[Advanced] Copying Epic content into other packages

[Mysterial]

As you might have noticed, the editor doesn't allow duplicating content in cooked packages (as all of Epic's content is). This is because some of the source data has been repackaged or stripped out and performing these operations on some objects is unsafe. However, if you really want to try to copy that particle system or material so you can derive your own from it, there is something you can try.

NOTE: The editor doesn't normally allow this for a *reason*. Some object types won't work when you duplicate them this way, and you could crash the editor or corrupt data. Back up your mod packages before trying this or copy things into a new package until you're sure it works.

1. Open the log window. View -> Browser -> Log.
2. In the log console at the bottom, type:

obj savepackage file=[filename] package=[package_to_save]

the [package_to_save] is the name of the package you want to duplicate things out of, as seen in the Generic Browser. [filename] can be whatever you want - it won't be a valid file anyway and you should delete it when you're done. The purpose of saving is just to clear some things up that will allow duplication of most content to work.

3. Now, look at the package in the Generic Browser. All of the right click options (Duplicate, etc) should now be available. Duplicate the things you want into another package.

In general, objects that don't actually contain any mesh, texture, or sound data of their own will copy fine (Particle systems, materials, etc) while those that do won't save or load correctly. There really isn't any reason to duplicate those "base" types anyway.

[CrysAk]

was talking to someone about this in IRC, good to know its possible
thanks for the post ^^

Chris

[MysTikal]

So is it possible to change the UI_Crosshair thing using this?

[vaccaman]

Thanks for this information .

[innociv]

isnt' working wheni try to save ASC_walls or whatever..

[vaccaman]

Why not? Does some message like "filename missing" appear? If yes, you have to remove the brackets (filename, package).

[cannedmushrooms]

heres an exsample
Because that post is very vague

Word of advice to noobs
goto
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\CookedPC
right click on the folder characters goto properties and make it read only.
This way you dont shoot yourself in the face as you experiment with the workflow


Load CH_IronGuard_Male.upk in generic browser
its located in the directory of
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\CookedPC\Characters

goto log window type this (last tab in generic browser)
obj savepackage package="CH_IronGuard_Male" file="CH_IronGuard_Male.upk"
when you go back to your CH_IronGuard_Male.upk in generic Browser you can right click on textures and export them as tga

After your done
goto this directory and look for the dump file called CH_IronGuard_Male.upk
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries
and delete it
if you dont it will cause some issues later

Walla

Enjoy

also works for another game I wont mention that starts with the letter G

[gotthard]

OK, I have the option to export as .TGA .BMP or .PCX but the material is not saved!
It's very frustrating!

[cannedmushrooms]

OK, I have the option to export as .TGA .BMP or .PCX but the material is not saved!
It's very frustrating!

Anything that requires a complex order will not export very well
Textures work good
Everything else sucks

but if the material node is not that bad you could rebuild it

[{SAP}THEEDGE]

I tried this with the sniper rifle and it didn't work. I got errors in the log window saying that the package wasn't fully loaded??

What am I doing wrong?

[eGo]

I tried this with the sniper rifle and it didn't work. I got errors in the log window saying that the package wasn't fully loaded??

What am I doing wrong?

Generic Browser -> Package List -> right click -> "Fully Load"
...and now use "obj savepackage"

[logun24x7]

(Duplicate, etc) should now be available. Duplicate the things you want into another package.

This sounds like a nifty trick you guys figured out, but just out of curiosity what is the advantage of duplicating assets to a alternate package

[Da Black Smith]

I hope it means you can use the maps that are in the game for mod 's (is that posible in unreal )

[pangloss]

was talking to someone about this in IRC

Is there an IRC channel for ue3 modding?

[Tranzcoder]

Hmmm, I wonder if this is the problem I have had. I wanted to make WAR-MarketDistrict in to a VCTF map. So, I copied, renamed, modified, rebuild all (at this point everything in the maps looks 'tutti frutti', not what I expected.). Cooked the map, and loaded it up. Here was the strange thing, alot of the meshes seemed to be missing textures, until you get real close to the mesh and then the texture 'clicks' in. As you can imagine it looks pretty crappy with all the textures poping in and out.

My questions are these;
What does cooking do to prevent this from working?
Does this mean we can no longer copy and paste actors from 'cooked' maps?
Does this effect placing actors from an Epic .pkg?

Lovin every minute of it!
Tranz

[IzaFly]

I'm still having trouble exporting a texture

What I do:
1) Open UE3
2) Open Generic Browser
3) Left lower pane, I scroll down to UN_Terrain
4) I right click on it and select Fully Load
5) I go to log window and type obj savepackage package="UN_Terrain" file="UN_Terrain.upk"
6) I go back to UN_Terrain, right click on the texture I want to export, select Export to File..., choose a pretty name, and save it.
7) I go back to the folder where I saved the texture, and I see nothing.

What exactly am I doing wrong?

[Cpt_SLOG]

I'm still having trouble exporting a texture

What I do:
1) Open UE3
2) Open Generic Browser
3) Left lower pane, I scroll down to UN_Terrain
4) I right click on it and select Fully Load
5) I go to log window and type obj savepackage package="UN_Terrain" file="UN_Terrain.upk"
6) I go back to UN_Terrain, right click on the texture I want to export, select Export to File..., choose a pretty name, and save it.
7) I go back to the folder where I saved the texture, and I see nothing.

What exactly am I doing wrong?

You're not alone .

Doesn't work for me either.

[MrCobra]

I'm still having trouble exporting a texture

7) I go back to the folder where I saved the texture, and I see nothing.

What exactly am I doing wrong?

Absolutely nothing. The editor doesn't fully work like it's supposed to as this game was rushed out the door way too early. You can duplicate Epic assets to another package but more often than not, the duplicated package will no longer load in the editor once you close it.

[IzaFly]

So then I guess there currently is NO way to export a texture.

[ffejnosliw]

Absolutely nothing. The editor doesn't fully work like it's supposed to as this game was rushed out the door way too early. You can duplicate Epic assets to another package but more often than not, the duplicated package will no longer load in the editor once you close it.

I have no problems duplicating content and having those packages load in the editor. I can also export textures...just not Epic's textures as it seems they have disabled the ability to do so. I haven't seen much, if anything, that doesn't work in this editor. I'd be interested to hear what you think is not functional that should be.

[aLeX]

I have exactly the same problem IzaFly, and as MrCobra said, duplicating content dont work all the time, for me either on some Textures..

if i want to duplicate the texture "T_UN_Terrain_Sand02_D" in package "UN_Terrain" to my own Package, it works first, but when i try to duplicate the next texture "T_UN_Terrain_Sand02_N", the editor crashs everytime

this still happens after installing the first official patch yesterday... is there any other way to duplicate a texture or do i have to make screenshot of the generic browser and rip the texture out of it?
man i hope we get an unreal package explorer soon...

[IzaFly]

aLeX, I've fixee MANY problems by simply reinstalling UT3.

There is a LOT of weirdness going on that I don't understand. Coupled with the overly complicated file structure...its a bad brew.

Sometimes, things can not be done or happen for no reason. I've had to reinstall UT3 almost 4 times now. currently, I am fortunate I can duplicate materials, meshes and textures without a problem. But I am still unable to export textures, which some say is not currently possible at all.

[NiteX]

I think something like this accidentally happened to the map I was working on, I can no longer load it which really upset me. I wasn't doing anything out of the norm just placing static meshes and what not, when I went to save some message popped up about packages and what not I didn't read it all I just figured what ever this probably won't do anything so I just picked yes to all. Well now I can no longer load my original or backup. I reinstalled the game and that did nothing.

[EDIT]

Nevermind I found the package files it had saved and deleted them, fixed the crash.

[Ero-Sannin]

funny i thought many knew bout this stuff
ne ways this is good to all those who din knew.

[unREALraven]

what is allt he options to choose from in the map editor?

[mainframe]

Thanks ddue, exactly the thread I've been searching for ..... Took me a few dozen crashes to figure it wasn't my fault : /

[Stefander]

Heh, awesome, I was waiting for this, not for anything special, just some tweaks to some of Epics materials for my own maps, thanks

(even though I'm reinstalling AGAIN at the moment because it obviously corrupted some data)

Just a side note, if you're using x86 Vista (don't know if it'll solve issues with any other OS, I just tested this on my comp) and after this trick you find the editor will crash at launch because of an error in kernel32.dll, it's because of some corrupted data in some files in the My Documents folder. To solve this, re-install, AFTER you deleted (after copying over your mapfiles, packages and source to another temp folder ofcourse) or renamed the My Games/Unreal Tournament 3 folder in My Documents. That'll probably save you 7 or more reinstalls because you can't figure out why it won't work.

[Sunshine1709Str]

try to use the patch 1.1 fot ut3, after i install this patch , it works.

[Ace08]

heres an exsample
Because that post is very vague

Word of advice to noobs
goto
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\CookedPC

What do u mean x86?

[l3fty]

What do u mean x86?

It's a reference for people using a 64bit OS. Just ignore the x86 part and you'll be fine.

[FreEp]

Ok, here's my problem.

I found some great SMeshes in UN_Cave.upk and UN_Rock.upk. Almost is great, but... I want to edit this Meshes and turn on per-poly collision. When I make it, editor crashes and I have to delete UN_Cave and UN_Rock from Unpublished folder. So... What can I do to duplicate this packages and use it in my map?

[CreepyD]

Easiest methods I know of:
Copying materials - you can copy-paste inside the material editor - very quick and easy.
Copying textures - Screenshot on 100%, save as a new pic and reimport.
Copying meshes - Not tried that yet. Might be nice to get them into 3dsmax.
Copying Particle systems - Impossible? Last time I did it entirely by eye copying each settings.
Tried export/import which doesn't appear to work for particle systems. No copy/paste function.

[Bret Hart]

Has ANYONE figured out how to export textures yet?

[Mythgarr]

Easiest methods I know of:
Copying materials - you can copy-paste inside the material editor - very quick and easy.
Copying textures - Screenshot on 100%, save as a new pic and reimport.
Copying meshes - Not tried that yet. Might be nice to get them into 3dsmax.
Copying Particle systems - Impossible? Last time I did it entirely by eye copying each settings.
Tried export/import which doesn't appear to work for particle systems. No copy/paste function.

I discovered another (much easier) way to copy particle systems and materials - if you follow the original steps (load all, obj savepackage yadda yadda), it also enables the 'Duplicate' option. This can be used to send a copy of the material or particle system to your package directly. This very well may also work with Textures, Static Meshes, and other types that have been difficult to maneuver any other way since it recreates the name and other directory information.

EDIT: This doesn't seem to work with textures - it causes the editor to crash.

[Bibto]

I was following along with the Training Videos, and at one point they simply right click on a material and duplicate it to make a new material. I spend about 2 hours and 13 UnrealEd crashes to try and do that, after which I gave up and went to bed.

Did they save out all their packages in the tutorials? They never make any mention of having to do so.

[DarkMantle]

Bibto - In order for them to be able to release the videos with the game they had the development version of the editor that wasn't cooked yet. Which means duplicate wasn't a problem. Follow the steps here to be able to duplicate textures etc... and you'll be fine.

Now for my question. I want to be able to change the red paint on a stock epic mesh/material to blue. I've duplicated the texture, and material into my own package. But when I try to export the texture to TGA it doesn't create a file. same with BMP and PCX. I'm using the 1.2 patch, any ideas?

[bleda_meone]

I actually think what Bibto is referring to is the Alt-RMB, then let go of alt. then put your mouse over the wall you want to put the material on and press Alt-LMB. They covered that in the 2k4 videos.

[flkk]

DarkMantle - It doesn't seem to be possible to export textures but with all the operations available inside materials you can usually find some sort of trick to make changes such as red -> blue. But it really depends on the individual material... which one is causing the problems?

[dave neun]

I have had issues with this as well. I found that you can duplicate everything as said, though I have been going about it in a different manner with the same end result. For the textures it doesnt seem possible to export them yet.

I have found however that if you set the texture to either 100% or 1024x1024 ( if the texture is 2048x2048) and maximize the generic browser you can do a screen print and paste it into photoshop. There are a couple key things to make sure of though. when you do the screenprint make sure the texture is selected in the browser. Eg. is has the green highlight around it, you will need that to crop it properly. If you have 1600x1200 resolution just open a new image in photoshop, it will automagically size its image to your desktop, cntrl + v and paste in your texture. If you do not have 1600x1200 resolution you will need to do it twice to get the full texture. From bringing it into photoshop crop it to the green borders at a high magnification say 500 % or so. If you had to do two screenprints then do it to both of them. Also if you had to do two then make a new image at 1024x1024 and make sure snap is turned on. snap the top to the top and vice versa, merge layers and walla. This may seem a bit odd method wise but as long as you crop things properly it works great. I have skinned a whole weapons kit in this manner and nothing is scewwed in any way

The editor imports textures fine as long as they as in multiples of 2 as in the past versions.

[Lord_PorkSword]

Copying particle systems;

Open the particle system you want.
Now goto to your map package and create a new particle system. Give it a name. With both the original and the new open, side by side on screen, right click on the effect setting and click export. Now click in the grey area on your new particle system and the effect should be duplicated into it!
Next just manually duplicate the overall settings for the emitter (not the individual emitter components).
See pic below for what I mean!
Tested with two emitters with no problems!

Hope I save yaz a lotta time!