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Level Design Mapping

MAPPING IN THE KF EDITOR IS RIDICULOUS!
/rant
Thanks for listening.
I'm just used to Hammer.
It's so much easier to use.
If anyone knows any good tutorials (other than the ones in the MappingGuide), please let me know.
Or, if anyone wants to add me on Steam so I can bother you when I need help that would be awesome too! Name's [BSM] isuckatlinux.
Thanks for the help in advance!
 
I use hammer as well and it's very different. The main issue is thinking about how to make space as opposed to making solids. Making brushes is also a lot more tedious than hammer but a lot more precise, it really helps to think ahead and work out which sizes you want the spaces to be and how it affects sorrounding spaces. Also the camera navigation is a little less intuitive for an FPS player, as with Hammer you control it as if in noclip. You also don't use much bsp geometry in unreal maps, just to make the shell of your map. Detail brushes you'd make in Hammer are really better of made with static meshes in unreal.

Saying all that however, you'll find a lot of benefits. For a start you can scale static meshes and switch their facing, they can interesct with bsp and even go out into the void. You can build lighting inside the map editor too, no more guessing, compiling, playing, guessing again. You get a good aproximation of the lighting inside the editor. It's also a lot easier to make your own textures and insert them into your level for distribution later too. You'll find no nav mesh editing either, you place path nodes for where the ai can go inside the editor.
 
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I haven't checked out the mapping tools for this but if it's still using unreal editor like the mod, the editor's probably the best engine mapping tools i've ever worked with period - they even teach it in colleges around here. You should check a site called www.3dbuzz.com for tutorials on how to use the unreal editor. They have some of the best and they are free (as far as I remember) to download and view, as long as you create an account (which is free as well.)

If you really wanted to know the engine you could also grab the book on Amazon. I think the 3dbuzz tutorials are the best though.
 
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Based on my limited experience with QuakeEd, Hammer and now UnrealEd, I think I like UnrealEd best. I like that you carve out space instead of building a box enclosing part of the void. It makes laying out basic level geometry much simpler, IMO.

I've been making levels since Doom 1 (those levels weren't real 3D), but I haven't done nearly as much since then, but I've dabbled in it.

Plus, learning Unreal editing is probably the best if you want to make levels professionally, since so many games use some version of the Unreal engine.
 
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It totally depends on what you learn first. Unreal Engine 2.5 is somewhat "backwards" compared to most engines. I learnt it first, and everything makes sense to me. Trying to work in Hammer / TES Editor is so awkward.

I used Angelmapper's site to learn, with 3dbuzz coming later, then for complex specific help I used the UnrealWiki(Legacy now). KF was always hard to map for, and it might make it a little easier if you learn UT2004 mapping first, making a few maps to get used to the Editor.

Good luck, look forward to seeing your work :)
 
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