UDK Basics,
Environment Effects, Lighting and Viewport Options (Tutorial)
To
continue my practical studies for pipeline and workflow towards BA8 I am going
through a tutorial list that covers the fundamentals of UDK. I chose the
tutorial because it featured creating fog in an environment and how to set it
up but I figured it would be best to try and follow as much of the tutorial as
possible to expand my UDK knowledge. I
plan to take notes and try to reproduce elements to the best of my ability as I
go along, documenting what I learn through notes, screen shots and practical
studies.
By selecting VIEW > BROWSER WINDOWS > SCENE I can
view a window that documents the various attributes within my scene. This
screen shot shows s the scene attributes from a newly created scene, the
actors, lights and volumes are pre loaded into this default scene as the window
shows.
1. DefaultPhysicsVolume: this is the default actor that creates
basic physics within the level so that objects with advanced physics like
collisions, particles and animations can be used.
2. DominantDirectionalLight: this is
the actor that basically acts like the sun, it simulates natural sunlight into
your scene (if you have a daytime scene open, if you open the night scene it
will mimic moon light).
3. ExponentialHieghtFog: this is a type of height fog that can
be used in UDK. Depending on the attributes, the height
fog can cover an entire level, change in density and be manually manipulated.
4. Lightmassimpirtancevolume: this is an area that directs UDK to
increase the quality of lighting for. It means that areas can have less light
quality thus reducing the build times for un-playable areas and can also
decrease build time by not rendering out high quality lighting on distant
objects.
5. Playerstart: This tells UDK where the player will
spawn into the level and begin playing.
6. Static mesh ground/box.
7. Static mesh ground/box.
Using the content browser in UDK, I set
up a basic scene of tree’s similar to the one in the tutorial.
I then opened up the DominantDirectionalLight so that I
could edit the light in the scene. I did this by selecting the “LIGHT” tab > Light Component and then opened the Light component and Light shaft options.
As you can see, I was able to edit the
colour of the directional light so that it altered the overall ambience of the
scene.
Under Light Shafts I am given the option to alter the
directional light ray colours.
Next thing to practice is adding lights
to the environment and editing how they manipulate assets and shadows within
the level. To do this I used a shortcut where I held down the “L” key and clicked anywhere in
the UDK viewport. This created a light in my scene which
I was able to move into position. In this case I moved it to the woodland tree
area. I could have also built a light by using the Actor Classes tab (VIEW > BROWSER WINDOW > ACTOR CLASSES) and
opening the LIGHTS TAB and then SPOTLIGHTS. You can simply drag the spotlight into
the scene.
These lights work the same way as in
Maya. SPOTLIGHTS illuminate
an area in a rotatable cone, POINT LIGHTS illuminate
an area around the light. I was able to RIGHT CLICK > LIGHT
PROPERTIES to open the attributes to the
spotlight. From here I was able to edit the colour
to suit the scene.
Okay so now its time for the fog part
of the tutorial which covers the fogs I have mentioned previously so I will
finally be able to give them a practical study in UDK. UDK offers various fog
options which can be accessed from the ACTOR CLASSES tab.
The scene comes pre loaded with an ExponentialHieghtFog.
According to the tutorial, the fog is “slightly more expensive than regular
height fog but is still the preferred choice for most people”.
Exponential height fog relies on the
dominant directional light, AKA the sun, and its position. It renders two
separate colours of fog which blend in the middle where the light is cast. One
colour is called “LIGHT INCATTERING
COLOUR” and this comes from the direction of
the sun, the other is called “OPPOSITE LIGHT
COLOUR” and it comes from…well, the opposite
direction :P
For my practical study I am going to
follow the settings given to me in the tutorial. I RIGHT CLICK > SELECT EXPONENTIAL HEIGHT FOG PROPERTIES to bring
up the attributes that I can manipulate. I immediately bump up the FOG DENSITY to 2.000000 which
changes the environment drastically, it is now encased in a thick fog. I am
also able to change the colour of the fog by selecting the OPPOSITE LIGHT COLOUR and LIGHT INSCATTERING
COLOUR
Fog Density: How thick the fog appears in the
environment.
Fog Height Falloff: Controls how thick the fogs appears the
lower to the ground
you are (and thinner the higher you are).
Fog Opacity: The distance from the camera that the
fog will begin.
Im going to stop the tutorial now
because fog was the main thing I wanted to try. The tutorial goes onto
discussing LightVolumes and Lightmaps which
aren’t what I am studying currently. I fiddled around with the fog
settings to finish the practical study and I really like the outcome. I added
some more set pieces in from the content browser.
I thought I would try and recreate
something along the lines of a creepy abandoned jungle so that the environment
kept inline with my project. I am really happy with what I have created in this
practical study and Im glad I have learnt how to use height fog. Here are some
screens showing the final outcome.
I did alter some of the settings along
the way for the directional light, spot light, height fog an and terrain
materials so if the images change that is why but these are t ones that I
consistently liked most :D
