Tips and Tricks for Unreal Level Design
- December 14th, 2009
Design phase
idea…
Death Match/capture the flag
Pirate Bay
2d map
Sector map,
sea
Castle
ships
lighthouse
combat flow, architexture/player path map
avoid bottle neck
rough layout
In basic bsp
time to navigate map
test with players
flow scale pacing.
detailed layout
add texture (theme sence), sight lines, window position
concentrate on playtest with rough geometry
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Art Phase
Visual Target
detail one corner
Full Art pass
detail all
Iteration and Polish
tune lighting, post process
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Usefull Keys
rmb with [w,a,s,d] to navigate.
o = toggle volumes
m = static Meshes
T = Terrain
Home = center wiews to selection
g = game view
end = drop mesh to ground
ctrl, left/right click drag = move object
Ctrl click to add to selection
esc = deselect
ctrl+Alt + left click = box select
ctrl+Alt + right click = box de-select
Space = select transform scale, move, rotate
Dont forget to tick AutoSave
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Assets/packages:
C:\UDK\UDK-2009-11-2\UTGame\Content
Environments – content browser:
From Scene, Right click existing mesh… find in content browser (ctrl B)
Mesh from C.B. into scene, drag and drop, or hold “s” and click ground.
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CTRL A = add geometry
CTRL S = subtract geometry
Dont scale brushes
Right click the brush button set scale.
Player = 88 units tall
16 unreal units = 1foot.
jump doublejump (ww) will travel approx 512 units
ceiling heigts 256.
Shift 2 geometry mode
Shift 1 camera mode (view pane needs to be selected)
L click = light
Tab = console window
Tilda = Large console window
esc = exit
addbots [number]
clone existing brush = hold Alt and click drag object
Change order, to last by right clicking to effect ofdering of addative and subtractive brushes.
f4 = properties
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radiocity generated by assets in level … create a lightmapimportancevolume to improve fps
Materials
Material Instances
Drag and drop into scene or Alt click with material selected.
Right click select adjacent floors
Alt Right click select existing material
dont texture non visable surfaces for optimisation.
Right click surface and select matching texture, turn off lighting settings
light map reaolution 1000000000
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Light mass
bounces 4 times for realistic lighing
Scale on a light effects intencity/radius
Spot light
Brightness = 5
Light colour = peach offwhite
Pointlight fall off= sharpness of light radius
Bake settings in Build light properties [right click build all]
Set dressing = preview
refinement use production, could take a couple of hours
SkyDome go into properties, Collision > Lighting > turn off cast shadow and cast dynamic shadow
Actor classes
point light = lightbulb… most common
Directional Light
Spot light
skylight = not used anymore.
A + Click = add actor
eye = lock selected icon to camera to look through selected for positioning.
select eye first, then select actor to move camera to actor.
Light bounce
Light mass
Diffuse boost = bouncing light = lower less bouncing
Spotlight set Diffuse boost to 1
Sun = Direcional Light > Dominant directional light
Brightness 4
colour = magnolia
view >world properties >light mass settings > environment colour > Environment intencity > set to skydome colour
Static Mesh Lights = properties > Static Mesh Actor > Light mass > Use emmisive for static lighting
Emissive boost = glow
Indirect lighting scale
Ambiant acclusion deepens the shadows
Lighting = sun and sky.
post process settings
good for internal building lighting
Ambiant acclusion, detail in the shadows
bloob > bleeds out bright light> glow
depth of field > blur distance
Scene desaturarion > 1 = bw can unify textures
Highlight midtone + shadow > add or remove colour to scene
Shadows
surface properties of wall, object resolution = lower/sharper shadow. 4 good for sharp shadow
Opposite for static mash.
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