Book Image

Unreal Development Kit Beginner's Guide

By : Richard Moore
Book Image

Unreal Development Kit Beginner's Guide

By: Richard Moore

Overview of this book

Unreal Development Kit (UDK) is the free version of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3. It is used to create a wide variety of games ranging from amateur to professional standard next generation AAA titles. This book will show you exactly how to create an enjoyable and immersive game environment using the UDK. You will learn how to implement, level design, lighting, environmental effects, movement, terrain, map creation, item placement, kismet, materials and complex event sequences. You will work through the level design process from navigating round the editor to learning how to develop a fully playable environment. You will quickly master all of the engine’s key tools that are accessible through Unreal Engine 3. You will then start putting together your first level using step-by-step instructions. Next we will implement real world features such as dynamic lighting and shadows, particle effects, physics, terrain, item placement and advanced AI/bot pathing. Finally you will learn how to use UDK’s cutting edge high level scripting. By the end of this book you will be equipped with the skills to create an entertaining and imaginative game world.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Unreal Development Kit 3
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Pop Quiz Answers
Index

Time for action – creating the surface


  1. Go to the generic browser and find yourself a nice plane. Package UN_SimpleMeshes (loaded by default), has one.

  2. Add the plane to the level and position it correctly. You may need to scale it up a lot to make it fit the area.

  3. In its properties, expand the section Collision and set CollisionType to NoCollision.

  4. Next, expand the section StaticMeshActor, then the section Lighting, and disable everything.

  5. Leave the properties window open and return to the generic browser.

  6. Find yourself a neat water material. The packages UN_Liquid and UN_Liquid2 would be a good place to start. I personally used material UN_Liquid.SM.Materials.M_UN_Liquid_SM_DistortionRiver_01 for this tutorial, even though it is a one-sided material, it is kind of a problem as you will notice later. It is also possible to create your own water materials, but this is quite a complex process, explained in detail in my two water material tutorials. So please refer to those if you plan on doing so...