UE3 - UDK Modder Looking For Help

[Rennn]

I've made some mods, but only reskins and simple dialogue changes and that sort of thing. I'm downloading the UDK at the moment, and I plan on making a shooter (Star Wars). It'll probably be a good thing to have in my portfolio for college (considering I'm going for programming), if I can make any sort of progress before then.

I have a few questions, since if UE3 is anything like every other game engine it'll be hopelessly overwhelming for a novice like me.

Firstly, are there any other programs that I should have on my pc? (such as to make models and textures, etc) I have Gimp, Blender, and Nifskope from my Oblivion mods but I'm not sure if those will help here.

Secondly, where can I find a good tutorial for programming using UE3? (noob friendly is preferred)

Thirdly, are there any pitfalls or novice mistakes that I should be aware of? Likewise, are there any tips you'd like to share (in simple words, ) for how to do things the right way?

 

[Angel_Mapper]

Well, for programming I always recommend my book (link in my sig). [/self pimpage]

Gimp and Blender are good for content creation. Googling Nifskope, you won't need a program like that to work with the UDK, all of the content importing/alteration is done inside the Content Browser in the Unreal Editor.

There are a lot of good resources and tutorials on Epic's official forums in the UDK section:
http://utforums.epicgames.com/index.php

As well as the Unreal Developer Network:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/WebHome.html

Have fun!

 

[Rennn]

Thanks for the info
I've hit a problem though. Whenever I try to make new terrain, I don't get a grid. All I get is a tiny picture of a mountain where the terrain should be. Thoughts?

This seems to be a fairly common problem amongst people on Youtube.
EDIT: I'm going to try saving my game, and then creating terrain. Before I wasn't saving before attempting to add terrain, and this may have been causing problems.

 

[krummelur]

If you press 'T' you should be able to see your terrain

 

[Rennn]

Thanks, but I already reverted to the November version to fix it, lol.
I wish I'd waited a while longer now. Oh well...