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    Experienced newbie getting started.

    Hello, I’m a UDK newbie, I’ve completed a number of newbie steps, and I’m now looking for the best way to move forward but I thought I’d provide a bit of background so you know what I’ve done, what I haven’t, and what I’d like to do as a hobby, which means using freebies as much as possible.

    I’m dumping a lot here, so if specific items should be in other forums I’ll be glad to place them there. Any such feedback is welcome.

    I’ve worked with 3D modeling using Photoshop and 3ds Max’s little brother: GMAX, which is now unsupported but still available. I also used Blender long ago. I create the mod for the Auran Trainz sim that put the Disney World monorails into the game (see user pics and old download site) and used the Trainz object oriented script language overriding standard game features as needed. I’m a professional application designer/developer using the Java Standard Edition. I play lots of games (currently in Skyrim and ME3) and found out about the UDK in PC Gamer magazine.

    What I have not done is model and animate live human or animal characters, or created anything with the UDK.

    I have installed the UDK, Perforce, UnCodeX, Notepad++ (still have to change the ugly colors) and the software that lets you create UI content with Kismet. I’ve created a base unreal script game directory, created my own empty XXinfo, XXPlayerController, and XXPawn classes, launched “my game” as a default deathmatch and used Kismet to create a few lines of UI text.

    My current questions include the following:
    1. Any suggestions on which tutorials to tackle next?
    2. Is the Maya Personal Learning Edition with an exporter for UE3 available for UDK users? If so, how does one get it?
    3. I’m very familiar with Eclipse and found the project at http://sourceforge.net/p/udkeclipse/home/Home/ but I’m not sure if this is ready for prime time yet. Does anyone have any information on this.
    4. Perforce doesn’t seem to be running yet as logging in hangs up on “Attempting ‘p4 clients –u XXX’” with the default server port 1666 and user name XXX. Entering this command at a command prompt replied with root information, but does not work from UDK. Found a thread from 2009/2011 on this without any replies, so I might have some company here.
    5. It look like using MakeHuman, Blender, and downloadable BVH files is a reasonable way to create characters; anyone have any other/better (free) suggestions?


    Thanks for your patience with this long self-centered hello, I’ll now get back to the sea of tutorials to see what looks useful.

    Beamrider1

    #2
    welcome

    unreal script is very close to java so you shouldnt have a hard time getting into that, i suggest wotgreal for coding, it will help you to get to know the codebase.
    you can get an autodesk student licence for free that gives you max, maya, mudbox and a few other progs. to get it you need a school email address.
    never used perforce, i assume you have a server for it?
    daz 3d is free and you can make human and animal models but they do need to be highly optimised in another 3d package.
    there are a few script and kismet ui solutions made by people on here, there is also a free way of using scaleform but its a real effort to get enything out of it, look on the scaleform section.

    have fun and good luck

    Comment


      #3
      WOTgreal and DAZ 3D both look great, exactly what I was looking for.

      It's been awhile since was last in school but it might be cheaper to go back for awhile than getting all this software any other way.

      Yep, I have the server. Hooking WOTgreal up to P4 will get me back to the SCM components, but not quite yet (nothing to archive yet).

      I gather ScaleForm is a bit steep so I'll start with the easy stuph until I hit something that requires a more serious tool.

      Thanks for the comments, that's just what I was hoping for. Still drinking from the fire hose but it looks like it will be lots of fun.

      Beamrider1

      Comment


        #4
        just run through the standard basic tutorials and you'll be fine, plenty of help here,

        on the free side blender for 3d, gimp for 2d, and Uwindow3 for prototyping your menus when you get that far

        Comment


          #5
          Blender works very well, FBX support is maturing and if your previous experience was 2.4 then it's changed for the better by an order of magnitude. Highly recommended despite industry snobbery for Max and Maya.

          You could try the UDK Gems, which aren't really tutorials but are well written and demonstrate alternative gameplay to the UT codepath.

          Comment


            #6
            Okay, I'll take another look at Blender. Currently I'm trying to get a very basic third person skeleton of a game up on an blank map as a starting point. The Epic tuts are great but many of the others combine just what I need with enough errors and rambling muttering to make this surprisingly aggravating. The size and complexity of the UDX beast doesn't make any approach particularly easy. Fun, though, that what makes it really interesting.

            Thanks.

            Comment


              #7
              SoftImage Mod Tool 7.5

              Let's hope this tool will also help for you.
              I know it's pretty old, but I still find pretty good use with the right plugins and the right setup for it.

              Comment

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