UDK Level Design

# 1 19-12-2011 , 10:20 PM

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Going to create a level in UDK. I've never used it before but a good friend of mine is interested in it so I'm going to learn it and post my progress here. I've checked it out and it seems like there's lots of tutorials on it so I guessing it won't be too difficult.

Going to do something sci-fi for two reasons. Reason #1 is that we both love sci-fi. Reason #2 is that it will probably be faster to texture, uv, etc since most everything will be hard edges.

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# 2 19-12-2011 , 11:38 PM

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Anyone know if it's possible to create outward gravity as in the illustration? The idea is that a person can be at top and another at bottom as illustrated. I'm guessing this isn't possible though.

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# 3 19-12-2011 , 11:44 PM

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ok, never mind. Already making things too complicated for 1st project haha.

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# 4 20-12-2011 , 01:25 AM

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Going to create the prominade from ds9. Found a great floor plan to use which should make it go pretty fast.

https://database.alpha-command.com/im...nadeLayout.jpg

Going to block things out to get a good feel for size and playability.

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# 5 20-12-2011 , 05:29 AM

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About half way done blocking out everything.

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# 6 20-12-2011 , 01:05 PM

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UDK

Static meshes, LODs, blocking volumes, light importance volumes, multiple UV sets, tiling, procedural materials, Kismet etc. Then you hit Unreal scripting. Which platform are you targeting?

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# 7 20-12-2011 , 03:13 PM

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UDK Static meshes, LODs, blocking volumes, light importance volumes, multiple UV sets, tiling, procedural materials, Kismet etc. Then you hit Unreal scripting. Which platform are you targeting?

Originally Posted by PixalZA

I won't be targeting any platform other than my own pc. I plan on testing with a couple of my friends using LAN. I probably won't be doing any LOD's and I don't know what blocking volumes or light importance volumes are, at least not yet. This is just a project to learn udk but if it starts turning out well, maybe I'll reconsider and going further with it.

Most likely I won't have to worry about any scripting as my friends are IT professionals. I'll be doing all the cosmetic stuff and they'll be doing all the behind the scenes stuff if any is needed.

If I have to do LOD's, it shouldn't be too much since the view distance will be limited by the shape of the space station.

One thing I'm totally unsure of is the UV sets as I've never really gotten a good grasps on what all to include in each uv set/texture and how big.

Well, time to go watch some more udk tutorials.

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# 8 20-12-2011 , 03:55 PM

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You will enjoy it. UDK is great fun.

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# 9 21-12-2011 , 12:56 AM

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Had a major problem in UDK that took me hours to solve. Without block volumes I could shoot meshes but my character would pass through them. With block volumes added, I couldn't go through meshes but my bullets would. Turns out that you have to have the same material on both the mesh and block volume. So simple, but took me hours of troubleshooting.

Anyway, here's a short video capture. My computer isn't strong enough to get a smooth recording so had to keep it short.

DS9_wip_01 - YouTube

I now know how to add geo to UDK, perform simple animations on objects like opening doors or raising platforms, create paths for AI bots, make stuff able to be blown up/shot up into pieces, add pickups, etc etc.

Going to focus on completing blocking everything out. So far, i'm happy with the overall scale of the model. I had to make everything a little bigger than what you see on tv. Just looked too cramped otherwise.

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
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# 10 21-12-2011 , 02:52 AM

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Be interested to watch this. Subscribed.

Good luck. Can't watch the video on my phone but the still shots look like a good start.

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# 11 25-12-2011 , 05:24 AM

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Short video up date of me play testing. The whole place is pretty much done, even the outside. I don't show it in the video, but if you go into an airlock it takes you to the habitat ring where you can hop into a flying vehicle and attack from the outside. The idea is that when you shoot a window, it breaks and a forcefield activates to keep everyone from being sucked out. You can shoot people through the windows (weapons automatically modulate to match the force fields frequency) from outside the station and they can shoot you back. When you want to go back inside, just fly back to one of the runabout pads and land. Once you are back in the habitat ring you can enter use airlock to return to the promenade.

There's also a room with cargo and planks that you can climb up to get to second level. And there are several places where the railing is damage allowing you to jump back down to the 1st floor without having to use a turbo lift. Just trying to add some cool fun stuff.

So far the hardest part for me was deciding how to make the overall place since they don't really show the whole space station in the tv episodes. I found a game called Star Trek The Fallen so I've used that as reference along with the tv episodes but I've had to make up a bunch of stuff too.

I've play tested with several friends and had my nieces and nephews play test it too and so far they all love it. Sometimes I had a hard time getting my computer back haha. Since the play testing has gone well, I'm going to start modeling props I think.

This has turned out to be a super fun project. And udk is really easy to use and it seems incredibly stable. Very impressed so far.

Playtest - YouTube

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
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# 12 26-12-2011 , 07:05 AM

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Ran into an issue I"m having difficulty troubleshooting. I've added doors to the level. AI bots use all doors except the turbolift doors. Before I added the doors, they used the turbo lifts all the time. But now that I have doors, they don't seem to want to use them anymore.

I did some googling and found some info about door markers. I didn't have to use door markers on any of the other doors and the bots still use them all the time. Anyway, I used door markers on my turbo lift doors and the bots still don't want to use them.

--I've tried putting door marker on both sides of turbo lift doors and linking to door.
--I've tried using only 1 door marker
--I've tried linking to door but not to trigger
--I've tried adding path node inside turbo lifts (in front of teleport and behind)

notes: I have teleport inside turbo lifts. Also, door markers are set to touch. Also triggers are set to touch.

Plz let me know if you have any suggestions to try out.

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# 13 26-12-2011 , 08:02 AM

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I tried putting a health vial behind the portal and that works great. So I'm guessing a teleport device is not an object of importance to bots. The bots would open the turbolift doors and see a teleport and say "oh, it's just a stupid teleport, no thanks". That seems kinda odd to me.

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# 14 26-12-2011 , 01:09 PM

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I tried putting a health vial behind the portal and that works great. So I'm guessing a teleport device is not an object of importance to bots. The bots would open the turbolift doors and see a teleport and say "oh, it's just a stupid teleport, no thanks". That seems kinda odd to me.

Originally Posted by Perfecto

AI is kind of funny. X)) If it's programmed to pick the best way to achieve a goal, it would probably pick the teleport if it would help them reach their goal.

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# 15 26-12-2011 , 03:28 PM

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Agreed but the thing is that before I added the doors, they used the turbo lifts all the time. After adding the doors, they no longer use them.

When I was troubleshooting the issue, here's what I did. I created a new map. Created a floor. Created a divider wall to separate the map into two sections.

Section 1:
Created closet sized room (3 walls), and added a interactor for a sliding door. I put a path node in front of the sliding door but not too close. Inside the room, I put teleport 1. I added another path node nearby and put a Player start.

Section 2:
Created a player start and teleport 2.

---Results----
With me in section 2 and bot in section 1, Bot would run up and open the door but it would never enter the portal. It would only travel between the path nodes as well as open the door. If I removed the sliding door, bot would enter the teleport EVERY time. But with the door in place, bot would open the door and then turn around. It wouldn't enter the portal. However, if I put a goody behind the portal, it would try and get the goody every time and end up going through the portal.

Even though the bot had to go through the teleport to get to me, it wouldn't. At least it wouldn't if there was a door.

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

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