UnrealEd FAQ by Wanderer
(edited by Wolf)
This FAQ is a work "in-progress" and will change as new questioins are added. If you have a question what you feel should be on this FAQ send it here.
Q: I recieve General Protection Fault error when I start UnrealEd, what's wrong?
A: There are 2 causes of GPF errors.
The first is the "50003" error. This can be
fixed by downloading the Unreal Editor Fix 4
(http://unreal.epicgames.com/Files/UnrealEdFix4.exe). It
will probally ask if you want to stop cause it'll
overwrite a file. You should let it overwrite the file
and continue.
The second cause is from the sound drivers. Generally
the easiest work around is to disable the use of
DirectSound in Unreal. Start up Unreal, go into the
Options=>Advanced Options=>Audio Then change the
setting for UseDirectSound to False.
Q: There's no UnrealEd
with my copy of Unreal. Is there somewhere I can download
it?
A: Actually yes. It was in high demand and Epic let it
loose in the same package as the Unreal Editor Fix 4
(http://unreal.epicgames.com/Files/UnrealEdFix4.exe).
Just download it and run it.
Q: All my editing
windows are black. Or, I've got seperate windows for each
view outside of UnrealEd.
A: Click Camera=>Reset All.
Although there has been one rare case of it being
caused by the color depth being 16bit on the desktop. It
was later fixed by using 24/32bit instead. This only
seems to apply to S4 Virge cards..
Q: Is there any
easy way to light up large outdoor areas?
A: The easiest way is a combination of AmbientZone
lighting and the use of Light pawns for shadows.
To set an AmbientZone lighting you first need a
ZoneInfo. In the ZoneInfo's properties=>ZoneLight
there are several settings like those found in
LightColor. These affect the entire Zone and are added
after all other lighting (ie: they won't drown out other
lights, they add to them).
Then for you can use regular Light pawns for other
stuff such as specific lighting of a building or whatever
you're doing.
And for the ground. Make sure the ground textures have
BrightCorners and LowDetail enabled. These help
performance wise and help make the ground have a more
unified look.
Q: Teleporters not
teleporting.
A: First make sure you're using the Teleporter and not
the Transporter.
Next Teleporter 1's URL should be the same as
Teleporter 2's Tag. And vice versa if you want to be able
to go back and forth. That's all you need to get them
working. If you would like to make the player face a
certain way with the telelporter, rotate it until the red
arrow faces the proper direction and then set the
Teleporter property bChangesYaw to True.
Q: Okay, say I've got
this room with a secret door and a Nali. How do you make
the door such that only the Nali can open it? And how do
you make the Nali say 'psst' to you, bring you to the
door, and open it when you play the level?
A: Me and Jenkins were meddling with this and all you
need is for the door to be triggered by the AlarmPoint.
You only need one AlarmPoint though, not one for each
"Psst".
I guess though that the "Psst" effects are
done at PathNodes and only kick in if you wander off to
far.
Q: Anyone know of a
good tutorial for UED or any other program /editor that
will work for unreal? I am new at this and want to get
started in the right direction.
A:
Editing Sites
-------------
Wolf's Unreal
Unrealized
UnrealEd.net
Unreal Department of Engineering
Unreal/UT Tech Page
Unreal Prefab City
Bot Pathing Tips
Beginners Guide to Unrealscript
Modeling Sites
--------------
Nerve Damage
Milkshape 3D
Milkshape 3d Tutorials
Map Review Sites
----------------
Unreal Envisioned
FragFacility
MappeD
Nuts & Bolts Map reviews
The UT Map Center
Fly By for Unreal
These are the initials needed. 1 PlayerStart, 1
Trigger, several InterpolationPoint's, 1 SpecialEvent.
First, the PlayerStart should be near a Trigger. This
is so that when the player enters the level he'll
immediately activate the Trigger.
Second, the Trigger's Event needs to be set to the Tag
of the SpecialEvent.
The SpecialEvent's Event needs to be set to the Tag of
all the InterpolationPoints.
The SpecialEvent's Object=>InitialState needs to be
set to PlayerPath.
Finally the InterpolationPoint's all need to have the
same Tag.
Also the InterpolationPoint's
InterpolationPoint=>Position setting should be set up
sequentially starting from 0.
Now the trick part is whether you should change levels
or loop. I say this because as far as I know there's no
way of getting out of it without changing levels.
If you want to change levels place a Teleporter at the
last InterpolationPoint and set it up appropriately.
Looping should be done automatically after the last
InterpolationPoint has been touched.
Flyby for Unreal part 2 (Same
thing but said differently, so choose one)
The following assumes that you have a good
understanding of how Unreal works, how to get to the
properties windows, etc, etc, etc. It also assures you
that I've never done this before and that I'm basing it
off the Unreal.unr intro.
You need a SpecialEvent to start everything off.
Set it's Tag=Intro
Set it's Event=Path
Set it's InitialState=PlayerPath
Ok, that's set for now. We'll leave that as is.
Make a Trigger right below the PlayerStart so that
he'll land on it when the map starts.
Set it's Event=Intro
Next setup all of the InterpolationPoints. Remember
that they're directional so you have to point them in the
right direction. When you got those setup select all of
them.
Set their Tag=Path
We're not done with these yet. Under the
InterpolationPoints properties in
InterpolationPoint=>Position.
You have to set these up in a numerical step ladder
(ie: it goes up a number each time).
Now when you get to the last InterpolationPoint this
is where it gets screwbally. In theory it should stop but
it doesn't. Instead it goes back to the very first point.
I'm not sure how to fix that though without having you go
into a new level.
Getting Custom Skins to Work By Darkliege
Well now you create an .int file that is the EXACT
same name as your .utx file. Now in that file write the line
"Object=(Name=Female1Skins_drl.X,Class=Texture)"
Now where the X is, that is where you put the name of
the skin at. That should do it. Just look for it in the
game.
Also there is a program made by S9 that can do the
same thing. Here's the link. http://zip.to/utx2int
Making it so you don't hit the SkyBox By Jenkins
Well first of all, I should say it's extremely simple.
Say you have a room, with a window on the ceiling and a
box on top of that in which all the sides are
Fakebackdrops, lets call it the "sky box".
Simply place a sheet between the "sky box" and
room, inside the window. Make the sheet a zone portal. Go
to the classes:info:zoneinfo:cloudzoneinfo. Now, when you
shoot through the window, the bullet (or whatever)
disappears!! Simple, eh?!
Enabling the Autosave feature
Unreal:
The best thing to do if you haven't done this is yet, is
to enable the Autosave feature. Just go into
Properties=>Editor and set Autosave to true. Then
readjusts the times to how much you want to back up. If
you want to make sure that the an hours worth of work is
saved up each time set it to 6 minutes. The only side
effect is the occasional pause.
And should something happen, just go into the
Unreal/Maps folder and readjust the files by date and
edit the latest auto#.unr file. Then rename it
accordingly.Even if this is old news it's still valuable.
Unreal Tournament:
Click on Options=>Preferences. In the Preferences
window expand Editor=>Advanced. Then set Autosave to
true.
Complete removal of textures
Ever have one of those finished levels, but there were
textures still being loaded by the editor that aren't
being seen anymore? I've got a great way to get rid of
them but prepared to spend some time on it though.
Removing whole texture packages from a map: Save a
backup of the map as it is. Now, retexture everything
with the new textures. Write down (and this is very
important) all the package files the level uses ...all
the texture, sound and music files. Now EXPORT the map.
Close the editor. Reopen the editor. Load all the
previously mentioned package files. Now IMPORT the map.
Rebuild, save. That should fix the problem.
Removing all textures: Ok, you'ld rather just
re-texture the whole damn thing. Even easier. Just export
the map, restart UnrealEd, and import the bad boy. Do a
quick compile and start re-texturing. Make sure you get
every nook and cranny cause you know somebody will end up
in those damn places.
Precision texture removal (ie: only 1 from
certain packages you don't use): So you're too lazy to
re-texture the whole map. Hey, I can't blame ya, you
spent a lot of time on it right? Well you're gonna have
to take a bit more time cause this one will be real
interesting. With the original map still open, open
another UnrealEd window (no not a viewport, just start
UnrealEd with the first one still open). Then make a big
room (ie: 512x512x512 will probally be too small so make
it big like 8192x8192x8192). Then make a bunch of cubes
or spheres (spheres are more efficient though). Now go
back to the original and look at the textures. In the
second UnrealEd, start adding in the textures that were
in the original. This could take an hour so get out that
foot long sub in the back of the fridge. Once that's
done export the original and save the map that was in the
second UnrealEd. Now close both UnrealEd's. Restart
UnrealEd and load up that quick map you made. Finally
import the .t3d map as a new map and recompile. If you
got all the textures then you'll have only the ones you
want in.I'm not sure which is best to be honest but
whichever you like is up to you.
WARNING: These methods also effects sounds and music so take those into account as well.
Warpzone Entertainment value
Ok, I know you're thinking "Why, I actually like people." Well I'm strange and this is my way of venting on everybody. :)
First off though, I assume that you atleast know how
to make these or have read Wolf's tutorial. And the other
key is that you don't use the normal warp textures, just
a clear zone portal that people don't see.
Now the fun ideas. Let's say you've got a big outdoor
area and you've got trenches in it to simulate war
grounds. Well start pulling a VietCong move and create
tunnels underground. Every here and there though make
WarpZones that bounce the player from one side of the map
to the other.
How about another outdoor area, but this time no
trenches. You just want to make it seem like it's huge
and the "world is round". Well this is
obviously easy. On the border of a map make a cave that
goes into the mountains that warps the player to the
other side of the map. Hell, make lots of these so you
don't funnel people through one passage. The smart people
will catch on quick to this one if they pay attention.
Enough with the great outdoors. So you and a bunch of
friends want to make one big map, but if you all work on
it things will get confusing right? Nope. Every person
makes one small, 1-1 map. Completely contained within
itself and fully playable but there's are enough room to
have warpzones to all the other sections (no hub section
here. Full-on connectivity between all maps).
No grand idea like that huh? Still not a problem you
can always fuck with people on your own. Make a map like
you normally would and leave room for warpzones all over
the place. Now the trick here is that you make all the
places connect seamlessy without anybody thinking they're
going anywhere new. Personally I would make it so that a
corner in a hallway would appear to be normal but is
really a warpzone (I did this in a half-ass map (I'm too
ashamed to name it) and it worked pretty good). This is
hard so be patient with it.
Ok, so you're thinking "Wahoo, yeah sure. Why did
I bother with this post? I could have thought of these on
my own." Well odds are you have but have never done
so. I'm just here to say you should and these are just a
few ideas that came to mind. Now go out there and start
fuckin with peoples heads, you'll get great ratings on
map reviews if all of it is in good taste and if plays
well. I remember I got a 5 on a map just because it was
fun to play, everything else sucked but it was fun! Ah
well, I'll do better next time I release anything.
The "Grab" key and
using it
Don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere else but
the "grab" function actually does something.
Under the Movers properties there is a setting called
UseTrigger. What it does is enable that mover to be
"Grabbed". Should be useful in SP and maybe a
DM game for some traps where you can better time the
trap.
Masked Textures and
Sheet Brushes By Aridale
Ok first of all to use a masked texture correctly it
has to be added to a sheet brush. Sheet brushes dont
block anything so this creates a problem. So you make
your sheet brush, select your texture and all that good
stuff and add a Special to the world. Mark it as 2 sided
and masked. 2 sided only if you'll be able to see it from
the other side. If not just one sided will work.
Now to keep things from going through the grate you
need to add an invisible collision hull behind it. So
*just* behind it (not touching it, otherwise it will
cause weird visual effects at a distance) make the hull.
I mean like 1 unit behind it. To add a Collision Hull,
add a Special, select Invisible Collision Hull from the
drop down list, and click Add. The Collision Hull should
be made from a solid brush and not a Sheet brush (don't
ask why but Sheet brushes can't block actors).
Information on modeling for
Unreal/UT
General informaiton on modeling for Unreal/UT can be found at NerveDamage.
Also a good place to look if you're interested in pursuing a job in the field of 3d modeling since the webmaster compiled a list of companies that may be looking for the skills you have.
Creating water currents/ Zones that push the player
Yes it can. In fact it can be done with any Zone.
First go into the WaterZoneInfo's properties=>ZoneInfo=> and set bGravity=True. Then Expand the ZoneVelocity.
Ok, so now the trick is which way do you want to go?
Using the overhead view this is the way it works.
X axisPositive #= right
Negative #= left
Y axisPositive #= up
Negative #=down
Z axisPositive #= up vertically
Negative #= down vertically.
Obviously if you paid any attention to geomtry class you don't need that info :)
One other thing to keep in mind about throwing people around like this. First, the number being used is an
acceleration rate not a max speed. ZoneTerminalVelocity
determines top speed (not how fast you can go before you
turn into chunky salsa). So a small push in the begining
can certainly add up quick.
Putting in Screenshots
The following assumes you've got access to something like PaintShopPro or Wally.
Start up UT. Set it up so that when you play you're a spectator. Start your map up with no bots.
Ok, no gun now. Clean screenshot. Now just find a nice place in your map where a screenshot would either show it off or would show a good view of all of it.
If you have Paint Shop Pro:
Load it up in a paint program like PSP. Then take a
512x512 portion of it, resize that portion to 1024x1024.
Then perform the blur function. Dither it down to 8bit.
Resize it again to 256x256. This I'll do if you send the
picture to etherealhc@aol.com
If you have Wally (Good freeware paint program):
Load up the screenshot, select it as if it were a Half-Life texture. Take a 512x512 section. Resize it, you'll want to double the scale. Perform a blend, use the light setting. Then resize it again, this time to a quarter of it's size. Export it to an 8bit .bmp file.
Now you go into UnrealEd and open your map. Choose Textures in the Browser. Then click on Import. Change the Name to Screenshot. Change the Package to MyLevel, remove the check next to Generate Mipmaps. Don't save the texture package.
Press F6 to open the Level Properties. Expand the LevelInfo section. Select you're Screenshot in the Browser. Then click on the Screenshot section under LevelInfo and then click Use. Save the map, rebuild if you want and then exit UED.
Check it out and see if it works.
Scrolling Scoreboard
First load up the Scripted.utx texture package.
Next apply one of the scoreboard textures somewhere (they're the first 4 textures in the package).
Add a ScrollingMessageTexture (found under Info=>ClientScriptedTexture=>ScrollingMessageTexture).
Now in the ScrollingMessageTexture's Properties=>ClientScriptedTexture=>ScriptedTexture. Choose the same texture as the one you placed on the wall earlier.
Under the ScrollingMessageTexture's Properties=>ScrollingMessageTexture there are a few settings we should go over. Most of these settings are obvious but here are a few that you may not know about.
PixelsPerSecond determines the speed at which it goes by.
ScrollWidth determines how much space horizontally the text takes up.
YPos I'm not sure about. It either determines the vertical position on the scoreboard or the vertical size of the text.
Font, you should probally use the CondemnedFont texture.
The ScrollingMessage I saved for last. Here are the peices to it.
%p - local player name
%h - his/her for local player
%lp - leading player's name
%lf - leading player's frags
Then just insert the message using one of or a combination of those settings.
Ok, that wraps it up. Give it a shot and shoot me down if it doesn't work right
Supported music files for importing into Unreal/UT
First read up on the Music document at the Unreal/UT tech page.
The Unreal engine supports the following music formats for being imported.
Amiga Modules (*.mod)
ScreamTracker 3 (*.s3m)
ScreamTracker 2 (*.stm)
Impulse Tracker (*.it)
FastTracker 2 (*.xm)
Farandole (*.far)
ComposD (*.669)
DefaultGameType Info
In the Level Properties=>LevelInfo=>DefaultGameType, this should equal one of the various game types found under Classes=>Info=>GameInfo=>TournamentGameInfo=>DeathMatchPlus
Known usuable SoundFX format
Read the Unreal Audio document at the Unreal/UT tech page.
Wav format.
Size of Format: 16bit
Format: PCM
Channels: 1
Block Align: 1
Recording Rates: 4khz-44khz
UnrealEd that came with UT isn't working
All you need to do to get UnrealEd to work is to run the setup on the 2nd CD. Uncheck the hi-res textures and continue the install. When it's done run the UnrealEdInstaller file and aim it towards the C:\UnrealTournament folder (or the appropriate drive) and install it. If it ask to overwrite something, let it to so (read the pop up boxes though, they're screwy). Then give UnrealEd a shot.
Q: How can Import MP3's into UnrealEd?
A:
We get this question quite often here. Fact is there's no real terrific way to convert an MP3 over to a UMX file. UMX is basically a MOD file with some header info stripped off I think - in any case it uses a bank of digital audio samples to recreate the effect of a song. MP3 is nothing but compressed digital audio. Think of a UMX like a fancy MIDI file. It just stores it's own instruments in the UMX file instead of relying on the OS or Sound Card drivers to do it.
Basic line is the the only way to really do it and have the UMX sound exactly like the MP3 is to convert eh MP3 to a HUGE wav file, then import the wav into a tracking program (like ModPlug tracker for example) and use the entire song as one instrument. Then just have the instrument play once. It works, but comes at a really *high* price. The size of your resulting MOD/UMX file is waaaaaaaaaay too big to even consider doing it unfortunately :( (I believe a typical average size for say a 5 minute song, in wav format would be roughly 10 megs per minute or more depending on what the Mp3 was sampled at) So you're looking at (rough guesstimate) about 50 or so megs for the music alone.
Best to just assign one of the default stock UT songs, or find a site that distributes MODs or UMX (there's a site out there dealing with UMX only - forget the URL - if someone here knows it, please post it - think it's a planet unreal site). Or do a map for a mod or UT engined game that supports MP3 is best I can suggest. If you're UT all the way and want a new music track, best to check the web for MOD, IT, S3M or UMX files.
- Muad'dib
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