Lab 1

Summary

In this first lab we will be creating a simple indoor level with UDK. You will also populate this level with items using the content browser and select textures for your surfaces

Learning Outcomes

  • navigate the unreal editor
  • learn to work with orthographic and perspective view ports
  • create geometry with BSP brushes
  • create lighting effects
  • add assets such as materials and meshes
  • build and test a simple level

Instructions

In this first level you will create a simple indoor level with UDK.

Your level must have the following properties:

  • Must be have at least 3 rooms connected by hallways
  • 1 room must be non-box shaped
  • 1 stair case must be present to connect any of the two rooms
  • lights must exist so that level can be seen when walked through

One way that such a level can be built is to follow the following instructions (you are welcome to deviate from these instructions as long as you meet the requirements of the lab). In all cases, do not use the "hollow" setting to your brush. Its actually somewhat easier to just use solid brushes.

  • Start by creating a block of solid to carve your level out.
    • box shaped builder brush with the following dimensions: 2048 width, 2048 length, 1024 height
    • next hit the add button, this will create a big block of solid out of which you will carve your level
  • check out what happens when you change between lit to unlit in your perspective view
  • Build a room towards the left side of the solid.
    • using the box tool create a box builder brush with the following dimensions, 512 length, 512 width, 256 height position this into the big block of solid.
    • using the top view, place this box so that it is near the bottom left corner but do not let it get too close or you will create a hole in your room.
  • using either the front or side view, ensure that there is at least 512 units between the top of the solid and the ceiling
    • Use the orthographic views to ensure that it is entirely inside the solid cube (red builder brush should be inside the blue brush in 2 different orthographic view ports).
    • hit the intersect button (if you did it right in the previous step, nothing will happen as your brush will not be intersecting empty space).
    • Hit the subtract button to carve out your room
  • Build a circular shaped room as your second room.
    • Using the builder brush create a cylinder height: 512, radius: 256
    • Using the top view orthographic view port place this cylinder to the right of the rectangular room
    • Using the front view orthographic port, ensure that the bottom of the two rooms are aligned
    • hit intersect then subtract
  • build a hallway connecting the two rooms
    • measure the distance between the two rooms, you don't have to be too exact about it as there is a neat trick to getting precise hallways. To measure, use the middle mouse button and drag from one point to another. it will give you the distance between the points
    • create a box with a height of 256, width of 256 and length that is slightly larger (say 50 units) than the distance between the two nearest walls of the rooms. Note that you may need to switch length and width parameters if the hall way is going the wrong way.
    • align the floor of the hallway with the floor of the two rooms.
    • place the hallway so that it is between the two rooms, note that it will stick into both rooms a little at this point
    • hit the intersect button, notice how the brush will change so that it fits perfectly between the room
    • hit the subtract button to create the hallway.
  • build another room rectangular room directly to the "north" of the first room. dimensions for this room is 512 length, 512 width, 256 height
    • Using the front or side view, place this room so that the floor is 256 units higher up than the floor for the first room. Ensure also that it is at least 512 units away from the first room (as measured from the two walls nearest to each other
    • build this room like the others
  • connect the rooms No matter what you will need to put stairs into your level to connect the rooms and they are a bit tricky because remember that you are carving out space from solid. So its not stairs that you are building, but rather the space above the stairs. To build stairs, do the following:
    • the default height for stairs is 16 units, you should keep this for now
    • the number of steps is equal the distance between the two floors/16. If your room is 256 units above, then it is 256/16 making it 16 steps.
    • Add 256 units to the first step. this will create space above the landing.
    • if you did this right, your brush will look like stairs that have been raised. flip the stairs upside down, align the top step to the floor of the higher up room. move it into place. You may need to rotate your stairs to do this and it is easiest in the orthographic ports
    • as usual, it intersect and subtract to carve out the space above the stairs
  • create a hallway between bottom of stairs to bottom room.
  • add lights:
    • right click to the place you want a light, and a context menu should pop up, choose actor-> point light. This puts a light into your level, manipulate it into position.
    • repeat for multiple lights so that you can see everything
  • add assets:
    • go into the content browser to find a material for your wall. (you can limit your search for this). select it.
    • right click on the surface you wish to apply the material to. If you want to use the same material on other walls, you can either ctrl-click select more than one surface, or you can use one of the selection tools from the context menu.
    • choose to apply the texture.
    • To modify how the material is applied, you can right click on the surface and bring up the properties.
    • You can apply static meshes in exactly the same manner. Select a static mesh to make it show up in your context menu. Right click on where you would like to put it. Adjust it into the correct position.
  • build the geometry and lights
    • there is a button in the menu at the top that has a lightbulb and a cube which should say build geometry and lighting
    • right click into level and choose play from here.