Features in UDK

Today I am going to look at some of the internal features that can be used within UDK.  DX11 MSAA Hair was the first feature I looked at, it provides characters in UDK with realistic hair.  DX11 Subsurface Scattering which scatters light around characters in UDK.  Enhanced Bloom which can be used to enhance neon lights.  APEX Clothing which is used for the characters clothes or outfits.  High Quality Shadows which allows the user to create different types of shadows.  Bokeh Depth of Field allows the camera in UDK to focus on an object with is up close and blur out objects in the background.  DX11 Image Based Reflections reflects objects via the use of images.  Colour Grading provides a more immersive colourful enviornment.  Light Swafts shows the sun shining through various objects like trees.  Realistic Foliage allows for people to place realistic foliage in their level.

I’ll start by looking at Kismet, Kismet is a programme used in UDK which can be used for numerous within UDK.  Kismet can be used to set up a toggle light switch which the player will be able to turn a light of a set of lights on or off, this would be really cool in my level as players could turn the lights on as they progress up or down each floor, it would be a lot of work though as there are a huge amount of different lights in my level.  Kismet can also be used to adjust the camera angle in UKD, in fact I used this feature to set up the 3^rd person camera in my level.

Matane is also another cool feature in UDK, Matane allows you to create lifts and moving platforms in which you can edit their speed.  I used Matane to create elevators in my level which allowed players to progress from one floor to another.

UDK also features various game elements and match types which all change the main objective.  My original map was a death match which was where all the players would fight to the death throughout my skyscraper, there is also a team death match where the players would be split up into a red team and a blue team and they would battle each other.  I however was intending to change my map to a capture the flag match.  UDK also has game elements like vehicles, armour, ammo and weapons.

High Quality Shadows allows you to create shadows in which you can adjust the sharpness, brightness, shape, size and colour.

Bokeh Depth of Field allows the camera to focus in on a certain object and it will then blur out everything else behind it.

Importing Maya model into UDK

Today I am going to be importing my model that I created in Maya over to UDK.  The model that I created in Maya is a billboard so I defiantly think that it will tie in well with my level.  I also created a colour texture for my billboard.

Player Starts, Path Nodes and Elevators

Today I am going to remove the player starts and path nodes in my level as they are not functioning correctly, I will later add them back in when I add my CTF teams.  Today I also added a new elevator to my level.  Within my level I have a floor with two elevators both going up meaning that the player cannot get back down again.  I deleted one of the elevators and added a new one on the floor above going down.  This now means that the player will easily be able to move up and down from this floor.

CTF Map

Today I began to start creating my map as a CTF map.  I placed flags on the ground outside my skyscraper which will be the red flag and a flag on the podium on the roof of my skyscraper which will be the blue flag.  This now means that both teams will have to make their way up/down the skyscraper and I’m hoping that they clash in the middle to battle it out.

Portal and Skybox

Today I started my changing the locations for two of the portals on my teleport, I did this because I am planning to change my map to a CTF were I would have the red teams flag at the bottom of my skyscraper and the blue teams flag at the top.  Currently the teleport would favour the blue team as it would bring them just one floor away from the red teams flag, by moving it it should balance the fairness.  I also added a skybox today as my level currently doesn’t have one, I chose an sunset sky simply because the I think it would look good with the neon effect of my skyscraper.

Adding Barriers

Something that has always bugged me about my map was that players could waste time running around the outside of my skyscraper, even though there was nothing there.  There were also able to make their way up through the skyscraper and make it to the roof only to fall of and die.  To fix this I have added barriers around the entrance of my skyscraper and around the edge of the roof, now the player will not waste time exploring empty  areas or falling of the roof.

Adding to my Map

Now that I’ve returned from my Easter break I am going to focus on adding extra features to my map and also adding, changing or removing things in my map. I started by adding some walkways to the bottom floor, before I just had a large statue on the bottom floor however it didn’t really provide much cover in such an open space, that’s why I decided to remove it and add the walkways. Now with two different walkways players will have to be careful not to fall down to the floor where there is no cover. I also added a podium on the roof of my skyscraper, I did this as I thought if I were to make my map a CTF map it would be a good place to place a flag.