Scaleform UI to be included with UDK! (UPDATED)

[Blade[UG]]

i hear the existence of those classes is fairly resource intensive...

[Phopojijo]

Just curious... is there anything in Scaleform's portfolio that will not be included?

... if their video package (Scaleform Video) is included... how will that play with BINK?

[John J]

The current UI system is resource intensive (for what it does) and the removal can save a good chunk of memory for licensees. Plus, for licensees, there wouldn't be any reason to use the old system so it would just sit there and take up needless resources while suffering from code rot.

Epic is very gracious to make the UDK, but at the end of the day, licensees are the ones they need to cater to so keeping something around just for UDK users doesn't make sense.


EDIT: This was in reply to Ambershee's question.... hit the wrong relpy button. :-)

[Blade[UG]]

also, at some point, a UDK project should really finalize their engine version, and stick to it.

[danimal']

So, not being familiar with Flash really, are there any existing editors out there I could create mock-up menu's with in preparation for actual implementation? Or do I need to just sit tight and use some official editor that will come with it? Sorry, it's a noobier question that I'd normally ask but I'm utterly unfamiliar with how Flash stuff is made.

[Wraiyth]

You mean support for UIScene? Well...the old UI system will eventually be removed and replaced by GFx if I'm not mistaken, so from what I remember that means, that UIScene won't be available from that point on. Anybody...correct me, if I'm wrong

Na, I mean support for Scaleform after it gets implemented, not the UIScene stuff. I haven't looked at how they handle/update any other middleware. So the curiosity was whether Scaleform will continue to be supported and get updates as Scaleform releases them, or whether we are just limited to one version and it will not be updated.

[Blade[UG]]

I'm sure that it will stay current with whatever Scaleform has until it's implemented as much as Epic is going to implement it, and then I'd guess that they would probably have it remain at a stable point. Guess that entirely depends on Epic's license with the Scaleform people.

I'm dubious about Flash for a UI (as long as it just uses the Flash language, and not Adobe's Flash implementation, I guess it's better), but anything is better than UIScene

[Solid Snake]

Hmm, that could prove to be frustrating for commercial developers like myself then. I suppose that would mean in future I may have to build my own user interface system again.

[ambershee]

The current UI system is resource intensive (for what it does) and the removal can save a good chunk of memory for licensees. Plus, for licensees, there wouldn't be any reason to use the old system so it would just sit there and take up needless resources while suffering from code rot.

Epic is very gracious to make the UDK, but at the end of the day, licensees are the ones they need to cater to so keeping something around just for UDK users doesn't make sense.


EDIT: This was in reply to Ambershee's question.... hit the wrong relpy button. :-)

also, at some point, a UDK project should really finalize their engine version, and stick to it.

While I agree to an extent, it's not uncommon for a licensee to jump between builds when a desireable and significant change is present in a newer build and would prove more difficult to integrate into their current build, than to integrate their own work into a newer build (case in example, when you've primarily been working within game mechanics and not fiddling with the engine functionality itself).

I strongly doubt that the UI is resource intensive, if you're not actually using it.

[HEGI]

The datastore system can be used with the GFx integration, but this certainly isn't required.

Nice. That would make alot of things easier, right now it seems like a big detour when using the datastore system.
I suppose scaleform can access script and config variables directly if the datastore system is not necessary ?

[razvanab]

Just curious... is there anything in Scaleform's portfolio that will not be included?

... if their video package (Scaleform Video) is included... how will that play with BINK?

i am more curious about Scaleform 3Di if that will be included

[John J]

I strongly doubt that the UI is resource intensive, if you're not actually using it.

You are right... I was thinking memory usage (It takes a fair amount, especially for consoles) and not necessarily resource intensive. My bad.

[marcusmattingly]

This is great news in my opinion! The UDK just seems to get better and better. Thank you Epic.

[Hboybowen]

will this include Scaleform 3d aswell...I am told the latest Scaleform version allows you to project your UI or HUD in a 3D setting making it more part of the world

[razvanab]

Great
Thank You !

[elmuerte]

will this include Scaleform 3d aswell...I am told the latest Scaleform version allows you to project your UI or HUD in a 3D setting making it more part of the world

iirc, yes it's the latest Scaleform GFx version.

[Entilzar]

Thanks Epic !
The more I look at UDK, the more it seems to me its the magical perfect tool for creating home-made video games

[Shelke]

Wow~ Epic is working really hard on this! Go Epic! and thank you for giving us the oportunity to use UE3. it is great seeing the UDK evolve

[Mordt]

Best news ever I love it

[tegleg]

yo this is great news
the current uiscene is a total pain and quite rubbish tbh
i will be happy to see it go away
but replacing it with anything flash based is inviting problems, i have tons of experience with flash as2 and its very crashy, buggy and stupid
but still...
thanks epic, keep up the good work

[razvanab]

Are there any good Flash editor alternatives ?

[elmuerte]

but replacing it with anything flash based is inviting problems, i have tons of experience with flash as2 and its very crashy, buggy and stupid

Good thing it's not not Adobe Flash, but Scaleform Flash which is based on GameSWF.

[Luditemu6ici]

Awesome thats just what i needed thanks Epic for another great thing you do for the community you are the best can't wait!

[tegleg]

Good thing it's not not Adobe Flash, but Scaleform Flash which is based on GameSWF.

thats great!
looking forward to it

[Mordt]

yo this is great news
the current uiscene is a total pain and quite rubbish tbh
i will be happy to see it go away
but replacing it with anything flash based is inviting problems, i have tons of experience with flash as2 and its very crashy, buggy and stupid
but still...
thanks epic, keep up the good work

Ever played Lord of the Rings online? They use this and there UI is silky smooth.

[Blade[UG]]

Ever played Lord of the Rings online? They use this and there UI is silky smooth.

positive of that? i thought the LOTR client and DDO clients were identical .. or does DDO use it too?

[Entilzar]

Some games using Scaleform here : http://www.scaleform.com/gamesusing
You'll see LOTRO in it

[adityagameprogrmer]

absolutely great news.
i would luv to have the ability to generate the smooth /silky( as some put it ) UI with the work-flow of flash. any thing that eases UI development is a definite worth it.it would be even better if the proposed scale form 4.0 ( action script 3.0 support ) will be integrated with UDK. it just opens up a whole lot of possibilities to some amazing UI development.

[Skalamondre]

This is great news!

Are there any experienced Scaleform users here? I'm curious to see if anyone could give us a basic description of the workflow?

[Shelke]

This is great news!

Are there any experienced Scaleform users here? I'm curious to see if anyone could give us a basic description of the workflow?

Now that sounds interesting! I hope there are tuts in the near future.

[musilowski]

Can you use the Canvas class and Scaleform GFx for a HUD both at the same time? Will they conflict? I presume the Canvas implementation is running before the Scaleform GFx flash elements?

Is there a WYSIWYG for GFx or can I (only) use pure code with it too?

[westclif]

there is a WYSIWYG

it's called adobe flash ;P

you usually do it with this program only with a few little changes inside the actionscript... so you can preview everything there too... like you do it then you build a normal flash scene...

[musilowski]

Haven't used Flash at all, I hope a WYSIWYG creates working solutions which operate perfectly. As you said, some code changes will most probably make it work fine. Is the Adobe editor free to use?

[westclif]

no its not free...

but some other free flash editor's should be out there... but i dont know if they support scaleform... i only used it with adobe =/

and from my little expierence with adobe flash + scaleform i could say i got a working menu + hud ready in a day (made many of the graphics before)

it's really easy to understand...

i got many tutorials and samples with scaleform and there was a really complex rpg menu build with only a few code snippets ready to use

the hardest thing for me was to get the information from my engine to the hud build with scaleform but if udk will have it implented as a middleware it should work easily too =)

[Steve Polge]

Canvas and Scaleform GFx elements can be mixed on your HUD easily.

[LennardF1989]

I suppose you can also work with pure AS3 (like with FlashDevelop)?

[westclif]

i doubt that...

if i remember right i had a plugin for adobe flash... with some specific changes and functions...

but that was around 7 months ago =/

so i could be wrong

[marcusmattingly]

Seems like this would be the way to go to create mini-games inside your UE3 game. Will that be possible?

[adityagameprogrmer]

@Steve
will we able able to load/unload flash swf into the game i.e the ones deployed on flash players with the help of scale form ?.
what will be the support for movie formats when scale form is integrated.
basically what level of integration can we expect to have with flash swf's .

[Steve Polge]

Scaleform supports AS 2.0 fully AFAIK, so you should be able to use almost any flash swf uisng AS 2.0 within the unreal engine. You'll need to write unrealscript to hook it up to your game, of course.

You certainly could use this to create 2D minigames within UE3.