UED2 Main

UED2 Tutorial - Complex structures
When you start designing a level you will always come across cases when you need complex structures. A stair is one of them, but UED2 allready have fully functional buttons to let you create stairs in allmost any shape. Lets say you want some light hanging down from the roof.
Chains holding a small plate with a nice flame.
To do this you would need to create sheets for the chain,
more sheets for the flame and some brushes for the plate.
Instead of redo this everytime and everywhere you could do this
once by creating one complex brush.
There is two good reason for this and the best is that the game engine
calculates one complex brush faster than alot of simple ones.
The second is that editing goes alot faster and human misstakes is kept
to a minimum.
So, this is how we do this.
First you need to create a "workspace".
This is simply a large room that is not connected to the level itself.
Subract it a bit outside the original design and don't mind what texture
it has. It will not matter.
The complex structure you want to create you do inside here.
Here is a little screenshot of how it could be.
As you can see this arch is buildt using five brushes.
Now select the room that surrounds this structure and press the right mouse button.
Select "Polygons" and "To brush".
Now press the "Intersect" button and you will have "framed" your creation.
(Make sure that only the brush is selected before you intersect.)
This new brush can be placed anywhere you want and even the texture will be the same.
It is also important to remember that you don't need to do this any more.
Once you have added this structure somewhere in your level you only need to copy
it's polygons to the brush to create another one.
When creating movers you might want to use this methode.
Don't forget to remove this "workspace" before you release the level though.
Also take a look at the 2D shape editor tutorial for more info on how to
create complex brushes.
Importing/Exporting:
Exporting your brush is a very useful option.
After you have marked the brush, select from the menu
"Brush" and then "Export" or "Import".
Just remember that the texture you have used on the brush is saved along
with it. The texture set is not "reloaded" if you import the brush
in another map, after you have restarted the editor.