Must creating a new gamemode/mod be so rediculous?

[Dreamcube017]

I know this sounds like another n00b whining post, but bare with me.

I know I'm new with UDK so I may not be understanding some things. So I did what any intelligent person would do when wanting to make a new mod or game... searched for tutorials.

So I ran accross a nice set at UDK Central. Great. Everything was layed out step by step. So I started following it... then I ran into a problem.

Since UDK is updated like every month... thigns change... more importantly, INI files change. This makes it a bit complicated to follow a tutorial that says "edit this line here." Because "this line here" may become "that line there" and and names may change.

Now I know a lot of the UT things were changed to UDK. So I went and tried looking in the UDK ini... but there is, for example, no EditModPackage... well tehre is in one of the Default ones... but I don't think I'm suppose to touch those... which is exactly what the tutorial TELLS us to edit.

Here's the link.
http://udkc.info/index.php?title=Tut...s_UTDeathmatch

I've also tried watching this video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yozMb...layer_embedded

Someone in another post told me which line to edit all the EditPackages mention UTGame after them in UDKEngine.ini... but everytime I did that, I'd get a warning on compiling saying that it couldn't find *.uc in the src folder. So I changed that folder to point to my game and it then said superclass gameinfo not found.

The tutorials don't menition anything about the src\*.us not being found warning. Without editing the folder path of the edited package, that's what I get.

What am I dong wrong?

I've been spending around an hour trying to figure this out. I'm pretty new at coding and UScript... but I haven't even gotten to that yet... I haven't even opened the engine.

I'm not even sure how to get to the other scripts and try modding those. (playerController being one of them)

The written tutorial mentions using something called Uncodex while the video just does it in notepad. The written mentions the default inis while the video messes with the UT (UDK) inis... it seems like there are slightly different ways of doing this... all of them being somewhat out of date.

This is getting really annoying. UDK is great... but I don't wanna spend too much time just fussing over file management.

Isn't there a page on the UDN explaining how to set this up... and UPDATED page? This is, I think, where the REAL problem lies.

Any suggestions on how to set this up? Thanks.

EDIT: While reading over this post, I think I've made it sound as if I've NEVER opened the UDK engine before. This actually isn't true. I've played around a lot with the engine and got some cool looking little levels and things.

But I wanted to chage the game mode so that it wasn't all... first person shootery.

I found a camera script that I wanted to put in to make it go into REAL 3rd person mode... but I couldn't figure out where to put the script. This is where the new game mode comes in I think... but I'm having problems setting that up.

[Solid Snake]

New packages should have their class files stored in %UDK%\Development\Src\%PackageName%\Classes\. To be sure, files must end with the extension uc, Windows can hide this from you sometimes and you may wind up calling files MyClass.uc.txt.

Give that a go.

P.S If you think modifying Unreal Engine 3 is hard, try compiling other people's C++ projects

[Dreamcube017]

Hm I'll try this... uh.... say I botched my UDK ini file up and changed too many thigns to revert it back... can I reset it some kind of way?

[Blade[UG]]

If you were editing a UDK*.ini file, delete it, it will re-generate from the Default*.ini files.

For game-specific INI files, you should be changing Default*.ini. UDK*.ini are for user specific changes.

Now I know a lot of the UT things were changed to UDK. So I went and tried looking in the UDK ini... but there is, for example, no EditModPackage... well tehre is in one of the Default ones... but I don't think I'm suppose to touch those... which is exactly what the tutorial TELLS us to edit.

I wouldn't second guess the people who have already done this before you (and it's called ModEditPackages)

Someone in another post told me which line to edit all the EditPackages mention UTGame after them in UDKEngine.ini... but everytime I did that, I'd get a warning on compiling saying that it couldn't find *.uc in the src folder.

It should tell you exactly what folder it's expecting to find them in. You shouldn't paraphrase your warnings and errors, you should read them exactly, and if you need help with them, quote them exactly. I couldn't say how many dozens of times over the years I've had people (in many programming languages) come to me with some partial error message that they don't know what it means, and I suggest "read me the error message, verbatim", and then they suddenly know the answer, before they get it back to me.

The tutorials don't menition anything about the src\*.us not being found warning. Without editing the folder path of the edited package, that's what I get.

What am I dong wrong?

Well... if you follow them to the letter, you don't get these errors. (excepting for the aforementioned "UT*" becomes "UDK*", obv)

The written tutorial mentions using something called Uncodex while the video just does it in notepad. The written mentions the default inis while the video messes with the UT (UDK) inis... it seems like there are slightly different ways of doing this... all of them being somewhat out of date.
This is getting really annoying. UDK is great... but I don't wanna spend too much time just fussing over file management.
Isn't there a page on the UDN explaining how to set this up... and UPDATED page? This is, I think, where the REAL problem lies.

Like with many complex systems, there are often many ways to get what you want out of it. ("There is more than one way to skin a cat") You will get to deal with INI file management, if you want to do anything with the engine, because the engine configuration is loaded via the INI files. Sure, it'd be nice if some of it worked a bit more like some of the "plug-and-play game creation things", to some degree, but Unreal is not a "plug in module game creation thing". Redesigns of major things are not likely to happen very quickly.

That said, the official UDK documentation for programming:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKProgrammingHome.html

I suggest, if you have any idea what you are doing in any programming language, starting with the second document, "FirstScriptProject", which will have you creating a bit of custom code after you configure your inis in one particular way.

One nice thing, for sure, is that in the November release, the INI files have had a lot of cleanup done to them, so they are a lot easier to look through.

[Dreamcube017]

Thanks so much Blade.

I was on the point of giving up, but I know it can be done.

Well I'll follow the tutorial and do exactly what it says. (It said to erase all the UT based ini files) I'm guessing this means erase all the UDK ones as there are no more UT ones?... I'm using the October release though.

I'll pull the november one. I hope the tutorial will still work for that one.

As for coding and Unreal Script... I can read and understand it... but I'm still kind of new at coding. I just started teaching myself C# so hopefully the knowledge from that will carry over.

I'll look at the coding link you sent. Thanks again.

[Blade[UG]]

good luck