Grats all, *klink*, this one is for you.
Now then, can I get some feedback on Formidable and the design document, pleasey weasey, lemon squeezy?
Posts by Mitch Mitchell
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Let me be the first to say Congratulations to TheGlecter
Scinbed, Byron Gore, Heresiarch, MauL, all had significantly excellent maps, but I feel DM-Batrankus just pipped it, but only just.
Beers and cheers have been sent to everyone, hold both high for the Stream later.
I salute you all
o7
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I'm checking the movement changes with regards to slide/dodge, just to see how it affected the flow throughout the narrow 'high-speed' overpass, but it looks good on paper.
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I've just had a horrible thought...all accepted finalists are requested to download the new patch, and repackage their maps for testing!
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Quote from TheGlecter
1 hour ago, TheGlecter said: Hey, you don't really need to create custom duplicates of StaticMeshes to change the lightmap resolution if you don't want to. There is an 'Overrride Lightmap Resolution' setting in the StaticMesh properties where you can set a specific value per mesh without editing the original assets.
Oh totally, but I was changing so much that having 'my stuff' in my own folder made more sense than creating potential discombobulation of Epic assets.
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Quote from ShadesMaster
12 hours ago, ShadesMaster said: While mine counts, I'm still (but not REALLY) kicking myself over the fact that there's a collision error near one of my lifts. And another lift shooting you up too high. Well that's what happens when I use one of Epic's cliff meshes with default collision that extrudes farther than it should, I THINK that's the problem but otherwise...? I had to change collision of a few meshes that didin't behave as expected (since I didn't create 'em) What matters is that I can say that I technically entered the contest, even if there was a thing or two I could have easily fixed / changed to make it better.
Oh well, I'm still considering completing a lower level circuit and adding in more foliage and other details, and other changes throughout - such as "does having a rocket launcher on the upper level create an imbalance or is it good? Or would a lower level placement, rather, create a contention point?" Stuff like that. That was the plan regardless, adjust based on feedback 'till it is FINAL final. So long as I can eventually say, "My map features in Unreal Tournament's rotation" I'll be happy.
I literally just upgraded from 8 to 24 with two new sticks right before my final working period on the level before contests' end... I THINK that made compile times faster but Packaging still took awhile. But maybe an hour of packaging is still faster than what a detailed level would have been otherwise? I dunno lol.
The collision 'issue' with some meshes is down to choosing the collision type in the Static Mesh detail panel via the content browser. I once spent 3 hours creating a custom collision for a mesh (ironically, a cliff) when all I needed to do was choose a pull down and the engine would just 'sort it out' and give me skin tight collision.
I think I mentioned this in another thread, or earlier in this thread about collision...Unreal Engine 4 is pretty smart about collision.
Regarding collision and cooking, I did find that dropping all collision outside the playable area of the map lowered packing time. Not much, but it did seem to fly through chunks faster. Having my own folder for meshes also helped, but I altered the light map resolution on some stuff...so that needed its own folder and references for it to work without resorting to the defaults.
More time would have been good...like another month maybe. Is that the classic thing an artist would say?
No one has commented on my level design document yet...that hurts me
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Name: Mitch Mitchell
Nickname: Mitch Mitchell
Map Name: "Formidable"
Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykydunmx77tq…Editor.pak?dl=0
“I agree that this content constitutes a Submission under the Unreal Engine EULA ( https://www.unrealengine.com/eula ).”
As part of this submission, I am including the Level Design Document PDF, as recommended, available here:
Spoiler
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Quote from Bearplane
21 hours ago, Bearplane said: HI All, Im having an issue with texture stretching and distortion on my meshes for walls/floors (i made static meshes of my entire level BEFORE the informative discussion of the last few pages xC). it doesn't seem to change anything if I change the UVs or edgeflow the problem persists. wondering if anyone has a solution?
I'm thinking triangulate/optimize and reconvert it.
Those lines appear to be points of the BSP geometry, like when you move vertices and additional lines are added.
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Quote from MauL
3 hours ago, MauL said: Mitch: I try to minimize duplication of stock materials if I can help it since it seems to make the filesize larger. I'd much rather use the MI that I'm currently using. Sure, if I can't get it to work I will have to duplicate it and put it in a shorter path location but I try to use duplication sparingly. Am I wrong on that?
Well, it's a material instance. I don't see any issues with it being copied to another location.There is perhaps an argument that if the instance is deleted from stock assets, you will get issues on your map build moving forward, but I think that's unlikely...then again it is from a prototype folder, so who knows?
Personally, duplicate the MI, move it to another (shorter) folder, update the references and move on.
As for filesize...I honestly don't know the answer, but if you are using materials instanced from Epic materials, their location is immaterial. I do thank you for giving me the awesome set-up for that turn of phrase
Put a pot of coffee on and test it, see what happens.
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Quote from MauL
4 hours ago, MauL said: Just in case anyone is having packing issues, I finally had the dreaded FAIL today. It took a while picking through my cook.txt, but scrolling up from the bottom I found the two errors. Both errors are "filename is too long". I've seen others have this issue and it's a bit silly since it's a stock asset.
They are both related to the following asset:
C:/Program Files/Epic Games/UnrealTournamentEditor/UnrealTournament/Saved/Cooked/DM-UC-Maelstrom_A1-23/WindowsNoEditor/UnrealTournament/Content/RestrictedAssets/Environments/Chill/ProtoType/Materials/Banners/Distressed/MI_Banner_GChannelDesign_BLACK_GDistress2.uasset
The error is "filename is too long" but I believe it is actually "path length too long" since I haven't changed the length of the filename and this asset is fairly new in my map. I'm going to rename my map something shorter (which I was going to do anyway). I will report back if that doesn't fix it.
By the way, if you are new to the cook.txt file, the word "error" occurs quite frequently and is not an issue. This makes doing a word search for "error" a non-starter. Try searching for either "CookResults:Error: " or "LogCook:Error:" to find the offending errors.
Others will humbly correct me, but I believe that is the 'windows string length'. If you copy/replace in the content browser and get all actors using that asset, reference themselves to the new asset location, it should solve it.
Copy it to a location with less characters in front of it, like your own developer folder. So instead of:
Content/RestrictedAssets/Environments/Chill/ProtoType/Materials/Banners/Distressed/MI_Banner_GChannelDesign_BLACK_GDistress2.uasset
It could be:
Content/Developers/MauL/MI_Banner_GChannelDesign_BLACK_GDistress2.uasset
Much shorter string length. Yum.
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Quote from TheGlecter
6 hours ago, TheGlecter said: I haven't tried it out, but that sounds quite awful to me. I used the 'Convert Brush to Mesh' thing with a simple 5-brush shape, and the resulting mesh had some noticeable lightmap problems, which I could only solve by remodelling the piece in Max almost entirely. I just don't want to imagine how that would turn out with a whole +600 brush level. A huge StaticMesh with all the geometry of a level doesn't sound like a very elegant approach to me, and you would most likely need an insanely high Lightmap resolution to make it look any good...
Yes, there are two extremes. Meshing an entire level is extreme, but as you point out, with the right LMR; can be achieved. Again, setting this up is very easy to do, as it literally is SHIFT-S and then set the LMR to whatever you want. Then convert it and have a coke and smile.
The other end of the spectrum I illustrated, is exporting the Geometry into an FBX and adding variation to the polygon(s). Now, you don't have to do this - but this will give you the option of separating the surfaces/brushes into individual chunks, whether you alter the geometry or not. From there you can alter the LMR just as you would for brushes, or even do a 'bulk edit' and altering the LMR en masse. I strongly believe this will give you the control you desire.
The Unreal Engine is supremely flexible in these areas, and even keeps the nomenclature correct.
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Quote from TheGlecter
On 22/06/2016 at 0:29 AM, TheGlecter said: Is there anything wrong with keeping the BSP from your level instead of redoing everything as staticmeshes?
No.
I know the question was directed at Epic, but as indicated on the prior page, you can select all your BSP geometry and convert it into one static mesh. You don't need a modelling program to do this, the engine does it all.
You can also export the level into an FBX file and have all of the geometry split into segments, which perhaps is nicer as you would have more control over the individual segments/areas/bits of the level, and import it all into the engine after using a 3D program, perhaps to round off edges, bevel stuff, add chamfers, indentations, roughness, damage and other randomness as BSP's are a little too geometrically 'prefect'. They are the 'uncanny valley' of geometry, you might say
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Quote from Bearplane
8 hours ago, Bearplane said: I have! the map is playable if i access it through console. but it wasn't able to be uploaded to test for some reason and its not in my map list.
That has happened to quite a few people once they get a map cooked and I'm sure over the next two weeks we'll see lots of 'cooking' and 'packing' problems.
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Quote from Sjonsson
On 31/05/2016 at 11:04 AM, Sjonsson said: Well that's something at least! I only knew you could convert BSPs to Static meshes. Saves me at least a bit of the pain if that's the way I have to do it. Thanks!
1: Select all additive and subtractive brushes
2: Click on 'CONVERT TO STATIC MESH'
3: Once converted, open the static mesh settings, scroll down to collision and CHANGE the COLLISION COMPLEXITY to "USE COMPLEX AS SIMPLE".
Grats! Your entire BSP level is now 1 static mesh with all of its collision skin-tight and all of its materials assigned exactly as they were in BSP mode.
Your draw calls and build times will now be non-existent, your blocking volumes can be deleted and the frame rate will go through the roof.
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Full Name: Mitch Mitchell
Nickname: Mitch Mitchell
Map Name: Formidable
Link: https://ut.rushbase.net/MitchMitchell/…owsNoEditor.pak
Theme: Nevada research facility
Additional points:
As per the rules and guidelines of the competition, this map is primarily a Showdown map, which can be used for Deathmatch as a secondary.
“I agree that this content constitutes a Submission under the Unreal Engine EULA ( https://www.unrealengine.com/eula ).”
