Unreal Editor Created 15 years ago2009-03-04 00:58:43 UTC by Tetsu0

My classmates and I have become quite fond of playing Unreal Tournament (The original GOTY Edition) in between classes. We thought'd it'd be sweet to make a custom level of something, so i booted up the editor got all the missing ocx files and came to a halt.

The interface is a complete 180 around from hammer, and even the bsp creation is different. Instead of creating blocks in a void, you create a void within a block.

Basically eliminating the possibility of leaks.

Anyway. I was just wondering if anyone used unreal editor at all and could offer some hints.

I tried looking for forums on the matter but none of them seemed as welcoming an atmosphere as the folks here at TWHL.

Until then, i'll continue looking at "wolf's tutorials"

I think The Hunter used GTKRadiant at some point, which as far as I know is built on the same technology or something.

I glanced at it but like you said its the exact opposite to Hammer. Therefore I concluded that it must be the Devil.

Radiant makes me want to kill things.
D:

GtkRadiant has nothing todo with UnrealEd, it's for Q1/Q2/Q3/D3 based games (you could use it for HL if you wanted). They aren't related at all, GtkRadiant was a GTK port of Q3Radiant which is based on QE4 (official Quake II editor). It's actually not too different from Hammer, some of the UI methods differ, but they both export identical MAP files.

UnrealEd is a TOTALLY different beast with different roots and for an engine that's different right down to the fundamentals. I've only tried using it a handful of times and I didn't really like it much, so I can't really offer any advice, I just like correcting people.

I've just started playing UT99 again recently though, and I feel compelled to try UnrealEd again so we'll both be learning if anyone has any hints D:

Heh, I quite often go back to UT:GOTY Edition.

At college we had a gaming club during Wednesday lunch hours. Myself and 3 others were on red and the other 12 were on blue. We won most of the time.

We then became 'The LavaGiants.' and were an active clan for 2 years.

Thats when I tried my hand at mapping for UT. As it happens, another of the guys did too, and created a primitive version of the college itself. I boasted how I could create a much more accurate version using Hammer but the college wouldn't allow us to install Half-Life on the machines.

Hammer doesn't work portable? (Just asking because I've never tried it myself)

I glanced at it but like you said its the exact opposite to Hammer. Therefore I concluded that it must be the Devil.

I must have been locked in a concrete box when Hammer became god, otherwise I would have heard about it earlier.

oh hammer works portable. In-fact, i do most of my mapping off my flash drive. But it's just we play unreal tournament because you can throw 16 bots in there and just have a quick 20 min frag-fest in-between classes.

But i spent a few hours messing with the unreal editor last night, i have basic construction and lighting down, now i just have to get a layout, find out how to make a sky and slap some weapons in there.

The only one thing i really don't like about it is it's camera view.

Left click moves forward and backward, and turns left and right, right click strafes and looks up and down, and both clicks moves up and down and zooms in and out.
It's really weird.

Tried it briefly a very long while ago (5 years?), failed miserably, stopped. Haven't touched it ever since.

Yeah. I haven't figured how to manipulate vertices yet, but as soon as i do figure that out, i can have some serious levels on my hand.

I love the leak-free construction, and it only takes 3 seconds to compile and playtest. (for this crappy learning map i'm making.)

And GTKRaident wasn't too bad. I mean it's no hammer, but using the vertex manipulation, it was impossible to have invalid brushes.

In this case a TWUR\TWU ( The whole Unreal) would be nice

Yeah. So we played my first map today. Just a simple 3 room map with 2 levels and a catwalk to the RL in the middle.
I love how easy it is to play. Depending on what you name the map, that depends on what game type it is. So i named my map DM-Tech, started a server, and when the other kids joined, it auto-downloaded and we just played.

Bot support was automatic, and was flawless.

Hate to say it, but i wish half life was that easy.

Radiant's vertex editor is indeed pretty handy.

/me puts into knowledge database

Another thing about radiant is i couldn't get the .map from radiant to transfer to hammer. Or vice Versa.

but they both export identical MAP files.

So that's false (quoting M0P) Because i tried mapping for a freeware quake game called Nexiuz. It was the same thing as unreal tournament basically.

I stand corrected, Hammer's format is actually slightly different from the standard Quake format (something todo with texture alignment and some additional features from what I've read), though it can read standard Quake maps, naturally. However, according to the changelogs for GtkRadiant, it has supported Valve 220 (it actually says WorldCraft/Hammer format, but assumedly they mean Valve 220) since 2004 (changelogs are your friend).

Seeing as Nexuiz was released in 2005, either you were using a version of GtkRadiant that was a YEAR OUT OF DATE, or you were just plain doing it wrong Perhaps you were trying to export it in Q3's format, which would make Hammer crash if you tried to import it. I haven't used Radiant in a long time and I never tried using it for HL so maybe I'm missing something here, but logically there should be no issue.

If you've ever tried mapping for Serious Sam, you'll find that in some ways to half-life, it sucks, but in others it is really clever.

Been using the UT3 editor, cant say im too fond off it, but atleast it allows BSP creation with adding instead of substraction. Im not quit sure how different it is from the first editor, but if it is the same in anyway, then you can make a block, modify it, and then substract it from the world, au contrait with VHE, which allows you to make a solid, and edit it after creation. The later UT editors also relay heavily on models.

Well you CAN add blocks, so long as you subtracted an area first.
It's like carving a hole in a giant box, then creating smaller boxes inside the one you carved.

And M0P, you make a valid point. I never checked which version of radient i was using, so it could be possible, but those files and editor are long gone off my hard-disc and i really don't feel like tracking everything down just to test that.

Which brings me to my next point/ question/ pregunta.

Is there a way to export .map files (or .vmf files) into a format that 3DS Max can support? (Or on that note can 3DS MAX read .map files?)

I don't have it anymore so i can't see for myself.. But if i can do that, then i can just export a pre-fabricated hammer map from 3DS max, and load it into Unreal Ed. Then alls i would have to do is re-texture and light and place Actors (Entities)

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UBER EDIT

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It works!!!

Here are the instructions for anyone who wants to know.
Take any map you want in hammer, File >> Export as .DXF
Open up 3DS MAX, File >> Import AutoCAD Drawing (*.DXF)

A window will pop up with some settings. The defaults blow, and take every face and inverse it so by trial and error here are the working settings:

[X] Create one scene object for every ADT object
[X] WELD (Keep the weld settings to default)
[X] Unify Normals
[X] Cap Closed Objects

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[X] Include External References

Un-check everything else!! And the other tabs need not be touched.

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EDIT EDIT EDIT

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Even better, you can import a .dxf directly into unreal so long as it contains 500 or less faces. So i don't even need 3ds max as a stepping stone. Instead of importing a map, you import a brush under the brush menu not the file menu. So you might have to split up a map, but you can do it! Woot Woot

Side note. I mentioned before that importing the DXF sometimes caused the faces to be facing the inside, not outside...

Same thing happens when importing to unreal, and the fix for that is grouping the brushes you want exported, scaling them all by a factor of -1 (X, Y, and Z), re-rotating, to align, and you're golden.

Basically you're flipping the faces inside out in hammer so they are orientated correctly upon importation.

/end novel.

Interesting experiment, but still, i think the UT editor isnt that bad, it just takes some time to get used too.

Yeah. What i've been doing is making the basic layout in hammer, subtracting it in unreal, then adding all the minor details.

I took this little three day long class on using Unreal Editor with UT2k4 when I was 13 or so. It was pretty hard to get used to, but I remember Hammer felt ancient after I started getting used to it. With Hammer, something like 85 percent of the faces you make in the mapping process go completely unused and are just deleted in the compile process. It's such an inefficient method of mapping, it's hard to believe a guy like John Carmack thought it was a good idea. Compiles in Unreal Editor are insanely fast. However, I was mostly using boring prefabs, because we didn't have time to go into Maya or whatever and mostly I was having trouble getting used to the interface.

Compiles in Unreal Editor are insanely fast.

The lighting wasn't a part of the compile process. Its not so much compiling as it is "Write geometry info onto a file".

Export as .DXF

Heh, I remember thinking of writing a DXF to MAP converter but never got around to making one. D:

I remember I started mapping for UT 2004. My maps were simple and uninteresting. Plus there was no SP aspect at all, so It got boring until I discovered pawns. then I tried to make a HL-ish SP map series. UnrealEd stopped working around that time... Never did figure out why.
(side note: Be glad you did'nt know me then. I was a MAJOR n00b.)

Just thinking about creating a map in reverse scares and disturbs me deeply.

How can you delete space!

I agree with Urby. UnrealEd is the devil.

EDIT:Reading on... I get it, but still - it's just wrong!

srry, most of the UT3 maps now use the same method hammer uses. The old methods are still supported though.

Yeah. I'm using the one for unreal tournament. The 1999 game.