Topic Requests
From RoboBlitz Editor Wiki
Is there something you're dieing to know about the RoboBlitz editor? Totally confused about something? Or maybe you've noticed a massive difference between the RoboBlitz Editor and other Unreal Editors. If so, throw a description of what you want to know on this page and hopefully someone will post the answers you're looking for.
If you're looking for something to write about, here's a good place to start, or check the Special:Wantedpages for pages that people have linked to, but haven't been written yet (it's probably a good idea to check there before creating a new page, incase links to your topic already exist).
Unanswered Requests
Static mesh lighting
I'm having trouble with the lighting on the surfaces of custom static meshes (imported from 3dsMax9) . It looks like the lighting is trying to smooth between polys that are in the same plane. It results in strange shadows that follow the polygon edges on the surfaces of the mesh. It dosn't seem to be so obvious on 3d curving surfaces.
Importing animated geometry (non-characters) into U3
I would very much appreciate a tutorial on how to get my animated static meshes (which I guess technically arn't static anymore) in the game. I have no problem getting the meshes themselves into the engine, but animated meshes are a whole other matter. ActorX doesn't listen to me when I tell it to do things.
custom player
is creation of non robot player (more traditional fps control) possible? if so, how easy is this to implement?
Partial Answer: Solid Snake has a mod of RoboBlitz that uses non-robot players. Try to search BeyondUnreal.com or google for it.
exploding barrels
How do you make exploding objects, such as barrels?
RoboBlitz Terrain Editing
-basic tutorial on terrain editing in RB -features/limitations/changes made to RB edition of UE3 terrain editor
Work In Progress Answer: Terrain
Do's and Dont's for map optimization
-In UE2 it was necessary to use techniques, such as zoning and anti-portals, to occlude unseen geometry for performance reasons. This was one of many necessary things to ensure the best performance for your level. What are all the neccesary performance optimizations in UE3 and what should you avoid when building a level? Please include information regarding BSP, meshes, and lighting. Pretty much anything that could come up when designing a level if possible. Thanks.
Along the same lines as above, I'm wondering about how the engine handles BSP for optimisation.
With varying levels of addition and subtraction brushes, I'm wondering how will it's handeled
Importing custom content
-Could you go over all the do and dont's of importing your own custom meshes and making shaders and materials. I would also like to know more about putting in your custom characters in the game.
Partial Answer: Importing Static Mesh Tutorial
Materials
-Explanations of Diffuse, Emissive etc.
Diffuse
- Essentially the "color" of the object. You can think of this as the object's paint job, even though it may also be the object's inherenet color.
Emissive
- The color the object emits (glows, radiates, etc), such as a light bulb shines a bright yellow. Note that values can be greater than 1.0 ('full' color). Refer to information on high dynamic range lighting for what this means.
Specular
- The "shine" color of an object. Technically speaking this is the reflected color. Plastics always have a specular of white (1.0,1.0,1.0). A metal's specular will be the color it reflects (eg, gold will have something like {1.0,.7,.1} specular and {0,0,0} for its diffuse, as a metal's color primarily comes from it's reflected color, or specular)
SpecularPower
- Essentially the glossiness of the object. Matte objects will have a specular of 0, whereas very very shiny objects (such as a lacquered billiards ball) will have a high specular power (say, 64).
Opacity
- The transparency of the object, or the amount you can see through it. An opacity of 0 is fully transparent, or completely see-through, and a value of 1 is fully opaque, eg completely solid.
Distortion
- This gives the material refraction, which is the distortion that happens when you look at something in or behind liquids like water or certain other materials like crystals.
TransmissionMask
- This determines how transmissive a particular part of the material is. The more transmissive, the more light that shines through the material.
TransmissionColor
- The color the object transmits. Transmission is used for sub-surface scattering. When light shines behind a transmissive material, some light penetrates and makes the material glow. This is the effect you get from putting a flashlight under your hand. Sub-surface scattering also affects direct light to some extent. Use it for materials like skin and milk.
Normal
- This alters the assumed angle at the current point in the material. This is for normal mapping purposes. Modifying the normal alters light and shadow calculations to make it appear that the object has more geometry than it really does.
RealmRPGer 19:13, 19 July 2007 (PDT)
-Explanations of all the BlendModes and LightingModels like MLM_Phong and MLM_NonDirectional etc.
-Explinations of what the colored tabs are would be useful for experimentation.
Black = All color channels (but not the alpha channel)
Red = Red channel only
Green = Green channel only
Blue = Blue channel only
White = Alpha channel
-How about Opacity? I've tried importing maps with opacity and linking their alpha to the material's opacity.
I've also tried bringing in a separate map and linking that to the opacity
Neither work. :(
Answer: You need to set the shader to use alpha-blending (under BlendMode at the bottom, set it to modulate to get the effect you're looking for)
RealmRPGer 19:13, 19 July 2007 (PDT)
-How do I generate a normal map for a material?
If you have photoshop you can use the Nvidia normal map plugin.
Another option is to use a program called CrazyBump.
Overview of INI files and their Flags
2D Shape Editor
-Still useful? If so, basic use (vertices are not in the 2D editor window).
Creating Collision
- Collision for complex model mesh
- I have a complex piece of level mesh I created in Max. What is the best practice for making collision for this? Would it be best to break the level mesh into individual components and assemble it in the editor?
You can create collision in 3D Max by giving the collision mesh name the prefix "UCX_". If I had a object called "desk" I would name its collision mesh "UCX_desk". Note that the collision name does not have to be the same as the object name. When exporting select both the object and the collision mesh and export selected as a .ase file type.
Depending on how complex your mesh is you may want to break it in to several parts.
Answered Requests
RoboBlitz RTS
-How do I make a RoboBlitz Real-Time Strategy Total Conversion?
RE: modifying RB to this extent will take large ammounts of scripting and Coding. You'll need to be a Genius with Kismet, and pretty darn good at C++
- Solid Snake: Wrong. You just need to be very good with Unrealscript. I could do this without using Kismet + C++.
-Is there a way to include infantry units and a minimap?
RE: If your talking about spawning Bot's, yes, otherwise see the answer above...
RE: As far as a mini map, It may be possible through Kismet, but it would be more akin to UT2004's Onslaught mini-map, and unlike a StarCraft/Warcraft mini-map.
- Solid Snake: Nah, you just need to be good with Unrealscript. I wouldn't bother doing this with Kismet.
Physics
-Altering weight of materials/static meshes.
Answer: Physical Materials
Materials
-How do I add 2 seperate materials to 1 static mesh object?
Answer: When you assign the materials in Max and export the object. The editor knows that their are different material "elements" and will allow you do define seperate unreal materials for these elements.
- This definitely works using 3DS Max. Assign a Multi-Sub Object material to your mesh in the 3D application. Assign material ID's/materials to specific faces. When exported into Roboblitz, the editor will recognize the seperate material elements for that mesh.
Collision via brushes
-Is there a way to create invisible collision using the editor's brush?
Answer: Use blocking volumes, they're pretty much the same as they were in UE2. Place them like any other volume
Trouble Shoot
- Stuff not appearing
- In my level all of my objects appear fine in the orthographic views, but all of my static meshes and spawnpoints don't appear in the perspective view. My invisible static meshes will then display as normal when I run the game. Do you guys know what's up?
Answer: You have something hidden in that viewport. Try one of the Editor Hotkeys, or click the down arrow above the viewport and select what you want to show manually.
How to launch a custom level with specific ini changes
After RoboBlitz is running hit tab and type open <Map Name> and hit enter. OR: Run RoboBlitz with the map as a command line argument. More detailed instructions here
RoboBlitz Pickups
How to add the following pickups in the editor:
- Upgradium
- Health and Energy
- P2P gun
- other items
Sounds like a cool topic for a tutorial. It might take me a week or so but I'll try finding time to write one which I shall put into Pickups Tutorial.
I've started the tutorial but I still haven't addressed things like the gun. Hope it helps.
Static Mesh Conversion
Argh! I created my static meshes using lean static meshes but I want standard static mesh physics now. Is there a way to replace this without replacing the object (ie replace the physics behaviour)?
I've found that just noting down the co-ordinates, rotation and draw scale is tedious but did the job. Guess it is just a good lesson for me in paying attention to the objects I'm using in the first place.
Spam Issues
Looks like we are still getting much spam. Part of this seems to be the fact that we can use the side edit links to edit even though we aren't logged in (like I'm doing now). Actually it's worse than that as I can use index.php?title=<Title>&action=edit to edit any document not logged in, presumably this is what the SpamBots are using. See [1] with advice on combating spam in MediaWiki. Otherwise there seems to be someone also generating accounts that we'd need to stop as well. Not sure if you can put in a Capatcha thing or something as well.
Answer: Accounts should be required for real this time. Also, added a Captcha to the sign up page. I'm in the process of purging old spambot accounts.
