Unreal Editor Maximum [unrealism.com/unrealedmax]

MOVING DECORATIONS AND ATTACH MOVERS

INTRODUCTION

This tutorial will deal with how to make certain preconfigured decorations like the escape pod and cars move. It will also provide in-depth instructions on how to make use of the attach mover. Since this is my first tutorial its probably not up to the mark so bear with me.

NOTE: To make your own custom boats, fighters and have them move in a realistic way read my miscellaneous keypoints tutorial on this site.

STEPS INVOLVED

1. First create a cube 5000x1024x1024 -can be how much ever you want but make the height quite large, choose a texture and subtract the brush. This we will call the "pod room".
2. Change the cube properties to 256x256x512 (or whatever :)) and place it next to the pod room so that both are connected and subtract it so that both these rooms become connected.
3. Create a very basic Skybox 1024x1024x1024 place lights and a SkyZoneInfo from under Info|ZoneInfo . Also set the surface properties of the top of the pod room to fake backdrop.
4. From the drop down menu on the right choose classes. Expand decoration then choose escape pod and add one into the pod room. Make sure it rests on the floor and is in the middle of this room.
5. IMP: Expand Triggers and add in a plain Trigger (probably in the first room). Change its event under Advanced Properties|Events to podpath(or whatever). Still under its properties expand trigger and set bTriggeroneOnly to true so that the event doesn't keep happening. Of note here is the fact that nearly, any other actor that you add into the world be it a mover or an earthquake or explosions the tag will most likely be podpath. This means that once you hit the trigger all these events take place simultaneously the pod launches (coming to that in a moment), walls explode, there are explosions, sounds, etc. all happening at the same time.
6. At this point you're probably wondering how the hell do you launch this damn pod into space anyway (otherwise u wouldn't be reading this tutorial, right?) . Well this ones secret is something called the Attach Mover. I could probably explain it here, but there would be no point as the Epic guys have given a much better explanation than I ever could. After selecting classes from the pull down menu on the right expand brush then mover - yippee! finally getting to use that one (which I never did before using the pod). You should see various types of movers, double-click Attach Mover and when the Unreal Script box opens see the note written in green. You may also be wondering why I didn't just copy and paste it here but check out what it says on the bottom of this page. That should explain what the darn attach movers do.
7. Ok next build a cube really small like 5x5x5 rotate and intersect it so that only a small triangle is left and place it just below the pod. Make sure its totally in the pod room. With attach mover still selected under classes hit the mover button(6th on 3rd column). Got to its advanced properties and its title should be attach mover. Set its advanced properties to the following:
Events|Tag to podpath so that the trigger and mover are connected; you should also set Mover|bTriggerOnceOnly to true and use sounds under mover sounds. Under mover you also need to set movetime to around 20 or higher; NumKeys to around 6 (note NumKeys not KeyNums that another option altogether); I also set the stay open time to an impossibly high number like 99999999 or something. Under attach mover set AttachTag to EscapePod which is the default tag of the pod. Expand Object and change InitialState to Trigger Opened Timed.
Now under the pods properties it must be Events|Tag - EscapePod and under Mover|AttachTag set the value again to EscapePod, you have to do this or it probably wont work.
8. Ok we'll go back to the pod in a minute before that I just set a lot of effects. Some are located under Effects - explosion chain (I set around 10 and placed them around the room); earthquake (under keypoint) ; smoke generator (under keypoint); TriggeredDynamicAmbientSound (under keypoint) and set every one of their "tag" under events to pod. I left their default settings in place (for the earthquake I used the quake sounds from AmbOutside under Sond|Ambient Sounds. Phew! that one little trigger dude controls virtually everything.
9. Make a skybox 1024x1024x1024 (just use a night texture) off to the side and then place a skyzoneinfo from Info|Zoneinfo.
10. Back to the pod now. I built a cylinder right at the top of the pod room and subtracted. We are going to show the pod moving up and then entering the cylinder. If you learn how to do that you should be able to make the pod do any convoluted movements that you want it to do and I need'nt explain. The pod moves along with the attach mover so when we set the key frames of the attach mover the pod will move along with it. Of course you can see this only in the game. Right click and go to mover key frame and set key 1 to the end of the height of the pod room. Now by right-clicking the attach mover go to mover keyframe and hit Key 2, when you hit this it should move back to the starting point and that's normal. We need to set the "second phase" of movement from there so to speak. I did this by rotating the attach mover in one of the side views. I then again hit mover|mover keyframes and key 3 and set the attach mover at the outside of the tunnel and the level. I also set the surface properties of the end of the tunnel to fake backdrop. After this you should now be able to make the pod go through any kind of motions and any amount of twists and turns.

12. INTERPOLATION POINTS
NOTE: Read the interpol tutorial for more information.

That's it rebuild and enjoy.

UNREAL TOURNAMENT NOTE:

There is no need to confine yourself to the Escape Pod. Under decorations you will find cars and fighters which use the same technique. Cars are used in the opening sequence of UT and the fighters are used in DM-HyperBlast. To use them do as you would with the escape pod and the attach mover. A cool thing that you can do with this is to place fighters in your SkyBox and use the attach mover to send them across in end assault sequences, etc.