Tuesday, January 31, 2006

UT Mapping Tutorial - Loop Mover

This tutorial presumes that you already know how to make a basic Mover in UT. For example, a simple lift that goes up then comes back down (2 keyframes, 0 and 1 only). If you don't know how to make a basic Mover, check out this awesome tutorial first: Lode's Mover Tutorial. (Please let me know if that web page ever disappears, but I don't think it will because it's too awesome.)

Now that I'm making a map for Infiltration, I'd like to have a mover that has many keyframes, not just two. For example, a Humvee that travels along different roads, like a patrol. I just figured it out today, so bear with me if I don't have all my facts straight. So let's say I want the vehicle to have 4 keyframes, traveling a square-shaped route. And I want it to keep patrolling, not just once.

That's where the Loop Mover comes in.

A Loop Mover will go to keyframe 1, then 2, then 3, then 0. It will not go like a typical Mover, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 0...

What was screwing me up, was the following: I'd build my Mover, switch keyframe to 1, place it in my new position, then switch keyframe to 2. But the Mover would go back to 0!

When the Mover goes back to 0, go into Mover Properties and expand the Mover category. Where it says 'KeyNum', make that a '1' then close the window. Now your Mover will be at keyframe 1. Switch keyframe to 2, and place the Mover where you want the next keyframe to be. Then switch keyframe to 0, and go back into Mover Properties and set 'KeyNum' to 2. Finally, switch keyframe to 3, and place the Mover at the desired location. Then switch to 0.

But we're not done yet! A Loop Mover must be activated by a Trigger, so you need to add a Trigger in your map. The Trigger's Event should match the Mover's Tag. Give this a meaningful name! In an INF map, you'll likely have lots of Triggers, so meaningful names will be easier to find in the long run. I just used a Timed Trigger, so at the beginning of the round the Loop Mover will start. Then it will loop forever.

Important: In the Loop Mover Properties, you must set Object > Initial State = LoopMove .

StayOpenTime: how long (in seconds) your Mover will rest at each keyframe. Default value is 4 seconds, I reduced mine to 1. I'm sure it will take decimals, so you may want to go lower than 1.

bDynamicLightMover: you probably want to set this to True, but it depends on where your Loop Mover is traveling through. In an outdoor map, where the lighting should be fairly homogeneous, it's not a big deal. But if you're going from light to dark to light, you might want to set this to True.

Check out the screenshot below:

Sunday, January 29, 2006

CombatMaps - The Infiltration Source

Whenever I decide to make a map for a new game (Infiltration, Tactical Ops, Deus Ex, whatever) the first thing I do (after installing the game) is check out the competition. I don't like making a map that's similar to an existing work, so I'll download several custom maps and try them out. It's also exhilarating to find kick-ass custom maps that rival the stock maps, as was the case with EAS-INF-LondonCity.

Here are a couple of sites dedicated to Infiltration maps:

CombatMaps

RealMaps

While you're there, you may as well download the TBT Desert Storm mappack, since my INF map will be using their textures. :)

Unrealed Tutorials CD version 3

Just a quick plug for Nick over at Planet Unreal, who's made a fabulous CD containing all the Unrealed tutorials you'll need to make your own UT maps.

Unrealed Tutorials CD

I must emphasize, this is not merely a copy-and-paste job of tutorials on the web. Nick made all of these tutorials himself, and it's all visual, not a collection of PDFs. He's made a truckload of UT maps himself, you can check them out here:

Nick's UT maps

Happy mapping!

Assault map tutorial for UT99

I've never made an Assault map before, so my first step was to catch up on the basics. UnrealWiki is a good site for Unreal engine info. Important keywords are all linked, so you can dig deeper. Hosted by BeyondUnreal, which hosts many key UT sites, such as Nali City and Insite.

UnrealWiki - mapping for Assault (UT)

If you're just getting into Unreal editing for the first time, make sure that your version of UT99 is patched to 436. Game of the Year Edition comes with 432, I believe.

Get the 436 patch here

Since I'm making a modified Assault map for Infiltration, there will be many INF specific actors. I'll be discussing those soon.

Infiltration 2.9 mod for UT

"Back in the saddle again." Two (three?) years after releasing DM-Casaloma (UT map), I've decided to re-discover the Unreal editor. I couldn't find the inspiration that would draw me back into the rigors of mapping, until I discovered Infiltration. It's a realism mod for UT, so that took some adjustment. But it has a game mode called Enhanced Assault (EAS) that's really cool. I played this map called EAS-INF-Mostar that just blew me away. After I played it, I immediately knew what kind of map I would like to make for INF.

So I've created this blog page, to post the blow-by-blow progress of my map, and perhaps offer some helpful tips about Unreal engine mapping in general. Depending on how many images I'm allowed to upload here, I may link back to my main website from time to time.

If you have any questions about mapping, feel free to contact me : smeerkat (at) gmail (dot) com.

From time to time, I will post useful links for mappers. But today, I'll start off with the Infiltration website.

Infiltration 2.9 - Get it here!