Basic Surface Texturing
Applying, Copying, Importing, and Choosing Textures

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    Texture: a "wallpaper" applied to the surfaces of CSG structures to replace the ugly bubbly default one.  On Static Meshes, they're called "Skins."  Placed in emitters, they're called "Particles."  More importantly, they're a subset of a larger category called "materials" which allow various effects like reflection, panning, texture switching, and much more.

    You can choose textures in the Texture Browser, accessible through the View menu, the buttons at the top of the screen, or simply by not closing the sub-window that opens with UnrealEd.  If you already have a browser open, you can switch to the Texture Browser by clicking the tab labled "Textures" at the top of the sub-window.

    In the texture browser, you can choose a texture by left-clicking on it once.  If a surface is selected when you select a texture, that surface(s) will automagically adopt that texture.  If you select a texture and then want to apply it to a surface, you can right-click on that surface and choose "Apply Texture X" at the bottom of the context menu, where the letter 'X' will be replaced with the texture name.

    When looking through the textures available to you, you might now complain that there are extremely few textures, none of which seem suitable for map building.  That is because UnrealEd uses a system called "packaging," in which a series of sub-files are stored in one "package" for easier distribution and viewing.  To open a texture package which contains more textures, choose File>>Open from the Browser window, click the button that looks like a folder below that, or choose a package from the drop-down menu above the viewing area.  Keep in mind that this last option will usually show you all the available textures the first time you open it in a new map, but after that it will only show you the ones you've used.  If you choose a package this way, however, you can see the whole package by clicking the button that looks like three sheets of paper superimposed on each other.

    There are quite a lot of texture packages.  If you don't want to have to browse through all of them each time, you can visit http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Texture_Package for a list of the packages and a short description of what's in each of them.  We haven't discussed Static Meshes yet, but the equivalent page is http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Static_Mesh_Package and you can add "/Index" (without the quotes) to the end of that address to get a more useful page.  Also, there is a program which allows you to view and search Static Meshes and Textures outside of UnrealEd; you can find it here: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Mesh_Browser_Project.  And while we're link-dropping, you might want to check out this page as well: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Texture_Topics.

    Okay, enough of that.  What if you want to import your own texture?  The first requirement is that its dimensions must be a multiple of 2, i.e. 128, 256, 512, or 1024.  Except for solid colors, very rarely are any textures a size other than the above, and the bigger a texture gets the more memory it requires.  Second, the texture should be in .bmp or .tga format.  Targa pics allow masking and alpha, while bitmaps don't but are more easily opened by other programs.  If you've got those two things right, you can choose File>>Import from the Browser window and find your texture.  A small window will pop up at that point asking for the Package, Group, and Name, along with some other options at the bottom.  ALWAYS replace the package name with the word "MyLevel."  You can put whatever you want for Group (textures in the package will be grouped by the name you enter there) and you can leave the name if you're happy with it.  Of the options below that, the only one you need to know about is "MipMaps."  With this option checked (the default setting) UnrealEd will automatically generate lower-res copies of the texture to use when the player moves far enough away that such a high level of detail is no longer needed or when a player lowers the Texture Detail setting.  You should only uncheck this option if you're importing a texture that the player won't see in-game.

    Now would be a good time to explain some important rules.  Saving things to the "MyLevel" pseudopackage (everything can be saved to it except music files) will bundle them into your map so you don't have external files hanging around that other people have to download.  You can save files to packages other than MyLevel, but it's really annoying to downloaders and so not highly recommended.  To access the MyLevel package, there must be something in it.  Once you have something in it, you can find it in the drop-down menu on the Texture Browser but not in the Open Package dialog.  NEVER save the MyLevel package, but you must save other custom packages before they will work.  NEVER save changes to a custom package because it means you won't be able to play online any more.  NEVER create more than one file with the same name, even if they have different suffixes (i.e. DM-Box.ut2 and DM-Box.utx) because the engine often reads the wrong path and tries to open the wrong file.  If, when you quit UnrealEd, you get messages that you need to save packages, don't bother saving them unless it's reminding you about a unique custom package.  "Package0," "Package1," etc. don't count.

    If you don't like the position or alignment of a texture on a surface, you can right-click on the surface and choose "Surface Properties" from the context menu.  At the top of the window that pops up is the name of the texture you're using on that surface.  There are four Tabs on that window: the first one holds Flags.  The only thing there you need to know is the Unlit option, which toggles whether you want a surface to be lit by standard lighting, or to be completely evenly lit by default ambient white lighting.  The next tab allows panning, scaling, and rotation of the texture, which should be fairly self-explanatory.  The third tab gives different Alignment options, which is useful for lining up textures to match each other, and the fourth tab gives some random information.

    ALT+LMB is an alternate method of applying a selected texture to a selected surface.  ALT+RMB effectively "copies" the texture from the selected surface so that you can apply it to another.

    To replace all instances of a texture in a map with another texture, go to Tools>>Replace Textures on the main UnrealEd menu.

 

Review

  • Select a texture in the Texture Browser to apply it to a selected surface, or use ALT+LMB or right-click and choose "Apply Texture" to apply a selected texture to a selected surface

  • Switch texture packages by choosing File>>Open, the folder button, or the drop-down menu

  • Imported textures must be certain sizes and formats

  • Use the MyLevel package

  • The Surface Properties window, accessible by right-clicking a surface, holds lots of useful options

  • ALT+RMB "copies" a texture from a surface

  • Tools>>Replace Textures can replace all instances of a texture in a map with another texture

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