Lesson 5

By: Deathbliss

Deathbliss

Basic Movers and Bush Intersection/De Intersection:

Isn't that big opening kind of raw in our first room leading to our hallway? Wouldn't it be nice to have a door there? What about all the space in our Pool Room? Wouldn't it be cool to see something more in there? Well guess what, I've finally figured out where to go next and we'll soon answer those questions. But first I learned a few new things! To start open up the last save of the map you have been working on with me (lesson 4). Now anywhere in your SIDE, FRONT, or TOP views RIGHT CLICK in an open space. Go down the list to GRID, and guess what? Well you have a list of numbers starting at 1 and going to 256 ending in DISABLED and CUSTOM. So I selected 2, went into my pool room, and raised the water sheet to just one tiny square from the top. I didn't know this originally, and a lot of tutorials don't explain this, but if you followed me what you just did is called RE-SIZING THE GRID. I have added a little more at the beginning of these tutorials, but what you just learned is the basics. This option allows you to fine tune your level, and move pieces of geometry to more exacting positions. I went through Sniper Heaven without ever knowing this, and it leaks everywhere. With this option you NEVER need to turn the grid off. REMEMBER - RE-SIZE THE GRID if things aren't fitting right, or if you need more exacting positioning. That isn't all I learned recently either. You may have already discovered this, but the texture pack LIQUIDS.UTX has animated textures!!! Bye bye lousy wavy effect, I selected the first water texture in LIQUIDS.UTX and enjoyed a pleasant (if somewhat unrealistic) bubbly pool. MUCH better! Now on to the lesson...

Well for MOVERS I need to also briefly cover BRUSH INTERSECTION and DE-INTERSECTION: Ok, I have a hard time understanding this still, but basically when you INTERSECT A BRUSH you first must RESET THE RED BRUSH, and then make sure the RED BRUSH completely surrounds whatever you intersect but does not touch any other surface or the brush itself. Then when you INTERSECT THE BRUSH the RED BRUSH becomes the custom shape, item. piece of geometry - whatever you intersected. You can then EXPORT THE BRUSH by going up to BRUSH, then EXPORT, then naming this item and saving it in the directory of your choice. Me I placed a Custom_Brushes folder in my G:/UnrealGold/ directory. Before starting this tutorial I experimented with making archways without having to use the 2-D EDITOR (WAY advanced). This process could be used on our portals, and it's cool because it eliminates the extra subtracted brush that you can't see but depletes system resources.

To DE-INTERSECT apparently it eliminates overhanging parts of geometry and fills in the gaps. Please look at UnrealEd Exordium's Main Page and find the link to Wolf 's tutorials, he explains much better than I can at this point. I will cover this later when I learn it myself.

Anyhow let's try this. Drag your portal (just the inside and outside brushes, leaving the sheets and the WARPZONEINFO) to either a big open space in your level (such as the Pool Room) or if you have decided to use a "building area" drag it there. REBUILD, and once you have select the RED BRUSH and RIGHT CLICK on it. Under RESET select RESET SCALING and this should work right. If not try RESET ALL POSITIONING. If the RED BRUSH disappears just click on the BUILD A CUBE button in the TOOLBAR. These processes are refereed to as RESETTING THE RED BRUSH. I'm not clear as to why but trust me, it must be done before BRUSH INTERSECTION. Make a cube 150, 150, 100 and position it so it envelopes the entire Portal Shell. Check to make sure the RED BRUSH isn't touching anything, and press on the BRUSH INTERSECTION button. The RED BRUSH completely and snugly fits all around the Portal Shell. Go up to BRUSH, select EXPORT, and call it something snazzy, like PORTAL1. In the place you saved it you should now have a PORTAL1.T3D file. You merely IMPORT this when you desire to use it.

Now position the RED BRUSH back to the Portal's resting place and ADD it. I always go up to BRUSH and ADD. You can also use the following buttons on your TOOLBAR: Do this for both Portals, and delete the old shells. REBUILD and SAVE. Now soon I'll stop telling you when to REBUILD and SAVE because sooner or later you'll realize that you only really have to do these things after major changes in the level - such as ADDING or SUBTRACTING a brush. I'm re-positioning my Portal Sheets with the grid re-sized to 2 so I can place the Portal Sheet just under the front and back ledges. Once everything is in place - REBUILD and SAVE then try it out. Well see how it works!

Did you ever download the UnrealED Exordium Lesson Map? It's right there on the main page, just click the link to grab it. If you already have you may have noticed I turned the Pool Room Portal and fit it to a corner for a little pizzazz. Well guess what? Once you have followed the tutorial this far when you enter the Portal and turn sideways just inside and face the side of the Portal and try to walk through there you'll see what a leak looks like. My fancy pants portal positioning created a worse one, so I gave up on my decorating skills and placed it in the middle of the room flat against the wall. The leak is still there but not so bad now. Anyhow even the big boys at Epic that made the levels for Unreal have leaks in all of their levels or so I've read, but they're so small as to be unnoticeable. If you're having problems you can e-mail me - I'll get back to you ASAP.

Now for the door, I decided a two half door would be cool. I have only done lifts before but not doors so this will be interesting. Make a cube the following dimensions and texture to taste - I am using ANCIENT/DOOR/OTH_DR:

After you're sure it's done surround this first door half with the RED BRUSH (150, 150, 32 will cover it) and INTERSECT it. Move the RED BRUSH into position in the first room, just on the wall into which the hallway comes, and even with the floor, like so:

Find in the TOOLBAR the white box with swirly lines around it. CLICK on this button, this is the ADD MOVER button and when you have done the process on one side do the other. You'll get what you see above. Looks like I planned it, huh? Well I didn't I swear! Really, we just lucked out. Why do I only see the outline of a purple box you ask? Well here is a gripe I have about UnrealED - not only can you not see the MOVERS until you play the level, the textures can't be changed after you've made the MOVER. This is why you should have made sure that your kept any previous save before adding the mover, and that once you were completely finished texturing THEN you INTERSECTED it. Well in any case let's get these to move shall we? Go ahead an RIGHT CLICK on one of the purple boxes (your MOVER brush). We will be concerned with MOVER KEYFRAME for now. You are always one step ahead when you give your MOVER a KEYFRAME - you select where it's going before you put it there. Hence your MOVERS are at position 0 right now, which is just outside the hallway opening - dead center. Highlight and select KEYFRAME 1 and move each door separately just inside the first room, flat against the wall, with the hallway opening fully exposed:

Highlight and select KEYFRAME 0 to see if they return as seen above. Now highlight both doors and under MOVER PROPERTIES/EVENTS/TAG name the TAG something unique like DOUBLEDOOR1. Then go into OBJECT and under INITIAL STATE select TRIGGEROPENTIMED. Go into the CLASSES BROWSER/TRIGGERS and select TRIGGER (do not expand). Place this trigger right in between the two doors as seen above. Under EVENTS sent the EVENT to the same name as the two doors. Finally REBUILD, SAVE and try it out. If we did this right both doors will open as you approach, and close as you leave their immediate vicinity. There will be more on TRIGGERS later. Well I'm taking a break, I'll have to finish this a little later. Please forgive any disjointedness.

Okay I'm back. I duplicated the TRIGGER and added one on either side of the door, 7 grid units on each side. You may as well adjust this to the way you want, the way I set it allows you to run right at the door and the door opens in time for you to pass through without hitting it. I moved the FLASHLIGHT up off the floor, and tested it out. I for one am, happy with what we have, and I am ready to move on. I thought about it for a while before beginning this lesson, and I decided we needed a walkway in the Pool Room. There are two ways to do this:

1. I make a "builder room" and use two or three squares and BRUSH INTERSECTION to design my walkway.
2. I just add 3 long ramps that'll make up the walkway.

Each has it's advantages, if you go by step 1 then we'll get a smooth, neat looking walkway. If we go by step 2 we can align the textures we use to match the direction of the walkway. I am going to use step 2 for now, and maybe explain the other later. You may do as you wish, but I advise following along with me if you have any doubts. Build a cube 32x512x100, DE-SELECT ALL, and find a texture you like. I am using ANCIENT/BASE/WALLA. If you look in your SIDE VIEW (right next to the TOP VIEW) you'll see a smaller box (the First Room) then behind it a lager box (the Pool Room). Align the RED BRUSH with the roof of the First Room in the Side View because that is about halfway up the wall of the Pool Room. Place the RED BRUSH flat against the wall above the Portal, making sure it's centered perfectly. ADD it to the Pool Room. You should now have the first part of the walkway right above the Portal in they 3D-VIEW. Now we're going to ROTATE the RED BRUSH. Find this button on the TOOLBAR:

Rotate the RED BRUSH by highlighting the RED BRUSH, then clicking on the ROTATE BRUSH button. PRESS and HOLD CTRL while PRESSING and HOLDING either the RIGHT or LEFT mouse buttons then DRAG the item into position. For this in the TOP VIEW you PRESS and HOLD CTRL AND THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON. DRAG until it is a flat 90 degrees so you can place it against the next wall in the pool room. ADD it once you're ready. Move the RED BRUSH down to the opposite wall and ADD it there. It would be a good idea to REBUILD now, and you should see something like the picture above. I'm not giving a lot of detail here, hoping you'll be able to figure it out. But earlier on this page you'll find an e-mail link should you need assistance.

Okay, now RIGHT CLICK on the RED BRUSH and under RESET select RESET ROTATION and the RED BRUSH will be the same in all directions as the first part of the walkway above the Pool Room Portal. Or you can ROTATE the RED BRUSH another 90 degrees for the same effect. In any case it should flat against the furthest wall from the Portal. Build a cube 32x312x100 and to test it should fit right into the open space as you see above. Move it down so there's lots of space around it, texture to taste, ADD it, and surround it with the RED BRUSH (42, 322, 110 should do). Make sure the RED BRUSH isn't touching anything then RESET SCALING. Now once your sure that this part of the walkway looks the way you want (this will be the lift up to the walkway) INTERSECT it. Move it into place as seen above, then click on ADD MOVEABLE BRUSH. Now you have that purple outline again. Remember a MOVER is always one step ahead and this lift is in what will be KEYFRAME 1 right now. So RIGHT CLICK on it, and under KEYFRAME select KEYFRAME 0. Move the lift to the floor. Now do the same process again, except select KEYFRAME 1 this time and move it completely level with the rest of the walkway. Be sure it's centered, UNDO if you need to. REBUILD, SAVE as the next number up, and try it out.

Well I messed up a little. You have to jump on the ramp to get on, but it's not a big problem so I'm cool with it. We need some pillars under the walkway or something, I'm thinking that'll come in the next tutorial. Notice yet how silent our lifts are? Well in the next tutorial we'll also cover sounds. Notice how the lights emanate from nowhere? You guessed it - next tutorial we'll cover Lights, Sounds, and basic decorating. Probably also add either a door or a portal accessible from our new walkway. Is it just me or is the level (if you're following me) giving off a spooky feeling? Not sure but I thought something was going to get me - it was just going to jump right out of that portal. I wonder when we'll add a creature or too...

Good job everyone, take a break and enjoy Christmas (or you're equivalent). I won't be getting Lesson 6 up for a week or 2, unless I get a LOT of sleep. See ya soon!

Final notes on MOVERS:

When you place a MOVER into your level you have up to 8 KEYFRAMES in which to determine it's movement (0-7). After setting a MOVER'S KEYFRAME be sure to set it back to 0 (the BASE) before your final REBUILD, SAVE and PLAY LEVEL. Make sure when setting a MOVER'S KEYFRAMES that 0 (the BASE) is ALWAYS where you want the MOVER to be once you play the level. For example, if we set our doors and our lift all to KEYFRAME 1 (by highlighting a mover, RIGHT CLICKING on it, then SELECT ALL MOVERS) REBUILD, and then played it the doors would be open when you approached them, and the lift would be way up in the air where we couldn't get to it. Remember to always set KEYFRAME 0 to where you want your MOVER to be once you play the level. Also remember your mover is always one step ahead of it's next KEYFRAME, I.E. it'll be in KEYFRAME 0 before you set it to KEYFRAME 1 - you have to set it to KEYFRAME 1 before you go to KEYFRAME 1, and while you're still at KEYFRAME 0.