Joining Levels Together

by: Mutant Dandruff
johnnyt@telusplanet.com

If you have ever wondered how the creators of Unreal were able to link the levels of the game in order and you wanted to do so yourself this is the right tutorial for you. I will explain exactly how to link two levels you have created.
First create two levels. If you can"t do this try reading another tutorial first. Make both of them big cubes 512x512x512 is good. Place a player start and a few lights and save. Create another level in a similar fashion. Texture the walls in each level differently, so you don"t mix the two up. Now you are ready to link them. Both the levels MUST be in the same directory.
Open to your "first" level. Now switch to the classes menu, then expand NavigationPoint. Click on Teleporter. Now add the teleporter to the level. A symbol with a little man and an arrow should appear. Now rightclick the teleporter and view its properties. Expand teleporter. The first eight properties affect what velocity you will have upon exiting the teleporter. I always leave the velocity set to 0,0,0 so I don"t even know if they work! Only the last value, URL, is important. Now you might assume that you just type in the filename of the level you want to go to. Oh no, it can"t be that easy. I beileve that this actor may be set up to some day fulfil the server hopping dreams of Unreals designers so you need to enter your URL in in a specific way. This is the format
Filename#Filenameentry?peer
Note that the filename does NOT include .unr
For example is your second level is called Level2.unr your URL would be
Level2#Level2entry?peer
Now open your second level. Also add a teleporter there (right next to the Player Start), but don"t change any of its properties. This is where a teleported player will start. However you still need a player start in case someone tries to play the level on its own or the player restarts the level.
Now reopen your first level again and play it. You may want to put a marker near the teleporter to help you find it. Once you step over the teleporter the familiar blue loading screen will appear and you will begin playing the second level.
Remember: Both levels must be in the same directory, preferably the Maps directory.
You can use this method to create a linear system of levels like Unreal or even create a hub level from which several levels can be acessed.