Unreal development kit game programming with unrealscript. : Beginners guide create games beyond your imagination with the Unreal Development Kit

466 Pages·2011·32.776 MB·English

by  Rachel Cordone

Unreal Development Kit Game
Programming with UnrealScript
Beginner's Guide
Create games beyond your imagination with the Unreal
Development Kit
Rachel Cordone

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with
UnrealScript
Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing
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First published: December 2011
Production Reference: 1081211
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-192-5
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Cover Image by Tom Mooney ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Rachel Cordone Kushal Bhardwaj
Reviewers Proofreaders
Edward Davies Mario Cecere
Dave Voyles Chris Smith
Acquisition Editor Indexer
Wilson D'Souza Hemangini Bari
Development Editor Graphics
Meeta Rajani Manu Joseph
Technical Editors Production Coordinator
Pramila Balan Arvindkumar Gupta
Kavita Iyer
Llewellyn Rozario Cover Work
Arvindkumar Gupta
About the Author
Rachel Cordone is a designer and self-taught UnrealScript programmer, who has been
working with the Unreal Engine since 1999. She has worked for various game and simulation
companies since 2003, including Pipeworks Software and Parsons Brinkerhoff, and has
started up her own game company, Stubborn Horse Studios, to make independent games
with the Unreal Development Kit. Stubborn Horse's first project, Prometheus, won several
awards in Epic Games' Make Something Unreal Contest.
I would like to thank my crazy goat for his love and support while writing
this book!
About the Reviewers
Edward Davies is in the final year of his Game Art and Animation degree at the University
of Glamorgan. He has a strong interest in game design, particularly the Unreal Development
Kit, concept art, and 3D modeling and texturing. More of Edward's work may be seen at
www.kungfoowiz.deviantart.com/gallery.
Dave Voyles is a Managing Editor and Podcast Producer for Armless Octopus. He covers
Xbox LIVE Indie Game, Xbox Live Arcade, and Playstation Network news, reviews, and
developer interviews. He holds a BS in Communication Studies from SUNY Oneonta,
and is currently attending the New York Institute of Technology to work on his MBA in
Management of Information Systems. His additional work within the gaming community
includes working as the Coordinator of the Indie Games Summer Uprising, which looks to
promote the most outstanding titles on the Xbox LIVE Indie Games platform. Dave is also an
Unreal Script programmer for two titles that will be released on PC and iOS, at the end of
2011. Most notably, he is the founder of the New York City-based UDK meetup group, where
he works with other developers to collaborate on endeavors in a physical environment,
as well as provide tutorials. You can find more of his work by visiting his sites
http://www.DaveVoyles.wordpress.com or http://www.ArmlessOctopus.com.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Project Setup and Test Environments 7
System requirements 8
Minimum requirements: 8
Time for action – Installing the UDK 8
Directory overview 10
Binaries 10
Development 11
Engine 11
UDKGame 11
Using external programs to code 12
ConTEXT 12
Time for action – Installing ConTEXT 13
Time for action – Configuring ConTEXT 14
UnCodeX 19
Time for action – Installing UnCodeX 19
Time for action – Configuring UnCodeX 20
nFringe 23
WOTgreal 23
Setting up a project 23
Time for action – Setting up AwesomeGame 24
Compiling and testing 30
Time for action – Compiling and testing AwesomeActor 30
A quick note about comments 37
Summary 38
Chapter 2: Storing and Manipulating Data 39
Variables and arrays 39
Booleans 40
Table of Contents
Time for action – Using booleans 40
Integers and floats 43
Time for action – Using integers 43
Time for action – Using floats 45
Strings 46
Time for action – Using strings 46
Enums 47
Time for action – Using enums 48
Arrays 50
Time for action – Using arrays 51
Dynamic arrays 53
Time for action – Using dynamic arrays 53
Structs 56
Time for action – Using structs 57
Vectors 60
Time for action – Using vectors 60
Rotators 63
Time for action – Using rotators 64
Variable properties 67
Default properties 67
Time for action – Using the default properties block 67
Editable variables 70
Time for action – Editable variables 70
Config variables 71
Time for action – Creating config variables 71
Common operators 73
Standard arithmetic 73
Time for action – Math! 73
Modulo 75
Time for action – Using modulo 75
Comparisons 76
Time for action – Comparisons 76
Logical operators 79
Time for action – Using logical operators 80
Concatenation 81
Time for action – Concatenation 82
Variable functions 83
Ints 83
Floats 83
Strings 84
Vectors 84
Rotators 84
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
Flow control 85
If else 85
Time for action – Using if/else 86
For 87
Time for action – Using the for statement 87
While 88
Time for action – Something 88
Do until 90
Switch 90
Time for action – Using switches 90
Return 92
Goto 92
Summary 93
Chapter 3: Understanding the Class Tree 95
What is a class? 96
Time for action – All classes are created equally 96
Inheritance 98
Time for action – Examining inheritance 99
Time for action – Making a custom weapon 100
Time for action – Experiments with inheritance 102
Function overriding 104
Time for action – Creating a custom GameInfo and PlayerController 104
Time for action – Experiments with function overriding 106
Actors as variables 116
Time for action – Experiments with Actors as variables 116
Casting 124
Time for action – Casting Actor variables 124
Time for action – A practical example of casting for our game 129
Summary 134
Chapter 4: Making Custom Classes 135
Creating a class 135
Awesome Game quicky design document 136
Class breakdown 137
Time for action – Creating the weapon branch 137
Class modifiers 147
Placeable 147
Notplaceable 147
Abstract 148
Time for action – Using abstract 148
Native 150
[ iii ]