Level Design Help Files

Rick_D · November 4, 2007

http://architectonic.planetunreal.gamespy.com/first_level.html
http://www.3dbuzz.com
http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/JBrzezinski ... rkflow.htm
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/StaticMeshes.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html

There is no reason not to learn UE3, knowing UE2 is pretty much entirely useless right now.

thanks man - I was browsing around the udn after clicking the link in the editor and i found all the actor/mesh related stuff, but I'll browse some tut's and try to find some info on how static meshes work in unreal (whether I can texture them in the editor, or how I can go about using a collection of textures (tilables) on various different meshes and make sure the exporter doesn't create a new material for each texture etc).

and the reason I am holding off ut3 is because I want to make a Red Orchestra map to begin with, when ut3 is released properly I'll get stuck into that.

thanks again H

Hourences · November 4, 2007

Im bored on sunday afternoon so here goes:

You cant texture meshes in the editor. Technically, you can, as you could convert them to brushes first, then use BSP texture tools, and convert them back, but this is highly unoptimized and buggy and should be avoided at all costs. All texture work must be done in Max or Maya.

You can however, just assign a different texture ofcourse, as long as you dont want to modify the alignment. Scaling and rotation of the entire UV layout can also be done through a material.

I dont get the other question but you can assign a near unlim amount of different tiling tex to the same mesh, however, the more you add, the worse the perfomance.

The game is out in less than 2 weeks btw.

Rick_D · November 4, 2007

thank you again - the maya_workflow link you posted pretty much answered all my questions concerning using textures from the 'game' as it were - an invaluable link

do you know how wise it is to build a level almost entirely from static meshes and just use bsp to block vis and assist in portaling? they did this a lot in the later stages of gears of war but i'm wondering how earlier versions of the engine would handle it :x

Hourences · November 4, 2007

Open a ONS map and you will see that it has almost no BSP.

You dont need BSP, its entirely useless if its an outdoor level, and only somewhat useful for indoor levels.

Indoors youd want to zone the thing out as it works better than just placing occluders, for that you do need BSP. Open my DM rrajjigar and youll see that the whole map is mesh based, however theres BSP carved around the cavern mesh, to allow for zoning.

If you model the whole thing, be sure to place as many objects as you can in the editor. If you can place a crate, place the crate mesh in UED and dont attach it to a larger mesh in Maya yet. Keep stuff as seperate objects, and try to reuse objects in the editor.

Rick_D · November 4, 2007

amazing - thanks for the help

┌HP┘ · November 4, 2007

":1y5tsjxe]ok, I guess we'll have to wait...

In a few weeks, we're gonna put our hands on the official Epic tutorials that come with the collectors edition, so...

Collectors edition of what? gears?