Pitch black (map)

[Daxter]

guess what, after one year of thinking, i decided to try that udk stuff out and make a map . i remember a map in old ren uaow that i kinda liked and want to recreate it for ren x.

the road will be a long one before the map i wish will be done and that udk edit stuff is really difficult to use. its nothing like the map editor from c&c, civilization, stronghold 2 or codename panzers: phase 2.

i hope i can ask for help in case i fucked something up or dont understand something ^^.

anways, to the map itself. i fooled around a bit with that udk for the first time and thanks to kenz i was able to actually make hills (who the heck came up with pressing left streg and left click to actually be able to make hills???). after a while and testing shit out i did a REALLY rough first look of the map:

i know i know, it looks awful right now. today or so i will redo the terrain. and wqhen i learned a lot more i will be able to proceed way faster than...well, today e.g.

when its done, i hope it ill be good enough so we can have one more map in the map rotation xP. but first things first ofc.

the map will be a non flying map. no ramps on the buildings (but i might rethink it if the map is good enough to be able to handle orcas and apaches without having glitches and so on). no bas2base possible due to the mountains. every base has its own mountain as you might already see on the pic. inside this mountain i will place an infantry path to higher position where you can look on the field (middle map). via infantry path you also can go directly to the field at the sides of the map i will also place a bunker or something on the top of the hills and ofc a way leading to it. tib fields will be somewhere in the middle aswell as one tib silo. directly in the middle (if you want, its the connection between nod inf path and gdi inf path) i wanna place a small open canalisation or a little river and a small village.

now to the name of the map: i called it pitch black 'cause it will be at night. i wanna use streetlamps along the main paths and inf paths (aswell as the village and both bases) to lighten things out. only a weak blueish withish light will lighten the map a bit. but dont worry, you will see enough when im done with the lights and so on.

the buildings: all normal buildings and 3 secondary defences (3 turrets and 3 GTs).

mapsize is 505x505. a bit big duh, maybe i will narrow the playground a bit...

i hope im done with the map in 2 weeks or so. let's see... im new to udk and learning by doing kinda takes a while ^^.

my list for the next 3 days: today i will redo the terrain so it looks a lot...better

tomorrow i will replace the buildings and try my first bunker with inf path ^^

the day after tomorrow i will place all other bunkers i wanna have.

critics and tips are ofc. welcome. oh and just saying: i dont give a fuck about aestethics. if m finished map doesnt look appealing, dont hesitate to make it look nicer. i just wanna make a functional and balanced map, styling isnt my taste ^^.

m questions right now: why are turrets and guntowers in "vehicles" and not in "buildings"? is it, 'cause they dont have a terminal, just plain healthpoints?

[Xtractor]

Good luck with it ,I'm in the same ship of been newbies with that

and with trying to make it working and balance ,Althought mine, bases will be different layouts from each other wich is a challenge to make it nobody OP.

First look at your SS seem having big space between your 2 bases .it might take a long run to reach the opposing base

[Daxter]

looks a lot better now.

i also placed the buildings to the right place. now im too lazy to proceed.

tomorrow i will make the rocks look better a bit and try to to make water... even though i dunno how .

[Daxter]

Good luck with it ,I'm in the same ship of been newbies with that

and with trying to make it working and balance ,Althought mine, bases will be different layouts from each other wich is a challenge to make it nobody OP.

First look at your SS seem having big space between your 2 bases .it might take a long run to reach the opposing base

good luck for ya too .

i know its a long run (it does look more on the map though than it actually is i guess, but if its too big i will make the map smaller). but the old map i wanna recreate was kinda huge too. i will add things and stuff to fill the gaps and so on. we will see.

edit: im already running into some problems duh...

first of all i got failure messages when i opened the editor again:

but that didnt stop me from working on. but then i've run into another problem. the editor doesnt let me set the world info:

i guess to solve the first porblem i need some stuff that i somehow dont have? the second problem however is... well.. totally strange. 'cause when i click on the button i can see the file for renegade x but clicking on it doesnt do anything! did i miss something?

[Handepsilon]

I've had an idea about a forest map that will be REALLY dark for dem infiltrators. Here's the list of ideas that may or may not work

1. Add light switch on the entire base (WARNING : May reduce performance and reduce lighting quality)

2. Keep the base dark, add swerving search light (WARNING : May mildly reduce performance)

3. Give base some dark areas, make the field dimly lit on the vehicle path, while almost not lit at all on others

4. Add alarm systems

Anyway, to answer your question, defense buildings (save for AGT/Obelisk) works like the vehicles, except that they don't move. Technically they're just unmannable turrets/emplacements manned by invisible AI

[Daxter]

boah, this program is driving me nuts! -.-

sometimes it just doesnt do what it should... pressing the keys to move the things ya selected doesnt work, isntead it moves ALL buildings and lights and so on around. then, when i worked with rocks it suddenly autosaved and didnt stop loading shit... like trees?! why reloading stuff that i dont even have in my map? that shit crashed and i had to do it again duh. and suddenly i was able to move things and duplicate things without moving other things i didnt want to move... a really bugged program.

anways, i managed to place some rocks (i actually used mesa rocks, 'cause they kinda fit in the atmosphere... and dont lose their "colors" when selecting em... really, i dont wanna create a color for rocks... i just wanna use premade rocks). i also managed to make a color for the ground. even though i just have like 3 textures for snow to use i think it doesnt look that bad for the beginning.

but what i ask myself all the time: when i click on a rock in the browser i see on the pic, that this rock suddenly loses its color (i guess its this "material" stuff). if you place such an "empty" rock somewhere it just sucks... 'cause you dont know if it fits in there without seeing its shape and colorforms. i would like to know how to give rocks with colors (who suddenly loses it when clicking on it) their old color back?

here some pics:

[Handepsilon]

Believe me, UnrealEd 2.0 was waaaaaaaaay more buggy. It's as if moving a camera can offend the codings of the application

[Daxter]

Believe me, UnrealEd 2.0 was waaaaaaaaay more buggy. It's as if moving a camera can offend the codings of the application

duh, i dont wanna imagine...

[Bananas]

Errors on start up happen to everyone I think. They don't matter, just ignore them.

For moving everything...If you are using the box select to select multiple things, there is a button on the toolbar that makes it so an object has to be fully within the box to be selected. Otherwise you will select your landscape everytime on accident. Don't know if this is your problem.

For rocks...What you are looking for is materials. In the content brower, just check only the material boxes and you'll see a bunch of them. Obviously some won't work for rocks, but you can play around. Click on a material in the content browser, then right click your rock and go to properties, under rendering (I think?) there should be a line called material, click the + by it and then click the green arrow to set from what you have selected in the content browser. The rock will then gain a "color". Easy way to do this is set the material for one rock and then duplicate that rock to have more. Do this by holding alt and then moving the rock. The most obvious materials to use will be in the content browser in the rock packages. It's also not super difficult to make a material instance constant to get the color you want, but you don't seem to want that.

[Daxter]

thanks, i will try it out tomorrow if i have the time (gotta do a hospitalvisit and that takes time).

well, if it IS easy to create own colors for rocks i will definitely check it out. i love the mesa rocks but i would like to change their colors if possible. . just think of those mesa rocks in pure light blue with white blace or so. also i will try out ruuds little trick to change the shape of buildings. i wanna have a kinda frozen look the wf with a bit of snow on the wall or so.

but this will take a lot of time... coffee... kenz vids... ruuds tips... and a lot of crashes.... and so on x).

tomoorow i will try out these rock stuffs. i will also reshape the two mountains and add a road in it. cudakers map in progress gave me this nice idea ;D.

[Xtractor]

I want to know these little tricks too ..let me know them

[Ruud033]

well, if it IS easy to create own colors for rocks i will definitely check it out. i love the mesa rocks but i would like to change their colors if possible. . just think of those mesa rocks in pure light blue with white blace or so.

It is really easy to create custom materials which you can edit on the fly, you can create Material Instant Constants (MIC's) that allows you to adjust the color of stuff on the fly, you can add as many parameters to the MIC's as you like, you can for example, even change the tiling of the textures and loads of other stuff. I'd suggest you watch kenz's video's about this and also browse the interwebs for some UDK tutorials on materials.

Keep in mind that you override the materials in of your placed meshes at all times, never ever 'replace' the material in the static mesh editor unless the static mesh is in your own package

To override materials, click an object, press F4, expand the 'static mesh' tab, expand the 'rendering' tab, click the green +, insert materials there. (again, please google some material guides on how to do this)

also i will try out ruuds little trick to change the shape of buildings. i wanna have a kinda frozen look the wf with a bit of snow on the wall or so.

but this will take a lot of time... coffee... kenz vids... ruuds tips... and a lot of crashes.... and so on x)..

At the moment we can't swap out the static meshes for the prefab buildings yet (or override the materials). I've asked for this a while back but it did not get implemented yet. I've only made this possible for the interface mod, which was added later on.

So If you want to have a frozen WF you're going to have to use decals to have the frozen look, to project everything you want on to the exterior. Keep in mind that some people have decals turned off in their play-settings, so not everyone will see it the way you want them to see it(because they have shit PC's)

If you add static meshes on top of the WF, the hit-registration won't work and that would cause an indestructible WF.

I've had an idea about a forest map that will be REALLY dark for dem infiltrators. Here's the list of ideas that may or may not work

1. Add light switch on the entire base (WARNING : May reduce performance and reduce lighting quality)

2. Keep the base dark, add swerving search light (WARNING : May mildly reduce performance)

3. Give base some dark areas, make the field dimly lit on the vehicle path, while almost not lit at all on others

As for the light switch on the bases, we are able to cheat with static lights by using functions on them. Check out Canyon (with that pulsating light) on how that's done. Basically you add a material in a function slot, so the material serves as a mathematical function for the static light. That way we can turn a static light on and off. The advantage of this system over a dynamic system is that we can actually bake lights of this static light (which is awesome). All we need to do is create a MIC that we control via kismet to operate the on/off switch.

The swerving search lights are always dynamic unfortunately, they're costly so indeed be careful with this. Make sure they can be culled out (make sure you can't see them after a certain amount of distance anymore)

I'd suggest you take a look at how CNC-Artic_Stronghold is made, it's also a night map but it's not completely black, I also doubt whether you want to make a map pitch black because then it'd be impossible to see enemies, which can be quite frustrating. You could create lots of caves where area's are pitch black but I think it'd be a better idea to have the main playing field lit by a moon or so, so there's a little bit of light there.

Also, the idea of your map looks great, however I'd reduce the size to about 40-50% of what it is now.

[Daxter]

okay... another problems...duh.

this time its kinda heavy and prevents me from working on.

the first problem which is kinda tiny, is, that i saved my snow color (cause i made it myself). i just let the editor decide where to save...which was a big mistake. when i open my map again he just cant find the color again and sets the parameter to NULL, meaning: no snow on the ground. actually, i found my own stuff... in the binaries/win32 folder. i know it shouldnt be there... but i also dont know where to put in? i guess i have to put it somewhere in the udk game folder or something, but heck i cant find out where to, 'cause of my second way bigger problem that prevents me from working on my work longer than 3 minutes.

i dunno why, but my gpu HATES this program... or the other way round. opening the editor is fine, opening a full map or even my map is horrible. the temeperature of my gpu raises instantly and just doesnt want to cool down again. also my cores where critically high (funny fact: not in the test map: canyon, there it was pretty stable with 60 degrees; at 70 degrees it can get dangerous for my cores as far as i read). i stopped working with the editor when i saw that my gpu was already 85 degrees... raising every few seconds. i installed a fan control software and increaased the working progress of my fan... but it just cant cool my gpu enough.

my gpu, a gtx 650 with 2 gb, should however handle this program. it handles falloout 3 with all mods and so on, handles far cry 3 on full hd, it handles warthunder... and so on and so on. and its not my first map editor either im using...duh.

i found out that whenever im loading my map my gpu work progress raises instantly to 99% and sticks to it. same with the map canyon. however i also found out when pressing the right mouse button my gpu drops to 0% and cools down .

seriously, this program can't be so gpu demanding without anything like moving tanks and so on. all you have are placements. i suggest its a heavy bug that keeps my gpu running like crazy even though it shouldnt work that much. if it really needs 99% of my gpu than it would lag like crazy, 'cause the work wouldnt be done fast enough. and why the heck does it drop to 0% when i just press the right mousebutton? i can still see everything...yesterday everything was fine by the way.

i cant work like this and have to find a solution. i know that my gpu can handle up to 100 degrees... but seriously, i dont wanna grill my pc for that shit. everything in there is fully packed and i just have one extern fan in there. so having such high degrees...isnt too healthy for the other parts. i will check out what google says ^^, till then im open for any suggestions you might have. i will keep ya informed when i found out what the heck's wrong.

[Bananas]

Always make sure you save your packages and map before exiting. As for where to save, not sure that it really matters too much. The "official" places UDKGame/Content/Maps/RenX or /Renx/Environments for maps and evironments. As for the snow, should be easy to set it up again as long as it was saved. Not sure what you mean exactly though.

For performance...the editor is demanding and will be moreso than a game. There is a low detail mode you can turn on that might help a little. Also make sure you don't have unecessary things open. Like double clicking on a static mesh in the content browser (to bring up the view of it) and leaving it open can cost a lot.

[Daxter]

to bananas: i always save my stuff before exiting, but i just dont know where to. but your tip with the folder environments worked and now i have my color back. the tiny problem is solved.

still the big problem is giving me a headache... 'cause it just looks odd. i know my computer and i know pretty good how much i can do with it... and i know that bugs exist where programs demand more and more memory 'cause they dump it full of shit along with other bugs that demand more power of the gpu even though it just doesnt need it (already had it once which was confirmed as a bug from the maker).

anyway, to show you guys why im so concerned and dont think the problem is natural i screenshoted two pics.

the first one shows the editor just normally. dont mind the temperature, i just had the editor on for one minute to make the pics. just look at the gpu. it shows ya 99%.

in the next pic you see that i just right clicked on the editor... and suddenly my gpu cools down and gets down to 0% . the program is still running in the background so why the heck is my gpu cooling down then?

im kinda out of words for this. in the internet i found a low res ini file for udk but unfortunately it didnt work . gotta search for another solution in the internet... and reinstall udk (who knows... maybe it works).

as i said, yesterday everything worked perfectly fine without any issues.

[Daxter]

SOLVED IT.

some threads actually showed this "bug". the creator of that program is aware of that... oh well.

its really easy actually. i just had to disable real time (that little joystick on the top left of ya window). and suddenly everything was stable again. only when i move around the gpu heats up a bit. but thats normal. without moving the gpu is at 0%. perfect!

so for everyone who has the same problem: disable real time (the joystick on the top left of ya window).

finally... another problem solved, hurray. tomorrow or so i will go on with my work .

[Handepsilon]

Turn off your lighting before you build it

[Ruud033]

The reason why moving was so hard for you is because your GPU had to render the lights realtime. If you turn of realtime rendering ( the weird joystick icon which you mentioned earlier ) it gets a lot better.

If you go to unlit mode, it even gets better.

Rebuild lights in order to see the final result in your map

[Daxter]

erks i dont get why so many people are misunderstanding me... i didnt had any lags at all. everything worked fluently, but the temperature of my graphiccard went dangerously high. in the internet i found out that real time is actually causing the problem... this wierd "bug" was confirmed by the makers.

anway... worked on the map a bit and fooled around a bit. i was able to change the colors of the rocks... but it doesnnt look satisfying yet so i wont save the colorsheme. changed the size of the side-mountains. made a small road on the two main mountains to give each fraction a 3rd verhicle-route. but honestly i dont know i will keep the 3rd way or vanish it.