Dev'ing for Source is tedious

[YokaI]

UDK is a complicated behemoth and still just too awkward for me to use.

UDK is interesting, because it's awkward when moving from the bsp format to the modular mapping style that UDK uses instead. In many ways, modular mapping is far superior. I'm working on a few video tutorials about switching to the UDK engine from the source engine or other BSP based editors.

The source engine mapping tools are streamlined and I love using the tool to work , but everything else (animations, models, textures, particles, etc) has a very fractured work flow and because of this I think the Source engine has failed as a middle ware tool. It is unarguable that valve is probably assessing the fact that very few studios have chosen to license to engine for their own games, and I can only think of 2 games off the top of my head which did use the engine. (Some game involving witchcraft and zeno clash.)

Having said all of this, I think all valve would need to use is make GUI compilers for textured assets / models, make a seperate .exe for the particle editor, and make sure that all compiling tools they make are listed on the Source SDK tools list. The problem for most new users of Valve Hammer is that integrating assets is far too complicated and, ultimately, not worth some of the effort. Because of this, mappers tend to not push the boundaries with their map themes.

These issues of importing my own content and how much of a hassle it was made me transfer my future work to UDK.

[Saxon]

Some video tutorials showing how to make the jump to UDK would be much appreciated

[jister]

we had this discussion a couple of times before on lopers.

IT WOULD BE VERY EXTREMELY HUGELY APPRECIATED IF LOPERS STARTED A "SUB"? FORUM ON UDK.

UDK is easy! much more easy then source (the basics that is, getting some real eye-candy done is difficult in all engines)

hmm why is UDK so much easier then SOURCE. because modular level design doesn't make all the enjoying mistakes a brush makes, because you don't have to mess with vft, vmt, qc or any of the bridge formats between 3rd party software and the engine. much like Max or Maya you have a build in material editor. and lots more of these things.

there are some real nice tuts out by eat3d and gnomon even one made by the talented dutch mister Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong

I learnt the bulk of UDK in about 1week. get yourself to start making one simple level and you'll see what a bliss it is...

anyway what I'm still missing is a community site like Lopers is for source. and would be most at ease (and i guess a lot of you agree) if that community site would be part of lopers... because this feels like home and i don't wanna leave it!

[source-maps]

I agree 100% jis
I would love an udk sub forum

[skoften]

there are some real nice tuts out by eat3d and gnomon even one made by the talented dutch mister Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong

I agree 32.5% because Hourences is not from Holland but Belgium And i don't think Interlopers needs a sub-forum for UDK related stuff. There are a lot of resources already on the subject and it just seems like an excuse for the people to stay on this website rather than switching or having to go to 2 communities and are too lazy for that. This is a Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials website.

[Sorrow]

UDK Subforum go!

I'm no expert but I know of a few neat tricks in the UDK that I'd be able to share.

[jister]

there are some real nice tuts out by eat3d and gnomon even one made by the talented dutch mister Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong

I agree 32.5% because Hourences is not from Holland but Belgium And i don't think Interlopers needs a sub-forum for UDK related stuff. There are a lot of resources already on the subject and it just seems like an excuse for the people to stay on this website rather than switching or having to go to 2 communities and are too lazy for that. This is a Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials website.

hmmm dunno about that sjoerd de jong sound 100% Dutch...?

anyway it's not that i.e. I am to lazy to visit other sites, i do have a few other i visit regular. It just I came to trust the interlopers folks, i just feels right to keep coming here. I totally don't feel that way going to http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=366 for example...

I learned everything i know about game modding here and this is also the first place i go to, to share tutorials or models.

so laziness has little to do with it. Quality on the other hand has everything to do with it.

again and i don't wanna kiss ass, but Interlopers is just the best "game dev" forum out there. why not mùake it even better?

[skoften]

I wouldn't have anything against having an UDK subforum. But yeah, I get all my theoratical info from the Eat3D videos and the official UDK (video) tutorials. For more personal help i reside to #unrealed @ quakenet.org. Lovly folks there always in the mood to bash Source. I just don't think its needed on a hl2 forum

[Mr. Happy]

Setting up visgroups are a waste of time sometimes, and that was just a simple example. A portal level I made had some areas with dozens of things occupying the same location and often many of them were semi-invisible in hammer (brushes with complex or transparent shaders and such)


UnrealEd is pretty cool but the camera and brush controls are simply retarted, not to mention the nature of their bsp system. I'd rather have to fiddle with hints and area portals and build my level out of stuff than carve my level out of nothingness.

[Sorrow]

You don't have to carve your level anymore, there's been an "Additive" (like Source) mode since UT 3...

[marks]

imo Spark, with UDK's material editor = easiest/most powerful engine for an artist to use, ever. I'm just gonna throw that one out there.

[trcc]

The only two things that really annoy me about Hammer are the lack of a visual scripting interface and that as a level gets more and more complicated you start getting things stacked on to each other and you have to spend alot of time positioning the camera just so to select what you want. Look at making a spawn room in TF2 for example, you've got the visualizer brush, the door brush, the respawn room brush and the door model all in the same place and it can be really difficult to select the right one.

When you have multiple objects/brushes/whatever, just select one and hit page up/page down to cycle through the overlaying objects. You can also achieve the same thing by pressing and holding left mouse button until you get the good object/prop/brush/whatever you want to select.

[Psy]

UnrealEd is pretty cool but the camera and brush controls are simply retarted...

You can use WASD to control the camera in the UDK just like in Hammer.

[joe_rogers_11155]

This is a Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials website.

What if I made a mod in UDK that was set in the Half-Life 2 universe?

HUH?? WHAT THEN!?

You can use WASD to control the camera in the UDK just like in Hammer.

Can you tell me how to do this please? I may have stumbled over it or something but I can't seem to figure it out...

(And then Psy puts up a tutorial on Lopers titled "Getting WASD Camera Controls In UDK" and the UDK sub-forum is BORN. Oh noes.)

[theCommie]

For those interested in learning the UDK, and oblivious enough not to notice that they were in the documentation:

3D Buzz Video Tutorials - Using UDK

Extremely thorough and easy to understand; taught me everything in the span of a couple of days.