My Unreal Engine stuff!

[Zero One]

I talk about doing stuff in UDK a lot, but I never seem to produce screenshots or anything, so I decided I should change that!

University has given us the task of building Durham Cathedral in UDK and we'll be marked on many things, like appropriate custom textures, sound, lighting, and I've decided to take it a bit further, because I completely love playing with UDK and all of it's tools.



This is what I've been messing around with. First, the tree. UDK ships with a program called SpeedTree, which, as the name suggests, generates trees. The one that ships with UDK is a cut-down, free version that only retains compatibility for UDK, but it's pretty good! That tree only took about 5 minutes, and the compile time was fast. According to my UDK lecturer, there was a problem with SpeedTree at his last job which required removing all SpeedTree trees. Unfortunately, he can't say why because of an NDA. While unfortunately not captured in that image, there are two emitters in the tree spawning leaves that float to the ground at an angle.

Secondly, and most significantly, the rain. In Unreal Tournament 2004, rain and various other weather effects was a post-process, or perhaps a particle effect that was disabled when you entered certain volumes. That was gone as of UT3, with the developers instead choosing to have panning rain material applied to a series of intersecting planes. However, when I tried it, I wasn't pleased with how it looked, so I opted for the more intensive particle effects. Applying multiple particle emitters really creates the sense that there is rain off in the distance and it looks damn good too; a lot better than I was able to achieve with a panning material. The particles also die on collision, so I can place the emitters above my cathedral and not have them pass through the roof.

To finish off the rain, I'll simple need to add another particle emitter for splashes and then some sound effects of rainfall.

Also, for those interested, here's a handy installer for the map in case you want to actually run around in it. Rain emitters aren't placed all over the map yet, so there are areas that have no rain.

[Quietus]

I don't want to burst your bubble, but that tree looks nothing like Durham cathedral. :razz:

On a slightly more serious note, rain always seems like it's something tough to do in a game, since having actual raindrops falling everywhere at once is too intensive, so it's always one shortcut or another.  Some end up doing it better than others, but I don't think there's yet been any one best answer to it.  I would imagine that it's the same with running water, fog, etc.  Actually, it's all weather related.  Let's all just make games with no weather. :cool:

[Zero One]

The people who have played that map have all told me that the rain looks great, aside from one person saying the close-up rain is a bit too opaque. I can see that, but unfortunately, I can't export the texture and bump up the transparency.

Having rain being produced by emitters isn't considered the best way to do things, because it's quite intensive; in the editor, I can have something like 450,000 rain drops being spawned, and that's not even counting the emitters that produce rain splashes. Happily, culling emitters after a certain distance is quite easy to do. I can have 450,000 rain drops being updated, but maybe only 100,000 actually drawn. My PC handles it quite well, and it'd be fair to call it a mid-range PC.

And I'd show you the actual Durham Cathedral, but all you'd get are the two Western Towers and a block with a pointed roof representing the Nave :P The interior will be fully modelled and will be part of the play area, so I'll shove up pictures of that when I get there.

[Zero One]

I guess this thread is now "My Unreal Engine Stuff", because I bought Unreal Engine 4! It's an amazing leap from UE3 in so many ways and everything looks remarkable.



As you can see, the lighting and reflections are gorgeous and is quite capable of running on my relatively old machine, though happily, I am going to be getting a much more powerful machine, which will be perfect for UE4.

They've added in the extremely powerful Blueprint visual programming, which is strong enough to make entire games without needing to touch a single line of code. For example, there is a sliding door in the map which is triggered by an event being fired by a TriggerVolume, and all of it is handled as nodes in Blueprint!

For those who'd rather write code, the C++ source for the entire engine is available for subscribers. Starting up Unreal Engine 4 gives you various pre-built options, like FPS or side-scroller, with most of them being available in both Blueprint form and C++.

For $19/€19, you get an unbelievable amount of sheer power, and if you choose to cancel your subscription, you can still have access to versions you've paid for and you can install them as many times as you want on as many machines as you want.

Seems a shame I have to switch back to UDK to finish off that cathedral!

[Zero One]

Finally got Durham Cathedral finished! (image). Worked on it for about 12 hours solid to meet a deadline. I have to say, it didn't turn out at all the way I wanted it to, but there are parts of it I'm really happy with. I also got to experiment with making my own mesh and textures, which was several kinds of frustrating, but I eventually ended up with a wooden beam I was happy with, though, it's not really in a position for a player to notice.

The map ended up being much smaller than I had planned. Originally, you were going to be able to run all the way around the outside, but time constraints meant that I had to cut either the interior or the exterior, and since I spent a lot of time aligning everything and making sure the interior looked nice, the exterior got axed. A bit remains as the Cloister, the only outdoors part.

It's likely that I'll go back to it in the future and get it to be how I had originally planned it, and probably make it look a hell of a lot prettier too. Or who knows, I'll do it in Unreal Engine 4...

For those interested, you can download an installer for the map here. The only problem with this is spontaneous bot death. For some reason, they just die. You're fine though. You can walk around and watch them immediately die. A little research suggests it's the player not being close enough to them. They can't find a path to something killable, so they suicide.

[Zero One]

Unreal Development Kit - Durham Cathedral

Finally got around to making a video of the cathedral I made!

[Vismund Cygnus]

That is one sexy cathedral. Props to you, not only for the map, but for convincing me to download UDK and give it a spin for myself.
[spoiler]I am awful at using it.
*Vismund is not amused.

[spoiler]That also reminds me, did you hide that sexy face of mine in there?  :wink:[/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Zero One]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Also, I can help you get to grips with UDK, if you like.

[Zero One]

Spent the day trying to accomplish something I attempted before, but failed horrifically. A simple barrel, in both UDK and UE4. The model has diffuse, normal and specular maps, and a second UV for lightmaps.

For a first proper attempt at a model with decent texturing, I don't think I've done bad here!

[Quietus]

Now you can rest and recooperate. :wink:

[Zero One]

So assignment 2 in University is to script a gun. You can use a weapon from the content pack they give you... or make your own. So of course, I made Samus' Arm Cannon!

UDK - Arm Cannon WIP 1

The primary fire is the ammo-less Power Beam, which uses modified Shock Ball particle effects to emulate the Power Beam from Metroid Prime. The secondary fire is pretty much just the Rocket Launcher's primary fire with no multiple missiles. However, the gun uses the Prime beam switch sound as it's pickup sound and the primary and secondary fire had to be scripted as their own class in order to set up their respective fire and impact sounds.

To finish this off, I'll need to give it a material and set up some animations for firing and weapon switch. I'll also likely need to greatly rework the model in order to have the front open up when a missile is fired, but I don't think I'll be able to get that done before I have to hand it in on Sunday.

One step closer to an Unreal-driven Metroid engine!

EDIT: Also, getting this forum to automatically recognise it's a YouTube video and embed it in the page is pretty buggy.

[Mon732]

Ooh, very nice.
Now do the whole of samus! :P

Also regarding the youtube thing, try http instead of https.

[Zero One]

UDK - Arm Cannon WIP 3

The submitted form of the Arm Cannon mod! The HUD has a working energy bar and tank system. This mod uses a custom Pawn to have a maximum of 1499 energy to demonstrate the 14 energy tanks and the energy bar. There is also a missile counter on the right which also acts the same as Prime, and will also function as an ammo counter for all of the other weapons.

The weapon itself has 3 animations for firing, put down and picking up, a basic material (including an emissive map for the lights) which I will be redoing, a particle effect for the muzzle flash and the various sounds that the Power Beam and Missile launcher uses.

The primary fire is the Power Beam, which has it's own particle systems and takes no ammo. The secondary fire is the Missile launcher which just uses the particle systems for the Rocket Launcher, and uses ammo. Various functions have been overridden to prevent the weapon from automatically switching out when you run out of ammo, since a player should always be able to fire the Power Beam.

The third-person weapon is not correctly oriented; it will appear to be facing to the left of the user.

After May 27th, I'll be done with University, so I'm likely going to fix up various issues with the Arm Cannon, including the god awful texture. I'll also be looking in to doing more Metroid-type things. One thing I would like to experiment with is level streaming to try and get the Metroid-style room system separated by doors. I'll also likely rework the Arm Cannon model itself to allow for better animations, such as the Charge Beam animation. And, of course, I'll be taking everything and shoving it into UE4, because it's so much better.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*claps* I can't wait to have a fully working version I can download for UT3.
If you could also make a version for UT99, that would be nice too. (The UT Community SDK would allow you to keep particles and stuff, and so would Unreal 227.)

[Zero One]

Well, if you want the mod, here it is! Though I have to admit, I'm not sure where you need to put the sbArmCannon folder, or it's contents. The cannonMod file sets up the HUD and Pawn type to match the ones I've made, but if you just want the weapon itself without the HUD, then I think you only need UTWeap_ArmCannon, the attachment script and the two UTProj scripts, excluding UTProj_TestBeam. If you know where to put all these things, do tell!

As for UT99... that is my favourite UT...

[Quietus]

As for UT99... that is my favourite UT...

As it is for all those who truly love the tournament. :cool:

My most commonly played map is still CTF-Orbital, on Masterful with Instagib.  Another favourite would be DM-Stalwart, which I remember as the first map that I beat a Godlike bot in a 1-on-1 match.  Lastly, my favourite map for just being eye candy is DM-Cityzen.  It's probably my most played game ever.  I wouldn't even know where to start couting the hours I've sunk in the game.

[Zero One]

Deck-16, Morpheus, SpaceNoxx, Hyperblast and Cage, a Quake map that one of my dad's friends remade for UT. They're my favourite. Never played enough to get past Skilled difficulty, but it's ridiculous amounts of fun.

Also, CTF-Face is the greatest.

[Quietus]

I was never a fan of Face. :^_^:

I forgot to mention as well, if you have it installed, and want to see a ridiculously well-built map, check out AS-FOT-Chronoshift, by Revelation.  The guy is a mapping god, and that map is insane.  I remember playing it, and I kept dying because I couldn't believe that he'd managed, as the name would imply, to slow time in certain sections of the map. :whoa:

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

My favorite maps are DmDeathFan (from the original Unreal), DmAriza (from the original Unreal), DkNightOp (Darkmatch is awesome), DmAthena (from RTNP), DmBeyondTheSun (from Unreal 227, featuring an Ogg Vorbis UMX and the fabled QuadShot), DmBayC (from the 3DFX pack), and DM-Face (I ported CTF-Face to Team Deathmatch, and I changed the music to Escape from Na Pali. I never was a fan of Foregone Destruction.)

[Zero One]

I was never a fan of Face. :^_^:

I never was a fan of Foregone Destruction.

Both of you are incredibly wrong. Though, one song that's present in UT, but never appears in any of the shipped maps is Organic, and it is one of the best songs on there!

[Quietus]

I did mention this elsewhere recently, but if you fancy a listen, you can play the .umx fils in VLC, to save you firing up UT (though that's never a bad thing).

[Zero One]

Or do what I did and download the OST :P

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

The original tracker modules (S3M, XM and IT) contained within the UMXs are better for looping. And are smaller. Because they are sequenced.

Also, Foregone Destruction is too slow for me. Skyward Fire is more energetic.
Also, I have music from Unreal, RTNP, UT99 and Tyrian on my PS Vita for listening to when playing WipEout 2048. I listen to Organic while racing on Sol.

[Zero One]

Reviving this little topic of mine to show some slight progress on a UE4 assessment for University:


My choice for this assessment is to create a stealth game along the lines of Metal Gear Solid. I recently started playing Metal Gear Solid 3 and remembered the camouflage index, so I've begun to implement a similar system. What exists at the moment is a simple line trace to determine if the player is in the sun or not. The green lines are traces that weren't obstructed, meaning I'm in direct sunlight. The red lines are traces that were blocked, meaning that I'm hidden. All of this was originally done in Blueprint, but I managed to translate the Blueprint into C++!

Right now, being in shadow is simply a true or false value. I'll shortly be adding in checks for ALL light sources in the world to try and generate a camouflage index of my own. I'll also be tracing from multiple places on the body. Right now, it's possible to be almost completely in the sunlight, but still have the trace be blocked enough to be considered hidden.

Hopefully, I'll be updating this thread incrementally between now and the hand-in before Christmas.

[Quietus]

Interesting. I've always liked the idea of ray tracing, but always thought that the more you used rays, the more grunt it'd require, which would always mean that it'd have to be reigned in to some degree or other.