Publishing and Cooking UT3 Community Maps

[ColonelPanic]

I'll try to update this thread as necessary with new / relevant information.

Happy mapping!

How about making good on that? I'd be happier if I could publish this map I've been working on.

[DJStoney69]

since the new patch it will say it cooked fine then i go to play it and its the same thing i started with. Honestly this is really starting to piss me off. They better fix this crap or I will be bald from pulling my hair out

[3Deeing]

How about making good on that? I'd be happier if I could publish this map I've been working on.

x2 billion

[Dark Quill]

Am I the only one that really hates the folder layout? Why's it have to over-complicate things : /

[SaxxonPike]

Documents and Settings is a CRAPPY place to put this stuff. I have enough space for my OS on the C: drive, and my games are installed on D:. Is there a way to place these files elsewhere on the drive?

[Sharpshotoo7]

When i try to cook from the ed it asks me to save packages, I click yes,
and then nothing happens.

So i loaded up the frontend thingy to cook my map from there but i get this:

Running: UT3.exe CookPackages -platform=PC C:\Documents and Settings\Fuubjuh\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps\Toasted.u t3 -alwaysRecookmaps -alwaysRecookScript -user -installed -updateInisAuto
[COMMANDLET STARTED]

Init: Version: 3487
Init: Epic Internal: 0
Init: Compiled: Oct 21 2007 03:17:32
Init: Command line: -platform=PC C:\Documents and Settings\Fuubjuh\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps\Toasted.u t3 -alwaysRecookmaps -alwaysRecookScript -user -installed -updateInisAuto
Init: Base directory: K:\Games\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\
Init: Character set: Unicode
Log: Executing Class Editor.CookPackagesCommandlet
Log: GConfig::Find has loaded file: ..\Engine\Localization\int\Editor.int
UserModType: (0)
..\UTGame\Published\CookedPC\GlobalPersistentCooke rData.upk is out of date. Forcing a full recook.
Error, Failed to load base level C:\Documents

Warning/Error Summary
---------------------
Error, Failed to load base level C:\Documents

Commandlet->Main return this error code: 1
With 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)

Execution of commandlet took: 1.01 seconds

[COMMANDLET FINISHED]


The line "Error, Failed to load base level C:\Documents" is just this It does not give me the full path.

Any tips?

Make sure your map name you save it under has NO spaces in it.
Example DM-test map <---dont do this.
Example DM-test-map or DM-test_map <---do this

it worked for me so i hope this helps

[DGUnreal]

If you look carefully at the error message, the map name is incorrect:

"Toasted.u t3"

u <space> t3 is not a proper map extension.
Try using the name Toasted.ut3 instead...

[ColonelPanic]

I didn't see anything in the patch changelog about publishing or fixing the 'My Documents' being on another drive problem.

Did applying the patch fix anyones publishing issues? I haven't tried yet, myself.

[warby]

hasn't for me cooking is still ****ed

i dont even know why we jump through these hoops ?! everyone says: UNNECESSARY CONTENT IS BEING COOKED OUT during this process ... what does that even mean ?! if it is unnecessary it shouldn't be in the map to begin with !

[3Deeing]

Well, it fixed it for a new map I did a test on, but the other main one I worked on since the release of UT3 is still broken.

[DGUnreal]

hasn't for me cooking is still ****ed

i dont even know why we jump through these hoops ?! everyone says: UNNECESSARY CONTENT IS BEING COOKED OUT during this process ... what does that even mean ?! if it is unnecessary it shouldn't be in the map to begin with !

I don't mean to be a jerk but the number of people having issues are few, and in every case so far it has been operator error. So most likely you are doing something incorrect or you chose to go with a non-standard install or folder layout. That is hardly Epic's fault.

"Unnecessary Content" means that it strips out stuff that is not needed such as editor specific stuff, it optimizes a bunch of its internal data workings, and it rearranges the content in the file so that it is "seekfree" meaning that the map can load in a contiguous manner instead of having to jump around the file to load things.
Try playing a non-cooked map and then the same map cooked -- you will find that it almost always loads significantly faster.

Well, it fixed it for a new map I did a test on, but the other main one I worked on since the release of UT3 is still broken.

There must be something different about that map then.
Are you using external packages?

[warby]

now that "seekfree" sounds actually useful

i manage to cook my level now as long as i always manually copy my unpublished map to the HOMEDIR before cooking despite the fact that my unrealed uses the -nohomedir flag

TO EPIC: please make the -nohomedir flag be passed on from unrealed to that DOS-cooking application when that flaming cook button is being pressed ... Thanks !

[DGUnreal]

Have you tried using the Cooker FrontEnd instead to see if that is easier in your specific case? I haven't messed with it much, but it may allow resolving of some of the path issues.

[warby]

yeah it "seams" the front end accepts the -nohomedir flag on launch but it crashes without a useful error print when trying to recock my map so back to copy pasting

[ColonelPanic]

...or you chose to go with a non-standard install or folder layout. That is hardly Epic's fault....

I seriously do not think it is too much to ask that the app can handle it no matter where it's installed. Come on. The whole config breaks down if you don't install it exactly where and how epic wants?

[3Deeing]

I don't mean to be a jerk but the number of people having issues are few, and in every case so far it has been operator error. So most likely you are doing something incorrect or you chose to go with a non-standard install or folder layout. That is hardly Epic's fault.

"Unnecessary Content" means that it strips out stuff that is not needed such as editor specific stuff, it optimizes a bunch of its internal data workings, and it rearranges the content in the file so that it is "seekfree" meaning that the map can load in a contiguous manner instead of having to jump around the file to load things.
Try playing a non-cooked map and then the same map cooked -- you will find that it almost always loads significantly faster.




There must be something different about that map then.
Are you using external packages?

The packages I made while working on various maps for various things, but obviously I'd like to use them in several maps.

[DGUnreal]

I seriously do not think it is too much to ask that the app can handle it no matter where it's installed. Come on. The whole config breaks down if you don't install it exactly where and how epic wants?

With the Windows OS, specific types of files go into specific places, you can't just put things where you want because you think you know better. Drag the Start menu folders to a different location on your hard drive and then wonder why it no longer works and where all of your program shortcuts have gone.
Microsoft has specific folders for specific uses. It has been explained on these forums many times but some people just don't get it. The "My Documents, My Games" is a Microsoft thing, required for Vista games certification, to properly support multiple users, to prevent issues with user permissions, and for network domain roaming profiles.
If you don't like it or you think you know better than they do, complain to Microsoft.

The packages I made while working on various maps for various things, but obviously I'd like to use them in several maps.

Be careful with this. I don't recommend doing this unless you are creating a mod or tc. If you change the package at a later date for one of the newer maps, you will most likely break all of your old maps that people have already downloaded.
Plus if I only want one of your maps, I don't want to also have to take a massive content package file that has stuff for ten maps in it.
That is why it is best for single release maps to put everything into the map file itself.

[ColonelPanic]

With the Windows OS, specific types of files go into specific places, you can't just put things where you want because you think you know better. Drag the Start menu folders to a different location on your hard drive and then wonder why it no longer works and where all of your program shortcuts have gone.
Microsoft has specific folders for specific uses. It has been explained on these forums many times but some people just don't get it. The "My Documents, My Games" is a Microsoft thing, required for Vista games certification, to properly support multiple users, to prevent issues with user permissions, and for network domain roaming profiles.
If you don't like it or you think you know better than they do, complain to Microsoft.

Thanks for the absolutely condescending, unnecessary and unhelpful lesson in how windows works. I've been at this probably since your mommy had to wipe your nose for you. I did not put one damn thing anywhere because I felt like it. Windows put everything it needed when I changed My Docs to be D:. If that is so damn hard for software companies to program around then the damn option shouldn't be there. It is not unreasonable to think that epic couldn't make this game so that it would still properly recognize My Docs no matter where the hell it is. That is not my fault.

I got it to work by going back and putting everything in it's narrow little confines (eg: You must absolutely not use the option to change the location of My Docs in windows otherwise cats and dogs will live in harmony and world peace will be a reality) and then after that I have to switch every damn thing back for the rest of the system to still work right. It's just this damn game that is ****ed up, not me, not my computer. Get over it will you? This is something that needs to be addressed in the game. The -nohomedir option clearly does not do all it's supposed to do. Nor is the game able to properly recognize all the windows pointers to My Docs (no matter where it is) otherwise this would not be a problem. All my other games and apps had absolutely no problem with My Docs being on D:. Just this one.

I've played every unreal/ut game since they've been making them and I have never....ever....ever had problems. So I am understandably a little pissed that something so simple had to be made so complicated especially in light of epics whole "not releasing a game before it's ready" mantra. And then to have a smart ass come on here and not be helpful and instead blame me is just the last damn straw. Thanks for pissing off when I was just trying to find some help.


EDIT: On another note. The map is 4mb before publishing and 23mb after. No custom content at all. I thought the cooking process was supposed to strip stuff out. I guess this is normal but it would mean even the simplest of maps would be quite large for what the are.

[DGUnreal]

I'm sorry you see my post that way.
I'm a lot older than you probably think.

Cooking maps is more complicated than saving images from a camera or doc files from Word, so while other applications can easily save to the documents path, there is more involved when dealing with other types of actions.

I own every Unreal since the first as well, and I've never had issues with any of them, including UT3.

4MB after a full Build All or just a pre-lighting save? If the Build All and Cook results in 23MB that is likely be due to all of the Lightmaps created for the map content. With lightmapped staticmeshes in UT3 it is not unheard of to have maps this large or larger. If that size is larger than you desire, you can override lightmaps for staticmeshes that are far enough out of the play area, or override the default lightmap size with a smaller one such as replacing a 128 with a 64 for 1/4 the amount of lightmap texture space.

[DGUnreal]

As a test I moved my My Documents to a different drive on my system (right-click on My Documents, Properties, Move, E: drive, new folder, moved the existing folders and files including My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\* to the new location). Windows XP Pro SP2.
Started UnrealEd, opened my map, published it, no errors no fuss. Worked flawlessly with no problems at all.

[warby]

i also don't have any problem with having my documents on a different hard rive than the game.
but i am using the no home dir anyway i just need to use the my documents folder for cooking

[warpedMind]

Here's a very stupid but very serious and frustrating question: Where the **** is the Cook/Publish button?!

Edit: Well I found the "Unreal Frontend" thing instead. And I've already decided that I hate it since it decided the best course of action was to delete all my downloaded stuff and then fail the cooking process for my test map.

Edit 2: Alright then, the Frontend thing doesn't allow spaces in the map file's name, but it didn't make an INI for the map...

[NeoGzus]

Running: UT3.exe CookPackages -platform=PC C:\Documents and Settings\Fuubjuh\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps\Toasted.u t3 -alwaysRecookmaps -alwaysRecookScript -user -installed -updateInisAuto
[COMMANDLET STARTED]

Init: Version: 3487
Init: Epic Internal: 0
Init: Compiled: Oct 21 2007 03:17:32
Init: Command line: -platform=PC C:\Documents and Settings\Fuubjuh\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps\Toasted.u t3 -alwaysRecookmaps -alwaysRecookScript -user -installed -updateInisAuto
Init: Base directory: K:\Games\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\
Init: Character set: Unicode
Log: Executing Class Editor.CookPackagesCommandlet
Log: GConfig::Find has loaded file: ..\Engine\Localization\int\Editor.int
UserModType: (0)
..\UTGame\Published\CookedPC\GlobalPersistentCooke rData.upk is out of date. Forcing a full recook.
Error, Failed to load base level C:\Documents

Warning/Error Summary
---------------------
Error, Failed to load base level C:\Documents

Commandlet->Main return this error code: 1
With 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)

Execution of commandlet took: 1.01 seconds

[COMMANDLET FINISHED]

I got it to cook after NOT JUST SAVING IN THE AUTOSAVES folder, but by saving the map in the custommaps folder before cooking.
Edit: Sux I didn't get an INI file out of it, just copied one from my first map and changed the names (not sure if it's necessary or not, but it does show up in-game)

[sgtmay]

i got the maps to show in the map list finally.

It seems that even after messing with the editor and publishing a map.......the editor still did not create the proper directory to save the map in.


Here's what i had to do to make custom maps show up in the maps list.

The directory shown below is in your mydocuments folder.
here is where maps should go if you want them to show up in the list:


You will probably have to create the Published/CookedPC/Maps folders if you havent published a map already from the editor.
If you have then you might still need to create the maps folder.....but the highlighted folder above is definately where the maps should go to make them selectable from the list.

[CaptainSnarf]

I made a basic vehicle mod, following these instructions:

http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=592774


In the editor, I can load up my test map, place a vehicle factory, and if I right click->play from here it works OK. Then if I follow the instructions to cook the map. When I try to load the cooked map, it always crashes ut3.exe. If I remove the modded vehicle and recook, it works.

Anybody know wtf is wrong with my modded vehicle?

[CaptainSnarf]

I found what was wrong with my modded vehicle. It had bad class declarations. It shouldn't have the 'native(Vehicle)' line.

The map seems to cook and work correctly, at least locally.

Now my problem is that if I try to host a game, when people try to connect they get an error about "file not found". Do I have to use the -nohomedir flag with custom content? Help

[Drew]

hey guys testing

[TOG|JJ]

heh, i was having the same problem with the "unable to load base level" thing... turns out i had saved the level way back when i started in the UT3 folder instead of the \unpublished etc folder... moved the map, cooked like a charm

[Jgraham]

Make shure you name your level corect or you will get that error (cant load base level) i forgot the CTF part

CTF-test_map

[Newbyhere]

This sounds very silly, but where is this publish button. My first time with any game editor so sorry for such a silly question

[DGUnreal]

The very right button on the toolbar, it looks like a flame with a black arrow through it.
If you are 1024x768 or lower you can't see it.

[Newbyhere]

Is there anywhere specific i should be looking when i start Unreal the game. I host a deathmatch online game. go on maps and i cannot see mine. It cooked without any errors.

[DGUnreal]

Make sure the final map file is in the Published folder. Make sure you named the map correctly, ie. DM-MyMap, WAR-MyMap, etc., if you forgot the prefix it won't show. Custom maps will show up at the bottom of the map list below the stock epic maps.

[MeepZero]

copy pasted from another thread...

I am getting the following error...



All the proper folders are in place, I am running my mydocs on a separate drive.

[Vertigo101]

Every thing cooks correctly but I get two errors in the middle of the process

\UTgame\Published\Cookedpc\\CustomMaps\DM-Beta1_LOC_int.upk'
\UTgame\Published\Cookedpc\\CustomMaps\DM-Beta1.ut3'

I'm on vista maybe I have to do something special?

oh and at the end of the whole cooking thing i get Unreal tournament 3 Exe made an illegal operation and crashes.

[haslo]

Mine cooks fine if I switch the "My Documents" from D: to C:\something. It "works" as in "it starts and doesn't spill errors, unlike when I have the correct directory structure under D:\", but then UT3 crashes and has to be closed. Using Windows XP SP2 that is.

I'll reboot and give it another go. My very first attempt at cooking had me have to reinstall UT3, not even the game would start anymore back then

Edit: A reboot later, the map cooked fine. Guess I'll have to leave it in this inconvenient spot for now and manually switch to D: for all my data handling needs. Considering the fact that I have the exact same directory structure in that now standard location as I had formerly in D: (in fact, I just copied everything), I can't imagine much of a user error here...

[Xyx]

4MB after a full Build All or just a pre-lighting save? If the Build All and Cook results in 23MB that is likely be due to all of the Lightmaps created for the map content.

I experienced file size bloats from 40mb uncooked to 70mb cooked. What's funny is that the uncooked files often work perfectly (even for other people) if they are moved to the Published folder structure. I can't imagine seekfree loading of 70mb being significantly faster than non-seekfree loading of 40mb... so is there any particular reason to cook these maps?

[DGUnreal]

I experienced file size bloats from 40mb uncooked to 70mb cooked. What's funny is that the uncooked files often work perfectly (even for other people) if they are moved to the Published folder structure. I can't imagine seekfree loading of 70mb being significantly faster than non-seekfree loading of 40mb... so is there any particular reason to cook these maps?

I haven't seen any cooked versions increase in file size by that amount, so I cannot say what specifically you have in your map that is causing that.
If you are targetting the PC it isn't required to cook the map, for consoles it should always be cooked.

The main things that cooking does is remove unnecessary editor-specific data, correctly swap byte-order of data so that it loads fastest on the specific platform (ie. little-endian or big-endian), modify certain resources so that they are ready for direct loading instead of being processed each time the map is loaded, etc.

For maps that are large in content assets, if you do cook you will most likely see an increase in map loading speed. I have tried a couple of released community maps that were not cooked and they took an extremely long time to load in-game (felt like 5 minutes or more), which IMHO is unreasonable. I won't play these maps because of this. Personally I would rather have a larger file on my PC than to wait 5 minutes to play the map, so you may want to compare cooked versus uncooked load time to see if that is an issue as well, and then release whichever version you see fit.

[3Deeing]

I remember someone on BU (BeyondUnreal, before the great crash ) complaining about "Cooking" the contents hurts the texture resolution.

I assume this is because the PS3 has very little memory to work with?

[DGUnreal]

Cooking shouldn't hurt the textures.
There is a known issue with Texture settings below 5 not streaming the higher LODs, but that is fixed by either setting the game to Texture of 5 or hack-fixing by setting bForceMipStreaming on all StaticMeshes. Using bForceMipStreaming on a map with a large amount of textures may cause pool issues though, especially on consoles. I would expect a proper fix on a future patch.

The PS3 only has 256MB of main and 256MB of video memory, so there are limits on what it can run when compared to the average PC.

Part of the overall issue with community maps is that most mappers do not understand the issues with lightmaps and with occlusion. This is no different than UT2004 though in which most mappers never could grasp the simplified collision system, etc.