August UDK Beta Released

[Flak]

Epic Games Releases August 2010 Unreal Development Kit Beta

CARY, NC (August 13, 2010) – Epic Games, Inc. has released the August 2010 UDK Beta, the latest version of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides uncompromised access to the award-winning toolset used in blockbuster video games, 3D visualizations, digital films and more.


Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at www.udk.com/download (http://www.udk.com/download).


Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums (http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=368), where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.


You can see many of the top UDK games and applications at www.udk.com/showcase (http://www.udk.com/showcase). This month we would like to congratulate Teotl Studios (http://udk.com/teotl-profile) on their upcoming commercial release for The Ball (http://udk.com/showcase-the-ball).
It’s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer (http://www.udk.com/licensing) online. Our FAQ (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitFAQ.html) can help you determine which type of license is right for you.
This month’s beta release includes many upgrades, such as:


Scaleform pipeline improvements
Improved motion blur
New detail lighting view mode
Recompile materials directly from Content Browser right-click menu
New character indirect lighting controls
Better hair lighting

Plus, new documentation like the Scaleform workflow (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html), introduction to FaceFX (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html) and camera technical guide (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html) will be helpful to those getting started with UDK.
Here’s the full list of improvements in detail:
Scaleform GFx


Scaleform GFx 3.3.85 is now merged in and all UDK UI is GFx-based.
Made many improvements and fixes to the Scaleform import pipeline.


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image002_0002.jpg
Point Light Shadows


Whole scene shadows for point lights are now supported.


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image003.jpg
Precomputed Visibility


Precomputed visibility allows occlusion on platforms that don't support hardware occlusion queries.

Motion Blur


The quality of Motion Blur has been significantly improved without a performance loss.


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image004_0003.jpg
New Detail Lighting View Mode


Replaces diffuse and specular color but keeps all other material parameters like normal map, opacity mask, two sidedness, etc.
Useful for viewing lighting without material diffuse color influence.
Lighting-only view mode is still useful for looking at lightmap artifacts and compression.


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image006_0002.jpg


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image008_0002.jpg

Character Indirect Lighting


Added new controls for fine-tuning runtime indirect lighting settings on characters.
Added distinct controls for both lit and shadowed environments.


http://udk.com/elements/img/clip_image010.jpg
Hair Lighting


Implemented a new, single-pass technique for translucency lighting.
Previous technique relied on multiple passes, which over-brightens on multilayered objects, such as hair.
The single-pass technique uses about half the number of shader instructions as multipass lighting, so hair will be much cheaper.



http://epicgames.com/files/technologies/hair.jpg



Normal Maps, Indirect Lighting & Lightmaps


Normal maps are now taken into account for indirect lighting with simple lightmaps.



http://epicgames.com/files/technologies/lightmaps.jpg



Other New Stuff


Can now recompile materials directly from the right-click menu in Content Browser.
New texture streaming system saves memory and prioritizes textures more effectively.
Added limited support for importing non-power-of-two (NPOT) textures into the editor. MIP maps are not allowed, and image dimensions must be divisible by four for DXT compression.
Vertex normals are now correctly saved with static meshes exported as OBJ files.
Terrain export now supports holes.
New ContentComparison commandlet helps optimize content.
Lightmass static shadows now have texture space filtering on by default, which smoothes out aliasing.
Material editor Undo and Redo are now much faster.
Added multiple camera offset support for particle modules and camera offset support for mesh emitters.
Spawn at bone/socket now allows rotating mesh particles to the orientation of the bone/socket.

New Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CameraTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformWorkflow.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentAuditCommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PrecomputedVisibility.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RadialBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MovieTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/IntroductionToFaceFX.html
Updated Documentation
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGettingStarted.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitContentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKLevelCreationHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCommunityLinks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformImport.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingCinematics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealEdUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CascadeUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TaskBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStatsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ReferencedAssetsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GroupsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SceneManagerReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorsBrowserReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SettingUpTerrain.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ModularEnvironmentCreation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshPipeline.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorPicker.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisualizeTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TranslucentHairSorting.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Lightmass.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MotionBlur.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VisibilityCulling.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicalMaterial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsCompendium.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsTutorial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PostProcessTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StringsInUnrealScript.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CompilingNativeClasses.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandletList.html

(http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandletList.html)
Community Links
UDK Forums: www.udk.com/forums (http://www.udk.com/forums)
UDK Developers on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123 (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123)
UDK on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429)
Epic Games on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EpicGames

(http://www.twitter.com/EpicGames)
© 2010, Epic Games, Inc. Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Development Kit, Unreal Editor, Unreal Engine, AnimSet Editor, Unreal Content Browser, Unreal Kismet, Unreal Lightmass, Unreal Matinee and UnrealScript are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

###

[JamieG]

*jaw drops* Awesome!!

[geodav]

nice to see the FaceFX docs updated

[Kyle_Katarn]

Wow. That's a great update.

[hkstsony]

In GFxMinimapHud.uc
The ammo display part is incorrect
It should be:


if (Weapon != LastNWeapon)
{
if (Weapon.AmmoDisplayType == EAWDS_None)
AmmoCountTF.SetText("");
i = (Weapon.MaxAmmoCount > 30 ? 30 : Weapon.MaxAmmoCount);
MaxAmmoMC.GotoAndStopI(31 - i);
WeaponMC.SetVisible(true);
WeaponMC.GotoAndStopI(Weapon.InventoryGroup);
LastNWeapon = Weapon;
}
i = Weapon.GetAmmoCount();
if (i != LastAmmoCount)
{
LastAmmoCount = i;
AmmoCountTF.SetText(i);
if (i > 30)
i = 30;
AmmoBarMC.GotoAndStopI(31 - i);
AmmoBarMC.SetVisible(true);
}

because the UDKHud flash has changed the ammo count from 51 frames down to 31 frames

[tomacmuni]

Do the technical camera info code examples work in any game?
If they do, what file to open and paste that too (and how to make sure it isn't going to cause a disaster)? I looked for UDNPawn.uc but didn't see anything about it.
For new users, some pointers on where to implement code examples can be nice.

[Marque]

Downloaded and installed yet keeps stopping on the shotgun and won't load any further. Any workarounds for this? Also is there an earlier version I can download that is more stable?