Complicated (?) questions from an SDK noob

[Catalavos]

For the past week I've been pouring over tutorials and trying to find out as much as possible about the UDK in anticipation of the HOS SDK release.

What I haven't been able to find out through various Google searches, however, are the answers to a few questions:

1. Does the engine allow for if/then commands? (If you capture point A, then you get more re-enforcements, or more arty, for example)

2. Can you create random spawn points for objects other than HMG's?

3. Can you limit # of re-spawns for vehicles? You could in DH, IIRC.

4. Can you have "conditional" class selection? For instance, if a team only gets 6 tanks per game, can players in the Tank Commander class then automatically re-spawn as riflemen after all the tanks are used up)

5. Can you import a GIS style DEM (or a 3D topo map) and have the engine automatically create a height map from the data?

6. Can 1 objective be split into 2 cap. zones? (ex. In order to capture a road intersection you need to control buildings on both sides of the street)

Thanks in advance, fellas'

 

[Le0]

Going to try to answer to those questions

1. Does the engine allow for if/then commands? (If you capture point A, then you get more re-enforcements, or more arty, for example)

All the objective activation/deactivation is done in Kismet in which you can use various nodes for if/then conditions. (ie. If level reset -> activate objective A and deactivate all the others etc...)

2. Can you create random spawn points for objects other than HMG's?

I haven't tried this yet, I have used a few static MG spot so it should be possible to create new objects to be spawnable I guess.

3. Can you limit # of re-spawns for vehicles? You could in DH, IIRC.

I think this is possible, I haven't the SDK on this computer so I cannot check now

4. Can you have "conditional" class selection? For instance, if a team only gets 6 tanks per game, can players in the Tank Commander class then automatically re-spawn as riflemen after all the tanks are used up)

This is not done automatically at the moment but since you can provide new code with your map you could easily write it yourself and add it your map.

5. Can you import a GIS style DEM (or a 3D topo map) and have the engine automatically create a height map from the data?

This is possible, and I've tried it but the resulting heightmap, depending on which DEM data you use, will most of the time not be of a sufficient resolution to be correctly used in game. There are some part of the world where you can find higher resolution DEM files and which are suitable to generate a UDK heightmap. You cannot however import directly a DEM into UDK, you first have to generate a G16 Heightmap which is the format used by the UDK.
You can use MicroDEM to modify your DEM File : http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem/microdem.htm
And you can use TerreSculptor to generate a G16 Heightmap http://www.lilchips.com/hmes.asp

You'll have to make some more research on this, for my current map I personally just created my terrain from scratch because it was too big of a headache to get the DEM heightmap exactly how I wanted it.

6. Can 1 objective be split into 2 cap. zones? (ex. In order to capture a road intersection you need to control buildings on both sides of the street)

The RO Objective object has only a single field available to set the Objective Volume (The zone in which you have to be to capture it). To do what you want to do you need to create two separate objectives and activate new/deactivate old objectives only when both of them are captured.

I hope I answered some of your questions correctly

 

[Catalavos]

Perfect. Thanks, Le0.