Stripping UDK Down to its bare minimum...

[Allar]

For a project I'm working on, our team needed to strip down the UDK to its bare minimum so we can start building from something as close to the base engine code as possible.

There are already a few threads on these boards about how to do this, but I've talked to a few people irl and they still are having trouble removing all of the extra UT stuff shipped with the UDK... so I figured I might as well share this if anyone needs it.

I've deleted lots of content, went through each config file line by line removing all ut package references... and well, I was left with a Content folder weighing in at about 2.5MB (2.2MB being UI_Fonts_Final.upk, .3MB being an empty room)

After a few late hours, I've managed to have a working* standalone...

I'm not sure about the legality of posting this here as none of the base engine files are changed in any way but I do have 1 Epic UT script, that being UTGame.UTCharInfo. There is also the default movies and splash that ships with the UDK as well.

I will be updating my blog post with more info as I do more research/toying around.

http://forecourse.com/?p=141

[wildicv]

Thanks for this im testing it now.

EDIT: Worked fine adding it to master guide

[Taxxem]

Just curious, why would you strip all the code to bare minimum when you could just as easily ignore it?

[Kylegar]

Just curious, why would you strip all the code to bare minimum when you could just as easily ignore it?

because you can't include any UT code in a commercial project. Best to have a completely clean slate, that way you don't accidentally derive off a UT class or something and forget to fix it.

[Bifuu]

Most people with the UDK wont be making commercial games because thats against the EULA, im sure theres another release for people that actually have a license that removes the UT code

[wildicv]

Actually it’s completely legal to make a game with the UDK just it’s against the EULA to release a game with any UT code or assets.

[G0rdon]

Actually it’s completely legal to make a game with the UDK just it’s against the EULA to release a game with any UT code or assets.

I hope someone is going to make a tutorial about coding a game from scratch
haven't started yet still learning how to do this.

[aeonflame]

because you can't include any UT code in a commercial project. Best to have a completely clean slate, that way you don't accidentally derive off a UT class or something and forget to fix it.

I could be misinterpreting what has been said here, but Steve Polge in the following thread seems to imply that UT code is fine, it's only assets that are restricted.



Some UT3 assets are included with the UDK - you'll have to see if those are adequate. Note that if you ever plan on making your mod commercial, you cannot use Epic owned assets in the mod.

Use of Epic's code in a commercial mod is not restricted.


http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=705636&highlight=you+cannot+use+Epic+owned+assets+in+the+ mod.&page=2

[byteasc]

aeonflame is correct. Only the actual Assets are covered by those restrictions since they are part of UT3 specifically.

The code itself isn't restricted since, in theory, its all Epic code anyways.

[Solid Snake]

Most people with the UDK wont be making commercial games because thats against the EULAThat only applied for the Unreal Engine 2 Runtime. However, the UDK allows commercial games but you must pay 25% royalties after you make more than $5000 in revenue.

[Bifuu]

what i meant by that is Most people are probably students or hobbyists that cant afford to or dont want to make commercial games, so they are just using the engine to play around with. im not saying you cant. Its agaisnt the EULA to sell games you make with the UDK without paying for the license is all i mean

[jeffro11]

It costs $99 to start "selling" a game. Not a lot of money.

[Taxxem]

You need to use some common sense about this. No matter what you do with the UDK you are using their code. So if that were the case then UDK would be pretty much pointless to make a commercial game or anything worth selling. The script is to give you a head start so you don't need to figure out AI or figure out movement. Epic is basically saying here is all this awesome script for you, do what you wish but give us credit and if you make money hand some of it over, oh and btw don't use any of our contents because that is specific to UT3 which is a game we created.

[chrustec]

I think the core idea of this is to begin a project that has no initial link to UT at ALL!. As some of us are moving towards making a completely non UT related game with the UDK, we don't want to ACCIDENTALLY include an asset that is from an unreal game. Incidentally I agree with others I am really great full for the UDK release but would have liked it if the installer ASKED if I wanted the UT3Demo or just a blank slate to work with. I think the other issue here with stripping out a lot of the code base is that it directly links to the unreal assets that we don't want to use for custom projects. Granted when you publish the project it ignores assets that where not used. I personally would just prefer not to have them in my build directory so it doesn't get accidentally included. At the end of the day when Im building my levels for the game I don't want to see any unreal assets in the Content Browser, just my own ones.

[dMiller76]

Thanks Allar.
Nice job working all of that out so the rest of us don't have to individually.
Big ups.

[katana2665]

That was great thanks for the help.

[Steve Polge]

You are permitted to use UT code, but not assets, in a commercial UDK app.

[Gatts]

Thanks so much for this! My project needs to start completely from scratch so this will help a lot!

[Allar]

A small number of people have been telling me that there is a fatal error when loading UDK with my stripped down version on win 7 64-bit... but not enough people to have any common data between them.

Anyone on these forums getting this problem?

[katana2665]

I had some issue with the editor not loading, Some error about outdated files,but then i realized i hadnt patched up the base program, so I started from scratch. When I do it again, i'll let you know.

[Conjured]

You are permitted to use UT code, but not assets, in a commercial UDK app.
Thanks for clearing that up.

So I can extend the classes to my heart's content as long as I use my own meshes, animations, and textures, etc...Sweet
That will make getting a working vehicle in game a lot easier.

[favero_eduardo]

Allar, thank you very much for the bare project.

I tried to download the UDKGame.zip (6.9 MB), but 2 files was corrupted:

UI_Fonts_Final.upk
Engine.u

Did you changed this 2 files ?
If not, I will replace by the old ones..

Thanks.

[Allar]

I didn't change 'em, go ahead and replace.

[badkangaroo]

A small number of people have been telling me that there is a fatal error when loading UDK with my stripped down version on win 7 64-bit... but not enough people to have any common data between them.

Anyone on these forums getting this problem?

Yep, looks like it's crashing when it's trying to load up the game asset database. I was looking forward to shorter compile times too :( I'm using the beta2 build as well.

got any ideas?

[LordsWarrior]

I noticed it too.... is it doing it on the beta2 version now..so maybeits that?
I think it worked fine the first time I used it..now its not...I think the difference was the new beta2. (at a guess)

-LW

[Allar]

I'm not sure where it is...

But there is a GameAssetsDatabase.journal (could be slightly different name-wise) file in your UTGame folder somewhere I believe. Find it, delete it, report back :D

[horstdraper]

Editor loaded fine for me, i'm using Windows 7 64 bit, so i doubt it's OS related if there any problems, i don't think i'm using beta 2 though...

[genetransfer]

I just used your files for a fresh environment and all was well. but animtree keeps crashing udk when connecting certain nodes or ut selections.don't know if it has anything to do with this but it was working before I changed over.anyone else experienced this? I might put the old content back and remove ut content, thanks though it might just be me.

edit: just decided to keep things as are and add a new content path in UTEngine.ini:
//---
Paths=..\..\UTGame\Content
Paths=..\..\UTGame\MyContent <---added
Paths=..\..\UTGame\__Trashcan
//---
I just really wanted to have a clear project folder to start from Ideally just without the models,materials and textures there but this will do to keep them out of the way as I couldn't resolve the animtree crash with the stipped down version, again it might just be me but the problem doesn't happen with the full install so I'll have to stick with it for now.

[roychr]

I do not want to waste any of your efforts but, since I started working on my project, I simply copy/paste/modify code from UT files, but none of my classes use them directly. If you look at what the UT code extends from and copy what you need you are not using anything from Unreal tournament.

Apart from the educational value of stripping it down, every release of UDK will be a startover for you. I just do not see any advantages of using a stripdown version right now. Maybe I am just not seeing the point. What I would like to see from Epic though is a simple way of removing packages of assets we are not supposed to use commercially, or an official release checkpoints on the UDN. There should be an override switch, or even a script that checks against a database of included files that raises an error on full release because we are humans and can make mistakes. Also account that multiple people can include small things in any level, and artist tend to be difficult to manage asset wise.

[Allar]

@roychr:

I did this for purely educational reasons :D, but quite a few locally wanted the aftermath and suggested that I posted it here for others to use if the wanted, so I did.

I'm not seeing any advantages either, as my current game projects use some of the ut code as a base to speed up development, but there are a lot of art assets we can't use no longer referenced in some of the config files with this package, which made artist management a little easier by forcing them to not have any ut assets. :D

@genetransfer: Thats probably the best thing to do.

[seth1984]

I tried it with the jan release and it crahes... I get a "UDK.exe has stopped working" window.... It can't compile over the Engine package (so just Core and Engine).....

I'm running a Win Vista x64... But I think the problem may be caused by some changes into the last release???

Can somebody help me?

[Blade[UG]]

compiling the whole set of packages works for me. in fact, it's the first thing that happens when you run ucc make the first time.

[seth1984]

Sorry, how do you make that?? Latest UDK release? Compilation method (I've tried opening the editor from the frontend and also via console)??

It's since this morning that i'm trying to have things working and it crashes every time....

[seth1984]

Tried again this morning. New installation of UDK-2010-01 and new UDKGame.zip package. Same problem. When I try to make a Full Recompile i get this in the log




[COMMANDLET 'UDK.exe make -full' STARTED IN ''] gennaio 29, 10.21

Init: Version: 6165
Init: Epic Internal: 0
Init: Compiled (32-bit): Jan 11 2010 23:49:26
Init: Command line: -full -DEFENGINEINI=..\..\UTGame\Config\DefaultEngineUDK. ini
Init: Base directory: C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Binaries\Win32\
Init: Character set: Unicode
Log: Executing Class UnrealEd.MakeCommandlet
--------------------Core - Release--------------------
Analyzing...
Scripts successfully compiled - saving package 'C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Binaries\Win32\..\..\UTGame\Script\Core.u'
--------------------Engine - Release--------------------
Analyzing...
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Development\Src\Engine\Classes\DynamicSMActo r.uc(100) : Warning, Property is using a deprecated class: Engine.SeqAct_SetStaticMesh. Property should be marked deprecated as well.
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Development\Src\Engine\Classes\Pawn.uc(3125) : Warning, Property is using a deprecated class: Engine.SeqAct_ThrowActiveWeapon. Property should be marked deprecated as well.
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Development\Src\Engine\Classes\SkeletalMeshA ctor.uc(300) : Warning, Property is using a deprecated class: Engine.SeqAct_SetSkeletalMesh. Property should be marked deprecated as well.
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-01-Clean\Development\Src\Engine\Classes\MorphTargetSe t.uc(6) : Warning, 'noexport': Must include CLASS_NoExport in native class declaration


Maybe there where some changes since Allar put together the package???

EDIT: The same is for a UDK-2009-12 installation.... I didn't get the warnings (so in my opinion something has changed), but it crashes in the same point....

[Blade[UG]]

Are you using modified base classes?

[seth1984]

No, it is a completly new installation of UDK downloaded this morning.... I didn't touch anything... maybe Unreal people touched something....

[CoffeeGrunt]

Awesome! I've been trying to do this for months!

[Blade[UG]]

i think i answered that in the other thread on the same topic, i saw you make the same post there.. you are using the november base classes with the january udk.. no wonder it doesn't work. :)

[seth1984]

Ok, this solved the problem... I've done just a fast cut/copy/paste work with the January UDK version in order to have things working and now it seems that everything is ok... it is compiling the shaders and I've got no errors while compiling the code...

The need of the January classes was indeed quite obvious.... Next week I'll try to go more in depth with my process (if it works) and also post a "tutorial" for having a clean installation without the version problems....

Thanks a lot