Zones
UnrealED2 Tutorials by EZkeel

E-mail:Ezkeel@nikodemus.co.uk
Accompanied files : Zones.UNR

Contents

1) Basic_Zones
2) Zone_Info
3) CloudZone
4) Killing field
5) LavaZone
6) LevelInfo
7) NitrogenZone
8) PressureZone
9) SkyZone
10) SlimeZone
11) TarZone
12) TeleporterZone
13) ToggleZoneInfo
14) VacuumZone
15) WarpZoneInfo
16) WaterZone
17) Creating Zones

Introduction

Zones are an essential part of mapping as they have two main purposes. Firstly they enable you to create essential elements in you level such as water, lava and skies and secondly they increase the efficiency of a map by splitting it up into several sections.

At the moment, the Unreal engine only allows up to 64 zones, but you would have to make a
pretty big level to get that close.

1) Basic Zones
In order for you to understand exactly what a zone is, you’ll probably benefit from seeing it visually. Create a box in your editor, 256 x 256 x 256 (the default) will do just fine. (You can do this really quickly by clicking on the cube icon and then immediately on the Subtract icon - who cares about the bubbly texture!?). Create an entirely separate box just like it, a few squares away. You must make sure they’re not touching at all. Rebuild it (F8).
Because you’ve added no lights, both boxes should look completely dark in your 3D window.

Now, on the top of your 3D view you should see a selection of icons. Click on the "Zone/Portal" icon (the one I've ringed in the picture.

As soon as you do that, you will see
the two rooms become much more visible, and appear in two separate colours. The different colours denote different "Zones" and UnrealED will automatically sort out separate untouching areas into different zones.

Each zone that is created can have its own unique properties
which you can set as you need. (e.g. water, lava, pain)

The picture on the left is taken from the "ActorClassBrowser" and gives you a list of all the different types of Zones that UT can give you.

The "ZoneInfo" class itself can be used and can have its own unique qualities. All you need to do to create one of these environments is add it into your area. (choose one from the browser so that its highlighted, then right click somewhere in your map and choose "add … whatever it is" Whatever "colour" this zone is placed into, it will add those qualities to that whole "zone". (You don’t need to have your window in "Zone view" to add this actor).

I will now deal with each zone in turn (the ones that I know that is):

2) ZoneInfo
Zone info is the basic generic item.
When added to your world you can give your "Zone" the following qualities:

a) Reverb: (gives that echo sound if you fiddle with the settings)
b) Gravity: (bounce around by changing the values)
c) Fog: set it to true and lights will then be able to produce that foggy effect.
d) Pain (give the damage factor a minus quantity and it turns into a heal zone)

3) CloudZone
I tried using this but didn’t have any success, I think its supposed to help swallow projectiles when you fire at the sky.

4) Killing Field
I have absolutely no idea but the title hints that its probably quite a dangeroius zone!

5) LavaZone
This will turn your Zone into a deadly area, where the pawns health is reduced by a pecific amount every second.
You can change the amount that it hurts by changing the number in the "ZoneInfo" property. It also produces a sort of reddish hue when you swim in it. Wearing an asbestos suit will prevent the player getting damaged.

6) LevelInfo
You’ll never need to use it, this is supposed to be the same as the menu option.

7) Nitrogen Zone
Like the LavaZone, but is designed to act as if its freezing you.

8) Pressure Zone
Kills a player but not without fogging things up and distorting their vision. It'll even allow the player to view the squished body at the end of it! All of the properties that make this happen can be adjusted in the "PressureZone" properties of this actor.

9) SkyZone
This is used to create a good sky effect in your level. See the tutorial on skybox for more details.

10) SlimeZone
Again, similar to the LavaZone, but the pain factor is not so bad, and there is a greenish hue when you swim through it. Wearing a toxin suit will perevent the player from being damaged

11) TarZone
Not very painful, but extremely annoying for the player. It dramatically slows down the players movement when they are swimming in it!

12) TeleporterZone
Unsure what this does, but it looks as though if the zone tag is matched with a tag of teleporter in that zone the entire zone will act as a teleporter.

13) ToggleZoneInfo
I imagine this enables zones to be switched from one type of zone to another, but have never used it.

14) Vacuum Zone
Similar to the Pressure zone - used by DM-Morpheus.

15) Warp Zone
This is a really cool effect. It enables a player to pass from one part of the level with a WarpZone to another WarpZone area somewhere else in the level, and you can even see into the other area before you go there!

For more details see the tutorial on TELEPORTERS.

16) WaterZone
As you would think, this creates an area you can swim in. If you stay in too long, you die from suffocation.

17) Creating Zones
Seeing that separate rooms are automatically classed as separate zones is fine, but how do you create more than one zone in one area? The answer is that you must place a "sheet" in your area that divides your room into two parts. This is where it becomes tricky. I’ll take you through it step by step with the basic principle;

a) Create a room say 1024 x 1024 x 1024 and add textures and lighting to suit. (See other tutorials if you’re not sure how to). Rebuild it and save it as something like "zonetest.unr".

b) Right click on your "sheet" icon (at the bottom, on the right of your left-hand tool bar) and a property box will
appear. Set the dimensions to 1040 x 1040 and make sure the "Axis" selection is set to "AX_Horizontal. Position your brush so that it overlaps your cube on all sides and is about 2 squares (x 32 units) from the bottom of your cube.

c) Choose a nice watery texture from the GENfluid texture file.

d) Now click on the "Add special brush" icon which looks like a blue square with another smaller dotted square inside it. You will see a box appear that looks like this:

e) Set it up to look like the example above simply by choosing "water" from the dropdown list in the "Prefabs" box. Then click on "Add Special".

f) You should see a nice watery sheet appear in your cube if you move your camera inside the box. You should also see a green brush appear on your 2D views (once you've moved the builder brush out of the way) but it isn’t a water zone yet. Rebuild and save. Check out your "zone/portal view" as described in section 1 and if all has gone according to plan, you should see your cube divided into two different coloured sections. These are your two zones. Now all you need to do is tell it what the zones are. If you don’t give UnrealED that information it will assign the properties to them that are given in your "level info". If it hasn’t split into two zones, then its likely that your sheet isn’t overlapping all the edges.

g) Remember looking at the list of zones from the browser section earlier on? Choose the "water zone" from there and add it to your cube. Make sure that it is well inside the lower zone in your cube. Rebuild and save once again, add lights and a player start and then give it a try. You should be splashing around nicely in knee high water!
That should be enough to get you started with zones.

EZkeel
(Simon West-Bulford)