Lesson 4

By: Deathbliss

Deathbliss

More on zones - Portals, TELEPORTERS, and Water:

UPDATE!!!

I have truncated the original tutorial that taught you how to build a portal. Mine seems to have degraded to the point of uselessness in most cases. So I am giving up on PORTALS for now until I get some help from the various people I have e-mailed on the subject. I will be removing the PORTALS from the example map and will focus on TELEPORTERS instead. I will still explain the basics of both, and the original pool instructions will remain mostly unchanged. Sorry for any inconvenience - now let's get to work:

Well in this lesson we'll cover a little more on zones, build a room with a pool, and design a TELEPORTER. I'm REALLY digging Marilyn Manson right now... "...break the speed of pain...". Excuse me, forgot we're doing serious work here. Ok, from here on out I'm not going to take you through the mouse clicks and buttons as much. I noticed 2 shortcomings in my tutorials so far (maybe 3) and they are the following:

1. I didn't explain very well about the saving process and why EXP1.UNR, EXP2.UNR, etc.
2. If you're a beginner you still don't know squat about the TOOLBAR from me.
3. Too technical???

So both here and on UnrealED Exordium's main page I'll be placing links to a tutorial on another site that explains the TOOLBAR pretty well with pictures and all. I'll make my own later for quick reference somewhere. Go there now if your curious, and if your computer is strong enough minimize that window so you can bring it up whenever you desire. Well how was your Christmas? Mine sucked worse than a big friggin black hole. That and adding a PORTAL to the example map was a big, wet flop. But I have Unreal Tournament now and will soon post lessons for UnrealED 2.0. Look for them in the near future if I don't just quit. TELEPORTERS seem to be easy from what I've read, and you can not only use them to switch between rooms but also between levels as well! I'll be designing something fancy to put mine in (because they are by default invisible), and still try to keep with the original "Tomb raider Esque" theme. Bear with me ok?

First off you need to open up the last save of the map you have been working on with me (lesson 3). Then RE-SIZE the grid to 2, this was covered in Lesson 1 and I think is also in Lesson 5. If you're having trouble feel free to e-mail me. Move the RED BRUSH to either your "builder room" (if you're using one) or the First Room - where I am building mine. To make it easy I just highlighted the RED BRUSH and RIGHT CLICKED on it, then selected RESET/RESET ALL POSITIONING - I recommend you do this as well, and you'll see why in a moment. Now load up a texture pack you want - I'm using ANCIENT.UTX. DE-SELECT ALL and then select the texture you'll be using for the outside of our TELEPORTER Shell. Again I am using a TRIM texture, so I have selected ANCIENT/TRIM/TILESA. RIGHT CLICK on the BUILD A CUBE button and set it to 128x128x64. When it's all ready ADD it., then RIGHT CLICK on the BUILD A CUBE button again but this time tack on a -16 to each of the values, so you'll have 128-16x128-16x64-16. Position it like the picture below and SUBTRACT it. Then RIGHT CLICK on any clear area of the TELEPORTER Shell and then SELECT/MATCHING TEXTURE. Then RIGHT CLICK on an open space again, and under SURFACE PROPERTIES/SCALE and set to 0.5. Then highlight the front and set it the same way but to 0.25. Here's what you'll have:

Now here's where things get hairy. You see I don't tell you about BRUSH INTERSECTION / DE-INTERSECTION until the next lesson. Yet we need to do this right, so please click here at this point to get the basics down. All you need to do is RIGHT CLICK on the BUILD A CUBE button and set the values to 128+16x128+16x64+16. Now make sure the RED BRUSH isn't touching anything anywhere, and that it surrounds the TELEPORTER Shell Completely. If you followed me just a paragraph or 2 ago all you have to do is highlight the RED BRUSH, then RIGHT CLICK on it, then highlight RESET/RESET ALL POSITIONING. You'll see the RED BRUSH moved perfectly all around your TELEPORTER Shell. Cool huh? Now go up to the top of the screen and under menu select BRUSH then INTERSECT. Move the RED BRUSH to the end of the hall, centered in between the walls and aligned perfectly between floor and ceiling. ADD it, then RIGHT CLICK on the BUILD A SHEET BUTTON and set as below:

Click on BUILD and then make sure the RED BRUSH is perfectly centered on all sides and precisely 8 units away from the opening. In the 3-D VIEW if you did this right you'll see the evenness of texture there on our TELEPORTER Shell's lip. Now load up LIQUIDS.UTX. DE-SELECT ALL and then select LIQUIDS4, then select ADD SPECIAL. Now in the little list by the word PREDEFINED find WATER. SELECT it and the values should automatically change - just leave them as they are. CLICK on ADD SPECIAL and you'll now have what will have to pass as a fancy TELEPORTER or rather a psuedo-portal. In the list you may have also seen ZONE PORTAL. You follow the same steps we just did - Shell and all to make a PORTAL but instead of a WATER sheet you would use a ZONE PORTAL sheet. The only important difference between a PORTAL and a TELEPORTER is the ACTOR you use that makes them work. You will use a WARPZONEINFO for a PORTAL, and for a TELEPORTER you use a TELEPORTER. Anyhow now I have to see what values I need for this.

For now go into CLASSES/NAVIGATION POINT/TELEPORTER and put one inside the TELEPORTER Shell. Place it behind the water sheet, near the floor and centered within our TELEPORTER Shell. REBUILD and SAVE, then RIGHT CLICK on the TelePrompTer ACTOR you just added. Set as below: Noticed the red arrow pointing out of the TELEPORTER Shell? The arrows position is changed like the PLAYER START position. The arrow should point where you want your players to face when exiting the TELEPORTER. Now to build the room for the pool and other TELEPORTER. Build a cube to the following dimensions:

I placed my new room as you see above. I also set the floor level to the same as all my other constructions. I textured using ANCIENT.UTX (BRIXK3 for the walls, FLOOR2A for the floor, ACEILIN1 for the roof). I had to go into SURFACE PROPERTIES then to PAN to fit the texture to the ceiling and floor. Don't forget to add a few lights, and if it's too dark to see in the 3-D VIEW you can go to MODE directly above the 3-D VIEW window and set it to TEXTURES. Set it back to DYNAMIC LIGHTING when you wish to see how your level looks with the lights you've added. Now highlight the TELEPORTER Shell, and the water sheet. Go up to BRUSH then DUPLICATE. PRESS and HOLD CTRL while DRAGGING THE MOUSE to position the TELEPORTER Shell inside our soon to be Pool Room. Place centered and perfectly aligned on the floor flat against the wall. Don't worry if you haven't the position right, the example map is downloadable at UnrealEd Exordium - the link is below. Be sure the opening is facing into the room. Repeat the process of adding a TELEPORTER inside the second TELEPORTER Shell, and set it to, TAG=Pool Room and URL=Hallway. Make sure the arrow points into the room, away from the TELEPORTER Shell, then REBUILD and SAVE. Try it out!

Ok, we still have the original shell hanging in midair - feel free to highlight it and DELETE it. I forgot to EXPORT THE BRUSH, but this is easy enough to build anyhow. Yes, you are facing the wrong way still. RIGHT CLICK on TELEPORTER, the go to PROPERTIES/TELEPORTER/bCHANGESYAW and set to TRUE. Now it'll work, but it's needs flare, so I am going to try something. If it works I'll tell you how. No, it didn't work. I went into SURFACE PROPERTIES and set the inside walls of our TELEPORTER Shell to MIRRORED but it REALLY chewed up memory. Didn't look as great as I wanted anyway. But hey, it could be worse! Anyhow now you can go back and forth between the rooms with no hassles at all, and these will be what I use throughout the level unless I get creative and design something fancier. Now to make that pool...

Build a cube 128x256x256 and align with the center of the floor of the new room. Like so:

I am using a PANEL texture for the walls (CARVING2) and a BASE texture for the bottom of the pool (UNCARVD1). Please feel free to design yours the way you want. Now open up BUILD A SHEET properties, and create a sheet FLOOR/CEILING 256x256. Place just under the top lip of the pool, about 1 grid into the pool and away rom the floor of the large new room. It must be centered perfectly and once it is find a texture you want for it in the GENFLUID or LIQUIDS texture packs. Set as below: Add it, and then head over to CLASSES BROWSER, INFO, ZONE INFO, and WATERZONEINFO. Select it, and add below the water sheet in the middle of the pool. At this point you may want to go to DISPLAY and set the AMBIENT BRIGHTNESS to 255, and do the same again in ZONE LIGHT. Once that's done REBUILD and SAVE. Ok, we're about done. Just found out how to add movement to the water, and I figure we might as well. One way is to go into SURFACE PROPERTIES and under EFFECTS check either BIG WAVY or SMALL WAVY. The other is to use an animated texture form LIQUIDS.UTX - I am doing the latter.

Now I will give you the answer to that earlier question. It's A (but you knew that already didn't you?). Take a break, you're doing well, and I for one think it's cool we got to learn about TELEPORTERS. I was wondering if it would even work. Look what you can do when you put your mind to it. In the next lesson we'll learn how to make doors and lifts, and we'll begin basic training in BRUSH INTERSECTION/DE-INTERSECTION.

Final note on ZONES:

Before we part I thought I could explain some more on zones. Zones have to be self contained, and they can't touch anything. If zones are not properly placed they cause BSP LEAKS, slowdowns, bad effects, etc. So be careful with zones - notice I keep the grid on at all times as well as the VERTICES SNAP (more later on this). These procedures allow us to easily snap our pieces of the level together. How do we stop leaks? I don't have a clue, but that's something I will learn and teach you as we continue. Until next time...