Scaleform UI to be included with UDK! (UPDATED)

[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.

[Brendan Iribe]

Scaleform GFx - Flash AS2, AS3 support

The latest version of Scaleform GFx 3.2 supports most Flash 8 AS2 functionality. The Unreal docs will outline all the details soon.

Later this year (Q4 2010), Scaleform GFx 4.0 will be officially released with initial Flash 10 AS3 support. It will have its limitations in terms of the latest Flash 10 and AS3 features, but each new release will continue to be more complete, similar to the way GFx v1.0 - v3.2 continued to support more Flash 8 AS2.

Scaleform will have alpha and beta versions of GFx 4.0 (AS3) available earlier, but it's Epic's decision on when and which version to integrate into UE3 and UDK. We normally recommend only using beta or final versions for shipping product.

Scaleform provides a separate integration compatible with UE3 source SDK (not UDK, because it's binary only), which is updated monthly to be compatible to the latest Scaleform GFx beta and final releases. The Scaleform integration supports additional components that are optional and not required for console game developers, but that some may be interested in. Again, it will be outlined in the Unreal docs soon.

So for now, everyone can use the latest Flash CS3, CS4, or CS5 tools to publish to Flash 8 AS2 format to create stunning front end menus, high performance HUDs, even animated Flash textures on 3D surfaces.
Video: https://developer.scaleform.com/gdc?lang=en&v=hud

Scaleform has also added 3Di (3D interface) rendering, which allows you to tilt and rotate any element in 3D using a simple set of ActionScript extensions. The current 3Di rendering via ActionScript is the same as Flash 10's native 3D, which will be supported in GFx 4.0.
Video: https://developer.scaleform.com/gdc?lang=en&v=3di

There's even a new Scaleform AMP performance tool that can be used to profile Flash content running inside your Unreal game. Please keep in mind the tool is new and limited in functionality (and may have an issue or two), but we're working hard to make it as useful and powerful as possible. We're eager to hear your feedback on how to make it even better.
Video: https://developer.scaleform.com/gdc?lang=en&v=amp

You can visit www.scaleform.com for more information and videos.

UE3 Source licensees and evaluators should register at www.scaleform.com/register to receive additional Flash/Scaleform support. We have many C++ and Flash experts on staff to help.

UDK developers will be supported through the UDN community.

We look forward to working with everyone!

-- Brendan
www.scaleform.com

[danimal']

Hawwwwwwwwwt. Really like/appreciate the vids, some of us aren't terribly familiar with the work flow for this, and it's a start in the right direction. When I saw the inventory floating in space in front of the character I nearly @#$@#'d my pants

[Mr Evil]

...Scaleform has also added 3Di (3D interface) rendering, which allows you to tilt and rotate any element in 3D using a simple set of ActionScript extensions...

Are those elements actually 3D, so that they look correct with 3D glasses or other 3D display? Non-3D HUD is a common complaint from users of such displays, and it would be worse if the HUD looked like it wasn't flat, but was displayed flat.

Hawwwwwwwwwt. Really like/appreciate the vids, some of us aren't terribly familiar with the work flow for this, and it's a start in the right direction. When I saw the inventory floating in space in front of the character I nearly @#$@#'d my pants

It looks really cool, but I hope people don't forget that it's usability first, prettiness second!

[Brendan Iribe]

Are those elements actually 3D, so that they look correct with 3D glasses or other 3D display? Non-3D HUD is a common complaint from users of such displays, and it would be worse if the HUD looked like it wasn't flat, but was displayed flat.

The 2D Flash elements are actually displayed in 3D (with full 3D transformations), so they can look correct in stereoscopic 3D. We're working closely with Epic and NVIDIA to ensure Scaleform 3Di supports stereo 3D glasses and displays. There will most likely be a bit tweaking and customization on the developers side, but nothing too difficult. The goal is for it to all just work right out-of-the-box as you'd expect and hope.

[danimal']

It looks really cool, but I hope people don't forget that it's usability first, prettiness second!

Usa-wha? Honestly, UI's matter so much for the professional appearance of a product, I think the inclusion of this (if used properly) adds a LOT to the potential "professionalism" achievable even by smaller teams with the UDK. Go Epic and go Scaleform, you rock.

[adityagameprogrmer]

@Danimal
+1 ^_^
@Brendan
Thanks for the info . The possibility of getting flash UI / games into the unreal engine is very exciting indeed. This is sure to Attract a large part of the flash community to unreal and Scaleform alike.

Am sure Epic will integrate GFx 4.0 (AS3) beta into UDK when it comes out they wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity to enhance UDK and pull in more people to it.

[CreativeCoding]

Finally something my CS4 will do!

But, how will Actionscript and Unrealscript communicate?

Example:
A variable in kismet is 5.
Actionscript detects this and starts a level (or whatever else)

Or

Actionscript detects button press
Kismet starts a level!


Just a note too, if you guys are exporting your flash files into UDK just to convert to EXE, you best just upgrade to CS4. It will make a EXE file for you with your game.

[Blade[UG]]

Unfortunatly, there is no amount of polish that you can add to UT3's interface to make it useful, so even though they obviously re-wrote it, they used the original as a base, so it's really just polishing the proverbial.

As long as we can get data to display on screen in the new UI system without having to go through a bajillion hoops, I'm all for any kind of new system.

[TheFreeman]

This is an amazing thread, really made my day with this one!

So thanks go out to Epic and also to Scaleform for bringing us these tools! (Eventually)

[Ayalaskin]

Am excited about it, amazing.