Post by Hook on Apr 2, 2018 14:57:46 GMT -6
Making Windows & Glass in Unreal Tournament Maps:
By "Hook" - 6/5/02
You want to put Glass into a window opening? Well here goes!
There are a few ways to make glass. I will briefly tell how to do it one way that uses more objects. I will also explain how to do it an easier way! I will do the easy way first.
For this tutorial we will use a window opening size of 128 x 128 with the window opening width, or the sill, 32 units. We will assume that this window opening has already been made, or subtracted out of a wall that is 32 units thick.
The Easy Way:
You need to pick a Glass texture that suits your purpose.
Open the Texture Browser. Load in a package that has a good glass texture in it.
One package I use that has good glass in it is CoretFX.
Click to highlight the one you like. Leave it highlighted. Now to make the sheet of glass, select the cube brush and make it 128 x 128 x 1. Yes! ONE unit thick. Now position your red brush in the center of the window opening at about the 16 unit point of the 32 unit wall thickness. You may have to change the grid setting to a smaller snap grid increment to position the glass object's red brush where you want it. The red brush should just butt the edges of the window opening on all sides, especially if this window is going to be between two zones. If it doesn't have to separate two zones, it doesn't have to be "airtight". You can also make this glass object slightly larger than the window opening, then de-intersect it to bring it to exactly the right size of the window opening. Now Add the glass object to the world. The glass object will appear. At this point the glass will not be see through, and the textures may not line up the way you would like them to. Right click on the glass to select the texture. Now hit the keys Ctrl B. Ctrl B selects all the textures at once on an object. With all the textures on the glass object selected, right click on the glass texture on the object to bring up the surface properties. Select Semi Transparent. Now go to the next tab of the texture or surface properties and do your aligning of the textures by panning the textures horizontally and/or vertically to achieve the best look of the glass texture.
Rebuild and Save the map. Go and try it out to see what it looks like in the game!
You can also try other surface property settings such as unlit, masked or transparent, etc., to see if there are better looking settings!
The Less Easy Way:
Now I will very briefly outline another way. This is the way I did the windows between the moat & the lower front turrets in DM-FragginsteinCastle. These are the ones that look like aquariums from the inside of the turrets.
Basically, these windows were made using a sheet object, set to the glass prefab setting, with a glass texture on it. Then I added Invisible Collision Hulls (another prefab setting) about 1 or 2 units away from the sheet, on both sides of the sheet. These invisible collision hulls must be slightly smaller than the window opening size. If the window opening is 128 x 128, then the invisible collision hulls would be made at say 126 x 126 x 1 units. These collision hulls must NOT touch anything else! They cause some big problems if they do touch other objects! The sheet between the hulls will create a zone barrier and will stop the water from coming through if they are butting on all sides, but they will NOT stop players or creatures from going through the glass (sheet). The invisible collision hulls are there to stop players and creatures from going through the glass (sheet).
Note: Sheets will not block actors, (gunfire, players, bots, etc.), no matter how you set them. If you want to block actors, you must add Invisible Collision Hulls. To do that, select the cube brush and make it 126 x 126 x 1. Yes! ONE unit thick. Place the new cube brush in front of the sheet, but not touching it or the sides. Note: Make the collision hull smaller than the opening because if it touches the wall or anything else we will get a HOM or Hall-Of-Mirrors effect there.
Now, under Add Special, choose Invisible Collusion Hull from the menu and add the brush. It should be invisible in the 3d view. If you click the little joystick icon it will appear.
The only problem with using collision hulls is that it adds extra steps. If you made the glass out of the 1 unit thick brush as I explained in the first part, you would get the same results with less objects and trouble.
Hope this helps! Any questions just let me know.
By "Hook" - 6/5/02
You want to put Glass into a window opening? Well here goes!
There are a few ways to make glass. I will briefly tell how to do it one way that uses more objects. I will also explain how to do it an easier way! I will do the easy way first.
For this tutorial we will use a window opening size of 128 x 128 with the window opening width, or the sill, 32 units. We will assume that this window opening has already been made, or subtracted out of a wall that is 32 units thick.
The Easy Way:
You need to pick a Glass texture that suits your purpose.
Open the Texture Browser. Load in a package that has a good glass texture in it.
One package I use that has good glass in it is CoretFX.
Click to highlight the one you like. Leave it highlighted. Now to make the sheet of glass, select the cube brush and make it 128 x 128 x 1. Yes! ONE unit thick. Now position your red brush in the center of the window opening at about the 16 unit point of the 32 unit wall thickness. You may have to change the grid setting to a smaller snap grid increment to position the glass object's red brush where you want it. The red brush should just butt the edges of the window opening on all sides, especially if this window is going to be between two zones. If it doesn't have to separate two zones, it doesn't have to be "airtight". You can also make this glass object slightly larger than the window opening, then de-intersect it to bring it to exactly the right size of the window opening. Now Add the glass object to the world. The glass object will appear. At this point the glass will not be see through, and the textures may not line up the way you would like them to. Right click on the glass to select the texture. Now hit the keys Ctrl B. Ctrl B selects all the textures at once on an object. With all the textures on the glass object selected, right click on the glass texture on the object to bring up the surface properties. Select Semi Transparent. Now go to the next tab of the texture or surface properties and do your aligning of the textures by panning the textures horizontally and/or vertically to achieve the best look of the glass texture.
Rebuild and Save the map. Go and try it out to see what it looks like in the game!
You can also try other surface property settings such as unlit, masked or transparent, etc., to see if there are better looking settings!
The Less Easy Way:
Now I will very briefly outline another way. This is the way I did the windows between the moat & the lower front turrets in DM-FragginsteinCastle. These are the ones that look like aquariums from the inside of the turrets.
Basically, these windows were made using a sheet object, set to the glass prefab setting, with a glass texture on it. Then I added Invisible Collision Hulls (another prefab setting) about 1 or 2 units away from the sheet, on both sides of the sheet. These invisible collision hulls must be slightly smaller than the window opening size. If the window opening is 128 x 128, then the invisible collision hulls would be made at say 126 x 126 x 1 units. These collision hulls must NOT touch anything else! They cause some big problems if they do touch other objects! The sheet between the hulls will create a zone barrier and will stop the water from coming through if they are butting on all sides, but they will NOT stop players or creatures from going through the glass (sheet). The invisible collision hulls are there to stop players and creatures from going through the glass (sheet).
Note: Sheets will not block actors, (gunfire, players, bots, etc.), no matter how you set them. If you want to block actors, you must add Invisible Collision Hulls. To do that, select the cube brush and make it 126 x 126 x 1. Yes! ONE unit thick. Place the new cube brush in front of the sheet, but not touching it or the sides. Note: Make the collision hull smaller than the opening because if it touches the wall or anything else we will get a HOM or Hall-Of-Mirrors effect there.
Now, under Add Special, choose Invisible Collusion Hull from the menu and add the brush. It should be invisible in the 3d view. If you click the little joystick icon it will appear.
The only problem with using collision hulls is that it adds extra steps. If you made the glass out of the 1 unit thick brush as I explained in the first part, you would get the same results with less objects and trouble.
Hope this helps! Any questions just let me know.