Plug and Play Flying Elephant Download

[tegleg]

Hello
i have uploaded an example of a BASIC flying vehicle for UDK March 2010.
it uses the Cicada script and materials and is intended to give you a starting point for creating your own flying vehicles.
feel free to use it in your game if you want.

Copy the files into your UDK directory:
(more recent versions of udk will use /UDKGame...)

UDK-2010-03/Development/Src/UTGame/Classes
UTVehicle_Elephant.uc

UDK-2010-03/Development/Src/UTGameContent/Classes
UTVehicleFactory_Elephant.uc
UTVehicle_Elephant_Content.uc

UDK-2010-03/UTGame/Content/Vehicles
VH_Elephant.upk

EDIT: if you are using the APRIL beta:
open UTVehicle_Elephant_Content.uc
and delete this line:

HoverBoardAttachSockets=(HoverAttach00)

To make your own flying vehicle:

open VH_Elephant.max in 3ds max
delete the elephant leaving just the bones
import your vehicle making sure it is a single editable mesh with no groups or anything
select your vehicle mesh, add modifier - skin
add bones - add the 'Main' bone
add modifier uvwmap
export actorx
check out geodavs tutorials for more info on sockets and stuff

here are the bone names i used so you can make your own
Main
Rt_Canard
Lt_Canard
Lt_Rotor
Rt_Rotor

link all bones to 'Main' bone and skin your mesh to just the 'main'

you can get it from this site here:
http://udkc.info/index.php?title=UDKC:Collections
(im trying to push this site cos i think they have the right idea)

please let me know if i missed anything out the zip
or if you have problems with it

have fun

Here are some Screen Shots for you, please note i didnt make the elephant, i got it from some random free models site



i used a concrete material for the elephant here, the one you download uses cicada materials
if anyone fancies making a nice texture please post it here

[westclif]

can you post a screenshot of your work?

[JohNLA]

Downloading now!
Thank You.
My hovercrafts code is broke. I think it will be helpfull to look at yours

[geodav]

nice one, been having problems with my content so i'll have a look at yours to see what i missed, all for the tutorial i mean

[Henrik]

have to say the elephant is a bit of a strange choice.. could have made a paper airplane model out of 4 polygons for all of the same effort :P

[tegleg]

i like the elephant, i didnt have to make anything exept the bones
just downloaded it and imported, i have found very low poly models kind of spaz out all jittery like

i forgot to say it doesnt have any animation
it fires rockets from its tusks that dont rotate

i got caught up in sound problems so i had to put that bit on hold, maybe ill post an update when/if i add that

[GameHatcher]

Hey Tegleg, thanks for the work. Can I import the max file into Maya as an obj and still be able to follow your instructions?

[tegleg]

Can I import the max file into Maya as an obj and still be able to follow your instructions?

sorry i dont know, never used maya
i think it gets rid of all the bones converting to an obj, not sure
i can upload a different format if you want
any of these any good?
fbx
3ds
dwf
dwg
dxf
igs
m3g
stl
vw
wrl
these are what i can export from 3ds

[GameHatcher]

fbx would be great! Thanks alot!! I tired the obj and you're right it didn't have any bones in it. Do you think I could use Maya bones and then skin it and pick up the rest of the directions from there? Or can you send the fbx where the bones will transfer....it can be done...I used to use max a long time ago and I did it to move some of my character assets over from max to maya.

[GameHatcher]

Also when I am switching out the elephant with my ship and getting ready to import into the UDK...when will I import via your directions: Copy the files into your UDK directory:

UDK-2010-03/Development/Src/UTGame/Classes
UTVehicle_Elephant.uc

UDK-2010-03/Development/Src/UTGameContent/Classes
UTVehicleFactory_Elephant.uc
UTVehicle_Elephant_Content.uc

UDK-2010-03/UTGame/Content/Vehicles
VH_Elephant.upk

how will I change the elephant that is also included in the upk and uc files...or will this all be changed automatically when I change the elephant to my ship in Maya/Max? I guess what I am really asking is should I leave the file that I update in Maya named Elephant for the naming convention sake?

[CreativeCoding]

Rofl. I love how the exhaust comes out his butt.

[tegleg]

Also when I am switching out the elephant with my ship and getting ready to import into the UDK...when will I import via your directions
how will I change the elephant that is also included in the upk and uc files...or will this all be changed automatically when I change the elephant to my ship in Maya/Max? I guess what I am really asking is should I leave the file that I update in Maya named Elephant for the naming convention sake?

you can just replace the mesh and leave all the names the same
if you name your new mesh the same as the elephant and import it into the elephant package it will just overwrite the old one, this way will also leave the sockets, so all you have to do is move them to the right places to make your mesh look/work right

another way would be to copy all the elephant files and rename them
you also have to rename the class to the same as the file name
then replace the bit where is references the elephant mesh and stuff with yours

you can also create the bones yourself in maya, just skin the main bone to your mesh

i cant upload fbx atm, and i dont know if the bones would still be there anyway, let me know if you need it and ill up it later

EDIT: just tried exporting as fbx:
The plug-in does not support the following objects'(bones) geometry type and will convert them to an editable mesh. Morph and skin deformations may be lost.
it converts the bones to editable mesh

so here are the bone names i used so you can make your own
Main
Rt_Canard
Lt_Canard
Lt_Rotor
Rt_Rotor

link all bones to 'Main' bone and skin your mesh to just the 'main'

[GameHatcher]

Thanks so much. As I move forward I will post my progress if that's okay...

[Whitenorthstar]

Hi Tegleg... this is incredibly useful, thank you very much. I hope some day to have the skills to help out the way you (and some others, like Geodav) do around these forums.

Ummm, it's really embarrassing to ask U this because it makes me feel like a total newb, but I've followed Ur instructions and double-checked.

For some reason, I can't find the new elephant's Vehicle Factory in the Actor Classes window. I'm using the latest UDK (Sept 2010). By the way, after adding Ur new scripts, UDK doesn't compile, just launches perfectly as usual. However, after launch, the elephant and materials are visible in the Content Browser.

Perhaps, due to my inexperience, I'm missing something obvious?

[tegleg]

hello whitenorthstar
this vehicle was made for march udk, i dont know if it will still work, probably not.
if it didnt recompile, this is why its not in the actor browser.
do a full recompile from the frontend, if its full of errors you cant fix ill make an updated one if you really really want it.

i encourage you to try and fix it yourself, or make a new script.
the code is a copy of the cicada script with the skeletalmesh and stuff changed to the elephant.