Design Post Update: Engine

Showing posts with label Engine. Show all posts

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Read How to create swimmable water in UE4 Now

SmartGirl Engine , game creation

In this tutorial I will show you how to create water that your character can swim in.

Step 1: Adding in BSP Brush

To create water we first need somewhere to put it, so I am going to drag out a box.

BSP box brush.

Step 2: Creating and resizing subtractive brush

Then duplicate that box and change the brush type to subtractive. To duplicate the box you can go to the scene outliner panel, right click on the box and go to edit and select duplicate.

Box brush in scene outliner.

To change the brush type, go to the details panel, under brush setting. Where is says brush type click and select subtractive from the drop down bar.

Brush settings - Additive

Resize this box to create a hole in the first box, this is where we can put the water. You can resize the box in the details panel under transform, just so it’s a bit smaller than the other box.

Transform options.

Step 3: Adding physics volume

Go to the modes panel, in placement mode. Select volumes, scroll down until you see “physics volume”. Drag in a physics volumes, make it a little bigger than the subtractive box.

Physics volume.

On the details panel under character movement tick the box beside water volume, and under volume tick the box beside physics on contact.

Water volume and physics on contact location on details panel.

Step 4: Adding in post process volume

Now duplicate the physics volume, and in the details panel under actor go to convert actor and in the drop down select “PostProcessVolume”.

Convert actor.

In the details panel, under scene colour make sure to tick the first three boxes. Beside scene colour tick that box and then double click the space beside it and you can change the colour to a shade of blue, this just makes it look like you are under water when you are in play mode.

Scene colour options.

Step 5: Creating water surface

To add the water drag out another box, and this time add a material to it. To apply a material to the box, select it. Go to the details panel under brush setting and extend the tab, select create static mesh.

Create static mesh.

When you click this the select path screen opens, you name the static mesh and then click create static mesh.

Name and create static mesh.

Go to the content browser, extend starter content and click materials. Then search water in the search bar. Then choose one of the water materials that comes up and drag it onto the static mesh you just made.

Select material.

Step 6: Adding a water material to the static mesh

Now click onto the viewport, and you will see the material isn't working yet.

You will see this on your static mesh.

Go back over to the details panel under static mesh and double click static mesh.

Static mesh in detail panel.

The editor will open, make sure you have the material selected in the content browser when you are doing this. Click on the little arrow beside the material in the editor, it’s in the upper right hand corner. Then save and close the editor.

Editor.

Material in content browser.

Step 7: Making the water more realistic

Click on your post process volume, using the details panel you can add Depth of field. This gives the impression of blurred vision when under the water. I ticked the first two options under the depth of field tab. Beside method choose Gaussian in the drop down and set focal distance to about 1000.

Depth of field in details panel.

Step 8: Testing the water

Now right click on your view port and select play from here to test your water.

Character on screen.

Read Introduction to Unreal Engine 4 Now

SmartGirl 3D Game , basics

In this tutorial I am going to give you a basic run down of the the user interface in Unreal Engine 4. After reading this tutorial you will be able to start your own Unreal Engine 4 project and know your way around the interface you are given to create a game.

Getting started

Create an account with unreal engine. Sign in.

When you sign in, you see the menu screen.

Menu screen.

From the Marketplace, you can download different free useful packages including characters. From there you can add these to your project.

Marketplace.

All downloaded packages can be found in the library.

Launch button and Library location.

First time you launch the engine, you will see the unreal engine project browser.

Unreal project browser.

From here, you can create a new project or go on to the Marketplace and load an existing project. When creating a new project, there are a variety of different genres and also a choice of project type’s, blueprint or code.

New project.

Blueprint and C++ options.

When making settings, we recommend the following.

Recommend setting.

You then choose an appropriate location to save it and you give it a project name.

Choose location to save your project and name it.

Note: when naming, do not use spaces, use an underscore. Then you save and click CREATE PROJECT.

Create project.

User Interface

Main menu bar

Menu bar location

Menu bar zoomed in.

Pretty much any menu bar you see in computer applications, file menu, edit menu, window menu and the help menu.

File - Here you can save what you are working on, create new projects, import and export.
Edit – You can find the standard Undo, redo, cut, copy, paste. Also here you can find editor preference and your project settings.
Window – This is where you can show and hide parts of the interface that are not shown by default
Help – Direct link to the documentation, link to initial tutorials to help get you started

On your view port here are meshes already in place because you chose to include starter content. These meshes are not permanent and can be edited, as shown in a later tutorial.

3D viewport.

Mode panel

Mode panel, this allows us to change the mode the editor is currently in. You can select modes place mode, landscape, paint, foliage and geometry editing mode.

Mode panel.

Modes - Zoomed in.

Content Browser

Allow you access to any exterior generated content and special content like materials and blueprints you may have created.

Content browser.

Here you can create new folders and import different meshes, sound and textures/materials.

Scene Outliner

The scene outliner panel, shows everything that is in your level at that time. Main use is to see all the objects in your screen and select them.

Scene outliner.

It has some other functionality like here you can select, edit, parent together, hide and delete objects/actors.

Details panel

The details panel shows all editing details on a selected item.

Details panel.

Tool bar

Tool bar.

Quick and easy one click access to common tasks that you will be performing
you have your save button (but generally you can just hit ctrl+s), content to open the content browser if you don’t already have one opened. Marketplace. Your settings, control various things that you can show and hide inside of your view port and overall environment.

When editing, make sure you save your work frequently and build when progress is made.

When you press the play button a character will appear, this gives you a good idea of how your level will look and function.

Character on screen.

To escape play mode press eject. The short cut for this on your keyboard is ESC.

Viewport navigation

Mouse navigation

If you drag with the left click, to go forward you drag up and to go backwards you drag down. Move the mouse left to right while still holding down the left of the mouse to look left and right. Right click is just looking around, you can look left, right, up and down by dragging the mouse up, down, left and right. If you click the mouse wheel you can track the camera in all directions by sliding up and down, left and right. Click the left and right of the mouse at the same time does the same thing.

You can change the speed of the camera in the upper right corner of the viewport.

Camera speed options.

Camera speed option zoomed in.

WSAD keys

While holding down the right side of the mouse:
W – To fly forwards
S – To fly backwards
A – Straight left
D – Straight right
E – Straight up into the air
Q - Down
C – zoom camera in
Z – zoom camera out

Note: as soon as you release the right mouse it snaps back to where you were

MIYA style navigation

Hold down alt to use this style of navigation.
Alt+left mouse click is going to tumble the view around.
To change pivot of the tumble you can select any object in your scene and hit “f” on your keyboard.
Now when you hold down alt and drag with the left mouse you are tumbling around the object.
alt+right mouse to dolly the camera

When duplicating an object hold down the alt+click the direction you want to go in on the anchor + hold down shift.

You can also look at your level through different viewpoints. You can find the option to change views in the top left hand corner of your 3D viewport.

Viewpoint section location.

Viewpoint selection zoomed in.

In the dropdown, there are a variety of different views including perspective, top, side, and front.

Perspective.

Top.

Side.

Front.

Read Importing Static Meshes into UE4 Now

SmartGirl design_teacher , edit

Final Result

WHAT ARE STATIC MESHES?

Static meshes are polygon meshes which are an important in many game engines including Unreal Engine, Source and Unity. The word static refers to the fact that static meshes can’t be vertex animated as they can be moved around, scaled or reskinned.

WHY USE STATIC MESHES?

Static meshes are very useful for beginners who don’t have a lot of experience. Beginners can use static meshes to help create scenes in their game. There a fast and easy method of creating scenes. You can also use them to try and create your own unique mesh by adding on a new texture or changing the colour.

IMPORTING A STATIC MESH

STEP 1

The first step is to go on to blendswap and to find a subtle mesh for your game

Make sure to get a static mesh for your game at blendswap. link is available above.

STEP 2

You will then want to download a static mesh that you plan on using in your game. After the download make sure to extract the file.

When your waiting for your download you should look at different static meshes that you could use in your game.

STEP 3

When its done downloading make sure you extract file by clicking on the extract to.

Make sure you extract your static mesh somewhere thats easy to find.

STEP 4

After down loading it you will want to open it up in blender.

When you bring in a static mesh you can scale it to suit your game

STEP 5

After bringing it in you will want to remove the background to your static mesh and change it to suit your game. You can try out putting different textures on your mesh.To delete a background select it by right clicking then press x to delete.

The image above shows the static mesh in blender

STEP 6

Before bringing your static mesh into unreal engine you must export your mesh as an FBX
file.

The image above will help guide you exporting your meshes.

After clicking export you will want to select the mesh option under Export FBX

STEP 7

Import the static mesh into your game and scale it down or up depending on the mesh. To import your static mesh go to your content browser then click the import button to bring in your static mesh. The default import options will suit most meshes but be sure to read through them and make any changes you feel are necessary.

Finished Result

Design Post Update