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weephun
01-30-2012, 04:41 PM
Epic Games Releases January 2012 Unreal Development Kit BetaEpic Games, Inc. has released the January 2012 Unreal Development Kit Beta, the latest version of the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the award-winning 3D game engine and toolset used in blockbuster video game development, architectural visualization, mobile game development, 3D rendering, digital films and more. The latest UDK beta is available now at www.udk.com/download (http://www.udk.com/download).
Unreal Engine Showcase: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
http://www.udk.com/elements/img/galleries/showcase-chivalry-3.jpg (http://www.udk.com/showcase-chivalry)Developed by Torn Banner Studios (http://www.tornbanner.com/) using UDK, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (http://www.chivalrythegame.com/) is a multiplayer melee combat game that was recently named a top pick in IndieDB (http://www.indiedb.com/games/chivalry)’s "Best Upcoming Game” category in its Indie of the Year competition. The studio’s president, Steve Piggott, explained how UDK allows his team to stay on the cutting edge of visual technology thanks to regular updates. “Instead of developing a game with an engine for two years and then releasing it with two-year-old technology, developers have the opportunity to launch with the latest version and keep updating it even after release. That's a really powerful thing.” Read more (http://udk.com/showcase-chivalry).
We have showcases of some of the most outstanding video game, architectural visualization, and mobile apps using UDK atwww.udk.com/showcase (http://www.udk.com/showcase) and www.unrealengine.com/showcase (http://www.unrealengine.com/showcase). Also be sure to check out the Works in Progress (http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=385) and theReleased Projects (http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=386) forums.
January UDK Beta Upgrade NotesSimplygon Mesh Proxy Tool

New Simplygon Merge Tool for combining static meshes

http://www.udk.com/elements/img/Jan2012-Simplygon.jpg


Grouped static meshes can be combined into a single static mesh
This can greatly improve rendering performance
Materials/textures are automatically collapsed and new UVs are generated
This tool is fully "non-destructive" - you can modify meshes and remerge, and roll back changes if needed
Documentation can be found here (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshProxyTool.html)

Unreal Landscape

Allows you to paint textures on static meshes interactively in the level viewport

http://www.udk.com/elements/img/Jan2012-Landscape_Hole.jpg


Holes of any shape can be cut into the landscape, allowing designers to create entrances to caverns and other features under the landscape
The visibility tool can remove or replace individual quads at the highest LOD resolution, with collision added or removed accordingly
Holes are rendered per-pixel, independently of LOD, so distant holes retain their shape

Added the ability to save foliage settings to packages and to share them between levels
Added tool to change component size for existing landscapes
Hide unused landscape UI when no landscapes are available
Pivot Painter

A new 3ds Max (http://www.autodesk.com/3dsMax) tool that automatically generates pivot points for mesh vertices, allowing for advanced foliage animation and other effects

http://www.udk.com/elements/img/Jan2012-PivotPainter.jpg


Documentation can be found here (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PivotPainterTool.html)

iOS Rendering

Added support for color grading

http://www.udk.com/elements/img/Jan2012-MobileCGhorz.jpg

Documentation can be found here (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html#Mobile Support)
Unreal Editor

Added a "Reconnect" button to the "Checkout packages" dialog

The function is disabled when a valid connection is established
Upon reconnect, the login screen will appear if the connection failed
Once the connection is restored, the "Checkout" dialog is reloaded

Altered behavior of the "Convert to Static Mesh" operation

It not only builds a model from the selected static brushes
It also builds dynamic brushes (which includes volumes) and builds from the builder brush (if selected)
It treats these as if they were like additive BSP brushes

The autosave time is now simply paused during PIE instead of reset
The editor is now more responsive during lighting builds
Added a context menu option when selecting multiple actors for assigning the material selected from the content browser
Auto content saving is now enabled by default for new users and 'content packages to save' can now be specified in the ini
Lens flare visualizations will now appear when a lens flare actor is created and will update if any visualization properties are changed on the template lens flare
Made the color picker dialog not modal when changing preview background color for textures
Unreal Matinee slow-mo tracks will no longer effect viewports in other sub-editor windows (such as Unreal Cascade)
Made the wireframe rendering in orthographic viewports consistent in both DX9 and DX11
New packages in Unreal Content Browser are now removed from the “New Packages” collection once they've been saved
Fixed the “Touch Input Kismet” event in Unreal Kismet so that it sends the proper X and Y values
When in Kismet’s hit-testing mode, the Kismet block nubs are drawn bigger to make them easier to select without taking up more screen space visually
Enabled the “Paste Here” right-click menu option for nodes in the Material Editor
Misc

Added support for importing multiple animations from a single FBX file:http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FBXAnimationPipeline.html
Added new option to ignore missing bones when importing
Fixed FBX issues with morph curves and animation ranges
New and Updated UDN Pages

Mobile

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileScreenOrientation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKRemote.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKInfoPListApple_iOS.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GettingStartedMobile.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileVehicleExample.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileMaterialReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileAudioSystem.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileSystemSettings.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealOnMobile.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GameCenter.html



UnrealScript

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MakingACommandlet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGems.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsSaveGameStates.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptInterfaces.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingVAXWithUnrealScript.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UnrealScriptIterators.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxUScriptVarAccess.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxObjectArray.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxReturnFunctions.html



Getting Started

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GettingStartedProgramming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/BasicGameQuickStart.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformQuickStart.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TechnicalHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UE3Basics.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EditorAndToolsHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StaticMeshHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GettingStartedMobile.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WhizzleCreationDocument.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsRTSStarterKit.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MobileHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelEditingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlogArchive.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformBuildingUDKUIs.html



FBX

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FBXAnimationPipeline.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FBXImporterUserGuide.html



Misc

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TexturePaintReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ShadowingReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsInteriorMapping.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicalAnimation.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FractureTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NormalMapProcessing.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LightMapUnwrapping.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/InputOutputHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/OnlineSubsystemSteamworks.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialsAndTexturesHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SystemSettings.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureStreaming.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureOptimizationTechniques.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GPUProfilingHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/BusinessAndLegalHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelDesignerHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysicsHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/EnvironmentArtistHome.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MapErrors.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GearsMultiplayerMapTheory.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ActorGrouping.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachingActors.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MassiveLOD.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AutomatedMapBuild.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingSplineLoftActors.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingSplineActors.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingPrefabs.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingModels.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ScaleformActionScriptBestPractices.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ConsoleCommands.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/APEXOverview.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/APEXClothing.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/APEXDestruction.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingKActors.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsPhysXParticlesStarterKit.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PhysXReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimSetEditorUserGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UsingArchetypes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MatineeTrackReference.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CollisionTechnicalGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Distributions.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PivotPainterTool.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxSplitScreen.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxVolumeStatusBar.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxAScriptToKismet.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxVariableAccess.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GFxUDKFrontEndGuide.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Scaleform.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PS3Mods.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MeshProxyTool.html

TMichael
01-30-2012, 06:13 PM
Installing now, thanks for all the great additions and fixes (FBX).

Two notes:

1) The download page at http://www.udk.com/download.html still links to the December build notes.
2) When I manually typed in http://www.udk.com/news-beta-jan2012.html to view the new notes, I noticed a few additions to the Unreal Landscape section not listed in the post here:

◦Holes of any shape can be cut into the landscape, allowing designers to create entrances to caverns and other features under the landscape
◦The visibility tool can remove or replace individual quads at the highest LOD resolution, with collision added or removed accordingly
◦Holes are rendered per-pixel, independently of LOD, so distant holes retain their shape

Providing it's still in this build, I can't wait to try this out!

Peppigno
01-31-2012, 11:24 AM
Released on 31th January? Curious... :D