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Unreal Development Kit - March Beta Available NOW

by Rainier on March 9, 2010 @ 1:11 p.m. PST

Epic Games launched the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of Unreal Engine 3, providing the community access to the toolset like never before, and has now released an updated version.

Get the Unreal Development Kit March 2010 Beta off WP (550mb)

UDK is available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, from game developers to students, hobbyists to researchers, and creators of architectural walkthroughs to digital filmmakers. Use of UDK is free for all schools and students, and anyone can release free UDK-powered games.

Extensive UDK technical documentation is available at the Unreal Developer Network, and community members can share ideas, show off projects and learn from UDK developers like Psyonix and The Prometheus Team.

3D Buzz will soon release dozens of free video tutorials specific to UDK to complement the company’s existing Unreal Engine 3 video training modules. Over 100 Unreal Technology videos are viewable at the 3D Buzz web site free of charge.

Individuals and companies wishing to develop software for commercial purposes should refer to licensing terms. Commercial terms have been structured to make it easy for independent developers, start-up firms and seasoned professionals to use UDK with minimal financial barrier from concept to deployment.

The March 2010 UDK Beta upgrade notes are as follows.

New UDK features and tools:

  - Autodesk FBX format support (FBX version 2010.2)

* Static meshes, skeletal meshes and animations can now be imported from FBX files

* The FBX format is supported by many 3D modeling packages

   ~ including 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder.

* Download FBX plug-ins from Autodesk

   ~http://autodesk.com/fbx

  ~http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/FBXImporting.html

- Interactive Static Meshes

* Static meshes can now be configured so that all instance of that mesh placed in a level can become dynamic and react with physics when shot or pushed, giving the environment a more interactive feel.

* The advantages of this implementation are:

      ~Consistent behavior

               * all objects using that mesh will be interactive, instead of it depending on level designer set up.

      ~Transparent to meshing

         * L.D.s don't have to do anything special, but they can prevent specific objects from being able to become dynamic when necessary.

      ~These meshes are lit like any other static meshes until they move so there is no visual impact to using this system.

      ~No additional performance or memory cost to these meshes except during the short period when a mesh is being physically simulated.

* This system is intended for use with small decorative meshes that don't have any gameplay implications.

   * The interactivity is client-side and is not replicated.

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/InteractiveStaticMeshes.html

   - New Attachment Editor

* For displaying and modifying object relationships

* Lets you view and edit the attachment graph for a selected set of actors

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachmentsBrowserReference.html

   - mipmap sharpening

* Increases perceived resolution of textures w/o memory or performance impact

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#MipGenSettings

   - Property window favorites

* Simply mark a property as a favorite and it will always be displayed at the top of your property window.

* Combined with the search capability, this will greatly stream-line data access in the Unreal Editor.

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PropertyWindows.html#Property Window Favorites

   - New texture viewer options

* To reimport textures and to 'Compress Now'

* Allows artists to easily preview results of texture compression

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureProperties.html#Other actions

   - In Editor Stats viewing

* Enables the stat HUD in editor viewports

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/StatsDescriptions.html#In Editor Stat Viewing

   - New Kismet actions

* stream in cinematic mip-levels

   ~Allows sharing textures of in-game and cinematics characters

   ~http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TextureProperties.html#Num Cinematic Mip Levels

   ~http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/KismetReference.html#Stream In Textures

* Set VectorParam and Get Location and Rotation

   ~Adds the ability to get the location and rotation of a socket or bone (if the target is a pawn with a skeletal mesh)

   ~Makes it possible to hook a kismet vector object.

   ~http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ContentBlog.html#New kismet functionality for "Set _VectorParam" and "Get Location and Rotation" actions

   - New 'Select All Visible Levels' option in level browser right click menu

* http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelBrowserReference.html#Context Menu

--- Improvements

   * Continued moving UTGame native functionality either to UnrealScript or to the UDKBase package.

 

   * Content Browser

~now tracks recently used assets

   * click the new "Recent" check box in the filter panel to show these

~asset list now supports drag and drop

~search now works with full asset path names

~sound cues can now be moved/renamed like other assets

~localized sound nodes can now be moved into different packages

  - Crowd Population Manager improvements.

* Now supports streamed GameCrowdDestinations.

  (listed as "fixed crowd issues with level streaming" in the engine news)

* Improved LOD support.

* Improved designer control over population manager using Kismet.

- Lighting

* character lighting improvements

   ~fixed shadows from non-directional lights on characters

   ~added a WorldInfo property CharacterLightingContrastFactor

      * scales up the light environment's primary light

            * scales down the secondary light on characters

   ~added a WorldInfo Lightmass property LightEnvironmentIndirectContrastFactor

      * increases the contrast of lighting volume samples

* multiple dominant light improvements

         ~dominant spotlight cones can now intersect as long as one of them is shadowed in the intersection

   ~when multiple dominant lights affect the same primitive, only the brightest is used

   ~dominant lights are now toggleable at runtime

   ~dominant lights no longer allow bForceDynamicLight set to true

* improved cinematic lighting

   ~added light option bNonModulatedSelfShadowing

      * use normal shadow blending when shadowing themselves

      * use modulated shadow blending on everything else

   ~added light option bSelfShadowOnly

      * allows shadows from the light to not affect anything but the caster

   ~added a higher quality filtering method to reduce aliasing on character faces

- Editor improvements

* you can now press the F2 key to select the builder brush at any time

   ~ also, added new menu command for this:  Edit -> Select Builder Brush

* selecting objects is now super fast, even with tons of objects!

      * after a map build the editor will now blink in the task bar

* added auto-save support for asset (non-level) packages!

* added 'Select All' to the viewport right click menu

* 'show references' dialog window now allows more than one open at a time

* you can now customize your PIE launch URL string

   ~ just right click on the Play In Editor button to edit the URL

* dynamic volumes can now be initially disabled (new 'Disabled' property)

* 'Reimport' now works with skeletal meshes and sound waves!

   ~just right click on the asset in content browser, and select 'Reimport'

* level browser now prompts you before streaming volumes are cleared

--- Changes requiring a re-save or change

   * Any texture imported since the December 2009 UDK build that had its import-time texture format specified as TC_NormalmapUncompressed will have had its source art (stored in the .UPK file) corrupted when the package was first saved.

* This source art data is only used when changing texture formats in the editor at a later date and is not used for gameplay.

* The bug that caused this corruption has been fixed in this UDK build, and code has been added to detect content with this problem.

* If you see a warning dialog box when changing texture formats in the editor, the best course of action is to re-import the texture from the source file.

 

   * Matinee material parameter tracks have been rewritten to create runtime instances of MaterialInstanceConstants so that they do not affect content objects which could have had unintended side effects.

~However, as a result of this change, a Matinee can now only affect the materials on objects in the same level as the Matinee.

~This is required so it can determine the affected objects at save time instead of iterating all Actors at game time.

New UDN documentation

Updated UDN Documentation

More details are available at the Unreal Developer Network (UDN):

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes (These will go live soon)

Features:

UDK includes:

  • The Unreal Editor toolset, complete with fully integrated game editing environment.
  • Unreal Gemini multithreaded rendering system with support for all modern rendering and shading techniques, advanced lighting and shadowing, ambient occlusion and a powerful material system for creating complex shaders on the fly.
  • Unreal Lightmass global illumination solver for high-quality static lighting.
  • Unreal PhAT visual physics modeling tool with state-of-the-art physics system powered by NVIDIA PhysX.
  • Unreal Kismet, an advanced visual scripting solution that facilitates rapid prototyping of ideas and gameplay mechanics.
  • AnimSet Viewer and AnimTree Editor, which give animators precise control over every muscle and bone movement.
  • Unreal Matinee, which includes movie director-class tools for creating in-game cut scenes and gorgeous cinematics.
  • UnrealScript, a fully integrated, high-level object-oriented programming language.
  • Unreal Cascade particle effects system for implementing explosions, fog, fire and smoke. Module-based system gives real-time previews of visual effects.
  • Terrain building tool for placing and customizing vegetation, structures and countless in-game points of interest.
  • Audio control through UnrealEd's visual Sound Cue Editor, plus support for major audio compression schemes; 3D sound positioning, spatialization and attenuation; multi-channel playback, and much more. Built-in Internet and LAN networking support for up to 64 players.
  • Integrations with leading game development middleware including NVIDIA PhysX, SpeedTree, FaceFX and Bink Video.
Included Content:

UDK ships with "UT Demo," which is demo content from "Unreal Tournament 3" consisting of four maps: Deck, Necropolis, Sanctuary, and Sandstorm; with deathmatch, team deathmatch, and vehicle capture the flag gametypes. Assets include one robot character, three weapons and four vehicles.

In "UT Demo," blood, gore and human opponents have been removed. Levels have been enhanced to showcase recent upgrades to UE3 technology. See udk.com/showcase-ut-game.html for comparison screenshots.

The "Unreal Tournament 3" Unreal Editor is widely used for learning UE3, and now UDK provides all of its game creation tools in addition to high-level engine features developed since the game?s release. "UT Demo" is an excellent starting point to explore UDK?s capabilities, especially for those looking to develop their own first-person shooter experience.

System requirements

Minimum:
  • Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
  • 2.0+ GHz processor
  • 2 GB system RAM
  • SM3-compatible video card
  • 3 GB Free hard drive space
Recommended for Content Development:
  • Windows Vista 64 SP2
  • 2.0+ GHz multi-core processor
  • 8 GB System RAM
  • NVIDIA 8000 series or higher graphics card
  • Plenty of HDD space
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