Source like brush creation?

[BiznessMan]

Hey guys, very new to the UDK and loving every second of it except one thing.

All of the tutorials I have seen essentially tell you to use numeric values in the brush widget, move it around, and then subtract/add them.

I'm curious if there is a different approach to it, like in the Source engine. Am I able to just drag out my builder brush size in the view ports, add/subtract, and then drag out a new brush? It seems like a pain to have to scale every single time I want to make a wall or a floor

Anyway, any help would be appreciated. I'm having fun learning all of the cool things UDK has to offer

[Legend286]

Hey guys, very new to the UDK and loving every second of it except one thing.

All of the tutorials I have seen essentially tell you to use numeric values in the brush widget, move it around, and then subtract/add them.

I'm curious if there is a different approach to it, like in the Source engine. Am I able to just drag out my builder brush size in the view ports, add/subtract, and then drag out a new brush? It seems like a pain to have to scale every single time I want to make a wall or a floor

Anyway, any help would be appreciated. I'm having fun learning all of the cool things UDK has to offer

The answer is and always will be: Don't use BSP, it's not meant for building levels with.

[BiznessMan]

So are you saying that I should build my map in something such as 3dsmax and then import it into UDK?

All of the tutorials are for brush based maps so... thats why its confusing

[Legend286]

So are you saying that I should build my map in something such as 3dsmax and then import it into UDK?

All of the tutorials are for brush based maps so... thats why its confusing

Yeah because building with BSP is much quicker, but doesn't yield the same level of control or detail that static meshes do. You could model your whole level in 3ds max, split it into chunks and assign all the chunks the same origins. You just import one of them, duplicate a few times and change the mesh and it'll place them in the right place.

[drmccoy20]

Well, BSP is fine for basic level layout. Walls, Floor and Ceiling can of course be done with it, but at some point in time, you'll be wanting to use static meshes for walls as an example, for they give the option of adding a 3rd dimension to the wall (like a crumbled wall for example) without having to use normal maps to simply "simulate" that dimension. It's also more detailed. But for a simple layout, BSP is quite fine.

You cannot "drag out" new brushes like in the hammer editor or the qradiant for quake, but you can alter your builder brush using the ... ugh, don't know what it's called atm ... the top-right button of your toolbar (the one offering you the options for specific bodies like cube, sphere, plane, etc...). It's called something like "brush modification" or similar. This will give the option to "resize" and "modelize" your builder brush using it's vertices. It also allows for cuts and additional vertices, giving you the option to create more complex shapes.
As for most things, there's a hella lot tutorials out there for this feature, you might want to check out 3DBuzz UDK Tutorial Vids on Brushwork, they're quite helpful on this issue.
Hope this helped :P

[Nawrot]

Learn building levels in external application, learning (and geting skilled) now how to make levels out of BSP is waste of time. All you need to know is how to make BSP box and apply texture, nythin more than that is waste.

BSP is left in unreal engine as rapid design tool that is just there, it is kind of duct tape of udk. Better learn 3d modelling app, then how to make high quality objects with textures.

[LiKeMiKeS]

Actually, using the builder brushes & 2D Shaper (without any vertex editing is best) to make simple one off parts intended for the construction of a larger detailed mesh is easily doable, and since I've mainly used the ut2k4 Editor v.3 to do this, I haven't really had any problems using only the editor to make detailed concept maps & meshes for some of the current projects I'm helping with.
Updated Red Door Concept & a pending video for a Tunnel Junction Concept that I'll be uploading to my Youtube & DA project group for Descent-To-UDK.

I've also found it useful to use successive arithmetic commands on base or even derived shapes(rescaling to add 2 shapes together or extrude from an existing shape or surface, such as rebeveling a newly beveled surface to get a smoother transition and better shading results - even on BSP alone for quick shape tests, and later converting to a mesh if it looks cool and shades well enough.
While vertex editing can be used, it is not recommended for shapes you intend to extrude from - since the engine is a lot better at calculating vertex normals than it is when repositioning them, unless you snap each of the vertices to a correct normal angle you will get holes in some of the BSP polygons. Although the staticmesh conversion process is a lot more forgiving than BSP, sometimes incorrect normals will only show up in meshes at specific angles - or on the fringes of the screen when previewing your level, but usually when the origin of a mesh moves off screen.

After making the map and/or packages I simply use UModel to extract the staticmeshes as PSKx and remove the x so I can import them into the UDK, although I have noticed that anywhere there are vertex seams the smoothing changes to a hard edge. So depending on how I want the smoothing patterns to look, I normally try to position those vertices toward the origin or center of the mesh I'm constructing - so they are relatively unseen by the player, unless I need a squared off hard edge around a console or panel area in the mesh.

~ I'm still wondering however, why the UE2 v.3 editor console command 'STATICMESH SMOOTH' only works in the ut2k4 editor and supposedly not the UE3 - UT3 & UDK Editors? As predicating such a useful command seems unwarranted. As I haven't found an alternative method for smoothing in the editor or the new console command yet! Except for the UDK SimplyGon module functionality.