A couple newbie questions?

[kashmir0109]

Edit: Thanks for the help Shivan. I have another question though...I'm trying to start over my Dominant Directional Light actor, but I can't seem to find where the original is...

Also, can I change the material on my terrain? I tried the tutorial but it didn't work :/

thanks

[Shivan Hunter]

[NOTE: Haven't played with UE3 in a while. Info may be outdated.]

When you place a light, it lights up the viewport using dynamic lighting, used to light moving geometry. These show up in the viewports but not ingame (unless you play with lighting channels). Normally you'll want to use static lighting, which means you need to bake lightmaps (by building lighting- use the little lightbulb icon in the top menu). This will solve both your problems, as dynamic lighting is much slower than baked lighting.

Note that building lighting in even moderately complex environments can easily crash the June UDK if it runs out of memory. I haven't found a solution other than wait for the likely fix in the July build.

[kashmir0109]

[NOTE: Haven't played with UE3 in a while. Info may be outdated.]

When you place a light, it lights up the viewport using dynamic lighting, used to light moving geometry. These show up in the viewports but not ingame (unless you play with lighting channels). Normally you'll want to use static lighting, which means you need to bake lightmaps (by building lighting- use the little lightbulb icon in the top menu). This will solve both your problems, as dynamic lighting is much slower than baked lighting.

Note that building lighting in even moderately complex environments can easily crash the June UDK if it runs out of memory. I haven't found a solution other than wait for the likely fix in the July build.

Thanks for the help Shivan. I have another question though...I'm trying to start over my Dominant Directional Light actor, but I can't seem to find where the original is...

Also, can I change the material on my terrain? I tried the tutorial but it didn't work :/

thanks

[Shivan Hunter]

I dunno what you mean by that first question- if you mean the one that comes with the default map, it's at 0, 0, 0 (right underneath the default cube). You could also find it in the "find actors" tool (the binoculars icon right to the left of the content browser icon). Note that the position of a DirectionalLight in the map doesn't matter- the light is cast from an infinite distance away.

To edit the material on a landscape, go to landscape properties -> Landscape -> Landscape Material. The search icon to the right will open the content browser so you can select a meterial, and the left-arrow icon next to it will insert your selection (if you have a material or MaterialInstance selected) into the field.

Blending multiple materials like you would on a UT3/UT2k4 Terrain is slightly more complicated and involves landscape layers and editing the material itself.