Book Image

UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook

By : Dave Voyles
Book Image

UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook

By: Dave Voyles

Overview of this book

<p>Designed for high-level game programming, UnrealScript is used in tandem with the Unreal Engine to provide a scripting language that is ideal for creating your very own unique gameplay experience. By learning how to replicate some of the advanced techniques used in today's modern games, you too can take your game to the next level and stand out from the crowd.<br /><br />By providing a series of engaging and practical recipes, this "UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook" will show you how to leverage the advanced functionality within UDK. You'll be shown how to implement a wide variety of practical features using the high-level scripting language ranging from designing your own HUD, creating your very own custom tailored weapons, to generating pathfinding solutions, and even meticulously crafting your own AI.<br /><br />Learn how you can fully augment your projects with UnrealScript, with the additional inclusion of specific techniques that cover disciplines as diverse as AI scripting and HUD design. Initially starting with recipes that cover tinkering with your IDE, developing archetypes, and scripting cameras, you'll soon move on to creating advanced artificial intelligence, weapons, and vehicles alongside unique HUD and inventory systems.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

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UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook
Dave Voyles
Feb, 2013 | 272 pages
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Table of Contents (15 chapters)
UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook
UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Development Environments
Development Environments
Introduction
Using UnCodeX
Dungeon Defenders to save the day
Unreal Script IDE
nFringe
Unreal X-Editor
Editing runtime values with Remote Control
2
Archetypes and Prefabs
Archetypes and Prefabs
Introduction
Constructing a leaking pipe prefab
Adding particles to our prefab
Adding audio effects to our prefab
Creating a PointLight archetype
Creating a subarchetype from an archetype
3
Scripting a Camera System
Scripting a Camera System
Introduction
Configuring the engine and editor for a custom camera
Writing the TutorialCamera class
Camera properties and archetypes
Creating a first person camera
Creating a third person camera
Creating a side-scrolling camera
Creating a top-down camera
4
Crafting Pickups
Crafting Pickups
Introduction
Creating our first pickup
Creating a base for our pickup to spawn from
Animating our pickup
Altering what our pickup does
Allowing vehicles to use a pickup
5
AI and Navigation
AI and Navigation
Introduction
Laying PathNodes on a map
Laying NavMeshes on a map
Adding a scout to create NavMesh properties
Adding an AI pawn via Kismet
Allowing a pawn to wander randomly around a map
Making a pawn patrol PathNodes on a map
Making a pawn randomly patrol PathNodes on a map
Allowing a pawn to randomly patrol a map with NavMeshes
Making a pawn follow us around the map with NavMeshes
6
Weapons
Weapons
Introduction
Creating a gun that fires homing missiles
Creating a gun that heals pawns
Creating a weapon that can damage over time
Adding a flashlight to a weapon
Creating an explosive barrel
Creating a landmine
7
HUD
HUD
Introduction
Displaying a bar for the player's health
Drawing text for a player's health
Displaying a bar for the player's ammo
Drawing text for the player's ammo
Drawing the player's name on screen
Creating a crosshair
8
Miscellaneous Recipes
Miscellaneous Recipes
Introduction
Creating an army of companions
Having enemies flash quickly as their health decreases
Creating a crosshair that uses our weapon's trace
Changing the crosshair color when aiming at a pawn
Drawing a debug screen
Drawing a bounding box around pawns
Index
Index

Having enemies flash quickly as their health decreases

Gamers require some sort of feedback each time something happens to their pawn. This can be auditory, visual, or kinetic (controller vibrations). Most frequently the cues are visual, as many controllers still do not support a vibration feature, however. Unreal Tournament pawns flash red briefly each time they are hit. While UDK natively does this, why not extend that idea, and bring back something from the NES era of gaming, wherein enemies flash red as their health decreases, and continues to do so more quickly as it reaches zero.

Getting ready

Start by having your IDE open and ready to make some changes. We won't have to create any new classes, but we will alter the behavior of our existing ones by adding some functions.

How to do it...

  1. Let's start by declaring the variables we'll use.

    /** Used for flashing damage as pawn's HP drops */
var float           DamageOverlayTime;
var LinearColor     DamageBodyMatColor;

    These will be used to store...

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