Preparing your map for publishing and distribution

[the_witness]

I should re-write this tutorial to make some of it a bit easier to understand.

All that the "initial publish" is doing is creating a copy of the final built map in the UTGame\Published\CookedPC\CustomMaps folder so that you can play the map in UT3 and do a screenshot capture.
Normally, the source map will only be in the Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps folder, where it won't be seen by UT3's in-game menus.
If you wanted, you could skip the initial publish and manually copy the map file to the Published\CookedPC\CustomMaps folder so that it can be played in UT3.

Once the Publish dialog gets down to the x errors and execution time, you can close that window and continue on with what else needs to be done.

ooh alright i wasn't sure if it was still doing something important.
last time i closed the unreal editor 3 program during the "publish"
i couldn't even get the editor to open so i was just being cautious.
thanks for the quick reply, helps me a lot
i know you have your things to do as well
but this is my school project, so really, TY

[Kornswag]

What do I do if assets don't show up on other computers? The bulk of them are there and display fine, but things like 1/4 decolayers or a random asset like a fence piece won't show up and are hidden. The fence is invisible but the collision is still there which is odd. Any suggestions?

[DGUnreal]

Did you create all custom assets in the map package itself or did you use an external package? External packages should not be used for a number of reasons. If an external package was used and everything was later moved to the map, then there are redirector issues.

[Kornswag]

I am using 1 external package but have been using it in correlation to this particular map since it's induction. I have heard from another that some assets are set to high or medium when created and will only display if the computers graphics settings are at or above the the setting used on the particular asset. I will confirm this and post back when I get the results. Btw, thanks for the reply DGUnreal and I hope this redirector issue isn't what is going on. And if it was, what would I do about it? Thanks again!

[Kornswag]

missing assets *FIXED(kinda)*

Did you create all custom assets in the map package itself or did you use an external package? External packages should not be used for a number of reasons. If an external package was used and everything was later moved to the map, then there are redirector issues.

I found out the problem and someone else pointed it out to me is that I need to set the asset to low detail mode under the mesh properties, somehow it got turned to high detail mode so it disappeared if the player had their graphics set to 1/5 for instance. I'm not sure on how to set the foliage meshes to not disappear though, I'm guessing they are hard-wired into code so that they will simply turn off if the player has their graphics set to low. Any known workaround with the foliage meshes?

[DGUnreal]

I would get rid of the external package anyway, unless it is a mod or tc there is no good reason to use external packages and a lot of bad reasons. A lot of gamers and server admins also won't install maps that use external packages.

Foliage Factories etc. are supposed to cull based on detail level and distance otherwise it kills performance. The only real way around it would be to use manually placed meshes and culling volumes or possibly multiple foliage volumes. If a map is designed to rely on foliage to hide players, then the stock foliage factories won't work properly to do this.

[Kornswag]

I would get rid of the external package anyway, unless it is a mod or tc there is no good reason to use external packages and a lot of bad reasons. A lot of gamers and server admins also won't install maps that use external packages.

Foliage Factories etc. are supposed to cull based on detail level and distance otherwise it kills performance. The only real way around it would be to use manually placed meshes and culling volumes or possibly multiple foliage volumes. If a map is designed to rely on foliage to hide players, then the stock foliage factories won't work properly to do this.

It is a tc and is basically just a single player map with puzzles and story but could also be a DM just for multiplayer fun, I will maybe even make the map have a co-op story mode. But you're saying that I should use the map's package to store all my custom assets? It just seemed this was the best solution for what I wanted to do. Also, I haven't really used the map's package which is the one with the same name as the map file. I was just wondering if the assets in that package will update if I change the map's name?

I don't use any foliage factories, just the foliage meshes that are tied into the terrain materials. But I have noticed these foliage meshes don't display for low graphic settings, which I was wondering if there was a setting in the editor to change this, maybe just make the cull distance alot shorter than the high graphics settings :/

[DGUnreal]

External packages are fine to use if the assets in them are definitely heavily shared between multiple maps within a project, otherwise for numerous reasons if there is only one map everything should be in that map. Especially for assets that relate to just that map such as TerrainMaterial and TerrainLayerSetup etc.

Some of the reasons being: lost packages, package name conflicts with other people's projects, redirector issues, path issues, plus cooked maps contain a portion of every externally referenced asset so a significant chunk of everything in any external packages is cooked right into each map file anyway which makes the entire distributable larger if external packages are used.

The "internal" map package is the easiest to use, simply specify the map name itself for the Package when importing assets (it can also be picked on the Package combo drop-down). A map file is essentially just a package file with a game-specific file extension anyway, so by specifying the map name for the Package all this does is import the asset into the map file itself. Group naming should also always be used to organize the content.

Internal assets in a map file are the best because not only does it stay relevant to the file even if the map file is renamed, but if you actually rename any assets themselves or move them around groups, it doesn't create redirectors like occurs with external packages.

Unfortunately none of the three built-in foliage systems expose a setting for DetailMode (Terrain Decolayer, TM Foliage, or FoliageFactory Volumes).
As I mentioned you would have to manually place staticmeshes in order to get this functionality.

[Kornswag]

Thanks DGUnreal, I appreciate the knowledge you have shared with me and definitely have more clarity on the subject, I hope someday I can return the favor!

[Cirian]

Ok, this might sound stupid in hindsight but I was following DG's very clear tutorial on cooking for the PS3 but there was this one lil' tiny additional step I had missed that was giving me grief...

...I hadn't installed the PS3 tools. /facepalm.

It was very confusing for a while because even without the tools Unreal Frontend looks like it will cook for the PS3 and kinda goes through the motions, but it won't actually work.

Anyway, it works now. Thanks for the tutorial DG!

[musilowski]

Anyone happen to know if paragraphs are possible in the description written inside the maps' .ini file? I'd rather not make a wall of text, without any formatting.

If not possible, I'll just rely on the readme... :P

[gameshd]

thanks youuuuuuuu