5) Unreal Development Kit

User Interface

The main area of the user interface is the view ports in which most of the work is done. The view ports can be manipulated in various ways, such as size, and view.

The viewports are as follows by default:

  • Top Left – Side View
  • Top Right – Front View
  • Bottom Right – Top View
  • Bottom Left – Perspective

These view can be changed by clicking the S, F, T and P letters at the top left of each viewport, respectively.

Viewports 1

The 2×2 Viewport layout

Using the viewport toolbar at the top of each viewport, you can various settings within that individual viewport, such as how you view your 3D models, and textures, and navigation speed.

The viewport toolbar

The viewport toolbar

At the left hand side of the viewports you’ll see various world editing tools, which you can use to create and manipulate various world properties, such as terrain, or rooms and walls.

The world editing tools.

The world editing tools.

Unreal Kismet

The Unreal Kismet Editor is the tool used to create dynamic events withing games made with UDK. It is a tool for visual coding, and has many advantages, but also many drawbacks. Although the Kismet Editor is quicker to use and learn then coding, it will require longer loading times, as the coding will have to re-load for each level.

The Unreal Kismet UI.
(Picture from http://www.unrealengine.com)

Unreal Manitee

The Unreal Manitee Editor is a tool used to create in-engine animations. The interface is similar to linear video editing software.

The Unreal Manitee UI.
(Picture from udkbrasil.blogspot.com)

Unreal Cascade

The Unreal Cascade Editor is the tool in UDK which allows you to create and edit particle effects, such as fog and fire.

The Unreal Cascade UI.
(Picture from http://www.yingpeigames.com)

Shader/Material Creator

The Unreal Shader/Material creator is a tool in UDK which allows you to create an manipulate materials, using texture files, such as textures and normal map images. This allows you to create the illusion of realism and extra detail, where there is none.

The Shader/Material editor UI.
(Picture from blog.nobel-joergensen.com)

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