Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill Building a Simple Level No UnrealScript but several editors

Introduction The goal of this presentation is to build a simple level A building and some textures Mostly exposure to the level editor Warning: UDK is not necessarily easy –Big screens are also helpful Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

ViewPorts A viewport gives the developer a view into the level There are two types: Orthographic –More of a designer view –Shows wire frame rather than textured –Three views Perspective –More like a player view with a camera –This one can be moved Both show things a player cannot see Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Getting Started The current version usually starts with one perspective screen A screen follows Notice the axis key in bottom corner X is in red, Y is green and Z is blue –XY parallel the floor and Z is vertical Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

One Perspective Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Commentary The box is not actually there it just shows scale and the three dimension axis –It is actually a BSP Brush You may change the view by dragging the mouse You may also change what is visible using menus: –View/Viewport Configuration/2x2 Split –This give four viewports –One perspective and three orthographic Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Four Viewports Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Commentary In the four viewport view the yellow border shows which is the active viewport –In above it is top left which is the front view Each viewport has a tool bar above it to set properties for that window There is a mode drop down menu that allows us to configure the viewport that is selected Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Moving We may move around in these viewports in various ways We may drag the mouse We may the cursor keys We may use W, A, S, and D keys –Q and E are vertical Scroll wheel also works Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Building We next want to build some terrain In this case a building We will need BSP brushes and CSG BSP is Binary Space Partition CSG is Constructive Solid Geometry First arrows Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Axis Arrows Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill Legend Transformation Widget

Again The legend is just a decoration in the lower left hand corner that shows the directions of the axes –Helpful since we can view this from different positions Transformation widget is for moving the object Such as a brush, solid or actor Grab the arrow to move it along that axis Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Menu Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill Observe transformational widget button on left, rotational widget button on right

BSP Brush There are several: –Cube (rectanguloid) –Cone –Cylinder –Sheet –Tetrahedron (Sphere) –Spiral, linear and curved staircases Using one of these will create a filled or solid structure –You get to specify the dimensions Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Size and Characteristics If you right click one of these you get a dialog with the parameters to change For a cube: –X, Y, Z sizes –Hollow or not –Wall thickness Four of these dialogs are shown in next screen Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Pictures Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Unreal Units This is the unit of measure in UDK There is no exact correspondence but 2uu=1inch Most CSG items will have 256uu as a standard size –This is about 10 ft. 8 in. Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Content Inspector This is the second window that was dismissed when you started It can be handy since it shows you what exists and what it is The following screen shows the empty level –Not so empty after all Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Scene in Content Inspector Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Content Inspector You can use this for a variety of things One is deleting items you do not want –It is often hard to grab them in other views Click on the item and delete –Do not remove any of the originals Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

BSP Brushes and CSG Two steps to the one process A BSP brush is not a brush in the conventional sense Establish dimensions Drop it into place Use the transformation widget and retatational widget to move and align if needed You now have a binary space partition –Which in itself is of no value Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Rotational Widget on BSP Brush Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Transformational Widget on BSP Brush Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

BSP Brushes and CSG Again The next step is to use CSG Additive CSG fills the space partition Subtractive removes the filler The brush still exists and can then be moved somewhere else with the transformation widget –Possibly to be filled again Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Solid and Brush Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Brush Moved Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Be Careful The brush is easily moved The solid is not We can now play –There is not much to see yet, but at any time we can evaluate what you have done We may want to consider saving at this point as well Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

The Interior Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Now What? The rectangular solid is hollow We can enter while using a viewport but not in play mode We next need to punch out some openings This is also done with CSG –This time subtractive First choose the brush –This one should not be hollow Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Punch ‘em Out We will create a cylinder brush Use this to punch out some port holes We will also punch out a couple of doorways Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Build the cylinder Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Rotate it Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Positioning It is hard to get good spatial positioning in perspective view –Especially true if the items are not aligned on the standard axes Here is where the four viewport arrangement makes sense Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Place it Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Not Addition, Subtraction Once we get our cylinder or cube placed we can do CSG subtraction This will remove solids in the BSP Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Whats wrong with this? Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Rotation Apparently the brush was rotated somewhat in the Z direction It is not parallel to the ground The floor is now above the ground in some places and below the ground in other places This is a problem since once CSG has been done it is not movable How do we detect and fix? Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Fixes Every time you do additive CSG, you should inspect before doing anything else If it is not exactly right you may do a subtractive CSG on the same brush –This should cancel the additive –Will not work if the brush has been moved or changed Using subtractive CSG to get the base plane out is much harder Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Inspection You may move around in a viewport Your motion can occur without regard to solids in your way This means that you can walk through the base and get unusable perspectives However, if you do the play option then you observe the laws of physics and stay glued to the ground Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Next For the time being we are done with BSP and CSG –But we have plenty to do Next we wish to apply some texture better than the check pattern Several ways to do this Lets look at some alternatives Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Drag and Drop Go to content browser Click on Content Browser tab Type wall or floor into the search Choose one and drag onto the selected surface Do this for each surface Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Select and Menu Select the surface from a perspective view Once selected you may also right click and select all adjacent surfaces Right click on the surface and choose apply material Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Select Adjacents Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Ready to Apply Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Three Materials Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Finally We now have a textured room We need some actors This must await an additional presentation Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill