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Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3
- By Jason Busby, Zak Parrish, Jeff Wilson
- Published Sep 22, 2009 by Sams.
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 7-3/8 X 9-1/8
- Pages: 1080
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-32992-1
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-32992-0
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Product Author Bios
Jason “Buzz” Busby is president and chief executive officer of 3D Buzz, Inc. For more than five years, he has taught 3D animation, programming, and game design through his website 3dbuzz.com, which has more than 275,000 members. He coauthored Mastering Unreal: The Art of Level Design and Mastering the Art of Production with 3ds Max 4 and has created and overseen the production of more than 1,000 hours of video training.
Zak Parrish, chief of operations at 3D Buzz, Inc., has developed hundreds of video tutorials over 3D animation and game design. He helped produce training videos that shipped with Unreal Tournament 2004: Special Edition as well as those that shipped with Unreal Tournament 3: Limited Collector’s Edition. Zak also coauthored Mastering Unreal.
Jeff Wilson, 3D Buzz’s technical consultant for the Unreal Engine, helps develop the company’s Unreal Technology training videos. He has been studying the Unreal Engine for five years while creating modifications for Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004. Wilson moderates the 3D Buzz forums.
Busby, Parrish, and Wilson are also coauthors of the companion book Mastering Unreal® Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal® Engine 3.
Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3 is your start-to-finish guide to state-of-the-art Unreal Tournament 3 modding and level design. Here’s everything you need to know to take your game design skills to the next level, creating content with breakthrough depth and interactivity! Your authors aren’t just the world’s #1 Unreal game development trainers: They’ve built the training mods that shipped with Unreal Tournament. Now, working with the full cooperation of Unreal Engine 3’s creators, Epic Games, they introduce innovative, pro-quality techniques you’ll find nowhere else: outstanding solutions for everything from particle effects to physics, materials to cinematics. Packed with tips, hands-on tutorials, and expert insight, Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II will help you take Unreal Tournament 3 and Unreal Engine 3 to the limit...and then blow right by it!
You’ll find expert tips on
- Creating advanced materials that leverage the full power of UnrealEd’s Material Editor
- Bringing levels to life with objects affected by gravity, collisions, and player influence
- Creating fire, smoke, sparks, and more with Unreal Engine 3’s particle effects system
- Building custom user interfaces, including Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) that update constantly
- Using SoundCues to mix, modulate, crossfade, and attenuate sounds
- Generating real-time camera-based effects, including depth of field, motion blur, and color adjustment
- Using post process effects to quickly transform a scene’s look and feel without changing existing materials or textures
- Animating characters and vehicles that move with unprecedented realism
- Creating in-game cinematics that develop your characters and move your story forward
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A Decent, Comprehensive UDK Book, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3 (Paperback)
First, let me address some complaints written about this book by other reviewers:1. "The book isn't in color and it really should be because the cost for color is negligible." The cost for color in books is astronomical! And this book has TONS of screen captures through it's pages. In fact, I estimate at least 1/3 of the book's contents are nothing but screen captures. Yes the quality isn't all that great, but if they were in color this book would rarely sell because it would cost around $80 if not more. 2. "It's written for the Unreal Tournament 3 game editor and doesn't work with UDK." This is completely false. While it is true that the UT3 game editor and UDK are not the same tools, UDK CAN read UT3 level and package files - you just have to insert a *.* into the file name field to force it to show you all files (UDK is programmed to open only UDK files by default) - presto! There are the UT3 files available and they work fine. It could be in future versions of... Read more
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I am a game developer and this book is a must have, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3 (Paperback)
I am a game developer, I needed this book in my learning process, it covers a lot of things that are "not covered" in other tutorials!The book requires the basic understanding of unreal engine 3 and its editor, so it takes you in detail, explaining many of the advanced features of unreal engine 3, I learned a lot from this book, I was especialy happy with parts about working with UI interfaces,faceFX , cinematics and postprocessing, etc! Overall I must say I "love" the book, and the price was low for such a gem, I think this book is a must have for all Unreal Engine game designers! I cant wait for the release of Volume 3, which will cover unreal script,I am sure it will be a great succes and will teach me a lot! Tnx for this great book!!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
AWESOME!!!!!!!, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3 (Paperback)
Don't listen to the other reviewer who said this book is not for UDK. This book is perfect for UDK. It doesn't get anymore in depth than this. SpecialFX, particle systems, material creation, Kismet, etc.!!! Armed with volumes 1 & 2 you'll be ready for the big leagues.
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Online Sample Chapter
Introduction to Advanced Level Design for Unreal Engine 3
Sample Pages
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Advanced Level Design . . . 1
Who Is This Book For? . . . 2
What Should You Know Before You Start? . . . 2
What We Mean By “Advanced” Level Design . . . 3
Included Assets and Game Assets . . . 3
Working with INI Files . . . 4
Future Software Changes . . . 5
CHAPTER 2: Advanced Material Construction . . . 7
Material Instancing and Parameters . . . 7
Blending . . . 9
UV Manipulation . . . 10
Normals . . . 11
Depth . . . 12
Special Lighting . . . 13
Reflections . . . 14
Distortion . . . 14
Transparency . . . 15
Subsurface Scattering . . . 16
Custom Lighting Models . . . 16
Summary . . . 151
CHAPTER 3: Working with Volumes . . . 153
Available Volume Types . . . 154
Basic Volume Properties . . . 156
BlockingVolumes . . . 156
PhysicsVolumes . . . 159
TriggerVolume . . . 170
PostProcessVolume . . . 186
LevelStreamingVolume . . . 188
LightVolume . . . 188
ColorScaleVolume . . . 189
ReverbVolume . . . 189
RB_ForceFieldExcludeVolume . . . 190
UTAreaNamingVolume . . . 190
UTAutoCrouchVolume . . . 190
FoliageFactory . . . 190
Summary . . . 192
CHAPTER 4: Physics Objects . . . 193
Types of Physics Objects . . . 193
The Concept of Rigid Bodies . . . 196
Working with Rigid Bodies in Unreal . . . 197
KActors . . . 200
KAssets . . . 208
Constraints . . . 211
The Physics Asset Tool (PhAT) . . . 229
Cloth . . . 245
Impulse and Force Actors . . . 252
Physics-Specific Kismet Sequence Objects . . . 258
Physical Materials . . . 263
Summary . . . 268
CHAPTER 5: Creating Special Effects with Particle Systems . . . 269
Anatomy of a Particle System . . . 271
TypeData Modules . . . 283
Modules . . . 286
Cascade Particle System Editor . . . 293
Particle-Specific Material Expressions . . . 301
Types of Particle Modules . . . 312
Beam Emitters . . . 356
Mesh Emitters . . . 374
Trail Emitters . . . 382
Fluid Emitters . . . 393
Levels of Detail . . . 397
Emitter Actor . . . 406
Modifying Particle Systems In-Game . . . 407
Troubleshooting the Effect . . . 480
Summary . . . 481
CHAPTER 6: Creating User Interfaces . . . 483
UI Components . . . 483
UIs Versus HUDs . . . 484
UI Design Workflow Overview . . . 485
The UI Scene Editor . . . 492
The UI Widgets . . . 496
Working with Widgets . . . 498
Widgets States . . . 513
Widget Navigation and the Focus Chain . . . 541
Working with User Inputs . . . 543
Data Stores . . . 548
Styles and Skins . . . 549
Fonts . . . 566
Adding Functionality . . . 569
Sounds . . . 598
Creating HUDs . . . 600
Summary . . . 601
CHAPTER 7: Sound System . . . 603
Sound Types . . . 604
USounds Versus SoundCues . . . 604
The AmbientSound Actors . . . 612
The SoundCue Editor . . . 613
SoundCue Nodes . . . 614
Kismet Sound Actions . . . 632
Working with Music . . . 638
Working with MusicTrackBanks . . . 642
Summary . . . 666
CHAPTER 8: Post-Process Effects . . . 667
The Four Key Methods of Controlling Post-Processes . . . 668
Accessing and Assigning PostProcessEffect Objects . . . 670
Types of Post-Process Effects . . . 675
Post-Process Editor . . . 681
Controlling Post-Process Effects In-Game . . . 715
Summary . . . 716
CHAPTER 9: The Unreal Animation System . . . 717
The Unreal Animation System . . . 718
Skeletal Animation . . . 723
Morph Animation . . . 734
AnimSet Editor . . . 737
Animation Blending . . . 753
AnimTree Editor . . . 754
AnimTree Editor Nodes . . . 770
Morph Nodes . . . 796
Facial Animation with FaceFX . . . 839
FaceFX Studio . . . 840
FaceFX Studio User Interface . . . 872
Physical Animation . . . 900
Setup Procedure for Physical Animation . . . 906
Skeletal Mesh Actors . . . 907
Skeletal Mesh Component . . . 907
Summary . . . 909
CHAPTER 10: Creating Cinematic Sequences . . . 911
Cinematic Sequences . . . 911
Camera Actor . . . 915
Camera Effects . . . 916
Image Separation Through Lighting . . . 920
DumpMovie Command . . . 920
Putting It All Together . . . 920
Summary . . . 999
APPENDIX A: Distributions . . . 1001
Overview . . . 1001
Distribution Types In-Depth . . . 1003
General Performance Cost Comparison . . . 1019
APPENDIX B: The Curve Editor . . . 1023
Animation Curves . . . 1024
Controlling Interpolation Curves . . . 1026
Curve Editor Interface . . . 1030
Preset Curves . . . 1035
Index . . . 1039
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