GENERAL EDITING TIPS FOR UNREALED2

PART II

"Machismo"
E-Mail:- cool_machismo@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

This is a continuation of General Editing Tips Part I. Very essential info but not deserving of a separate tutorial. Its actually just a rambling on various topics of interest ;). This tutorial is subdivided into:

• Directional Sky Boxes

• Movers That Go From Top to Bottom

• Display Properties - Mesh Environment, etc....

• Level Brightness

DIRECTIONAL SKYBOXES

A directional skybox is just a skybox that has the SkyZoneInfo Actor that it contains with the directional value set to true. when you place a skybox in the level it defaults to the engine default and you go around adding in the brushes relative to this position. But if you want the skybox to point to one particular part - say the coolest parts is not viewable from a particular part of the level like a window and you want to get it to appear there. Go to the sky zone info actors properties and under advanced set bDirectional to true. All you need to do is go to the top view and when you select the sky zone info you'll get a little pointy arrow. Now just rotate it and position the skybox from the 3d view in the direction that you want it to show.

Before bDirectional
After bDirectional

MOVERS THAT GO FROM TOP TO BOTTOM [BOT AI]

Bots always seem to have a difficult time handling movers that go from top to bottom. This is why nearly 75% of the maps will have movers that only go from the bottom to top and not vice versa. To fix this all you really need to do is use the attach mover. Here's how:-

• Make the mover and intersect it and place the builder brush wherever you want it to go in the level. Instead of hitting the mover button directly, right click and in the various types of movers that you get just hit attach mover and it will add an attach mover to your level.
  

• Now set the attach movers properties like this:
  

• Place a normal lift center at the center of the lift only this time it will be at the top. Also set its properties like this:-
  

• Now place the lift exits in the normal fashion and set the lift exit properties >lift exit > lift tag. Rebuild and watch the bots take to this kinda lift like they take to the others.
  

DISPLAY PROPERTIES

• Cool Reflections - Just set the following of any of the pre-made decoration under display to - bMeshEnviroMap to True and Style to STY_Translucent. What do you get for your efforts is more reflections than you can chew:-
  

• Another way to get at them lens flare (sic) is to set it to the following :-
  
  texture = the necessary flare texture and style to translucent.

LEVEL BRIGHTNESS

The easiest way to pump up the overall brightness of a level is to go to the level properties (F6) and set the value in LevelInfo > Brightness. This is very useful when you find that after you have finished lighting a level its to dark and you cant be bothered to  go around changing the value of all the lights again.

Another way to pump up the level brightness or to just suffuse an entire level with color is to use Zone Lighting. NEVER USE THIS unless u have just no other alternative. The disadvantage of this kinda lighting is that you can see the area in which one zone ends and the next begins. But its cool to use it in say a very small arena style maps where there is not even a single zone sheet (Rocket Arena: UT style that is). Once you have completely zone off the level place a zone info actor in the level and under zone info >zone light you'll find all the lighting values. Like I said above everyone says that zone lighting is a very blah effect. Don't use it if u cant help it.

While play testing your map and the lighting is not all done, if you find that some places are too dark to even look at and inspect the geometry you can turn off lighting in this way. Something like Half-Life's r_fullbright. Pull down the console(~) and type preferences and hit enter in the dialog box that opens under display you'll find an entry called NoLighting turn it to true. This value remains constant for both UT and the editor.

YAWWWWWWn .............. :00). This was a blah tutorial and before I die of boredom I better go to sleep. Questions? - email me cool_machismo@yahoo.com. Ciao.

TO BE CONTINUED................. (will be updated with more info in the future see ya then :).