Why no prefabs ?

[kg777]

hi all , very new to Udk but why isnt there any prefabs on the forum or included with the udk.

before people reply with make ur own content etc , isnt what i meen. if iam not mistaken prefabs can contain kismet sequences,lights anything .i very much doubt people are remaking everything for each map,why would you if u can make a prefab.
they are also great for newbies to learn from or get basic features in a map.

an example, the placable bomb/destructable wall from the example map. including the text on screen ,particle effects ,sounds etc,the whole thing . i have saved it as a prefab which i can drag and drop in to any map.
iam making a platformer to learn udk and iam planning on making as much as i can from prebuilt prefabs.physics based traps lol no idea .

so seems strange non are included and none of the tuturials ive seen so far even mention them.
with kismet been a visual scripter you would of thought that there would be loads of prefabs for functions and features.

i know i cant be the first person to realise prefabs exsist so wheres the huge database? i will be uploading any that i make.

sorry if it is covered on the forum or in tuts,i really havnt seen any info about them and have been watching/reading tuts solid for a few days.

[kg777]

more examples...

i have just made some traps/killing machines for my level. i started on a blank map, used static meshes converted to movers ,attached them together using f4 properties not kismet .added a physics volume also attached to deal damage . then animated it in matinee. saved the whole thing as a prefab. then copy and paste it so i had many squashing pillers from sides,top etc. add more static meshes to look like one machine . convert prefabs to normal meshes .select the whole lot and save as new prefab.bish bash bosh i have an amazing prefab for me or anyone to use.

i assume the posibilities are endless, i only know a few basics and iam already very happy with what i think i will be able to stick in too a prefab,which will save me lots of headaches when making levels.i like to seperate the art side of making maps from technical stuff as much as possible.

[kg777]

so people have no use at all for prefabs in their games?

what can be included in a prefab? , any limitations/what doesnt work.

any advice /tips on creating them, ie workflow .ive noticed you cant attach actors to actors that have already been animated in matinee.so particle effects etc have to be attached before matinee is used.
iam assuming any kismet stuff can be prefabbed aslong its conected to something in the game world/editor. so in theory u could use dummy objects that are deleted after importing the prefab and keep all the nice kismet stuff.?

for game likes sidescroller,platformers, prefabs are a gods gifts.heck the whole game and assests could be made in too prebuilt packages which are then drag and drop. a construction kit so to speak.

am i talking nonsense ?

[Graylord]

Making a prefab is pressing a single button.

If you see a combined function or effect you'd like to use, just prefab it yourself, there's no reason to make them for you.

[Solid Snake]

[udn]UsingPrefabs[/udn]

There seems to be official documentation on Prefabs which has reasonably good levels of detail.

[kg777]

thanks for the replies and link.

there's no reason to make them for you.

? sorry dont get why you said that.i know how to make prefabs and wasnt asking for you to make them for me. my posts are about prefabs in general and why there isnt any to be found for people learning UDK.ie platform prefabs,3rd person prefabs,basic gameplay mechanics and features in prefab form.
they would save alot of time searching long tut vids for one bit of info.+ the more i use Udk the more iam using prefabs so seemed like a perfectly natural question to ask how people use them when making proper levels/games.

theres many functions and features ive no idea how to make in kismet because iam missing 1-2 key nodes or the logic to make it. i know what i what to do but havnt got to grips which nodes and when yet so been able to see working examples would be great.+ why should 100,000 people all make the same prefab.simple gameplay mechanics like restarting level on death shouldnt need 2-3 hours of watching tuts to get working.

most people want to make small games for personal enjoyment. i know iam talking to myself with this as replies clearly hadnt read my posts.
iam pretty sure if i made a prefab package containing all basic elements of a platform game many people would love it to get them started.
anyone who thinks everyone should have to find and learn everybit of the engine to make something playable , wow grow up.
the skill and creativity is what you do with it.

[ambershee]

The answer is because most people don't try and implement all of these things in kismet. No kismet, no prefab.

[Hellclown]

I use prefabs for large groups of meshes that I don't want to place repeatedly.

[Solid Snake]

You do head into the realm of impossibility since every body needs different things. There is no 20 / 80 principal here. Everyone needs a different subset of 20.

But this is where the community can step in and help. If you believe this is a problem, you can actually do something about it. Why don't you build a package with lots of prefabs with different things in it?

[kg777]

thanks ambershee, makes sense.is this an oldskool mentality tho ? i meen now that unreal and other editors like crytek have a visual scripting system included.surely in future more and more will be done via them.
i understand they cant do everything, but wow they are useful and i would like to be able to use it well because i cant code apart from basic actionscript + you have to restart editor to compile external scripts.
ive made my gametype/controls and camera via code, then all ingame trigger stuff via kismet. but iam thinking it could go way deeper then that,for example iam assuming i can make a boss for my platform level via kismet?.which moves,attacks ,blows up etc made out of static meshes.?proper oldskool style:}

solidsnake- yes agree everyone does need some unique changes to the prefabs but thats all it would be. for example i make a basic bot prefab. all you need to change is location of spawn point and path nodes.once the actually mechanics are working rest is fluff.
to answer your question ,yes i am building prefab libary :} give me time ive only had UDK a few days but already have a nice collection for any level i make so assumed more expiercned users would have folders full of them.

iam sorry if my posts come across like iam been a ****, not meening too.iam just wanting to get involved with the UDK comunity and have fun making some crazy games.i have made mods/maps/assests for a few engines over the years started with black hawk down but more recently half life 2, Rfactor,crysis and cod4. the biggest thing ive found with every comunity is the unwillingness of most people to share resources ,people seem to forget that 80%+ of the amataur users only have time to learn certain areas,ie modeling,so will never get a working game at the end of it.my skills are on the art side,iam a sound engineer and a artist/map maker. iam also very creative with game design and gameplay mechanics which ive never been able to put in too practice because i cant code to that level .

we all know game studios have people for each area so seems strange the mod comunities expect everyone to be jack of all trades.

yes i know i need to leaarn to code,but i hate it.:}

[ambershee]

There are problems with wanting to do a lot of the things you're doing in Kismet. Things like handling AI is a really bad idea because they are usually performance intensive (I'd be handling them in C++ native code where possible - UT3 does the same), and AI implementations are almost always very game specific.

[kg777]

thanks for advice. back to the drawing board.

[Solid Snake]

Also remember the Kismet executes instructions only once per tick. I found this out while I was making a looping Kismet node. I was unable to execute the same Kismet node more than once per tick. This is likely to prevent issues where Kismet locks up the game due to reentrant or recursive mistakes.

[joshua.fontany]

Hmmm, that's probably why I needed to but those really short delays in my Monster Generator prefab kismet loops. Thanks SS.

[AndyPandy]

@kg777, i mean it depends and ofc a "real" programmer will always prefer code over some drag able boxes with connections, while a level designer/editor may find this more visual style of "coding" logic easier to maintain and understand.
Like already noted some things can be done quite easy and "clean" using kismet, take the normal triggerXYEvent -> PlaySound/Animation or Toggle something. This is nicely done in kismet, but now try to work with arrays/multiple actors, loops or simple If/else checks. Those will become a nightmare to maintain in kismet, since a simple one-liner in code may require multiple "boxes" and connections in kismet and still wont do exactly the same "safe" check or logic.
So i prefer a mix of both, so i normally do the general or complex stuff in script and move the logical/dynamic part to kismet.

I also was wondering why there are no default prefabs or more generic example objects like doors, turrets or switchable lights. So sure if u can build some useful prefabs, which others can use, even if it is just for rapid prototyping this should be useful. I mean its not uncommon, since other engines come with a bigger example database of logical objects that work out of the box.