Creating a UT2003 Ragdoll: A Brief KAT Tutorial


This tutorial guides you through the process of creating a Karma ragdoll for use with Unreal Tournament 2003 using KAT 1.2 UT2003 Edition. The instructions also apply to users of KAT 1.2 and KAT beta1.3, with minor interface changes.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you have successfully installed KAT 1.2 UT2003 Edition, including the Unreal Plugin and sample assets.
You should also have read the Mouse Controls document. This is installed with KAT -- see your Start Menu. The controls for KAT can seem daunting at first, but should quickly become an efficient editing mechanism. You might also want to have a look at the Keyboard Shortcuts (also included in the install). It would also be a good idea to read the README file included in the install.

Note that to use KAT properly, a three-button mouse is required. Clicking the wheel on a wheel-mouse will normally simulate a middle-click. If you use an enhanced mouse driver, you may need to remap the buttons so that a middle-button message can be produced.

Step 1: Create A New .ka File

KAT assets, such as ragdolls, are stored in files with a .ka extension. (Note for KAT 1.3 users: UT2003 expects .ka files for Karma 1.2: check the File Properties). The files are in a simple XML format, which you may edit in any text editor if you like that kind of thing. KAT groups .ka files in Workspaces (.kaw files).

When you first start KAT, the sample workspace, UT2k3.kaw, is opened, and visible in the File tab on the right. This workspace contains a single .ka file, called Ragdolls.ka. This file contains five different assets, which are the five ragdoll models used in the game. (The actual files loaded by UT2k3 can be found in the karmadata directory of the game installation -- make sure you backup these files before editing them in KAT).

To create a new .ka file, right-click on the workspace file an select New File, or click on the File menu (the button above the tree-view) and select New. Give the new file a name, and save it wherever you want. It should appear in the workspace.
The Workspace
The next step is important, and unfortunately a little obscure. Right-click the new file in the workspace tree, and select Properties. This should display the resource-path tab. This is the directory that KAT will use to locate graphics (such as psk files) referenced from within that file. KAT will allow you during editing and asset-creation to use graphics located anywhere, but will only display them if they are in the .ka file's resource path.

Set the path to be the KAT/assets/Models/ directory that contains the sample .psk files included with KAT.
 The resource path

Step 2: Create A New Asset

In this tutorial, we are going to produce a version of the Male ragdoll asset. This is associated with the skeleton file MercMaleA.psk. When the Unreal Plugin is loaded, KAT can automatically create a basic ragdoll from a psk file.

To create a new asset, right-click on your new file in the workspace, and select New Asset Here, or use the Asset Menu. In the dialog that appears, make sure the correct file is selected, choose Unreal Skeleton Import, give your asset a name, and click OK.

A file selection dialog will appear. Browse to KAT/assets/Models/MercMaleA.psk and click open. 		New Asset Dialog
The PSK Import Options dialog will appear. Set the Graphics Scale to be 0.39, which is the scaling used by UnrealEd for this graphic. Leave the Additional 50:1 scaling box checked. This is because UT2k3 maintains a 50:1 scaling between graphics and Karma assets. Leave Bone Depth at 100 to import all the bones in the skeleton. When importing large skeletons with many deep bones (such as finger joints, eyelids, etc), it may be useful to lower this value to make cleaning-up the asset easier. Click OK.

A message-box should appear telling you that KAT has successfully imported 31 bones. If your import failed, try selecting View->Log from the toolbar, and see if there are any useful diagnostic messages.

Assuming the import was successful, you should be able to click the + sign next to your new file, and select your new asset.

Double-click the new asset to make it active, and enter the Asset Editor. (Notice that the Edit tab is now active on the right. You can switch between the File and Edit tabs as you wish).
PSK Import Options

The display should be something like this:
The Asset Editor

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