Basic Special Effects

By: Trevelyan

Presumptions:

You are an intermediate UnrealED user. This tutorial explains some tricks to adding eye candy to your maps.
Windows:

Many mappers neglect the creation of windows in a map, and implement one with an ugly effect: The transparent nature of the window, which is deintersected within a hole between 2 rooms, allows you to view through the hole at an odd angle. See the picture for an example:

Notice that you can see right through the wall and to the other side? This is caused by deintersecting the brush for the window into the hole in the wall that connects these 2 rooms. Normally this is a good thing, but by directly fusing the 2 brushes you will eliminate part of the wall and thus see through it when you make the window transparent. The solution is very simple…
Before you add the window brush, or after, select the center vertex (that little red or blue dot in the center of the selected brush) and click the resize button. (The little box that is vertically squished) Simply resize the brush so each end is slightly smaller so the 2 brushes do not meet. You will need at least 2 Ued units of space on each end. Add the brush and rebuild your geometry. It should now look something like this:

Mirrors/Reflective floors:

A very simple but convincing effect when used properly. When you right click on a surface select "mirror" to make the surface reflect its environment. Some things to know though:
Mirrors slow down computers! No computer out there can render a room that is coated with mirrors without a huge dip in their frame-rate. They are usually confusing when placed in certain locations and cause some other glitches. Do not place mirrors where they may reflect off the skybox, because this will cause some nasty HOM effects. Don't place fog near mirrors (or vice-versa) because this will cause some problems. Finally, use this effect with moderation; there is a reason you don't see this effect in any of Epic's maps.
As for the Reflective floors: Create your room. Select the floor and make that a mirror. Make a sheet that covers the floor, and is just above it. Do not build this sheet on the exact location of your original floor. Make the sheet transparent and the same texture as your floor. You should use a marble texture for your floor, as this will make a convincing effect. (Eol.utx is good for this.) Now, because your using a sheet brush, which is very grumpy with BPS errors, you should always add this effect last in your map and not change the sheet in any way afterwards. (In other words, don't put pillars and stuff on top of the sheet, or your asking for trouble!)
This is all that I can come up with for right now. Hopefully I will update this tutorial and get some more effects out for you. Until then, E-Mail me at connors@nnex.net if you have any questions. Happy mapping to ya!