\program files\unreal tournament 3\utgame\cookedpc\environments. While browsing there just make right click drag create a shortcut to your my documents\my games\unreal tournament 3\ut game\unpublished\cookedpc folder, where you save your level. In Vista there is a users\username\documents it starts from to save levels etc. Then you can click on the shortcut you made to get to the environments folder easier!

[EDIT] As far as discussion of the new UT3 Unreal Editor UI, my comment is they should have had the paths above automatically open to the correct location for the browser file/open, or at least be user defined.

[Sniper1231]

thank you much, and as for actual relevance to the topic...i think the new editor is great and cant wait to see what we all can do with it, it seems fairly intuitive to make beautiful beautiful things, aka....im excited:)

[Ikaros]

I really got into UnrealEd a lot in the old days from Unreal to UT2003. I just wish (even knowing they don't see a need for it) that I could create 3D mesh shapes from inside UnrealEd just like I used to easily do with BSP brushes via vertex manipulation and using clipping brushes to mold the builder brush to the complex shapes I wanted. Then I wouldn't have to worry about import/export issues and the like. Too bad someone in the community can't come up with an addin to do this, but again wishful thinking.

[Sleepandeat]

I really got into UnrealEd a lot in the old days from Unreal to UT2003. I just wish (even knowing they don't see a need for it) that I could create 3D mesh shapes from inside UnrealEd just like I used to easily do with BSP brushes via vertex manipulation and using clipping brushes to mold the builder brush to the complex shapes I wanted. Then I wouldn't have to worry about import/export issues and the like. Too bad someone in the community can't come up with an addin to do this, but again wishful thinking.

Actually after looking at the geometry mode tutorials I think you could use the brushes to create complex shapes, they really are a lot like MAX. Exporting them as meshes like in UT2003/4 I have no clue if that is even possible, but at least the BSP tools are powerful enough to "model" just about anything you want.

[Ikaros]

Yes but BSP geometry is not optimal for graphics card performance as using meshes instead. If it wasn't for that I would want to do all BSP since they light better anyway. Pre-UT2004 I experimented with that trying to make a (all BSP geometry) playable scale Lasertag arena in UnrealEd as seen here under the UT Photon section:

http://photonlasertag.home.comcast.net/

[Sniper1231]

is anyone noticing that some materials and meshes etc. , that they reference and use in the tutorials arent actually there for use in the unrealed packed with the game? for example the wood a01 material referenced for the ceiling is non existent?

[Ikaros]

Yep, they must had been using a beta version or something. I had to substitute in a different ceiling and later the dragon ornament to go around the "hot tub" is missing too! ;)