Huge Glitch when Designing My Outdoor Scene even when i restart this glitch persists

[Techy]

Ok Heres the problem i have tried re installing udk Restarting udk in admin mode but nothing works

so this is how it happens it starts off with me defending the unreal engine From people saying other engines have better features

And after said "defending"

I open UDK Go to the landscape tool and thats when it happens..... THERE IS NO ROAD TOOL

Do you know how hard it is Trying to Fit a Static mesh road To the landscape...Really HARD!

Then after fitting it to said landscape Do you know how hard it is to paint Dirt Grass Sand etc. On the road

Ok so what im asking is Would it hurt the engine in any way if it had a road tool in the landscape panel

Oh and when you make the road tool Could You add an option to make the landscape fit itself to the road in a realistic fashion

So Please Make a road tool

Oh and just think about it Lets say Your making a Fantasy like forest And you look down and You have a path that leads off into said forest
And the road has barely any foliage on it because there is an option to Lower the amount of foliage so as to make it seem like foliage cant grow there
because stuff keeps walking on it

Oh and ive tried making a road with the texture pallet but the details of a path cant be made with a paintable texture

[Graylord]

... That's not a glitch. You've just relied too much on automatic tools, so you get crippled when you don't have access to them.

UDK supports splines. And vertex painting/decals isn't difficult.

[Techy]

i never said i wasn't able to create a road.what i said is spending 4 hours just to Get it to look presentable is too much time

Now think of it this way Old school.
Those 3hours and 30 minutes you have left after making a road with a auto tool you could spend Making the game
See When i make content i like not spending more than one hour on a very simple detail

oh and many other engines have road tools

Cryengine 1,2,3 Dunia engine just to name a couple

and im not using them because unreal engine is better in many other ways

but wouldn't it be nice if the unreal engine Had a simple function that other game engines have had since 2005

now i dont want to insult the udk but it should have a road tool
and it would probably bring more developers to this engine.

[Techy]

Road Tool!

Oh and i know its not a glitch But a flaw

And i was joking like im really stupid enough to re install the engine when i know said function isn't included.
and if you're gonna argue with my 4 hours to make road estimate than go ahead And make a road in a 3d modeling program import it into udk
fit it to the landscape Then create a texture for the road then a mat that can be vertex paintable then paint said road so it looks nice

Then come back here and tell me how long it took you

And im not talking about a modular Road But a planar one that spans across the landscape just as a regular road would

Good luck

[Techy]

ok I might have been wrong because after messing around with the landscape tool for a good hour or two i have found a way to make roads

and ill share this with you

First get all your Mountains Hills Plains Shores Setup Do not add textures yet

Then Export Your Map as a Heightmap This function can be found in the landscape panel at the bottom After Doing that
Take your hieghtmap into photoshop or any other image editing program
once in there Create a brush With A slightly Sharp falloff And Some softness Then Paint Where you want your roads
The color Pallet should be set to black And the opacity should be set to something like 5%-10%

Road size is up to you using brush size

Then After painting Your roads down

Up the contrast But mark Down The number of contrast you used because You're Going to be lowering this back Down To 0%

After upping contrast Follow the road you made in the height map and use water blur effect on the inner part of the road

blur it just to where you cant see any small bumps Not to where the road is same color all the way through\

Then lower the contrast by the same number you upped it by....Example. +150% = -150%

Then import back into udk using landscape tool

And create a paintable road Texture And paint on the path you made

Then if you want to create lines And Stripes

Create The textures in photoshop and apply using decals

And last but not least thank me for going through all this work and sharing my technique with you

Although i still disagree with graylord Because going through all this work just to make some roads is Stupid.

[MonsOlympus]

Didnt they add a tool in landscape that does just this?

[Techy]

Ya you can do what i said in the editor but photoshop shows the entire map from a top view

and in photoshop you can see details that you cant see in the editor

and in photoshop you can just drag across the image to make roads without any lag

plus its a lot more effective

and i just prefer photoshop over the painting tools in unreal.

But I wouldn't be saying this if there was a @#!$%^& road tool.

If i make a big deal about this epic might just do it

[HornedBeast]

Ya you can do what i said in the editor but photoshop shows the entire map from a top view

and in photoshop you can see details that you cant see in the editor

and in photoshop you can just drag across the image to make roads without any lag

plus its a lot more effective

and i just prefer photoshop over the painting tools in unreal.

But I wouldn't be saying this if there was a @#!$%^& road tool.

If i make a big deal about this epic might just do it

The Landscape tool is a Road Tool isnt it? And a river tool? And a forest tool.. and a mountain tool?

The same way a Coin is a Coin... and a screwdriver... and a paper weight.

You just need to learn how to use the tools for the jobs. I fear practice is in order!

[Scott_J]

learn to do stuff yourself, if everything is automated then the retard next door could make crap look like the next best thing. no AAA game was made in 4 hours and if you have not got 4 hours to spend then choose a different area of expertise , game dev isnt for you.

however if you show you have dedication and skill, this is where a career can come from it. in short don't be lazy

as such I think this is the completely wrong section to post this in, this is a place to put problems like crashes with the current toolset, not what people would like added to the engine

[HornedBeast]

learn to do stuff yourself, if everything is automated then the retard next door could make crap look like the next best thing. no AAA game was made in 4 hours and if you have not got 4 hours to spend then choose a different area of expertise , game dev isnt for you.

however if you show you have dedication and skill, this is where a career can come from it. in short don't be lazy

as such I think this is the completely wrong section to post this in, this is a place to put problems like crashes with the current toolset, not what people would like added to the engine

I completely agree with everything you said...... Apart from the 4 hours things. I think if you COULD make a AAA game in 4 hours, then why the hell not? If we can end up with tools THAT good, then why would we not want them? Tools to make your life easier are always welcome. BUT... at the moment, the tools we have are already complex and brilliant enough that with a bit of time and effort, we can at least make a AAA title at all... I dont think I could have written that even just a few years ago!

I doth my cap to you wise sir!

[Graylord]

If i make a big deal about this epic might just do it

Sorry to burst your bubble kid, that's not how life works.

[Shez]

Another way to do it is this , Firstly PLAN your level properly down to as much detail as possible , Then do this
FYI this is how we do it at our studio mind you and is not the only way and this is a very very basic description.

Create a blocky version of terrain in Geocontrol2 useing Isolines as they enable you to define heights and regions of detail
Take that heightmap into worldmachine and erode it save out flow deposit and wear mask and heightmap of course
Go back into Geocontrol and create masks based on slope etc for rock etc, I prefer to use masks for rock /grass as doing it via a heightmap node in the shader uses a valuable texture sample which in udk is limited to 10 actual textures in mat that if you have 6-7 layers like me
I then start brushing in where my level areas are going to be and creating the playable region to fence in players and AI and guide them through world
export Heightmap from udk and go into Geocontrol and use the road tool to carve /build roads where needed
Also use Geocontrols river tools to proceduarlly carve all natural rivers and waterfalls based on the laws of nature
generate masks for both of these and export.
Then re erode with very little sedimentation and high rock hardness in World machine if needed and put it all together in UDK

There are heaps of tools do roads World machine,GeoControl Vue,Grome3 to name some but only Geocontrol does rivers and lakes so I use it, I would like to use it for erosion to as it is AWESOME!! but for some reason it does not translate to UDK landscape as well as Worlmachine Erosion so I use both.

[ambershee]

I don't agree with the 'get used to it' sentiment at all. Where there is workflow that can be improved by saving time with better tools, then it should be. Spending four hours per-level touching up roads is spending four hours per-level not doing something else equally important.

[Scott_J]

top quality games take a large team and over 2 years to make at times, 4 hours on making sure something is done properly is nothing, studios will spend WEEKS! while it is nice to have tools that speed things along, IMO it is much more important to have working features and or new ones that allow you to do stuff previously impossibly, not something that just shortens a dev cycle from 730 days to 729 days and 20 hours!

while I have not looked at all of shezes post, I saw a mention of worldmachine, with this you can do all of what he says and also make sure the road is perfectly aligned, create a second height map from your modelling package with the road in, then use this as a mask in worldmaching, you get perfect landscape with a perfect fit to your road!