...and for any mod for that matter.
Really Handy Deus Ex SDK Tutorials Here: Offtopicproductions.com
Do be prepared to move onto Indie development if you ever decide to mod for an Unreal Engine 1 game, like Unreal Tournament or Deus Ex. Learning the skills now and see what works and what doesn't proves worth while, because when you move onto the more powerful and current generation development kits, rendering and building objects will be alot slower and would take more of your time making out what needs to be done.
I've been using Unreal Engine 1 since the days of Unreal Tournament, my mapping abilities where used in Unreal Engine 1 and I have found a way which benefited me to transfer my skills into the Unreal Engine 3 and to some degree, saw some good things come out of it which other modders haven't seen.
With times changing and the Unreal Development Kit released. Is UnrealEd quickly gathering dust?
Some of the benefits of learning to create maps, textures and code in Unreal Engine 1
- It's a great starting point in mapping
- Some of the basic mapping skills can be used in Unreal Development Kit
- It's fast and doesn't take as much resources then the UDK
- It's much more quicker to prototype levels once you know how.
It doesn't mean that I will stop using the Unreal Engine 1. It means that I will slowly move on and explain in detail the benefits of using the skills in the Unreal Engine.
Mapping/Level Design - Building Levels with the UnrealEd Brushes
Once you know how to use these in Unreal Engine 1, you'll be using them in no time in the UDK as they've both the same. I've used the Unreal Engine 3 to know this which allowed me to produce this map, which I was taught during my days in UnrealEd back in early 2000s.
Mapping/Level Design - Placing Objects and Actors
It's pretty much the same. As Epic uses Java and it's inhentice properties in character classes. You can write up code and put them in the game. Once you do this in UnrealEd, you can easily play with the functions in UDK. UDK has loads of functions and they can take time to master. The first UnrealEd may look anicent, but it still simple enough to use to quickly see results. When you enter the UDK, it's the same when you right click and add a light or whatever. it's alot quicker in
Mapping/Level Design - Building Geometry
After a while, you will soon realize you can think ahead when you are building the geometry level. Even if it means coping and pasting the same brush over and over again.
This also means that you have to rebuild the map to make sure it works. I did this in my UT2D_GreenHill map for Unreal Tournament 3 and UT2D mod for that game. If you noticed, the curves on the side of walls was created once and copy and pasted all over again in a short space of time.
At the time, I had to rebuild the entire map and this took me around 20 to 25 minutes to rebuild before testing, it may not sound like alot but compared to mapping for a game on the Unreal Engine 1, it was short to around 4 or 10 minutes for me to rebuild a map, which just happened to be much bigger in size then the map I created in Unreal Tournament 3.
Textures
Making Textures is easy enough. UnrealEd just allows you to use one texture. It allows uses the old fashion way in making animations frame by frame.
UDK improved it however animations are different and making textures (or materials) are allow different and takes a long time due to industry advancements in making and rendering graphics. At least you'll be able to see alot faster what it looks like in a first UnrealEd game.
For any mod, it allows you to quickly produce something to see the public reactions to see how much of a good modder you are before moving onto Indie development.
When you master that skill, you wouldn't be thinking so much how to make good levels in the UDK or any other indie software because at least you will have the experience knowing what goes into a good level or game.
Setting properties
The UDK also has this feature, it allows you to quickly see the features the object or surface has and change them accordingly in the game. It's really quick and easy. Using this now is useful because in the UDK, it has loads more features to explore. It's better to learn how to use SOME features because when you get into the UDK, you will have to slowly explore each feature to see what it does and most of them, you wouldn't really need unless you really want too to build a basic level unless you like that sort of thing.
That pretty much sums it up. I will post more on the way if I have too.
