Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook PDF
Preview Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook
www.it-ebooks.info Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook Over 100 recipes to accelerate the process of learning game design with UDK Thomas Mooney BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI www.it-ebooks.info Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: February 2012 Production Reference: 1150212 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK. ISBN 978-1-84969-180-2 www.packtpub.com Cover Image by Thomas Mooney ([email protected]) www.it-ebooks.info Credits Authors Project Coordinator Thomas Mooney Leena Purkait Michael S. Prinke (Chapter 10) Proofreader Reviewers Aaron Nash Pralie Dutzel Indexer Daniel G. Haddad Monica Ajmera Mehta Matt Lefevere Michael S. Prinke Production Coordinator Kyle R Umbenhower Shantanu Zagade Acquisition Editor Cover Work Wilson D'souza Shantanu Zagade Lead Technical Editor Wilson D'souza Technical Editor Aaron Rosario www.it-ebooks.info About the Authors Tom grew up in New Zealand. He is a lecturer in design and also works as an artist. He has picked up UDK over the last few years, having worked previously as a 3D artist on games using 3ds Max and Maya. You can learn more about his work at www.tomofnz.com. I'd like to thank Mike Prinke for his contribution to the last chapter on Scaleform, for the programming, and for the reviews. For getting this book done, I owe a lot to the kindness and patience of Cindy Devina for keeping me going during my first book commission. I'd also like to tip my hat to the members of the UDK forum, particularly those who helped me with particular problems, including slowJusko, Adam Jaggers, EFF, Xendance, Blade[UG], silsin, John J and Matt Doyle. Thanks also to Hywel Thomas (http://www.3dality.co.uk/) and Ryan Pelcz: (http://pelcz. squarespace.com/ for their very helpful UnrealScript snippets. I'd also like to thank Wilson D'souza and Aaron Rosario for smart and cogent development guidance and support. Mike Prinke is an MFA graduate student in SCAD's interactive design and game development program. During his studies, he has assisted many projects and works with a wide variety of tools, with special emphasis on Unreal, Kismet, UnrealScript, and Scaleform/ Flash, and he is also conducting his MFA thesis on choice-driven narrative in games. I want to give great thanks to Aram Cookson, without whom I would not have been equipped to work on this book. I also want to thank Timothy Valuato, who showed me how cool it can be to teach. www.it-ebooks.info About the Reviewers Pralie is currently a game and level design student and independent game developer. She has been studying both game and level design extensively for the past two years, and more recently became an indie developer at her own studio, Katastrophe Games. Although she has only been working in the Unreal Development Kit for almost two years, she has quickly become proficient and now offers guidance to fellow UDK users. On her blog and in her UDK workshop videos, she explains her level design process and offers advice to other students, indies, and anyone working in UDK. After graduating with a Bachelor in Computer Science, Daniel decided to work on games independently. He started his career by working on several mods for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion game. Shortly after that, he became part of the Ultima Return team and contributed to writing Ultima systems into the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine. At around the same time he decided to get cracking with the newly released UDK and he has been using it ever since. With the release of UDK-Mobile, Daniel has a couple of projects in the works that are sure to be a treat. He also recently won the local Microsoft Imagine Cup competition and third place in the world final People's Choice awards with a game he developed called Tale of a Tree Wisp. I would like to thank Mr. Wilson D'souza and Ms. Leena Purkait for allowing me to do this, and especially so for their patience while I was too busy with the Imagine Cup World Finals. www.it-ebooks.info Matt Lefevere is a level designer with experience working with each generation of the Unreal Engine. He is active in the Unreal community working as a level designer and scripter on UDK games such as Angels Fall First: Planetstorm and Tactical Assault. His portfolio is located at http://mattlefevere.daportfolio.com/. Matt is a graduate of George Mason University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Management. He is a lifelong musician, with experience performing percussion, piano, and guitar. Kyle Umbenhower is a level designer at the Guildhall at SMU, graduating in December of 2011. He worked as a designer and scripter for Barking Lizard Technologies, on an unannounced iPhone game. You can see Kyle's work at www.umbygames.com. I would like to thank my family and my girlfriend Lynea for their support during this project. www.it-ebooks.info www.PacktPub.com Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more You might want to visit www.PacktPub.com for support files and downloads related to your book. Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at [email protected] for more details. At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks. http://PacktLib.PacktPub.com Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can access, read and search across Packt's entire library of books. 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Simply use your login credentials for immediate access. www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: Heads Up—UDK Interface Essentials 9 Introduction 10 Installing UDK and folder structure 10 What content comes with UDK? 12 Beginning, building, and testing a new level 16 Deciding on your preferences 19 UI survival steps 22 Navigating the Content Browser 26 Accessing assets in the Content Browser 30 Creating and managing packages 35 Importing your own content 38 Cooking a map in Unreal Frontend 43 Mobile device emulation 46 Kismet debugging 48 Chapter 2: Notes From an Unreal World—Constructing Game World Elements 53 Introduction 54 How to handle BSP geometry 54 Building a hollow room 62 Adjusting surface properties of BSP 63 Generating volume from the BSP brush 64 Handling StaticMesh actors in the scene 66 Setting collision in the Static Mesh Editor 72 Creating Terrain, Deco Layers, and Material Layers 74 Creating a Landscape 79 Scattering meshes on a Landscape using the Foliage tool 88 Creating a steamy plume in Cascade 91 www.it-ebooks.info
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