UDK/UT3 Video Tutorials List and Support Thread

[Snipe34]

Thanks, Geodav, I downloaded the source, and it's only for a mod.

Scots... my parents, but I'm Australian, living in the England. I think the German language sounds cool. I like Rammstein's growl in particular.

Anyway I reinstalled UT3 to look at the tank - ah be nice if the mod could use the darkwalker, damn, I like that vehicle

[Henrik]

Geo, I'd like to know if you wish to contribute any video of yours to http://UDK.me - I like your voice quality, video quality and overall style. What I would do is add a brief intro to your video of choice, which is preferably something that you think would add diversity or help the most people, the intro consists of our brand and "featured tutorial" and a linkback to your channel. Let me know if interested, and I'll handle the rest.

[geodav]

Hi Henrik, you honour me greatly, i did see your thread but i doubted if my stuff was of suitable quality.
i think my most suitable video would be the first of my basics video show how to set up a project http://youtu.be/shTRb4BxyE0 but if you don't like that one then take your pick

Thanks

[Victor200986]

thanks man.

[geodav]

just uploading Blender to UDK Character videos

[Snipe34]

I should reply giving some progress as some kind of thanks.

Tank is in UDK with animtree and animations mainly thanks to your tuts Geodav.
(same tank as UTk4, couple of pages back in this thread) But now has 3 seats: driver seat(has no gun); cannon seat; mg seat - with bulletstrap, hammer animations working.

Some problems - particle systems, arghhhh - but apart from them: right track doesn't turn; no suspension; no main turret bang. 2nd mg fixed to cannon turret, tried, dunno how to get that working. And, AnimTree > TurretPitch > Adjustments > ApplyRotation if ticked (the tick box...), the cannon barrel yaws: slews left....right.... Unticked, cannon barrel has no movement. Also, Reset if Unattended had to be set for all turrets, a little disappointing, but otherwise the turrets don't turn with the tank, that is, when I'm driving. Probably a coding way around that problem... like everything else

BUT, as I said this post is only more or less a thanks. I should add my thanks are not only to Geodav, also others kind enough to participate with helpful posts, not to mention Unreal UDK for a chance to mess with their sophisticated engine! I'm making an entire mod and I'll get back to these issues, and if totally stuck I'll ask for help!

[geodav]

ahhh the joys of tank turrets, the amount of heads i've had with them not working, alot depends on which seat and how its rigged, seat(0) doesn't need an extra bone between the base_bone and the yaw bone, any other seats do !!!! please don't ask why no idea, second in the YAW UTSkelControl_TurretConstained/Rotation tick "addrotation" and set the "bone rotation space" to "BCS_ActorSpace)
in the Pitch UTSkelControl_TurretConstained/Rotation tick "addrotation" and set the "bone rotation space" to "BCS_OtherBoneSpace) and then name the yaw bone in the "Rotation Space Bone Name"

now for the track either a typo in your code or a messed up material slot !! no suspension could be the lookat's in the animtree not set right or code, audio hard to say could be code or sound file

[Snipe34]

Hey! Appreciate the quick response, your head and mine both :s I'm tempted to get back to it, but wife ordered i take a break. When i lose my cool nothing works. So.... i was looking the character skeleton, but probably no. Basic texturing, importing or probably just mapping - exquivalent for me of basket weaving I'll get back to the tank later when I'm more objective, thanks again Geodav!

Hey! Appreciate the quick response, your head and mine both :s I'm tempted to get back to it, but wife ordered i take a break. When i lose my cool nothing works. So.... i was looking the character skeleton, but probably no. Basic texturing, importing or probably just mapping - exquivalent for me of basket weaving I'll get back to the tank later when I'm more objective, thanks again Geodav!

more Edit: Both tracks working - wasn't sure what you meant by Material Slot but now I am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=5KZlQbPDuys

Seems when there's a turret extend from a turret there's a problem with pitch rotations, up/down. If I use the tank turret setup as your example, the cannon gun + turret gun will be rotating to my view when I jump into their seats. ie: the guns themselves slew left or right. The only solution I found was ticking the box: Reset When Unattended on both cannon and mg turret. Not ideal because the result is neither the cannon gun nor the mg move up or down, but their turrets rotate, the anims work, so bang bang ^^ Yep, I tried ticking various boxes in various combos with add rotation off, on, bonespace; pointing to otherbonespace, etc, etc, with various weird results. If you're really curious pm me for a dl link.

I got a wheeled vehicle imported too and sadly, latterly looked at your blue car vid, noticing you mention import with the axles raised, result of my vehicle is the back end droops xd But I did some adjustments and it looks reasonable. VW next which I'm texturing atm and other vehicles as well - didn't intend vehicles, but they will go fine in the mod.

Collision had me confused, (besides other stuff xd). I thought naming per poly collision bones made the collision, but it's the physics asset. I noticed that after I made a box surrounding the entire truck / pinzgauer and I couldn't get the back.

Oh yeah, the cannon sound, still working on that one, lol - also Cascade argggh.

Again, many thanks for your direct and indirect support Geodav!!

in the driver's seat, but I set the socket's out at an angle to view.

[geodav]

ok for those who need a little help i've just started a First Person Arms series, this time i'm trying to keep the videos short.
using 3ds max for now but will try and do blender later

[Snipe34]

Hi again DAV!

I hope you can help me, yet again!

The spare bone from the main bone (I re-read your post, other posts, most of Google until finally, duh, ic the spare bone). So it goes, Chassis > Spare bone > turret1. From turret1, to turret2 is another spare bone needed?

Hmm...nvm, I'll put one in anyways and reply here with the result.

Could not get the SoundCue working - tried the cue with different sound, also nothing. I deleted the Cue, did another and all's good.

First person arms tut would be good. AnimTrees, despite Wraiyth's tuts are like mazes without satnavs.

[monsieurpooh]

Hello, i'm in this site https://sites.google.com/site/ut40km.../udk-tutorials and NONE of the links are working there's no other good tutorials i can find on google at the moment; please help

[geodav]

i know , it looks like Fileplanet has cancelled all hosting. please goto my youtube channel as they are all there plus more

http://www.youtube.com/user/ut40kgeodav?feature=mhee

@snipe34, the FPA tutorials are up on my channel, i haven't done much with the animtree as i use the UDK version but i did show a little in my walker video's , i think the main problem with the animtree stuff is the node names, as it's sometime hard to work out what you need due to the way the nodes are named.

if your really stuck then let me know and i'll see what i can do

[Snipe34]

i know , it looks like Fileplanet has cancelled all hosting. please goto my youtube channel as they are all there plus more

http://www.youtube.com/user/ut40kgeodav?feature=mhee

@snipe34, the FPA tutorials are up on my channel, i haven't done much with the animtree as i use the UDK version but i did show a little in my walker video's , i think the main problem with the animtree stuff is the node names, as it's sometime hard to work out what you need due to the way the nodes are named.

if your really stuck then let me know and i'll see what i can do

Thanks Dav!

Log: Large/Invalid InRightTrackVel! -10020.916992 (in ChallengerII_Content_0) - I'll have to get your code and redo to fix that error I think.

Which probably influences my question at hand, well statment I think. I tied the extra bone, no real difference. My tank is setup like your tut, Dav, from files that I downloaded. In the pic below Adjustments > Apply Rotation is unticked because if it's ticked I get the slew sideways problem with the barrel. Same problem with the MG Turret barrel.

Probably it's because I have two turrets, the cannon turret and the mg turret. Probably UDK code does not consider that, and probably 'if you want to get fancy, code it yourself,' which is fair enough. I say this because I've tried ticking the boxes in about every combo I can think of. The results being variations of barrel slew.

Driver seat 0
Cannon seat 1
MG seat 2

Barrel slew: Drive the tank and the barrel slews around left or right. But jump into the cannon turret/ MG turret and the barrel slowly aligns to where it should be, and stays there and subsequently and makes an effort to go up and down. Jump out and in again, and slew again.

Among the ticking unticking i tried MaxAngle MinAngle of the yaw/ roll to 1 and -1, thinking maybe there would minimal yaw of 1 or -1, which i could live with, but nope. So constrain Yaw/Roll ticked or unticked (the top options) make no difference. I tried constrained to different bones, to WorldSpace, ActorSpace, BrainSpace the results are just worse to bad.

Next, besides barrel slew, there's turret rotate (including with the MG turret). It will only rotates with the tank as it drives if "Reset When Unattended" is ticked. Otherwise the turrets rotate around as you drive.

My best result since I started posting on this thread -- the barrels must be fixed and the turrets must be reset when unattended, which is ****e, but I guess it will have to do until I get more learning, and patience.

[geodav]

i think i'll have to re-install UT3 to double check because your turret setup is the same as the goliath tank eg a mg turret on top of the main turret.

i'll get back to you asap

[geodav]

i think i'll have to re-install UT3 to double check because your turret setup is the same as the goliath tank eg a mg turret on top of the main turret.

i'll get back to you asap

just per chance i still had the package copied on my hd, i doubt it will help much but here we go


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

as you can see the"ResetWhenUnattended" is ticked but the add rotation is not , and the BoneRotationSpace is set to BCS_ActorSpace
not sure what the "SkelControlSingleBone - TurretScale" is for i'll have to dig into the code maybe and hope its not native like the tracks were

you might be able to see the skeleton on the tank if that help

ok me again the TurretScale is found in the UTVehicle code, its to do with when it gets destroyed so you might what that as well

[Snipe34]

Hi GeoDav!

I looked at the UT3 Goliath and tried that rig, and tried that scaling plugin too. They have no 2nd bone between the chassis and the main turret, but I get the same results either way, bone or no bone.

I did suggest I can send you my rig if you want. Not to fix it for me which I doubt you can anyway but strictly fyi for your head so you will see a definite different problem because of my setup, below:-
As I say it works except no barrel rotate up/down (unless I don't mind it slewing left/right, which I do mind!), and both turret rotates must be 'reset if unattended.'
I think the only way to make it work is the code somehow, sadly neither your expertise nor mine. Take another look at the scorpion driving and the little rocket turret which rotates as the vehicle turns, the essence of the problem.

More specifically in the UT3 Goliath (and your tank) driver and turret operator are the same. My tank is driver seat / turret seat / mg turret seat. Theoretically then after the driver, my cannon turret becomes the equivalent of the ut3/udk mg turret, so subsequently my mg turret is right off the planet of udk/ut3 code. Meh, what a steaming pile of crêpe I've mixed.

If I fix it I'll report back here. Again GeoDav, thanks for your tuts and encouragement, it all helps!

[geodav]

its been a while but if you send me your package+code i promise to have a look and see if i can fix it, never worked on the Chally2 tank or Chally or Chiefy, ex B-Mech just 430's + CVRT's + Wheeled but thats another story.

its up to you i'll give it my best shot if you want

[Snipe34]

its been a while but if you send me your package+code i promise to have a look and see if i can fix it, never worked on the Chally2 tank or Chally or Chiefy, ex B-Mech just 430's + CVRT's + Wheeled but thats another story.
its up to you i'll give it my best shot if you want

Thanks GeoDav, as I said I don't expect you to fix it because it's code stuff. You help a lot of people so I'm thinking the more info on variations will add more strings to your bow.

[PsychotropicDog]

For blender users, I made a supplementary video on rigging and skinning (blender docs sort of missing this bit).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvSFfPh2e3k

Ok enough lolly gagging, back to the regularily scheduled program...

[Snipe34]

I think various perspectives all help. Thanks!

[jlhill17]

@geodav, I've been trying to find the content for you LandWalker tutorial. I've looked all over and the site [https://sites.google.com/site/ut40km...udk-tutorials] is the only place I found that has a link, but it is broken. Is there anywhere I can still get the landwalker content?

[geodav]

sorry the rapidshare got deleted its now on gamefront
https://sites.google.com/site/ut40km.../udk-tutorials
http://www.gamefront.com/files/22336351/LandWalker_rar

have fun

ps if you change the code to use a wheeled vehicle it doesn't slide down the hills

[jlhill17]

Thanks! And thanks for the tip

[PsychotropicDog]

Well, I've watched all the vehicle tutorials, however I have a problem with morph targets.
As you can see, there is some undesirable vert action going on.

Edit: I moved the video to the reporting issues area.
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...arget-woes-psk

I tried March UDK as well.

Is it a skinning error? Unlikely. Even though it looks just like one. (I double checked in maya after an FBX export, note FBX export from blender still does not work due to armature node - it seems to crash UDK when trying to import the skeletal mesh, and comes up as invalid morph target if trying to bring in a morph)

I made a nothing changed morph, and nothing happened.

Is it a floating point error? Well, since rotation is usually handled in radians then converted to degrees (with some arcane formula involving pi) - there will be some. Since I modeled it normally then rotated it afterwards before binding, the verts not 'precisely symmetrical'. SO I went and cobbled a python script to run in blender - it doesn't rotate the object, it moves each vert one at a time. Great, it's super precise that way. And it did not solve this problem.

So... is there a problem with psk export from blender or UDK import (deprecated)? I can not find an updated or experimental version of the psk export script.

Or, is it possible the morph targets for vehicles rely on some sort of proximity - or is there some other factor involved? Like a poorly painted damage mask (which I figured only to affect textures/materials)?

Is it remotely feasible that there is something funky going on with the mesh? Like vert sort order, non manifold geometry, misaligned planets...

Possible 'solutions'
- FBX export of mesh and armature, then add the morphs in another package and export from that. I am likely to try this.
- redo the skeletal mesh and morphs in something other then blender - which would suck if the problem is still there.
- Since I once had a morph with only one stray vert, try smaller damage areas? - which is the kind of trial and error fun that makes hulk want to smash things.

[geodav]

long question short answer, skinning problem. you get the same sort of problems with other programs.

the problem i had with blender skinning is that i find it hard to see if some verts have weights for other bones

you can also try an older version of blender, with someone elses mesh it had errors with 2.63 but worked fine with 2.6

[PsychotropicDog]

The mesh was parented to the armature - empty groups, then the verts assigned. Yes I checked. a lot.
There is no other way I know to find the weights of the verts besides having them in seperate vertex groups, and 'N' properties in 3D viewport with a single vert selected also shows that vert's group(s) weights.
There is something odd going on.

tried blender 2.60a .. it doesn't like newer blends; didn't work. to test 2.60a, I will have to import as obj, rebuild the armature blah blah blah. Later.

edit: started a thread in reporting forum.

[geodav]

just tried with blender 2.64_RC2 and get the same problems !!!!!!

[PsychotropicDog]

Well I was going to take a nap, but it's niggling at me, so maybe I will try FBX morphs and see if this problem creeps into them as well.

Edit:
yes, you can get this same strange behaviour with FBX morphs.
It seems to involve the 'update morphs' function that automatically crops up.
Sadly, unlike (maya2009) actorX psk's and FBX 2013 morphs that can be deleted and simply re-imported to fix, I can not get this type of work around to work with blender's psk exporter.

[geodav]

looks like we need to speak to the blender people to fix the exporter but before we do that let me try something else

nope that worked fine !!!! there must be some sort of problem between blender and udk as the blender morph loads fine as a normal mesh ?

[PsychotropicDog]

looks like we need to speak to the blender people to fix the exporter but before we do that let me try something else

nope that worked fine !!!! there must be some sort of problem between blender and udk as the blender morph loads fine as a normal mesh ?

You mean as a static mesh or a seperate skeletal mesh? Err, it should load fine...
Sure there 'might' be a problem with the psk exporter, I am not ruling that out, but it concerns me that the very same behaviour happens with FBX importing - which leads me to guess that there is something odd in the way UDK handles vehicle morphs.

[geodav]

i did a quick test last night and i couldn't get the fbx morph to load at all, i'll try some simple meshes in older blenders to where the problem started and then report it to the blender people

ok hear is what i've just tried, in 2.60a i made a sphere+rig+uvw map saved 2 files
1. Clean
2. Damage
exported using the blender Unreal Tools , the morph worked fine
using the same files it all works in 2.60a 2.61 2.62

guess i'll have to report it tomorrow when i have a bit more time

[geodav]

ok just re-created the same mesh in blender 2.63a and did the morph, so far everything worked fine

Darknet mentioned if you have moved your mesh from 2.62 or before you might try to rebuild the armature as this could fix the problem
or the unlucky fact that the new blender mesh system breaks the old meshes in some way

[DemoMan2]

For what it's worth I've been having trouble importing a new vehicle skeletal mesh using Blender 2.63 & 2.64 into UDK. It seems that many of the faces just disappear. It doesn't seem to matter if I use .FBX or .PSK formats. I have no idea why this is happening.

[geodav]

basically what i did was to make a sphere then uvw map, apply material/texture, add an armature with 3 bones and skinned it, then exported the mesh via the udk tools as a psk, after that i made a simple morph-target exported as psk both imported fine.
darknet thinks this could be a problem with the new bmesh system in blender which was introduced with version 2.63 atm the best thing to do is use 2.62 or register on the blender site and report the bug.

as and when i get time i'll try a more complex mesh/rig

[DemoMan2]

Well, I gave Blender 2.62 and 2.61 a go and neither of them where able to fix the problem. It's probably something I did with the mesh that just sort of blew UDK's mind. BTW, I am using July 2012 UDK.

[DemoMan2]

Now that I think about it, I started building this vehicle model using Blender 2.63 so the problems may be in the .blend file. If that's the case it would explain why even the older version of the program can't translate the model correctly. Of course, it could also just be a lose nut at the keyboard issue as well. I am still pretty new to 3D modeling.

[PsychotropicDog]

Blender 2.64 has been released.

[geodav]

as we say "it's the nut behind the steering wheel thats causing the problem"

an old mechanic's joke

hope to have a bit more time later in the week to see if we can solve the problem

[DemoMan2]

as we say "it's the nut behind the steering wheel thats causing the problem"

an old mechanic's joke

hope to have a bit more time later in the week to see if we can solve the problem

That reminds me of a phrase that I heard many years ago when I used to do computer consulting for the National Park Service.

"Just when you make your software foolproof, along comes a better fool"

Sort of says it all. And yes I did try to export the model using Blender 2.64 but the results are the same. One thing I did do is use the mirror modifier on the body of the vehicle which is where most of the faces got distorted in the translation process to UDK. Are there any good sites that show how to fix common 3d modeling problems? Perhaps it's something simple that I just don't know how to fix yet.

[DemoMan2]

Btw, here's a couple of pictures of the model. First picture is from Blender, second one from UDK.

Bpo_Figure_01.jpg
Bpo_Figure_02.jpg