UE1 - UT FAQ: UE1 (Unreal and UT)

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ChrisToth.hu

Level Designer
Oct 2, 2000
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Atlantis
Welcome to the Editing forum!

We have collected the most common problems and questions of the forumers and sorted them into this thread in an effort to help you and make your editing-life easier.

Another FAQ is available here: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Unreal_Mapping_FAQ_(UT)

On the bottom of the FAQ you’ll find a collection of useful links to tutorial and utility sites.



General tips:
  • When asking questions about editor/game crashes post the contents of your Editor.log and/or Unrealtournament.log files along with the version of the engine you are using. (These files are located in your UT\System folder)
  • If you find BSP holes or other level related problems, post screenshots of the area or the entire level.
  • Please don't double post questions. Give us some time to answer them…
  • Use the Search function of the forum


The FAQ:

-Where can I download UnrealEd?
-UED is bundled with UT/Unreal. Check your UT\System folder for UnrealEd.exe

-Are there any alternative editing programs for Unreal?
-No. But there are two versions of the editor, UED1.0 and UED2.0. By patching UT with the latest official patch, 436, you will automatically acquire the latest editor. The Unreal editor cannot be upgraded.

-Where can I get UnrealEd 2.0?
-Download and install the latest patch for UT and it will update your editor to the new version, that is patch 436. Do NOT install unofficial patch 451 as it will break the editor.

-UnrealEd crashes on startup.
-Try to erase the non default inis in the system dir such as Unrealed.ini, User.ini, and UT/Unreal.ini. Open the log Editor.log in notepad and have a look at it.

-Great, Ued is working fine now. Where can I find some Editing tutorials?
-Visit http://www.planetunreal.com/unrealed and check the useful links section on the bottom of the FAQ.

-I’ve got Ued 2.0 but the actor browser is empty.
-This problem is caused by a bad version of the Common Controls DLL (Windows\System\Comctl32.dll). Get an updated file from Microsoft or download Internet Explorer 5 or a higher version.

-I’ve deleted one of my brushes but it didn’t disappear in the 3d view.
-Geometry changes take effect only after you click the Rebuild button in Ued.

-Every time I start my level the player screams and dies. What did I do wrong?
-You forgot to do a Rebuild…
And remember to have enough playerstarts to fit the playercount of the level.

-I’m using Ued 2.0 and I can’t find the floor lofter. Where is it?
-The floor lofter has been removed from Ued 2.0. It has been replaced with the BSP terrain brush. It creates a terrain grid on the bottom of a cube brush which can be vertex edited to create the features of your terrain.

-My viewports have disappeared. I see an empty white screen…
-Open the View-Viewports menu in Ued. (You may need to move the mouse under the menubar after clicking on the View menu in order to make it visible). Click Close All. Set viewports to Floating. Open 4 new viewports and click View-Viewports-Configure and select a layout. Set the viewports to fixed.
Sometimes, simply clicking Configure and choosing a layout solves the problem.

-How can I hide the builder brush?
-Press the B key and the builder brush will be hidden in the active viewport. Press B again to unhide it.

-Part of my level just disappeared or flickers?
-That is a BSP error, something is wrong somewhere. Either this was your fault because you built it badly, or simply because the engine can't handle certain shapes and polycounts. Have a look at this tutorial http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsbsp.htm

-When do I use semi solid brushes and what are they?
-Have a look at this tutorial http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialssemi.htm

-I don't understand zoning, what is the best approach?
-Have a look at this tutorial http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialszoning.htm

-I want to create mountains, caves, canyons and so on but it is very difficult, what to do?
-Most canyons and rocks in the original game were made in 3DSMax, and exported as DXF, and imported as a brush using the Import Brush menu. To do this, the mesh modeled in 3DSMax must be very low poly, below 100 polygones, and it must have no open edges and no unwelded vertices. It is also impossible to transfer texture coordinates. If you do not own 3DSMax however, a workaround method was created using just UED, have a look at this http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialimages/externaltutorials/uedcave.jpg

-I can’t import my custom textures into Ued. They won’t show up in the browser.
-Make sure that the textures are in a correct format. The dimensions must be powers of 2 (2,4,8,16…128, 256…) and the color depth must be 8-bit (256 colors).

-How can I store my textures in the level?
-Open the Texture browser and click Import in the File menu. Select the textures you want to import and click the OK button. This is the standard procedure for importing textures into any package.
Here comes the difference: type Mylevel for the package name. This will import the textures into the level file itself. You will need to save the LEVEL instead of the mylevel package. Be careful: only the used (referenced) textures will be saved so if you don’t apply a certain texture to any surface then it will be discarded. This method can be used for all package types. (Code, sounds, music, textures)

-How can I create a preview screenshot for my map?
-Enter the level in Spectator mode and create a screenshot by pressing F9. The image will be saved into your UT\System directory. Open it up in an image editing program and crop+resize it to 256x256 pixels and reduce the color-depth to 8-bit. Save it as Screenshot.pcx. Start Ued and import the Screenshot.pcx into the Mylevel package (see above) without Generating Mipmaps, then select the newly imported “texture”. Open View-Level properties-Levelinfo and click on the Screenshot field and hit Use. (this will define the selected texture as the level screenshot) Save the level.

-My sheet brushes won’t block the players/projectiles.
-This is normal. Sheets don’t have collision. You need to put an invisible collision hull behind the sheet brush: create a standard cube builder brush that perfectly fits into the opening behind the sheet. (it CAN touch the surrounding geometry but it shouldn’t touch the sheet) You will need to add it using the Add Special button. From the prefabs list select invisible collision hull and click OK. (Rebuild)

-My Invisible brushes (ICHs, Zone portals…etc) are still visible in the Editor.
-Click the Joystick icon on the 3d View or press P. This enables Real-time preview with sounds, visible skybox and dynamic lighting.

-How can I convert MP3s or WAVs into UMX files?
-These formats are really different in their structure. WAVs and MP3s contain a single sound wave, which is formed by the mixed output of all instruments/sounds in the music, while UMX files are packages of Tracked file formats (eg. IT, MOD, S3M). They contain small sound samples and notes so the same sound sample (eg. A drum sound) can be reused with different pitches and variations. So the file size depends on the amount/size of samples used in the track.
So get a tracker program and use your wave file as a sample and create a one-note track. Voila...you have a 30-50 MB file, which will be unusable in the game. The only thing you can do is that you chop the wave into smaller bits and/or reduce its quality.

-How can I convert UMX files into WAVs or MP3s?
-Get Modplug Tracker. It can play and edit UMX files and convert them into sound wave formats.

-How can I create ladders?
-Normal HL style ladders are not part of the UT code. Some of the mods have coded their own usable ladders but for UT you need to stay with a tricky solution. Build a non-solid ladder which the players will see. (A semi-solid sheet with a ladder texture would be better). Then place a linear staircase behind it as an invisible collision hull.

-How can I change the panning speed of textures?
-The panning speed is a zone based variable. Zone off the area where you want to adjust it and place a ZoneInfo into it. Open it’s properties and under Zonelight increase/decrease the Upan and Vpan speed. (You’ll need to do a full rebuild afterwards.)

-How can I create parts in the map which block players but let bullets through?
-There are some actors for this purpose. Actor-Keypoint-BlockPlayer, BlockAll, BlockMonsters…
They have a cylindrical collision field, which you can adjust under Collision in their properties. (Height, radius) They don’t belong to your level’s geometry so they won’t create BSP holes but their usability is limited due to their shape.

-Are there any 3rd party programs for creating brushes, terrain…etc?
-Yes, there are. Check out the Utilites section on the bottom of the FAQ.

-Can I turn off the grid? I can’t align brushes.
-You can turn off the grid (Grid toggle button on lower menubar) but doing so can mess up your level geometry. (BSP holes) Always align brushes to the grid and don’t use lower grid sizes than 4. Brushes which have an odd shape and impossible to fully align to the grid should be turned into semi-solids.

-My brush is not aligned to the grid. How can I re-align it?
-Select the brush and right-click on one of it’s vertices or it’s centerpoint. It’ll snap that point to the grid moving the whole brush with it.

-What are BSP holes?
-BSP holes are glitches in your level geometry often caused by too complex brushwork, misaligned brushes or badly used solidity. They appear as missing parts in walls/floors, missing or unneeded collision.

-How can I fix BSP holes?
-There is no effective way for fixing them. This topic has been covered a million times. Do a forum search and you’ll find a lot of useful tips.

-How can I check the on-screen polycount?
-Open the console in UT or use the command line in Ued. Enter Stat Fps and it will display the amount of visible polys and nodes on the screen and the time (in milliseconds) which is needed to render a frame. (eg. 10 means that 10 milliseconds are needed for a single frame so 100 frames can be rendered each second. That’s 100 FPS.)

-How can I check the FPS in an easier way?
-Use the Timedemo 1 console command to turn on FPS logging. When you use Timedemo 0 it will stop and display statistics (max, min, avg…) of the framerate.

-I did EXACTLY what the tutorial suggested but my fog isn’t visible in the game.
-Run the game and open the console. Type Preferences into the console and hit enter. The game will exit to the Advanced Options screen. Under Rendering open your renderer device’s tab and set Volumetric Lighting to True. (D3D has Volumetric lighting turned off by default.)

-My monsters aren’t visible in UT.
-Open the monsters’ properties and set Advanced-bGamerelevant to True. (This overrides UT’s default bNomonsters=True setting) If the monster has to be visible from a non-adjacent zone (eg. Birds in Skybox) then you’ll have to set bAlwaysRelevant to True. Be careful though, this will make the actor relevant regardless it’s visibility so in network games the server will send info to all clients about the actor no matter if they see it or not.

-How can I see my botpaths in Ued 2.0?
-Right click on the menubar of one of the viewports and select Show Paths.

-I tried to open an Unreal 1 map from the game CD but the map comes up blank.
-This problem is caused by a missing package file, which the level is using. (eg. Textures, music…etc) The file must be in the correct directory. Open the editor Log to see which pack is missing.

-I’ve correctly done the botpathing but bots don’t move around in my CTF map.
-You need to do the weapon placement. Otherwise bots will stay at the playerstarts and won’t move around.

-How can I merge polys?
-Before you begin all surfaces must meet these criteria before they could be merged: they must be coplanar, must have the same texture, must be using the same alignment (not visually but must be set to Wall Pan/Floor…etc) and must belong to the same brush.
Eg. If you wanted to merge the floor polys of a newly extruded 2d shape then you would apply the same texture onto them and align them to Floor. Then right click on the brush in the 2d view and click Polys-Merge. Do a rebuild afterwards.

-How can I see coronas in the Editor?
-Coronas are turned on by default in the D3D views in Ued. If you are using a Software viewport then open the Advanced Options and set Rendering-Software-bCoronas to True.

-My rebuilds are slow. How can I speed them up?
-Don’t rebuild everything. Use the Rebuild Geometry when you are concentrating on architecture and do a Rebuild All when lighting is important and/or you want to test the map. If you hide certain parts of the map and tick the Rebuild visible only checkbox in the Rebuild options it will be ignored so you can work on a section of your map with relatively fast rebuild speeds. If you want to test the area make sure you have a playerstart there or do a complete rebuild. (unhide geometry)
The easiest way to cordon off some areas for this method is to hold down the CTRL+ALT buttons and draw a rectangle around the place you are working on in the top view and then click the Show Selected Actor Only button on the toolbar.

-Ued loads up a couple of textures that aren’t used on any of the visible surfaces. How can I get rid of them?
-These textures are probably used on hidden surfaces. Type Texture Cull into the editor command line and it will remove them. (If you restart the editor and load the map these textures won’t be loaded into the Texture browser)
Alternative methods:
-Select the unneeded texture in the browser and hit the Q key. This works a selective culling tool because it will only remove the selected texture.
-Use the Texture Replacer tool.

-How can I see which textures are used in a level?
-Start Ued and open the map. Type Texture Cull into the editor command line and open the Log. It’ll show you a list of referenced textures in the level. (The culled list shows the textures which became removed…check the previous question)

-My mover doesn't have collision. Eg I fall through my lifts or the doors don't block me.
-This is a common problem if you create the mover with a modified builder brush. (eg it was scaled, rotated...)
Always right click on the builder brush and select Reset-Rotation/Scaling or Transform Permanently before intersecting it with the mover shape brush(es).

-I have put monsters into my map but they completely ignore the bots. What can I do?
-Check this thread at the UnrealTournament.org forums. It has various solutions for the problem...
(Thanks to TechnoArcher for the link)

-I have a computer with a dual or quad core CPU, but both the editor as the game behave strange and run really fast?
-The game can't handle multiple cores and will speed itself up a lot. You must set the game to only use one core by going into the Task Manager, rightclicking the UT or UED process, and set affinity to one core.

-What is the best rendered to make a level in?
-In UED Software rendering is a lot better than D3D rendering, especially for the lighting, which will be very washed ou in D3D, so definitely stick to Software! In game, the best renderer nowadays is OpenGL, then Glide, then D3D. D3D is the worst renderer available. OpenGL must be upgraded before you can use it. The version of the OpenGL renderer included in the last official patch is buggy and renders the game much too dark. You must upgrade the renderer to the latest official renderer, or the several custom ones around. Google around for this as they are widely available.


Useful Links: (Update 2008 : Most of these websites are 8 years old by now and likely offline, some still exist though! - All websites that link to Planetunreal still exist but were moved to a different URL visit the mainpage of PU to retrieve their new URL by having a look at the Hosted Sites index)

Ued Tutorial sites:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/
http://www.Hourences.com
http://www.planetunreal.com/unrealed
http://www.unreality.org/blacksway
http://www.unrealized.com
http://unreal.gamedesign.net
http://utu.unrealism.com/ued2help
http://www.birrabrothers.com/drac/unrealt/ut_ued.html
http://www.planetunreal.com/slick/unrealed_main.htm
http://www.unrealism.com/unrealedmax
http://www.planetunreal.com/lode/
http://www.game-edit.com/tutorials/Unreal/
http://www.planetunreal.com/utcity/index3.html
http://www.planetunreal.com/uedlab

Modeling:
http://www.polycount.com
http://www.planetunreal.com/modelfarm
http://www.epicknights.com
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/index.html
http://www.3dcafe.com

Coding:
http://www.planetunreal.com/chimeric
http://www.planetunreal.com/wod
http://www.planetunreal.com/mutation

Textures:
http://wadfather.game-edit.com
http://www.planetunreal.com/undulation
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/rorshach
http://www.planetquake.com/hfx
http://www.planetunreal.com/texturelab
http://www.planetunreal.com/textureuniverse
http://www.planetunreal.com/forest
http://www.Hourences.com

Prefabs, Utilities, and useful stuff:
http://www.planetunreal.com/tarquin
http://www.planetunreal.com/fordy
http://www.planetunreal.com/jtonline
http://www.planetunreal.com/prefablab
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/index.html
http://www.unrealized.com

Skinning:
http://www.polycount.com
http://www.planetunreal.com/houseofstyle/

Unreal Tech:
http://unreal.epicgames.com
http://udn.epicgames.com/

Game development:
http://www.flipcode.com
http://www.developium.com
http://www.gamasutra.com




Thank you for reading through the FAQ. I hope it helped.


Changes so far:
-...2001: New questions, Alternative solutions for answers.
Credits: Qbic, TechnoArcher, OshadowO, Hal (for sticking the FAQ to the top of the board)
-January 6th, 2002: Monster problem, new links
Credits: Technoarcher
-May 2008: Slightly updated it and added a few things.

Credits
-Everybody who posted in the original thread.
-Regulars of the Editing forum.
 
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