IceCreamYou | UT3 Mapping Guide

As of February 7, 2008, I have simplified the process for submitting tutorials: you can simply Click Here now instead of emailing me. You can submit either tutorials that others are hosting, or those that you've created but cannot host (I will host them for you). Of course, you can still submit a tutorial via email; direct your request to ice@icecreamyou.com.

Intro

This page is an outline-form guide with links to tutorials on external sites. The outline is arranged in an order best suited to helping beginning mappers grow to the advanced level. If you simply want an answer to a problem or a tutorial on a specific element, use the Sections area to find the appropriate topic or look at the Sources of Assistance section at the end of this page.

If you have a comment or question, or if you spot a broken link, please email me at ice@icecreamyou.com and I will respond ASAP.

Notes

1) To make custom content for the PS3, click here.
2) Click here for a discussion about pre-planning time.
3) Some of the tutorials on this page were written for the Gears of War or Roboblitz editors, which are similar to the UT3 editor.
4) I have not yet incorporated the following two excellent resources into this outline:
Video Tutorials - with the GoW editor, similar to UT3's
RoboWiki - for the RoboBlitz editor, similar to UT3's
5) Just because you don't see links next to every item doesn't mean this outline is fake. I wrote the outline independently, before I started looking for tutorials, and not every item has a tutorial that's been written for it. If it doesn't, check the item one level up on the outline; often topics will have a single tutorial associated with every sub-topic, and in that case the tutorial only shows up for the main topic. Also, links appear nexst to the topics and are labeled with their authors' names.

Outline

1.      Introduction to Mapping: Theory, Technique, Time, Tips
2.      The Basics
        a.     The World
                i.       Navigation (Waylon)
                ii.      Interface and The Browser (Waylon)
                iii.     Subtractive vs. Additive, or the Cheese Theory of the Void
                iv.     Unreal World
                        1.      Unreal Unit Measurements
                        2.      Player speed, dodge distance, jump height, etc.
                        3.      Average door sizes, room heights, etc.
        b.     The First Level (GasDuck)
                i.     Subtractive (Kantham - why not to use the subtractive method)
                        1.      Setup
                        2.      Brush (CSG/BSP) Theory + Brush Types
                        3.      Subtracting brushes
                        4.      Adding Brushes
                        5.      Moving and Rotating
                        6.      Add a light
                ii.     Additive (Waylon)
                        1.      Setup + Add a Platform/Room
                        2.      Actors
                        3.      Navigationpoint Basics + Add a Playerstart + In-game Test
                        4.      Complete NavigationPoints
                        5.      Texturing and Testing (Waylon)
        c.     Static Meshes
                i.     Basics
                ii.     Sky
                        1.      Sky considerations and theory (Waylon)
                        2.      Making Skydome Textures (output.co.uk)
                        2.      In Additive Maps (GasDuck)
                        3.      In Subtractive Maps (requires BeyondUnreal membership to view attached pics) (BeyondUnreal)
        d.     Saving, Rebuilding, Cooking
                i.     Naming Protocol
                ii.     Rebuilding
                iii.     Cooking
3.        Lighting (Waylon)
        a.     Simple Lighting
                i.     Colors and Saturation
                ii.     Other Properties
        b.     Area Lighting
        c.     Ambient Lighting
        d.     Other types of lighting
                i.     Lightfunctions (roughly replace UE2 projectors and dynamic lights) (Hourences)
                ii.    Lighting and Kismet (AVLD)
        e.     Technical: Lightmaps (Waylon)
        f.     Theory (Hourences)
4.      Effects
        a.     Particle Systems (Emitters) (Hourences - basics) (Saddlefall)
                i.     Uses + implementation (AVLD)
                ii.     Properties
                iii.    Chains (Example: Fireworks)
                iv.    Cookbook
                v.     Advanced Beam Emitters (Cyberiusx - PDF + Textures [.zip])
        b.     Volumes
                i.     Types + uses
                        1.     Water/liquid (Hourences)
                        2.     Fog (Waylon)
                        3.     Foliage (Hourences)
                        4.     Kismet (AVLD)
                ii.     Properties
5.      Movement with Movers (Hourences)
        a.     Basics
                i.       Intro to Movers (AVLD)
                ii.     Elevators/Lifts
                        1.     Touch (AVLD)
                        2.     Button (AVLD)
                iii.     Doors
                        1.     Proximity (AVLD)
                        2.     Button (AVLD)
                        3.     Damage (AVLD)
                        4.     Other (AVLD)
                iv.     Triggering (AVLD)
                v.      Attaching (AVLD)
        b.     Multi-step (AVLD)
        c.     Attaching
                i.      Elevators with Doors
                ii.     Moving Emitters and Volumes
                iii.    Advanced Attaching with Kismet
        d.     Other Properties
6.      Terrain (Hourences) (GasDuck)
        a.     Setup + Considerations + usage
        b.     Heightmaps and topography + theory
        c.     (Texture) Layers
        d.     Decolayers vs. Static Mesh Deco
        e.     Inversion
7.      Item Placement and Advanced Bot Navigation
        a.     Item Placement + Theory (IceCreamYou)
        b.     Doors
        c.     Complex Jumps
        d.     Teleporters (AVLD)
8.      Kismet - complex event sequences
        a.     Intro (AVLD)
        b.     Actions (AVLD) (GasDuck – toggling lights) - note: the individual AVLD tutorials below are just the most important ones (there are more of them accessible by clicking the link next to Actions)
                i.     Spawning Actors (AVLD)
                ii.    Toggling Lights (GasDuck)
                iii.   Delay (AVLD)
                iv.   Timer (AVLD)
                v.    PlaySound (AVLD)
        c.     Variables (AVLD)
        d.     Conditions (AVLD)
        e.     Events (AVLD)
        f.     Applying Kismet (AVLD)
9.      Materials
        a.      Basics (Hourences, Part 1) (GasDuck) (Waylon)
        b.     Advanced (Hourences, Part 2) (Hourences, Part 3) (Waylon)
        c.      Terms/Expressions (Hourences)
        d.     Application (Hourences)
                i.     Outdoor water (Hourences)
                ii.     Indoor water (Hourences)
10.      Advanced Techniques
        a.     Rain and Weather
        b.     Optimization (BBurkart)(evilmrfrank)
        c.     Complex Geometry Editing (Hazel.H)
        d.     Other content types
                i.     Sounds (Hourences)
                ii.     Meshes
                iii.     Music
        e.     NPCs
        f.     Matinee
        g.     Other Properties: surface, level, actor
        h.     Simulating Video Feeds/Viewing another part of the map + reflections and mirrors (Hourences)
        i.     Coronas
        j.     More with Triggers
               i.     Multiple triggers for one event
               ii.    Triggering materials
               iii.    Advanced Trigger Systems
                        1.     Touch (AVLD)
                        2.     Used (AVLD)
                        3.     Destroyed (AVLD)
                        4.     Touch (AVLD)
        k.    Exploding/Breaking Objects (AVLD) (using Prefabs - AVLD)
        l.     Vehicles + gameplay theory
        m.   Physics (Hourences)
        n.    Streaming (Hourences) (AVLD: Part 1 | Part 2 - single level OR Part 2 - multi level | Part 3)
        o.    Randomization using Kismet (AVLD)
11.     Beyond UnrealEd
        a.     Packages: Dealing with Assets (Waylon)
        b.     2D Content (Textures)
                i.     Program Analysis
                        1.     GIMP (IceCreamYou)
                ii.     Importing (Waylon)
        c.     3D Content (Meshes)
                i.     Program Analysis
                        1.    Blender (IronMonkey, hosted by IceCreamYou) (Katsbits)
                ii.     Importing: Basics (Hourences) (Jesse Moody) (GasDuck) (SolidSnake – SkeletalMeshes) (Waylon)
                iii.     Importing/Preparing: Advanced (Hourences) (theabyss)
                iv.     Lightmapping (Hourences)
                v.      Custom Characters (Geodav Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Shakeno's quick work around)
                vi..    Custom Weapons (Geodav Part 1) (Part2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
                vii.    Custom Vehicles (Geodav Part 1) (Part2) (Part 3)
        d.     UnrealScript and Modding Resources
                i.     Getting Started/Planning (UDN)
                ii.     Mod Construction
                        1.     Overview (UDN)
                        2.     Guides (Ambershee)
                iii.    UnrealScript (UDN)
12.      Help and Resources
        a.     Multiplayer Design Considerations (IceCreamYou) (Hourences) (Waylon)
                i.     Theme (BeyondUnreal)
                ii.     Flow (BeyondUnreal)
        b.     Mapping for a Gametype
                i.     DM/TDM/Duel
                ii.     CTF (BeyondUnreal)
                iii.    VCTF
                iv.    WAR (Kantham)
                v.     Notes about Kismet and network considerations (AVLD)
        c.     Completing and Publishing a Map (Preparing to release - Epic Forums) (Checklist - Waylon)
                i.      When Are You Done? (BeyondUnreal)
                ii.     Taking Screenshots
                iii.    Polishing: Console Commands to use in playtesting (Waylon)
                iv.    Publicization ({RA}SKYFURNACE) (Waylon)
        d.     What to do if you’re stuck or “it’s not working”
                i.     Theme Ideas (UnrealWiki)
                ii.     Getting an idea (BeyondUnreal)
                iii.     Photo inspiration (BeyondUnreal)
        e.     Sources of Assistance
                i.     Tutorials
                        1.      UDN - will be the best resource once tutorials get put up; right now, not much is there
                        2.      Hourences' Tutorials - lots of UE3 tutorials, plus some for other engines
                        3.      ArcadiaVincennes (AVLD) Kismet Tutorials - intro, actions, conditions, variables, events
                        4.      SolidSnake's Kismet Tutorials - custom controllers, WOTGreal, skeletal meshes and animation, UIScenes, Pawns
                        5.      GasDuck's Tutorials/ - for GoW (similar to UT3); basics, materials, static meshes, sky, terrain, kismet, gameplay
                        6.      Ambershee's UT3 Modding Tutorials - making mutators
                        7.      Kantham's UT3 Tutorials - WAR tutorials and related
                        8.      UnrealWiki - mostly outdated information about UT2kx and UT1
                        9.      Stage 6 UT3 CE Video Tutorials - the video tutorial content that comes with the CE version of the game
                       10.     Geodav UT3 Custom Content Tutorials
                       11.     {RA}SKYFURNACE Mapping for Dummies Part 1 | Part 2 - excellent FAQs
                       12.     Waylon: Learning UE3 Tutorials - Excellent resource for beginners.
                       13.     {RA}SKYFURNACE: MAP Environments
                       14.     Game Trailers: Video Tutorials
                       15      Virgo47: UT3 Level Design: Getting Started
                ii.     Forums
                        1.      BuF (BeyondUnreal Forums)
                        2.      Epic’s UT3 Mapping Forum
                        3.      UnrealPlayground
                        4.      3DBuzz
                        5.      GameMode
                iii.     Map Uploads/Downloads
                        1.      Insite (map reviews, downloads, user ratings)
                        2.      NaliCity (shut down--temporarily?--due to technical difficulties)
                        3.      Mapraider (map downloads, user reviews)
                        4.      UnrealPlayground [uploads] [downloads] (map downloads, user ratings)
        f.     FAQ (Hourences) ({RA}SKYFURNACE) (Getting rid of the /MyDocuments setup) ((¯°·«èXó»·°¯))
        g.     Errors and Bugs (Waylon)
        h.     Searching for Answers Online
        i.      External Programs
                i. GIMP
                ii. Blender