importing mesh into udk (with collisions)

as part of research for my game i have learnt how to import mesh from max in udk, i have researched two kinds of collisions the first of which is auto collide. first export the object you want in max by selecting it and exporting it as ASE, once exported open the content browser in udk and click import , select your model and import it, right click your model in the content browser and go to edit mesh, in edit mesh there is a tab called collisions, scroll down to the bottom within this tab and click auto collide, finally select how many divisions you want the collider to be broken into and press except (f1)

f1

for buildings you will need to add box collisions within max, to make a box collision first make a box and name it UCX. now just place them behind the mesh you want to collide (make sure they dont touch the mesh its self) once done export into max, your object now has invisible box collisions.

f2

objects in the content browser

my objects in udk

udk lesson 6 water and sun lighting

Create a platform for the player so the player can walk around.

Using the builder brush cut a hole out in the geometry; make sure it is deep enough so that the player is fully submerged.

Go into the content browser and select a sky dome then go into your environment and look at the floor, right click add static mesh.

Go into the content browser and go into add actor, select lights, directional lights, dominate directional light.  Place the light in your scene and click look selected, look down at the tree from above and unclick look selected to set lighting.

Double click the light and go into light, light component and click light shafts, tick render light shaft and change the colour of the raze.

Also in light component there is a section called light component where you change the brightness to 4.

Go into world property’s and click rendering , light mass and change the environment color to make shadows more realistic.

Put your builder brush in the hole that you created before but make it slightly shorter so that it doesn’t touch the top of the hole, go over to your create volumes and press utwatervolume to create the sound effects for the water.

Click the builder brush and go into the create volumes again but this time click postprocessvolume, double click the postprocessvolume box to bring up its options and check the DOF box to activate the depth of field. (change the dof focus inner radius to 10)

Go into the content browser and add actors, fluid surface actor. Drag the plan into scene and resize the size of your hole and add a simple water texture.

Open up unreal kismet and right click, create event, player

Right click next to player and click new action, toggle, toggle hud

Click and drag the box from player to the box labelled hide on toggle.

Finally right click again and select new variable and select player, connect the bottom of the toggle to player by click and drag.

udk lesson 5 jump pads and portals

lesson 5 (lesson 4 was just a repeat of lesson 3)

Start a new level and select midday

Go into the content browser and click on the new packages folder at the bottom left of the screen, click the new button, one you have made a new martial a tab will come up with  the name of the group and martial, fill this in as you please and make sure it’s a material. Then push ok so that the folder is created.

When you are naming things inside UDK make sure there are no spaces, you can use underscores.

Go into the content browser and select the material then go back into your material folder and right click go into texture and texture sample and the texture you have selected will appear, you can connect this texture to the diffused by clicking no nod on the texture and then dragging it to the diffused nod the same applies to the other nods.

Sculpting landscape)

To sculpted the landscape press the button that looks like a mountine with a capital L on it this will bring up a tab that lets you create and landscape, we put the side as 255 by 255 and then pressed create to make the plane.

Once you have oked the plane a brush will appear, you can change the effect the brush has by clicking the multiple seting next to the brush tool icon, some of these include growing and flating. (play through the environment to get a sense of scale, use force play if it doesn’t run from the spawn point)

Go into the your material file again and right click anywhere there is a space and create new material, from here put 3 textures into the area the same way you did the first time.

lesson 3 sky dome

Udk lesson 3

Load up the level you made last time and create a platform outside the main geometry using the build brush, after you have created the platform outside cut 2 door out of the wall next to the platform.

Add walls around the outside and add a light, increase the lights brightness by double clicking the light and going into the lights brightness option  (increase) after you are happy with the brightness click off the light option tab and click the sphere around the light and scale it until it covers the platform.

View,browser windows, content browser, search for sky in the search bar and select a sky dome (once selected it will be highlighted in yellow) close the content browser and alt+ s and left click anywhere in the scene.

To make sure the lighting doesn’t try and calculate the light in the sky dome make a builder brush bigger than your environment and right click on the see throw box in volumes and right click, select lightmassimportancevolume.  

lesson 2 creating in udk

 to create a box click the box in the brushes tab and then click the top left button in the CSG tab to create geometry.

 to subtract geometry drag you creation box over the existing geometry and click the top right button in the CSG tab, this will take away the geometry the box is over and create a subtract box which is yellow.

to change the builder brushes size right click the builder brush and change the X and Y sizes.

to change into edit geometry all you have to do is click the transparent cube at the top right of the tool bar located on the left side of the screen.

to create a light source for the environment press and hold ctrl + L and then left click to produce the light, because the scene is now lit anything out of the lights range will become dark.
to change back into unlit mode click the button indicated as a glowing blue cube located 5 icons  in from the left above your selected window.

to play the level with out a spawn point right click the window and click force play, remember to press the 3 build buttons, these update the what you have changed in the level and forgetting to press them will leave your character in a dark space.

far left is build geometry, middle is build lighting and far right is build paths which are spawn points and anything that falls under that category.

to create a player spawn point right click the window and press create actor, from here click player start point which will bring up a control stick like the one in the image above.
move the control stick just make sure your not to close to a wall or a error will appear.

to play the level with the same proamitors as unreal tournament all you have to do is go into the world properties and go into the game style tab, once in this tab change default game type and game pie to UT game.

lesson 1 moving in udk

moving in UDK is very similar to max or any other 3D software.

the move tool: indicated by color arrows on 3 of the axes.

the rotate tool: indicated by the multi colored circle in the middle of your object

the scale tool: indicated by boxes at the end of the arrows

you can move objects in the local or world axes: to change this click the world button and change to local and vic verser.

to quick change between tools hit the spacebar