Tuesday, November 4, 2008

DEMO RECORDS

HI ALL,

SO THAT YOUR MAP SHOWS UP IN THE DEATHMATCH AND TEAM DEATHMATCH MAP LISTS YOU HAVE TO SAVE IT INTO THE 'PUBLISHED' FOLDER WITHIN My Games/Unreal Tournament 3/ UTGame/Published/CookedPC/CustomMaps

IF YOU DON'T HAVE THAT DIRECTORY STRUCTURE IN YOUR UTGame FOLDER YOU WILL HAVE TO CREATE IT.

YOUR MAPS WON'T SHOW UP IN THE LIST IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE DM- PREFIX.

THEY ALSO MIGHT NOT SHOW UP IF THEY HAVE GAPS OR STRANGE SYMBOLS IN THEIR FILE NAME. (NO COMMAS, DASHES ... EXCEPT AFTER THE PREFIX, SLASHES, THINGS LIKE THAT).

MAKE SURE YOU HAND IN THE DEMO FILE THAT IS IN My Games/Unreal Tournament 3/ UTGame/Demos WITH THE MAP YOU USED TO CREATE IT.

IT'S PRETTY CLEAR, BUT I GUESS I SHOULD SAY IT ... YOU CAN'T RECORD A DEMO FILE UNLESS YOU HAVE A WORKING COPY OF UT3.

WE WENT OVER THIS IN THE LAST TUTORIAL SESSION, SO THEIR IS NOTHING NEW HERE. THINK OF IT AS A REFRESHER.

CHEERS, AND GOOD LUCK FOR FRIDAY.

P.S. YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO VISIT THE FINAL YEAR ARCHITECTURE CRITS ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON. THE STUDENTS HAVE BEEN DOING SOME GREAT THINGS WITH UT3, WHICH YOU MIGHT FIND PRETTY INSPIRATIONAL.

Friday, October 24, 2008

A COUPLE OF KISMET TIPS

HI GUYS, HERE ARE A COUPLE OF TIPS FOR THE KISMET USERS:

1. You can select all the nodes you want to copy in Kismet, CTRL-C, open up a text document, CTRL-V.Open a new level, select the text in the text document, CTRL-C, go into new levels Kismet, CTRL-V. (FROM MHOVLAND ON THE 3DBUZZ FORUMS)

2. USE THE OUTPUT COMMENTS TO SCREEN FUNCTION TO HELP YOU FIGURE OUT IF THE SEQUENCE IS WORKING PROPERLY, AND WHERE IT GETS STUCK. I FIND THIS INCREDIBLY USEFUL.

3. NOT JUST A KISMET TIP, BUT IF A PROPERTY IS SHOWN IN BOLD THEN YOU KNOW IT'S NOT A STANDARD SETTING AND THAT YOU PROBABLY CHANGED IT. OR YOU COPIED IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE WHO DID. THIS HELPS TO FIND THE CUSTOM PARTS OF YOUR PROPERTIES, AND COMPARING THEM TO THE STANDARD SETUP.

CHEERS

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

LINKS FROM THIS WEEKS LECTURE

HI ALL, IN THE COURSE FOLDER, ON EMUSTORE, YOU'LL FIND THE FILES USED BY JACOB SCHWARTS AND VINH NGUYEN IN THIS WEEKS LECTURE (SORRY, JULIAN CROMARTY'S MODIFICATIONS OF UT3 ARE SO COMPREHENSIVE IT WAS TO LARGE TO INCLUDE).

I ALSO RECOMMEND A VISIT TO THEIR BLOGS FOR ADDITIONAL INSIGHT:

JACOB SCHWARTS: http://jacobischwartz.blogspot.com/
VINH NGUYEN: http://vinhxnguyen.blogspot.com/
JULIAN CROMARTY: http://julescromarty.blogspot.com/

AS WELL AS THE OTHER STUDENTS IN ARCH7202, WHO ARE ALL DOING INTERESTING THINGS IN UT3: http://www.arch7201-7202-2008.blogspot.com/

I'VE ALSO INCLUDED A COUPLE OF CLIPS FROM YOUTUBE IN THE COURSE FOLDER; THEY REFLECT ON SOME OF THE ISSUES ANDREW MAHER SPOKE ABOUT AT LAST WEEKS LECTURE.

SEE YOU AT OUT LAST TUTORIAL SESSION ON THURSDAY!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

TIPS, LINKS AND ADVICE

HI ALL, SOME TIPS, LINKS AND ADVICE:

To hide weapons in UT3, go to World Properties (View > World Properties > WorldInfo), and check "bNoDefaultInventoryForPlayer".

Make sure you are saving the content you create into a package that has the same name as your map. Use DM-YourName_o1, or DM-TeamName_01 as file naming protocol's. This replaces the myLevel package of UT2004 and lets you keep all of the custom assets in one place (a huge bonus if you need to share maps ... which you do when you play multiplayer and hand your work in).

You can have 2 instances of UnrealEd open at once and copy/past from one to the other.

Take a look at this Parcor game called Mirrors End: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1TJP1cxmo it suggests an interesting way to explore an environment.

CHEERS

Monday, October 6, 2008

USEFUL UT3 LINKS

HI ALL, THE BELOW ARE SOME OF THE LINKS I MENTIONED IN CLASS:

TO AN ONLINE LOCATION FOR THE OFFICIAL UT3 VIDEO TUTORIALS (BY THE 3DBUZZ TEAM), TRY HERE: http://www.utforge.com/index.php?page=31

FOR THE 3DBUZZ "HOW DO I" SERIES, TRY HERE: http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php THEY ARE UNDER THE UNREAL TECHNOLOGY MENU ON THE LEFT (IF THEY DON'T PLAY YOU PROBABLY NEED TO REGISTER ON THE SITE ... WHICH IS FREE)

HOURENCES UT3 TUTORIALS ARE ALSO VERY GOOD: http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsindex.htm

AS ARE THE ONES AT WAYLON-ART: http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/ (HE ACTUALLY WORKS ON GAMES THAT USE THE UNREAL ENGINE SO HIS ADVICE IS FROM PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE)

ON THURSDAY YOU'LL BE CREATING A PARTICLE SYSTEM, OR A MATINEE OR KISMET SEQUENCE BY FOLLOWING THE RELEVANT TUTORIALS ... SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DECIDED WHICH BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.

CHEERS

Thursday, September 18, 2008

STEP BY STEP ANIMATION GUIDE

HI ALL, LEYLA BEIGLARI HAS A GREAT STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO CREATING THE ANIMATIONS YOU NEED FOR EXP2 ON HER BLOG.

http://lb2008benv2423.blogspot.com/

DROP BY AND TAKE A LOOK.

THANKS LEYLA

Monday, September 8, 2008

EXTENSION

HI ALL, AFTER TALKING WITH YOUR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE (ESSMAEL YASSEEN)AND IN CONSULTATION WITH THE TUTORS IN THE COURSE I'VE DECIDED TO EXTEND THE DEADLINE FOR EXPERIMENT 2.

THE NEW DEADLINE IS MONDAY SEPTEMBER 22 BY MIDNIGHT. THIS GIVES YOU AN EXTRA WEEK.

ESSMAEL ALSO MENTIONED THAT A GROUP OF STUDENTS INTEND TO POST 'HINTS AND TIPS' TO ASSIST YOU ALL IN SOME THEORETICAL AND TECHNICAL AREAS. SO HAVE A LOOK THROUGH EACH OTHERS BLOGS FOR THOSE (THERE IS QUITE A LIST OF STUDENTS INVOLVED SO THEY SHOULDN'T BE HARD TO FIND).

CHEERS