Bonesnap

If anyone has read my previous post you’ll see my feelings toward the whole ‘twilight’ saga.

While reading some posting from a twilight bashing thread I stumbled across this picture.

Total Greatness!

How Twilight should have ended.

“Take the busss!”

That saying will be in my head forever. 

A few weeks ago the wife, myself, and some friends went to Cancun for some fun in the sun. I never been and I have to say, I enjoyed myself.

So after a few days of soaking up the sun the crew got wind of a flea market down town. We all change clothes and meet at the front of the hotel to finalize our game plan.

There are always folks hanging around the entrance to the hotel to catch rides to the airport or other locations in the city. When the crew all showed up, I asked “How do we get there?”

Buddy of mine said, “Clerk said it wasn’t far down. We’ll just walk.”

That’s when an older lady who was leaning up against the wall piped up: “NO! Take the bussss. You will take the bus! It’s a long walk. Take the bussss.”

It was like my creepy 4^th grade teacher scolding me for thinking on my own. So we walked to the bus stop and caught the bus. The lady was right, it was a long walk. But the whole day I couldn’t get her saying out of my mind.

“Take the busss” I started saying in the deepest scratchiest voice I could muster. We made it to the flea market and back to the hotel. The whole time I was picturing this old hag in a b-class horror movie telling wary travelers “Take the bussss” and they would be carted off. Never to be seen again.

So, every morning when my kid gets up to go to school I tell him “Get on the bussss” .

I find it funny. However, that’ s just me.

So, you’re new to the UDK and you start building your levels. You’re done adding all the bells and whistles and click on the build button. You get the cryptic “No Importance Volume Found” error below.  

Lightmassimportancevolume build error

If you were like me you where totally lost on what it was referring too. 

That error is in reference to calculating “light” in the current level. In essence an “importance volume” is a container that holds everything in your level. This way when the system goes to calculate light it knows the ‘boundaries’ of where the light is actually going to be seen/not seen. 

When the volume is not defined the system has to calculate the light for everyone in the ENTIRE viewport. Needless to say, it massive so it just throws an error. 

Here is how to add the importance volume. 

Right click on the Volume Buttom. 

Volume Button

Next, click the add “LightMassImportanceVolume” selection. 

LightMassImportanceVolume

It should automatically enclose your scene. If not you can change the size of it. 

Adding the Light Mass

Now rebuild and your error should be gone. 

Rebuilding with a Importance Volume

Now that a few weeks have went by, I managed to do a little playing around with the UDK. First, I have to say this software is out of this world!

I have some good news and bad news. The good news is this tool provides just about everything you need to create some really awesome stuff in a 3D environment.

The bad news is, if your looking to make a fully functional game all by yourself, it will take years!

With that out of the way, let’s move on into my analysis of the software. Most of my experience with software was always OTJ. I’d just install it and start working with it and a lot of functionality was intuitive. In my experience the UDK is not that way. If it wasn’t for books and online tutorials then I’d still be totally lost.

Take for example this interface:

It can be overbearing.

So, for the first week I started watching and duplicating what I seen in these videos: http://download.udk.com/tutorials/using-udk/user_interface.zip

There are 34 videos that cover nothing but  the UI. However, upon completing the videos I still was lost on some aspects. It is because all of those videos just barely scratched the surface of the Unreal.

I went ahead and bought the following book off of Amazon:

Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3

This book is huge! However, don’t let the size fool you. It’s a step by step guide to level creating and it’s pretty good. However, for the more advanced stuff you’ll be forced to buy volume 2 and 3. There is one issue I had with the book. The UDK is updated monthly and is evolving as it does. The book references way to access functions and assets that no longer exist in the UDK. So, I spent time trying to figure out processes on my own.

I will say, that is good thing in a way because it forced me to learn the UDK.

The biggest pointer I can give out is just create levels. The UI is weird and hard to get used too and the best to over come this is just constantly create levels.

I’m not sure what my path is with this tool but either way it has been quite intriguing on my journey.

I’ll post some level updates and videos in the near future.