Design Post Update: UE4 buildings

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Read Create a Building in UE4 Now

Finished result

BUILDINGS

Step one

The first thing you need to do when making a building on unreal engine is to delete the default stage you receive. After deleting the default stage you will want to go into your BSP folder select a cube and drag it out into your game. Make sure that you select the hollow option when using the cube.

image above shows a cube you can get in your BSP folder

Make sure you select hollow its on the right side

Step two

For the next step you will want to change the width and height of the cube. You will have to press the space bar twice and scale your cube to whatever size you want to have your building at.

Make sure you press the space bar to scale

Step three

You will design windows and a door. In order to do this you need to go back into your BSP folder and select and drag out a cube. After bringing your cube into your game you will then want to line it up to the part of the building that you want your window to be at. When you have it lined up you will change the cube to subtractive and this will take a part of the wall out. To create the door just scale your cube to a length and width that suits you then change it to subtractive.

this will allow you to put square holes in the building for your windows

when you select subtractive it will come up like this

Step four

In this step you will be adding a texture to cover your building in. In order to get a texture you will first have to go into your materials folder and search it for a material that suits you.

when the texture is placed down on the object it will look like this

when you select apply your textuyre will change and become more realistic

When you find a texture that you like your have to select your texture and drag it out onto your object. After dropping the texture on to the object you will have to click onto the apply option.

STEP 5

In this step we will be creating the roof of the house. You have to change from perspective view to top view. This will send you into wireframe mode. You will then select the bottom part of the house and then in your options select split. After selecting split you will then see a line going down the centre of your roof you will select this line and bring it up.

when making your roof you should go into wireframe mode as it will make things clearer for you

it is important top note that when you pull the top part of the roof the inside is still flat

STEP 6

In this step you will then go onto blend swap and find a window for your house. In order to search for a particular static mesh you have to select the search option above and then type into the search bar.

go to blend swap to find an ideal mesh

you can search for one by typing it in the search option

STEP 7

When you find a static mesh you like you will then download it. After downloading your static mesh you will then want to extract your files somewhere that will be easy to find. After extracting your file you will then want to go open it up in blender.

when you find an ideal mesh click the orange button to download it

after downloading it you should extract the files

STEP 8

In this step you will then want to import your static mesh into your game. You will want to go into file then export then select autodesk FBX. After selecting this you will then want to go to your side toolbar and select mesh. You will then want to go into your props folder and select import. After selecting import just find your static mesh and click on it this will bring it into your game.

make sure to select mesh

your mesh will be in the props folder

you will then want to select the import option

STEP 9

In this step you will want to drag out your static mesh onto your game. When you drag your mesh out you might have to scale it depending on how big you might want it. After you have your mesh to the right size you will then want to place your window in the hole you made earlier. The same steps are used for the door.

when you have one window done you can just duplicate it

STEP 10

In this step you will make a door for your building. Since my building is a ware house type of building il be making a garage type door for it. It is important that you scale your door to an ideal size for your building a garage type door might not be suited for your building. In order to make a door you need to go into your BSP folder and then drag out a cube. After you drag out your cube just scale it to whatever size suits you.

the last thing to do is make a simply plane that looks like a door

Saturday, February 13, 2016

UE4 BSP & Geometry

SmartGirl BSP , gaming

This tutorial is the fourth in the 10 part series on how to create a first person shooter game using Unreal Engine 4. We recommend you read the previous articles first to get the maximum benefit from this tutorial.

Game BSP and Geometry

In our game we will be creating just one main building, however you can use the same steps covered below to create multiple buildings if you wish.

Basic Building Structure

Step One

To begin, in the place tab go to the BSP section and select a cube. Drag and drop it into your game.

image above shows a cube you can get in your BSP folder

With the cube still selected, in the details panel, select the hollow option as shown below. A wall thickness of 16 is also recommended.

Make sure you select hollow its on the right side

You will also want to change the width and height of the cube. We have used values of 1024 on the X, 2048 on the Y and 1024 on the Z. Alternatively you can select the cube and press the space bar to toggle the widget to get to scale mode and manually scale the cube to whatever size you want.

Step Two

We will now create windows and a door. In order to do this you need to go back to the BSP section and select and drag out a cube again. After bringing your cube into your game you will then want to place it at the part of the building that you want your window to be and scale it using the values in the details panel or manually using the scale widget as we did earlier. When you have it lined up, in the details panel you will change the cubes brush type to subtractive.

Set the brush type to subtractive in the details panel of the cube

This will subtract a part of the wall out where the brush is positioned, as shown below.

when you select subtractive it will come up like this

Simply repeat this process for the other windows and the door.

The main building structure with the windows and door cut out.

Step Three

In this step you will be adding a material to cover your building in. In order to get a texture you will first have to go into your materials folder and search for a material that suits. You may choose to use the material that was created in the previous tutorial. Once you have selected the material you want, simply drag and drop it on the surface of the building.

when the materialis placed down on the object it will look like this

In the details panel of the building (BSP cube) you can select multiple surfaces at apply the material to them all at once. The material can also be scaled, nudged, rotated and positioned using the options in this panel.

Step Four

In this step we will be creating the pitched roof of the building. First select the building and then change from place mode to geometry mode in the modes section as shown below.

Geometry Mode

You will then need to select an edge (this can be difficult so be patient) on the side of the building. If you find this very difficult in perspective view you could switch to a top down view as shown below.

A top down wire-frame view

Once you have an edge selected the split option will become active in the geometry panel. After selecting split you will then see a line going down the centre of your building. Now simply select this line and bring it up on the Z axis (blue) to create the pitch for the building's roof as shown below.

it is important top note that when you pull the top part of the roof the inside is still flat

Step Five

Now that the basic structure of the building is complete you can begin editing it or adding details such as a porch area, columns, steps and more all using the shapes from the BSP section. The image below shows the main building used in our First Person Shooter Game.

Next Up

In the next tutorial we will show you how to create a pick-up/collectable for the FPS game.

Design Post Update