Level Design A Mapping Community .udk for Shared Content

[liamtranzig]

I just wanted to throw out the idea of creating a Mapping Community Workshop item that would function like the Destructible Actors, Doors, & Speciality Spawners .udk files in the SDK.

I figure if contributors are all listed as "authors" on the Workshop item then each Community contributor could modify & update the file freely. This would also save some time for new mappers or when recreating certain things.

Any thoughts on this idea?

By nature of the idea, I'd think accreditation would be paid (if at all) to the Workshop Collective with a link to the workshop item where contributors could have personally catalogued their contributions.

 

[KillMaster]

I've actually got something like this for personal use, however I'm not sure how many people would find it useful.

 

[Seanchaoz]

I like the idea, it's something I've considered in the past as well. I made something similar a while ago with my destructible cars map here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHO2j6hzxh0

I've assembled a fair handful of other custom destructibles since then which I've compiled into a private kfm. I might clean it up a bit and make a public version for mappers to use. It has stuff like exploding oxygen tanks, fuel tanks, barrels (fire and bio matter), destructible walls, coffins and wooden boxes, and a number of various other destructible furniture that are in the official maps only as static meshes. Most of them are fairly simple but functional.

 

[liamtranzig]

It was actually you, Seanchaoz, having listed your destructible car as open-material (with warranted accreditation) that got me thinking about this collective.

I even find some simple static mesh groupings to be time saving when prepared in a separate .kfm - like cars with destructible glass/lights, properly sized doors paired with frames & sounds etc etc.

There are some time savers here but also just cool Community inventions like yours that I think would be great to support our Mapping Community. The cake from Tainted Grove also comes to mind...

Anyway, I feel silly suggesting it because I am more of a Junior mapper (with only 1 map "finished" & 2 WIPs) so I feel like my contributions would be pretty small & perhaps my benefits great. Still I'd be down to help get something like this going.

 

[Dragontear]

Excellent idea, would be absolutely marvelous to have access to community-made resources for map-making, would certainly help to motivate, inspire and generally help us to keep on going, and foster a closer map-making sub-community too.

Saying that, think I might be able to do some simple groupings (natural formations such as rock-groups, tree-copses, small hills, small out buildings, strange features?), destructables (wooden pallet that can be destroyed, window/frame and glass that is breakable), materials (general materials like recoloured and contrast/specular edited stuff) and such.

Also, this could help with any static meshes that were in the game, but have been removed. -Gazes at those trees and bushes forlornly.-

 

[LiquidArrow]

This is a cool idea but it would need one person to "manage it" but it is possible and this is how we could do it.

Make a Workshop Page for this map but only make it visible to "contributors." This way it wouldnt be opened up and edited willy nilly.

If someone wants to add something they can post in the comments or get hold of the "manager" before doing a save and upload, then they can notify when it has been uploaded and is safe to edit by others.

A workshop page can be edited by anyone and uploaded to as long as it has the same name I think.

There would also need to be a layout for the level. Perhaps having "outline boxes" with categories and expanding the outlines as needed. It is a cool idea and would be fun to see in action but requires someone to be the dedicated head of it and organization from contributors.

 

[manolito]

It would be really good, to make maps would have many more materials and possibilities.

 

[Seanchaoz]

It's a great idea, Liquid. But yes it would require some work to get it organized properly. Depending on how many people would get involved, and how often they'd add things, it could become a quite active project.

Keep in mind though - and correct me if I'm wrong on this - we'd be limited to sharing only custom things made with elements from the official maps, since we won't be able to reliably add any kind of custom materials, meshes or combined meshes to the map since these cannot be copied (to my knowledge) from one map to another. At least I haven't figured out how to do so.

As for author space within the map, I was thinking of just adding "platforms" for each author to build their stuff on. Like for example each author has a 16x16 floor to put their stuff on, and then agree that these floors may only be expanded in one specific direction, for example the Y dir, so that authors don't risk running out of space if they need to expand their work area.

 

[LiquidArrow]

It's a great idea, Liquid. But yes it would require some work to get it organized properly. Depending on how many people would get involved, and how often they'd add things, it could become a quite active project.

Keep in mind though - and correct me if I'm wrong on this - we'd be limited to sharing only custom things made with elements from the official maps, since we won't be able to reliably add any kind of custom materials, meshes or combined meshes to the map since these cannot be copied (to my knowledge) from one map to another. At least I haven't figured out how to do so.

As for author space within the map, I was thinking of just adding "platforms" for each author to build their stuff on. Like for example each author has a 16x16 floor to put their stuff on, and then agree that these floors may only be expanded in one specific direction, for example the Y dir, so that authors don't risk running out of space if they need to expand their work area.

Ya it would have to be stuff made from existing assets in the game I would think.

16x16 is plenty and I think just having them all in a line and only expand by Y would work.

 

[manolito]

I already feel sorry for not knowing enough to contribute things, but it would be a great incentive to have more materials, textures ..., to make maps more entertaining.

 

[Seanchaoz]

Here's an early concept on how it could be laid out.

 

[Venom2000]

Any chance someone found a way to copy custom materials, meshes or combined meshes to other maps?

 

[MixMakMax]

Any chance someone found a way to copy custom materials, meshes or combined meshes to other maps?

There's an easy way for that, all you have to do is first 'FULLY' load the package where the asset you want is located at, then right click on it, click 'SAVE', then right click again and select MOVE OR COPY, then place your copy into your maps package file and that's it! you can now fully edit the asset!

 

[Venom2000]

There's an easy way for that, all you have to do is first 'FULLY' load the package where the asset you want is located at, then right click on it, click 'SAVE', then right click again and select MOVE OR COPY, then place your copy into your maps package file and that's it! you can now fully edit the asset!

Thank you MixMakMax! That worked perfect. I was worried about saving the Tripwire packages for fear of messing up my main game (which I'm sure can be fixed by verifying the integrity) but also if my map contained something that was conflicting, having issues there as well.

 

[Seanchaoz]

An alternative way, where you don't have to save anything first, is this:

1. Load the map you want to copy stuff from.

2. Load your own map, where you want to copy stuff to.

3. Find the map packages in the External section of the content browser.

4. Select the map you loaded in point 1. (the one you want to copy from), right click and choose the "Loc Export" option.

5. It will pop up two windows, you just click Cancel on both of them which will abort the operation.

6. Now the SDK has automatically loaded all of the content of the map, and you can just right click and save copies directly into your currently opened map without needing to save stuff first.

I discovered this by pure accident.