UDK Skatepark

[Asarav]

I started this project some time back and I'm starting to really concentrate on it more now. I'm trying to finish up in the next month or so and figured I'd post some updates here to get some feedback on it. I'm working more on custom static meshes right now more than the actual environment though.

[Asarav]

I'm having a couple of problems at the moment. First, I'd like to get the hoverboard in there but switch it to a custom model. I had the hoverboard working when I was working in Unreal ED but the WAR- trick doesn't work in UDK. Second, I have some ambient sounds emitters playing songs but when you leave the song starts over. I want it to continually play. Third I have an ambient emitter that's linked to a trigger that plays music (making a jukebox that plays a couple songs) when activated but when you leave it's radius it permanently turns off and is unable to re-trigger. I couldn't find anything close in the forums and figured I'd ask here. Thanks for any help .

[mkandersson]

Use VCTF- that gives a hoverboard in UDK.
add a loop node in the soundcue that will make the sound loop.
Use play music track in kismet instead its much better imo.
look on the trigger in kismet and see if you have set that the trigger can only be used 1 time. Put a 0 there instead.

Good luck with your game!
Cheers!

[Asarav]

Thanks for the Info there Mkandersson, I'll see how it all works out. In the meantime here is my arcade that I'm putting in the skatepark. It's all done aside from the fact that I can't get transparencies to work. So here is my question, how do I get transparencies to work? I tried importing my own transparency and using the alpha in the texture file and nothing is working. Any clues anyone? Thanks in advance.

[AutopsySoldier]

...I keep thinking this thread is my thread (I'm making a skatepark too).

Anyways, good luck man! Looking pretty good so far.

[Asarav]

Here's some wheels and boards that I've modeled. One wheel and one board with many texture swaps. The soldier is just for scale and belongs to Unreal. I have some display cases modeled and UV'd and I'm starting the texture. That'll be done soon.

[Asarav]

Here's another shot of my skatepark showing some of the ramps. The ground material is actually black asphalt but you couldn't see the rail. Once again the soldier is property of Unreal and is for scale only.

[REDxFROG]

You should first concentrate on the game mechanics rather than on the graphical work.
In the end you'll find yourself with a non funtional skatepark.

[Asarav]

What type of mechanics are you speaking of? I'm not intending this to be playable other than the fact of being able to walk around in it. This park is meant mainly to show off my environmental and object modeling skills for my portfolio. Anything else like scripting and particles are just icing on the cake.

[Jade-Phoenix]

In regards to the Arcade, as a request ? Place in a "Skate of Die!" Booth as well as in map in joke oh and The Boards themsleves? don't you dare forget to put in a ton of "Hook up" board man. Those are da bizschnizille.

[REDxFROG]

What type of mechanics are you speaking of? I'm not intending this to be playable other than the fact of being able to walk around in it. This park is meant mainly to show off my environmental and object modeling skills for my portfolio. Anything else like scripting and particles are just icing on the cake.

Then you should point that out first. (in the first post)
You're kinda giving wrong hopes. Even if you tried to make it functional...it takes an advanced coder to get it working. That's why I've been skeptical in the first place.

[Asarav]

Just finished up the display cases and added them to the project. Also added some new boards. The soldier is property of Unreal and is for scale only. I'm still having transparency issues, It's really irritating. I've tried all sorts of tutorials to help fix it and nothing works. I'm going to move on for now but if anyone has any info on how to get those working it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help.

PS. As per the request of Jade-Phoenix I've added some Hook Ups.

[Jade-Phoenix]

Dude! Thats rocks! You'd make Tony hawk so proud man!

[FrozenDozer]

What kind of "transparency problems" ?

Unreal Engine 3 uses deffered shading. There is NO real dynamic lighting possible und translucent materials (masked is ok). There are some tricks with materials to fake the lighting on transparent faces.

However, static lighting is possible. So, where's the problem?

[Asarav]

The problem is that in the picture above, the grey spaces on the cases are glass with fingerprints on them but I can't get the opacity nodes to work. This also applies to the arcade cabinet I have in there which has a screen with an emissive under the black screen. I have tried textures and importing with an alpha channel and nothing works.

[JohNLA]

It looks like the window behind the counter has opacity.
Just plug the bottom of the texture samle node(the A, not the R or G or B) to the opacity channel in the Material. If your alpha channel is good then it should work.
Also, I built a hover board park for vMTV.com when it was still in 3d. It was the most popular venue they ever put out. My tip would be to make sure you know how to make good collision.
my sample images

[Asarav]

Plugging the alpha node in doesn't work either. I've tried it on a few materials and still nothing. Maybe I'm not setting it up right in Photoshop, I don't know. If anything though having it's own texture dedicated to the alpha should work too and it doesn't. It's really irritating. I'll mess with it later, though it is still going to bother me. Here's a small update with a WIP jukebox. Almost done with the mesh and should be moving on to UV's soon, if my pc allows me. Oh ya, the window behind the counter is from Unreal. I've been looking through all their transparent objects to help me figure out what's wrong with no luck.

[mkandersson]

Does your window texture use a Alpha channel with a 32 bit TGA?
Oh and if your using a texture just put black in emissive and alpha (white) in opacity mask
and then change texture setting to masked. You can control the textures opacity by using
different shades of gray in your alpha channel.

[Asarav]

OK guys, I don't know what I did. For some reason all lighting in my scene has disappeared. I can't get it back. I've built the lighting, deleted and re-built, hit every button on the keyboard and nothing. I'm also having a terrain painting problem. As soon as I started painting in some layers, boom, It has these massive black sections now. Any know what's going on?

[Blades]

Post pics? Honestly I don't think anybody knows what's going on the way you described it. Did you accidently delete the light actors? Are they disabled?

[Asarav]

Here's the lighting problem. There's a dominant directional light in there but it's not casting. Used to have an environmental light also but deleted it as I was trying to get the lighting to work. Holding ctrl+l to get that light still seems to work though.

Here's the terrain painting issue. I have 3 layers; grass, rock and dirt. When I started painting the dirt on the grass it started painting massive black chunks also. The rock won't even show up.

Again, thanks for any help.

ps. I looks like it killed my water material also. No more ripples or details.

[mkandersson]

Your skydome probably casts shadow so remove that and your light will show

Not very good on terrain layers so can't answer that question. =(

[Asarav]

Right on with the skydome casting shadows. I swore I turned that off. Must have turned back on when I re-imported the thing. Now all I need is help with the terrain layers. Thanks again Mkandersson.

[ThePriest909]

How many textures does your terrain have on it.
You mention grass, dirt and rock. How many textures have you used to build each of those elements?
Plus you should really re-work your terrain elements and remove that tilling thing:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Terra...dTextures.html

[Asarav]

Ok, I got the lighting back. Fixed the tiling of the terrain, thanks for the link ThePriest909. The black blotches fixed themselves, I have no clue how. Was just working on random things then it popped back on. Now the only problem I'm having is that I can't vertex paint.

ThePriest909: As for the textures on the terrain. There's a grass, dirt and rock terrain material on the terrain. Each has a normal, diffuse and the dirt and rock have normals. I'm just keeping them simple for now.