need help with weapons in UDK.

[BlackShootout]

hi, i represent a team trying to make a mod for UDK. we have have been trying to add guns into it for awhile now, and after countless tutorials, have had little success.

i'm only trying to get a temporary placeholder that works so we can use it to make more. so far we have taken the .upk files from ut3 and adapted UDK's shock rifle scripts to use the skeletal mesh of the sniper.

the weapon works if we use the linkgun mesh, but not the sniper. the path names are correct and in game nothing appears, no mesh, no muzzleflash, anything but the ammo count.

can anyone help me out? we need to work out if it is feasible before we make more advanced and detailed models ourselves.
thanks in advance

[Graylord]

Does the weapon appear in third person? If so, it's possible the mesh is simply offset behind the character when in first person.

[1/2Hawk]

One thing that tripped us up before that might be worth trying ... if you've modelled the weapon down the wrong axis (or have somehow rotated it's pivot away from being aligned to world) - it could possibly be sticking out to your left or right side instead of straight ahead of you. Open the weapon skeletal mesh in the editor and try rotating it in 90 degree increments three times to see if it shows up if you are positive everything else is working... or yeah, try to offset the player camera way behind the origin to get a good view of exactly whats going on in-game.

[BlackShootout]

no, the weapon does not appear in thirdperson.

i'm not sure about the way it was modelled as we took it from the ut3 package. the weapon spawns, it can be picked up, but it does not appear in the weapon factory or first/thirdperson views. it doesn't shoot at all, no muzzle flash, no projectile (it isn't instant hit, it uses a modified shockball), no wall hit decal thing. however the ammo goes down when you click.

i changed the model to the linkgun, and it worked fine. can someone please detail a very basic step by step guide to use custom skeletal meshes? if we manage to get guns working, would it be a similar process to get custom skins and possibly vehicles?

thanks, we appreciate the help.

[1/2Hawk]

Some screenshots of it from the AnimSet Editor and a brief section of the code you modified would help a lot. For example... if this isnt a custom gun you've made yourself I'd wonder if it even has bones in it? No telling what happens in 1P if your code is trying to apply the Link gun's AnimSet (and animations) to a weapon from UT3 with a different or missing rig. If there's no bones, then probably no sockets tied to them which explains the missing muzzle flash etc. There's a lot of other little pieces to solve than just swapping a visible mesh.

To the other question - Vehicles would be a similar process but even more of a pain in the rear (and even less help available out there). Custom skins is way easier to figure out though at least, and is generally a good place to start if you're new to UDK.

[geodav]

go to my website and download & watch the UT3/UDK tutorials then you should be able to do your weapons and vehicles, when you have time the read through my support thread it will also help you with the fault finding

[BlackShootout]

ok, thankyou very much. i'll try your links and get back to you on friday.

also, the code is a modified shock rifle. it works with the link, shock and rocket launcher meshes, both 1st and 3rd person.

[BlackShootout]

Scratch that actually, we've managed to get it working! thank you for your help, do you have anything that explains how to change the fire types/ etc?

[Shindawg]

I learned all I need about weapons just by looking at the code from the default UDK weapons. Alot of it is fairly self-explanatory (especially in the default properties). I'd also highly recommend watching GeoDav's tutorials - I still look at them every now and then for reference.

[BlackShootout]

I learned all I need about weapons just by looking at the code from the default UDK weapons. Alot of it is fairly self-explanatory (especially in the default properties). I'd also highly recommend watching GeoDav's tutorials - I still look at them every now and then for reference.

yea, at one point we did have a custom projectile going on, but for instant hit weapons we need to add code to it. that was our next step though, looking through the code to see what we could change