Specifics on Cooking & Publishing DGunreal

[{RA}SKYFURNACE]

Please Sticky This: Big Thanks to DGunreal @ Epic Forums for this info:

Link: http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=590932

Preparing UT3 maps for publishing and distribution.

This can be stickied...

Notes:

1. bForceMipStreaming

You should not be selecting all of your map StaticMeshes and setting the bForceMipStreaming to True. The occurrence of the blurry StaticMeshes is an issue with the current game version. Setting bForceMipStreaming to True on all of the map content will have a negative impact as that function forces all texture mips to be loaded when the level is loaded, bypassing the dynamic mip streaming. On systems with smaller texture memory pools the result may be running out of pool space.
Until Epic releases the first patch I don't recommend you do this. People experiencing blurry textures should just set the Texture Quality to 5. On systems with video adapters as old as ATI X800's you should see no performance loss at a Texture Quality setting of 5.

2. Re-cook Inevitable

Gamers, Mappers, and Server Admins should be prepared to re-download all maps again after the first patch. Maps will have to be re-cooked. I recommend staying with the same map names and everyone simply updating their files, otherwise we are going to have a mess of various named and numbered maps that are basically the same thing.

3. Packages

Do not use additional external packages with your map.
Place all custom content into the Map file itself. To do this, specify the map file name as the package name, eg. "DM-Mymap". After the first build and save of your map, the map name package will then show up in the Generic Browser.
Although you might want to put custom content into another individual package, you shouldn't since if that package goes missing the map will not play on other people's systems.
For mappers who are creating a large amount of custom content for a totally custom map and wish to keep this separate from the map file, place the custom content into only one external package file and use the name "<mapname>_Content.upk". eg. "DM-Mymap_Content.upk".

4. Shader Model 2

Video cards that only support up to Shader Model 2 will have issues running the editor and playing most maps. The ATI X1000, HD2000 and HD3000 series and NVidia 7000 and 8000 series should be fine.

5. Some of the map settings presented below are not implemented in UT3 at this time. They are included here simply to cover all bases should those features be implemented by Epic in the future.


Start Here

These sections are meant to be completed in the order as shown on this page.
Do not skip down to other sections unless you are familiar with what you are doing.

1. Create your map.
By default the map .ut3 file will be saved in the "My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\CustomMaps" folder.

2. Save often. An initial save of your map is required to have some of the automatic stuff happen within the editor.

3. Always - always - always make backups of your map as you work. Do not rely on the AutoSave feature to always get you out of a problem.


Setting the Author and Title

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the WorldInfo group, set the "Author" property to your name or nick, set the "Title" property to the title of the map.


Setting the Game Type

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the WorldInfo group, set the "GameTypesSupportedOnThisMap" array to the desired game types.

Note: This will usually set itself to the defaults for the DM game types.


Setting the Default Reverb

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the WorldInfo group, set the "DefaultReverbSettings" to the desired reverb type, fade and volume.

Note: For better reverb control use the ReverbVolumes as required around your map. This gives the flexibility of setting room acoustics for each map area.


Setting the Default PostProcessing

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the WorldInfo group, set the "DefaultPostProcessingSettings" to the desired visual style for Bloom, Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Colorizing, etc.

Note: For better post processing control use the PostProcessVolumes as required around your map. This gives the flexibility of setting post processing for each map area.


Setting the World KillZ

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the ZoneInfo group, set the "KillZ" property to just below the map total play area so that anything that falls out of the world accidentally will get removed right away.

Note: the KillZ shows up as a red line in the editor that spans across the world in Front and Side views.


Adding the Music

1. Load the A_Music_Arrangements package found at "Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\CookedPC\Sounds\A_Music_Arrangements.upk" . Each music arrangement object looks like a bubble texture.
2. Select the desired music arrangement for your map from the Tracks group. You can preview the music by playing the USound actors in the appropriate A_Music_* packages that will also load.
3. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
4. In the WorldInfo group, there should be a "UTMapInfo" or a "UTOnslaughtMapInfo" in the MyMapInfo array, this is usually automatically added when you save your map as a DM, WAR, etc. If not, add an item by clicking on the "v" button (small blue down arrow) and choose the Info type.
5. Open the MyMapInfo.UTMapInfo or UTOnslaughtMapInfo group, add the desired music arrangement object from the A_Music_Arrangements package to the "MapMusicInfo" property.


Do a full map Build

We are getting ready to publish, so everything in your map should be finished and ready to play. This includes lighting, bot support, etc.

Click on the Build All button on the toolbar.


Do an initial Publish

1. Click on the Publish button on the top right of the editor. A first run through will be done to create the additional required files for the map. Publishing will optimize the map for file size and load time.

There should now be a <mapname>.ini and <mapname>_LOC_int.upk file in the "My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Published\CookedPC\CustomMaps" folder. eg. DM-Mymap.ini and DM-Mymap_LOC_int.upk

The .ini file contains information on your map, the _LOC file is a localization (region) file.


Adding the Screenshot Texture

1. Start UT3. Choose your map from the game menu. If it does not show up, make sure you Published the map before doing this.

2. Take a screenshot:
- Set the game settings to World and Texture of 5 for best visual quality, select a resolution of at least 1024x768 or 1280x1024.
- Set the Weapon Hand to Hidden in the Advanced options.
- Type "showhud 0" at the console to hide the hud.
- Type "ghost" at the console so you can go anywhere in the map.
- Press F9 to take the screenshot. The file will be saved in "My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Screenshots".
- Load the screenshot in your paint software.
- Adjust the brightness, contrast and intensity as desired.
- Resample the screenshot to 512x256.
- Save the screenshot to a .bmp or .tga file named as "map-pic-<mapname>.bmp" or "map-pic-<mapname>.tga" eg. "map-pic-dm-mymap.tga".

3. Import the screenshot into your map package. Do not use a separate package for this.
- Start UnrealEd.
- Import the screenshot texture into your map, specify Package = <mapname> eg. "DM-Mymap", and Group = "MapPic", and Name = "map-pic-<mapname>" eg. "map-pic-dm-mymap".
- Set "CompressionNoAlpha" to True, set "CreateMaterial?" to True, set "Lighting Model" = MLM_Unlit, set "LODGroup" to TEXTUREGROUP_UI and set "RGB To Diffuse" to True.
- A new Material should be created in your map package's MapPic group. It will look like the default checkerboard texture in the Generic Browser.
- Rename the material to "MAT_map-pic-<mapname>" (ie. put the MAT_ in front of the name) and right-click and edit the material, move the Texture Sample device so that the material has changed and click on the left green check button to Apply Changes. The material should now look totally black in the Generic Browser, this is because it is unlit.
- Select a hidden CSG Surface somewhere in your map and apply the material. Alternately, add a simple unused StaticMesh and apply the Material to the StaticMesh Material override property. This retains a copy of the material and your screenshot texture in your map package, which would otherwise be flushed out on the next Save if it wasn't actually in use on some geometry.
- Save your map.

4. Set up the ini file for the screenshot.
- Edit the <mapname>.ini file that was created when you published the map.
- Change the line "PreviewImageMarkup=<Images: UI_FrontEnd_Art.GameTypes.DeathMatch>" to read "PreviewImageMarkup=<Images: <mapname>.MapPic.map-pic-<mapname>>" eg. "PreviewImageMarkup=<Images: DM-Mymap.MapPic.map-pic-dm-mymap>".

Basically, just replace the package.group.name of the default screenshot (UI_FrontEnd_Art.GameTypes.DeathMatch) with your package.group.name (DM-Mymap.MapPic.map-pic-dm-mymap) of your screenshot.

Note: the "<" and ">" must be in the text.
Note: I had to add a single space character after the "<Images:" above otherwise we would get smileys, so there should be no space there between <Images: and DM-.

5. If you have simply applied the screenshot Material to an already hidden CSG surface, then you can proceed to the next step. If you have modified the map to insert a StaticMesh or some other means of adding the screenshot Material, you may have to do a Build All and then a Publish again.


Specify the PlayerCount

1. Go to the View menu and choose World Properties.
2. In the MyMapInfo.UTMapInfo or UTOnslaughtMapInfo area, set the "RecommendedPlayersMin" and "RecommendedPlayersMax" properties. These are usually something like 8 min and 16 max but will vary depending on your map design.

Note: This method isn't implemented in the game menus at this time, so also do the following.

1. In the <mapname>.ini file add the following line "NumPlayers=<min> to <max> players".
eg. NumPlayers=2 to 16 players

Save your map.


Adding the Map Description

The map description is not currently displayed on the game interface.

1. Edit the <mapname>.ini file that was created when you published the map.
2. Change the line "Description=None" to the map description text eg. "Description=This is my l33t map!".


Distributing the Map

1. Create a Readme.txt file for your map that lists the map name, version, author, credits, and any comments you would like to share.
2. Create a few Screenshots of the map in .jpg format preferably between 640x480 and 1024x768 sized.
3. Zip up the Readme.txt, Screenshot .jpgs, and the .ut3 map file and its .ini and LOC_int.upk into a zip file of the map name.
4. Place it somewhere ready for download.
5. Downloaded .ut3 map files are to be copied to the "My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Published\CookedPC\CustomMaps" folder in order to show up in the game menus. If this folder is not currently on your system, you can safely create it.

[blito3]

is that all....phewww...it thought it would be a wee bit more.

[blito3]

ok....i am boiling....ive got like 3 maps in line.....but cant get the damn things to publish. ive got a couple of weener maps as a test bed for the publishing thingy...but still cant choke that chicken....hot damn...cant save custom meshes to a published map. I will funk it out sooner or later and unleash upon the world a pile of b3 maps....yeesh. did they ever think it through with the save map thingy......damn.

[widowmaker]

Note to Vista users. The External Publishing Program does not have permission. You will have to give it permission or it will always fail because it cannot write to the UT3 folder.

I was having the same issue Blito was until I figured that out.

[Wackemall]

Originally Posted by widowmaker

Note to Vista users. The External Publishing Program does not have permission. You will have to give it permission or it will always fail because it cannot write to the UT3 folder.

I was having the same issue Blito was until I figured that out.

But how do I give it permission?

Seems like I'm having these problems over here...I made my own particle system, but I'm bot able to save it with the map....