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In this article:

– BSP geometry basics
– Making geometry
– Overview of tools for working with geometry objects

CSG and BSP

There is the original geometry world making conception in Unreal engine. It’s Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), that represent subtract and addict sequence of map geometry. All the black, a «nothing» that we may see during new map making is a solid space. So we should subtract world space and then fill it with stuff. This action is implemented by creating of subtractive brushes. You may add some decor stuff into subtract space. It’s implemented by another brush: the additive one.
You may combine these actions (subtraction/addition) for creating complicated stuff. E.g. you may subtract room space then add wall dividing this to 2 separate parts and finally subtract a door between it.
You should take care about geometry creation sequence during map making. If you’ll do it in wrong sequence you may get unexpected result. E. g. if you add divider firstly then door and finally room box you get only one room without divider however it’ll be looks same in editor. To change CSG action sequence use Order >ToFirst or Order > ToLast context menu items on needed brush(s).

Every room or passage is subtracted separately on closed space maps.

Open world maps are made in huge subtracted box.

BSP (Binary Space Partitioning) is method of binary subdividing a space that is used during building virtual geometry. With BSP tree help it makes object classification depends of viewer distance. For more information about BSP look here or there . Compiled map BSP cuts depend on its location, shape and brush type. In the complicated sequences it is possible to raise errors during cuts making, so called BSP Holes in space.

Brush copy and layout

To move brush you should select it then move it holding Ctrl and left mouse button (LMB). You may select few brushes holding Ctrl as well and move it together. You may rotate them around the pivot (crosshair) holding Ctrl and right mouse button (RMB). Brushes are moved in editor grid. You may change grid siae in bottom toolbar. E.g. for tiny objects it should be used 1-8 grid size. There are 3 parameters of rotation: Pitch, Roll and Yaw and its own grid. One unit of this grid equals value 1024 on one of this parameters. You may chage grid size in editor options: View > Advanced Options > Editor > RotationGridSize.

For rotation you may switch off moving or rotation ability by using Toggle Drag Grid or Toggle Rotation Grid buttons. If one or more brush points are placed on editor grid cross you may align brush relative to this point by selecting it and use RMB. Selected brush(es) will moved to distance from given point to crossing. Brush pivot will be set to point axis as well.
All objects can be copied and duplicated (except builder). To duplicate brush you should click RMB > Duplicate or Ctrl+W on selected brush(es). Duplication uses for copying objects on single map. To copy objects between maps you should click RMB > Edit > Copy on one map object(s) then insert it by clicking RMB > Edit > Paste on other map. It works even between different game maps (e.g. from UT2004). Copied brushes will have same textures and stuff as well. After geometry changing it needs to compile by pressing Build Geometry button. During map full compiling(Build All ) the geometry is handled first.

Making geometry tools

There are two general tools for geometry making: Add and Subtract . You may add and subtract map space by brush builder outlines using this tools.

Intersect and Deintersect use for builder shape. It cuts brush builder using outlines and cuts Solid or Non Solid.

Intersect

Deintersect

You may select all map space and press Deinserect to see BSP cut outlines.

You may see cuts Zone/Portal mode.

Geometric figures

Tools for making shapes are placed at left tools panel. You may create Builder using this tools and edit its params using context menu (RMB).

Cube. Creates parallelepiped. Very simple and useful tool.
Height
Breadth
Width
WallThickness – if Hollow = True
GroupName
Hollow – Creates hollow brush with WallThickness. Useful for Additive brushes and making buildings.
Tessellated – Splits brush sides to triangles.

Cylinder. Creates cylinder-like prism.
Height.
OuterRadius – Radius of base circumscribed circle (if AllignToSides = False) or inscribed circle.
InnerRadius – Radius of base inscribed circle (if Hollow = True).
Sides – Sides quantity.
AllignToSides – Align radius to sides.
Hollow – Same as for cube.

Cone. Creates cone like pyramid.
Height
CapHeight – If Hollow = True
OuterRadius – Radius of base circumscribed circle.
InnerRadius – Radius of base inscribed circle.
Sides
AllignToSides, Hollow – The same as above.

Sphere. Creates sphere-like tetrahedron.
Radius
SphereExtrapolation – Detalization level. Higher – better (avoid using value above 6).

Stairs:

This is brushes consist of several parts.
There are 3 common params for all stairs types below.

LinearStaircase.
StepLenght
AddToFirstStep – Additional height.

CurvedStaircase.
InnerRadius – Distance down to stairs start point.
AngleOfCurve – Turn angle from fist to last step.
AddToFirstStep – Same as LinearStaircase.
CounterClockwise – Stairs turn direction.

SpiralStaircase.
InnerRadius – Distance down to stairs start point.
StepThickness
NumStepsPer360 – Steps quantity during 360 degrees turn.
SlopedCelling – For sloped stairs reverse side.
SlopedFloor – Turns stairs to slope.
CounterClockwise – Stairs turn direction.

Surfaces:

Sheet: plain quadrangle surface. It uses for map zone dividing and sets creating.
Height/Width
HorizBreaks – Horizontal segments quantity.
VertBreaks – Vertical segments quantity.
Axis – Sheet creating axis.

Volumetric: Structure consists of some plain surfaces crossed in middle. Sometimes it uses for sets making.
Height/Radius
NumSheets – plane parts quantity.

Landscape:

BSP Based Terrain: Creates cube brush with one side splitting to segments that splitting to triangles. It sets to use for BSP landscapes. Actually it is very inconvenient way to do it.
Height/Width/Breadth
Width/Depth Segments – segments quantity.

Scales

There is a special dimension unit: UU (Unreal Unit).
1 UU = 0.75 inches
1 ft = 16 UU
256 UU = 16 ft

For turning and rotating it uses special units that shows deflection relative to original position.
1024 = 5.625 degrees
8192 = 45 degrees
16384 = 90 degrees
24576 = 135 degrees
32768 = 180 degrees
If it uses negative values rotation will be done in clockwise.

Shape editing tools

VertexEditing: Very useful tool for free shapes making. It ables to change brush shape by moving vertex points.
Select brush then select vertexes holding Ctrl and you may change brush shape moving vertexes with holding Ctrl+LMB.

It is much better to use em>VertexEditing for complicated shape making and brush duplicating then making new one from beginning.
You may use ShowLagreVertices tool button for easy point viewing.

BrushClipping: Tool for brush splitting and cutting. Selecting brush and BrushClipping mode you may put Clipping markers. To put marker you should click LMB on one of brush points then holding Ctrl move it to needed place. 2 markers are enough for brush cutting/splitting. You may see red line between markers with perpendicular segment that marks cutting part.

There are 4 tools for BrushClipping mode:
Clip Selected Brushes – Clip a brush towards segment.

Split Selected Brushes – Split a brush along the line of cut.

Flip Clipping Normal – Flip cut side.
DeleteClippingMarkers – Remove all markers.

Finally couple of useful tools.
Mirror X/Y/Z – Mirror reflection of geometry relative to pivot at one of axis.
Select All Inside – Select all objects inside builder.

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In this article:

– Static Mesh browser overview.
– Mesh import.
– How to import static meshes from 3rd party games.
– Properties.

Static meshes is polygon mesh that are the most part of game world objects in many game engines including Unreal Engine. “Static” means that they have no animations but they may be moved and resized at real-time without recompiling. Static meshes can be of any forms and dimensions (2D or 3D).
They are more better for making complicated objects than BSP geometry objects and more flexible as well. Engine work with complicated static meshes more faster than equal BSP objects.

Static meshes examples inKilling Floor:

Static Mesh Browser

There are own browser for static meshes in Killing Floor. It may be opened by clicking tool button or selecting menu item View > Static Meshes Browser.

As in texture browser here you may look at object and map texture on it. You may move camera in static meshes browser viewport just as in map viewport. This tool uses usx package format. Texture may be maped on Materials tab. Mesh may consist of sevral parts with its own textures. Each part has a tab with number (starts at 0). To map texture you should select it in texture browser firstly then on needed part tab click Use button on Material field. To add mesh on map it needs to click RMB > Add Static Mesh: ‘name’ at target map point or press Insert Static Mesh into Level button in static mesh browser. Using Frame Current button you may set angle view in browser as at map viewport.

Import

To import static mesh you should select File > Import menu item. Supported formats: ase (mainly) and lwo. During import you may see window below that should be filled with package, group and name data.

Mesh is imported without own texture if you don’t import texture with the same name before. Use Materials tab to set textures.

How to import static meshes from 3rd party games

There are many programs for 3D model working. I offer to use MilkShape 3D. It is tiny, simple and powerful tool for model converting. Firstly you should import 3rd party mesh into Milkshape using File > Import menu item.

Then you may export mesh in needed format by File > Export menu item.

How to convert static mesh to brush and vice versa

Solid brush may be converted to static mesh using RMB > Convert > To Static Mesh on it. It opens window below.

Brush edges will be divided to faces with the same textures and Pivot. If you convert several brushes at the same time then they merge to one object. You may convert mesh group iteratively to unite it to one object (books pile).

To convert static meshes to brush select Convert > To Brush.

Properties

Take a look at basic properties of static meshes that is on map (Display tab). You may see default values at screenshot below. Don’t change it if you don’t know what you do.

AmbientGlow – Independent inner glow.
bAcceptsProjectors – Accept traces (blood, bulletholes).
bAlwaysFaceCamera – For 2D objects only. Set True to place front surface in front of player view always.
bShadowCast – Cast shadows
bUnlit – Force full glow.
CullDistance – View distance.
DrawScale – General object multiplier.
DrawScale3D – X, Y, and Z sizes.
ForcedVisibilityZoneTag – Object can be viewed only in that zone.
Skins – Overrides previous textures.
StaticMesh – Selected static mesh (package, group, name).

Collision propeties.

bAutoAlignToTerrain – Surface binding.
bBlockActors and bBlockKarma – Useless. Overriding by other params.
bBlockNonZeroExtentTraces – Block players, zeds, dropped gears etc.
bBlockZeroExtentTraces – Block bullets, grenades etc.
bCollideActors – Interaction with other objects (set to false to override bBlock).
bPathColliding – To block AI path building during compilation.
bUseCylinderCollision – Use cylinder collision? (Better set to False).
CollisionHeight&Radius – cylinder collision height and radius.
SurfaceType – Surface type. Useless. It is sets by mesh texture.

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In this article it describes:

– Texture browser overview.
– Texture mapping.
– Texture export/import.
– Properties and options.
– How to create simple animated texture.

I think everybody knows what texture is. It’s picture that puts to different surfaces. In this article I make advanced tutorial about textures using in Unreal Editor.

Texture browser

This is tool for texture choosing, viewing and editing. You may open it by using View > Show Texture Browser menu item or just appropriate button clicking (at top tools panel) . Also it opens at Unreal Editor starts.

1 – current texture package
2 – texture group
3 – show all package content
4 – general view mode
5 – textures used by current map
6 – most recently used textures
7 – show texture properties
8 – open texture original package
9 – fast switching between groups
10 – selected texture

Texture browser may be used to open texture package and make new one in utx format. Package may consists of texture groups. You can elect package at top field and chose group at bottom one. You may use filter for better viewing and fast searching. Also you may set texture view size on View tab..

Texture mapping

To map texture on brush you should select brush surface and click on texture in browser. Frequently texture maps incorrectly. You may tune it using Pan, Rotate and Scale tools in Surface Properties

1 – Texture shift (in pixels, relative to size)
2 – Rotation/reflection
3 – Texture size relative to pixels/Unreal Unit
4 – The same for height/width separately
5 – Use relative to current size
6 – Light map size of current surface
U – width, V – height.

Holding Shift you may rotate/move texture indirect. You may also use Texture Pan and Texture Rotate . tools. In Texture Pan you may move texture by holding Ctrl with LMB/RMB or resize holding Ctrl with both buttons. Texture Rotate is the same for texture rotating.

Import

To import texture select File > Import menu item in texture browser. It opens window below.

Теперь подробнее.

1 – Package. Where you want import. It should uses MyLevel to save textures inside main map file.
2 – Group. Package group.
3 – Name. Texture name (same name will replace old one).
4 – LOD. Levels of texture detalization. It makes several quality kinds of texture for using on different view distances. Set 0 for maximum quality.
5 – Masked. Check if texture has transparent parts. E.g.:

6 – Alpha. Same as Masked but handles different transparency degree (alpha channel). If you don’t care always use instead Masked. Alpha texture example:

7 – Generate MinMaps. Generate texture copies in lower resolution.
8 – Detail Hack? Only for Detail textures (read below). For blurring textures depends of distance.

Texture dimensions must be equal to power of 2 (16; 32; 64; 128; 256; 512 etc.).
Supported texture formats: dds, tga, bmp, pcx, upt.
dds (DirectDraw Surface) is the best choice. After import you may convert any texture to dds using Tools > Compress. There are 3 types of compression: DXT1 – non transparent (best compression), DXT3 – with explicit alpha channel (good for light stuff), DXT5 – with interpolated alpha. DXT5 is most versatile. More about dds format read here.

To export any texture select File > Export or RMB > Export to File…

Animation – For making animated texture. But not the best way to create it.
Material – Texture material. Select required one in Surface Type for collision sound and particles effect (wood, glass, metal etc.).
Quality – Color and Texture quality. Actually useless.
Surface – Has few parameters. bAlphaTexture and bMasked have same purposes as in import window. bTwoSided – make 2-sided texture.
Texture – Here you may add some details for texture (for better edges look).

See examples in default KF package Detailtextures_T.utx

You may add detail by pressing Use in Detail field. In DetailScale you may set relation between details and main texture sizes. See example with(top)/without(bottom) details below.

On this tab you may set LOD itself and its type as well.

TextureFormat – Just info.

Making animated texture

There are 2 ways to make it. The first is to import animation frames with ends of filenames _aXX, where XX – frame number starts from 00. E.g.:
name1_a00
name1_a01
name1_a02
etc.
It sets frame number on Animation tab automatically. You may set FrameRate property as well. This way uses for monitors on KF-Icebreaker map.

The second way is MaterialSequence creating. To make it press File > New and window opens:

Fill package, group, name and set MaterialClass to MaterialSequence. In SequenceItems fields you may add frames by pressing Add. There are 3 params. Action field: FadeToMaterial – smooth animation (mainly for map previews) and ShowMaterial – sharp frame change. Add texture-frame in Material field. Set the frame duration in Time property.

Created texture is 1 pass now.

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In this article it describes:

– Where you can get map editor.
– How to use viewports and camera.
– Basics of editor using.
– Making simple map.

First of all you need map editor from Killing Floor SDK. If you install it already you may launch it with KFEd.exe file from System folder. If you have Steam you may download it from Steam Tools Tab, else you may download it with good repack. Killing Floor uses Unreal Engine 2.5 and KF SDK is modification of UnrealEd 3.0 (don’t confuse it with Unreal Engine 3).
After editor running, you will see 4 viewports and Texture Browser (close it now). This viewports are 3 views (top, front and side) and 3D view.

I think default viewports configuration is the best but you can change througth menu View > Viewports > Configure…

You should use a camera to navigate in 3D view («eye» icon on other viewports), It can be moved using mouse. Holding the left button (LMB) and moving mouse you move camera horizontally. Holding right button (RMB) you make free look. Holding both buttons and moving mouse you move camera vertically and sidely. At 2D viewports you may move camera holding any one mouse button and make zoom in/out holding both mouse buttons. You may variate camera speed by pressing Change Camera Speed. For openers make a cube volume by clicking appropriate button on tools panel . If you clivk RMB on it it opens CubeBuilder window, where you can set cube dimensions. Enter 512х512х512.

It appers so called brush with red edges.

To make a room press Subtract button on left tools panel. It makes empty room covered with bubbles texture.

Couple words about engine features: There is no empty space in Unreal Engine. This is a solid space and just maked room was cutted from solid space. You add brush to cutted space by pressing Add button.
Move brush in 2D viewport by holding Ctrl and moving mouse. It moves on editor grid. You may set grid unit by pressing RMB > Grid or in bottom tools panel. You may see subtractive brush with yellow edges. This is the room.

Texture room walls. Select some room surfaces by holding Ctrl and clicking on it. Repeated click unselects surface. Pressing Shift+B selects all surfaces with the same brush.

Open Texture Browser and using File > Open… menu item select “KillingFloorManorTextures.utx”. You may see texture package name at upper field and select needed. In the bottom field you may find texture groups. It needs just for good texture sorting. If you want to see all package textures click All button. Reduce texure scale for better look using View > 25% menu item.

Put textures to selected surfaces. E.g. BrickWall for walls and wood_floor for floor and ceiling.

Choosen textures has too big size. Reduce it for better look. Click RMB > Surface Properties on selected properties. In opened window select Pan/Rot/Scale tab and set Simple to 0.25 at Scaling field.

Then make a passage. Open CubeBuilder and set 256х1024х256 dimensions. Place it near the room and subtract the hole by pressing Substract. It is textured by last material already. Textured it just like room before.

Make a passage fork. Move brush again and click on passage edge to select it at top viewport. Than make a copy using RMB > Duplicate (or Ctrl+W).

Rotate the copy by 90 degrees holding RMB and place it to the center.

To see passage copy at 3D viewport it needs to build map geometry by clicking Build Geometry button at top tools panel. After building you may see passage copy with the same textures and sizes but rotated in the same way. Fix it by editing Rotation and Pan fields at Surface Properties window.

Then add some lights to map. Use RMB > Add Light Here at any surface. To see lights effects click Build Lightning button. 3D view should be set to Dynamic Light mode (Alt+5).

Move light to room center and open Light Properties (by F4). You may set Light Color by pressing Color and brightness, hue and saturation as well. And set light radius in Lightning settings also.

Place some more light emitters with less bright in passage.

Make zeds spawns at passage fork. Make a cude 256х256х256 and place it to fork end. Click RMB > ZombieVolume on Volume , it looks like transparent brush with white edges. Make another one at other fork.

To enable moving zeds smart and find players without visual contact It needs special path nodes. You should create it using RMB > Add Path Node Here on surface at 3D viewport.

Make a path with some nodes.

Now add player start spawn. Use RMB > Add Player Start Here item.
Then add some ammo spawn to map. Open Actor Class Browser and choose Actors > Pickup. For ammo adding choose Pickup > Ammo > KFAmmoPickup.

Add it to map by pressing RMB > Add KFAmmoPickup Here on any surface. If it doesn’t appear try again on other surface.

You may find weapons at KFWeaponPickup tab and add it just like ammo (and all Actor Classes gears). You may find random weapon spawn items at xPickupBase > KFRandomSpawn > KFRandomItemSpawn.

You should build your map before testing using Build All button. After that you may make a test run by pressing Play Map! button.

That’s all. Your 1st map is done. Not a msterpiece but good enough for beginner.
You may expand map, add some items and so on. Good luck.

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