MyLevel And Level Properties

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

INTRODUCTION

This tutorial will show you how to take a screenshot and import it in your level so that you can get it to show up in the practice/mp menu within Unreal Tournament.

MYLEVEL SCREENSHOT

• Fire up UT. Now remove the HUD and the weapon hand from the options menu. Load your level without bots. Use F11 to set an appropriate brightness for your level. Now fly around your level (uh pull down the console and type fly ...... just in case :). Go to an appropriate part of the level that you like and hit F9 to take a screenshot. This will be placed in your ../ Unreal Tournament/ System directory. The screenshots are numbered consecutively as shot000.bmp, shotoo1.bmp and so on.

• Now open the image in your favorite graphics program. I use www.jasc.com 's Paint Shop Pro 7. Now use the crop tool to make your image a nice square. If you run UT in say 1280x1024 screen resolution crop the image to 1024x1024 (in PSP7 look at the third set of points in the status bar it gives you an accurate reading of the size of the area of the crop).

• Now resize the image to 256x256 use image > resize menu. Now decrease color depth (in PSP7 it is colors > decrease color depth menu) to 256 colors. Save your image as Screenshot.pcx in a known location. In the save as dialog box, below the save button, in options make sure Version5 is checked.

• Now fire up your level in UnrealEd2 and open the texture browser. Hit the File > Import Menu and select the image (screenshot.pcx) that you saved in the previous step. Hit Ok and in the dialog box that opens you need to set it exactly like the following:-
  
  Now hit Ok in this dialog box and the texture browser should automatically jump to the MyLevel package.

• Now the MyLevel package should look similar to this:-
  
  What the other images are doing there is explained later on. For now just select the screenshot texture.

• Now its just time to assign the levels screenshot. Go to the view menu > level properties or right click anywhere on any of the 2d views and hit level properties or F6. In the dialog box you'll need to set the following:- 
  
  Since you have already selected the level screenshot all you need to do is to hit the little use button in the screenshot feild. Put your name as you want it to appear in the start practise dialog box. The brightness determines the overall brightness of the level - it is only very rarely that you will need to change this feild. Ideal player count and the Title are self explanatory feilds.

  •  The deafult game type determines what type of game it is - CTF,DM, AS, etc. To set this in the actor browser select the following:-
    
    If it a death match game select DeathMatchPlus. Now just hit the use button in the Default Game Type field.

  • To set the background level music you just need to put your favorite music track in the song section. Load it in the music browser and then hit the little use button.

• Now all you need to do is fire up Unreal Tournament and select you map in the start practice session dialog box:
  

There you have it the level in all its glory.

GENERAL NOTES

The MyLevel package is a very useful one. It allows you to import textures directly into your level. It precludes the necessity of having to distribute separate .UTX files - since the textures are already stored within your level. Its just plainly more convenient, but be warned though it can be buggy at times. Questions? - email me cool_machismo@yahoo.com. Ciao.