White Screen The screen is white
when you start the editor.

Although not strictly related to this tutorial, I thought I'd
include a quick paragraph for anyone looking for this problem. This
is sometimes caused by changes in resolution. Basically, all the
editing viewports are closed, leaving the white background. It's
easy to fix; to open them again, click on 'View' at the top of the
editor and go down to the bottom of the drop down list where it says
'View ports' and from the side menu that pops up, click 'Configure'.
Then choose your view port style and hit OK. I recommend having 2
view ports unattached, so you can maximize them, since you'll be
able to see a better view and make less 'unknown
mistakes'.
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BSP Holes Holes
appearing in the map, sometimes causes a ' Hall of Mirrors' effect.
Very common.

Image: A hole leads out into the void in the editor; the
corridor to the left has been sliced in half. (Notice the black
editor background with the dark blue grid). Appears as a "Hall of
Mirrors" in game. This can look ugly, confuse the player, cause
death when touched, and cause the player to fall through the
map.
Perhaps the most common problem people discover when making maps;
The much loved BSP hole is especially a newbie's nightmare. These
can be caused by messy geometry, complicated brushes, tiny mistakes
after editing vertices and bad zone portals. A lot of new map makers
don't bother keeping things neat or simple, and end up with their
level cut to ribbons by these mysterious holes of fun.
How to Fix: • Investigate the area
where the BSP hole(s) are occurring. We're looking for anything even
a little out of place; this is what causes the holes in nearly all
cases...
• Check that your brushes are perfectly aligned on all views;
they should be flush (aligned perfectly) with each other. It's not
always possible to see anything out of place unless you zoom in very
closely by holding both mouse buttons and moving your mouse forward.
If not, align everything perfectly by resizing or vertex editing
your brushes, and rebuild. If you map is very messy, you should see
a big reduction in problems after tidying it up.
• Check the brushes where the hole(s) are occurring. Are they
complicated? Any brushes with irregular shapes, or a lot of angles,
vertices or sides can cause this. If so, you'll need to recreate
this area by using simpler brushes or more brushes to get the shapes
you want. Keep to simple, regular shapes like cuboids as much as
possible, then rebuild. Try replacing anything too complicated with
static meshes. If you are using a brush with a lot of sides, aviod
convex angles and consider splitting these up as mentioned
above.
• If you've been editing the vertices on the brushes, check to
see that all vertices are aligned, and not slanted. (So that all
sides on the brush(es) are completely flat, and not curved.
(Vertices can be out by as little as one square to cause this).
Again you may want to zoom in for this.
• Are you trying to place a zone portal where the hole(s) are
occurring? Make sure the zone portal is completely watertight, and
doesn't intersect any complicated brushes.
Work Around: If you're confident that
all the above is perfect, and worst comes to worst, you might
consider changing the room or corridors where the holes appear. This
means resizing or moving them elsewhere, or even redesigning them
slightly. Last resort! |
Black Surfaces A
completely black surface with no lighting; Can appear at random in
any area of the map.

Image: The problem surface is highlighted by the red
border. Instead of being lit properly, it's completely black. What
causes this remains a mystery to me. They seem to suddenly spring up
even with perfectly aligned editing. No amount of rebuilding seems
to fix them. But I found a work around after hours of trying to fix
it.
Work Around: Resize the offending
brush in one of your 2D views by 1 unit/square on the smallest grid
scale. You may want to use the vertex editing tool for this, and
it's handy to have the 'Show Large Verticies' option turned on. (See
below for the button). Hit F8 and rebuild, and this should be fixed.
(If not, try resizing by a couple more units/squares). Make sure you
tidy up any other brushes aligned with the one you resized. There
should be no noticeable difference to the size of this room when
in-game.
 The "Vertex Editing" tool.
 The "Show Large Vertices"
button.
Editor Tip: Using the vertex
editing tool is useful for making small changes or changing the
shapes of your brushes. Keep things simple; any "curved" surfaces or
messy vertices can cause the editor to crash or make BSP holes
appear! |
Unlit Static Meshes:
(2K3/2K4) A static mesh that appears unlit or black
when in 3d lighting mode or in game, when it's supposed to be lit
correctly.

Image: A small number of static meshes appear completely
unlit, whilst the rest of the map is lit perfectly. This is
sometimes caused when static meshes are sticking out of zones or
into the void. or the surrounding lighting. Some of the stock Epic
static meshes use light maps in their textures, and this could cause
it to appear unlit. This problem is usually easy to fix.
How to Fix: If you really don't want
to have to move your static mesh(es), try this. Give the zone where
your unlit static mesh is a tag name. (Right click the Zone Info
actor, select properties. Expand events, type a name in "Tag"
field.) Next, open your static mesh properties, expand display and
type the same tag name in the 'ForcedVisibilityZone' field. Then,
hit F8 and rebuild. This is also an nice optimization method, as the
static meshes will only be rendered when the zone is being rendered.
You may want to do with for all your meshes.

If this didn't solve the problem, you can try altering the static
mesh lighting properties. In the static mesh properties, expand
display and try changing these lighting fields, one at a time:
bUseDynamicLights, bUseStaticLighting, bUseLightingFromBase. Also
note the 'bUnlit' property; this is false by default.
If you don't mind moving or resizing your meshes a little, then
check that they are not sticking out into other zones or into the
empty void.
Finally, there is a Scale Glow setting on the static meshes
display properties you can change to make the mesh brighter/darker,
which can also help you find the mesh lighting you want.
Editor Tip: Naming your zones with
a tag name and setting the Forced Zone Visibility property to your
static meshes display properties, along with other optimization
methods, can seriously improve your level performance and FPS, and
fix a lot of mesh lighting problems! See above on how to do
this. |
Static Meshes Appear Black
(2K3/2K4) A static mesh which appears completely
black.
Sometimes one or more of your static meshes can appear completely
black. This happens when all the vertices that make up the mesh are
receiving hidden and recieving no light, or are sticking out into
the vois. Meshes use vertex lighting, which means the vertices that
make up the mesh are what recieve the light, and the poloygons
between the vertices are blended using the light values.
How to Fix: The first method would be
to resize or move the mesh, using the DrawScale3D properties, so
that light can reach the vertices. This obviously depends on if you
have room for monouvering it. You could also try subtracting some
space around it.
If you really can't alter the position or size of the mesh,
there's a couple of methods you can try. Firstly, you can turn off
the shadow cast of any meshes covering the vertices of your mesh by
changing bShadowCast to false (Located in it's display properties).
Another method is to turn the static lighting off by setting
bStaticLighting to false and add a slight ambient brightness to the
mesh, also located in the display properties. |
Mesh Not Visible Through a
Translucent Window. (2K3/2K4) Part or all of a static
mesh isn't shown when viewing it through a translucent
sheet.

Image: Looking out through the BSP sheet (or window),
you'll see that the leaves from the tree (a static mesh) isn't shown
when looking through it. This is caused when you use a sheet or BSP
for your translucent window, and when static meshes are too close on
the other side. I'm not yet sure what sort of setting affects this,
but a work around is easy enough.
Work Around: Quick and easy: Move
your static meshes further away from the translucent sheet until
they are visible. Note that you may have to change your surroundings
too. The following work around may be more suitable for you...
If you don't want to move your meshes: You will need to
convert the translucent sheets or BSP into a static mesh
(Recommended anyway). Create your window or translucent sheets
inside UnrealED and add other detail (e.g. window frame) to complete
it. You should create it in a empty space in your level, to make it
easy to import.
Then, import them into your static mesh myLevel placeholder (If
you want it embedded in your level). You may have to intersect your
brushes before importing them to keep it intact, using the intersect
tool. Alternatively, you can create your mesh in your favorite
modelling program, such as Maya. Next, place the newly created
static mesh in it's place. Remember to delete the old brushes inside
UnrealED that made up your window, or what you built to create your
mesh.
 The "Intersect" tool.
|
Sky Texture Appearing Stretched
(2K4) The sky textures in the skybox appears stretched,
looking striped.

Image: When using certain skybox textures, they can appear
stretched to the extent that they look striped. These behave a
little odd because they have their Clamp Mode set to TC_clamp set in
the texture properties. This can be fixed by changing this property
to TC_Wrap, but a better workaround is to learn how to work with
TC_Clamp and set up your skybox properly. This bug can be an issue
when converting UT2K3 maps into UT2K4.
How to Fix:
Working with TC_Clamp: Select all the wall sufraces,
right-click, and select 'align > face' from the menu (The
textures will still show up striped). Now with all four walls
selected, right-click and go to the 'surface properties'. Next click
the Pan/Rot/Scale tab. You'll have a box that looks like this:

This is the tool we are going to use to get everything aligned
properly. The Pan option moves the texture up or accross by however
many units you press. e.g. pressing U: 4 will move the texture by 4
units. It's basically a more accurate version of the texture moving
tool. The rotation tool, yep, you guessed it, rotates the
texture.
Pan one unit in the U and V, and the textures will start to look
clearer, though still not aligned. Next Pan the U by 64 four times,
and the walls should look aligned.
The floor and ceiling are a different matter however and require
a bit more work. It's literally a case of getting the rotation
correct and panning in both directions until they are perfect.
Using TC_Clamp is far superior to any other method for creating
skyboxes. It just takes a bit of patience to familiarize yourself
with the quirks of its behaviour, but worth it in the long run.
Work Arounds: You will need to export
the skybox textures and re-import them into your myLevel
placeholder, then replace the skybox textures. The sky should now
display perfectly.
If you are using custom textures, you can change the texture
clamp mode to TC_Wrap in the texture properties (Right click the
texure in your texture browser, select 'Properties', and expand
'Texture'.
Skybox Losing Alignment After
Rebuilds.. As mentioned above, this is also an
issue with TC_Clamp. When you first put in a skybox it may be
perfect, then you notice several reubuilds later it has become
streaky. Align the textures to face once again, then pan one UU
horizontal and vertical. Now Highlight the skybox subtract, and then
the rest of your actors inside the skybox Move the skybox to where
the yellow subtract lines match where the streaks start. Rebuild
level If streaks appear again readjust. It takes a couple tries
sometimes. For some reason BSP cuts in your game level affect
TC_Clamp.
(Many thanks to King Mango of Unreal
Playground for the TC_Clamp info!) |
Sunlight Not Shining Through a
Window Mesh (2K3/2K4) A sunlight actor doesn't shine
through a translucent mesh, such as a window.
Sunlight actors can be used to project rays through windows to
beautiful effect, however once you add your window mesh, it can be
possible for the sunlight to be blocked, so the sunlight no longer
shines through a window.
How to Fix:
Selected meshes: Turn off the Static Meshes collision, by
selecting the offending mesh and switching bCollideActors and
bShadowCast both to false in the meshes display properties. Once
you've rebuild your map for the final time (final build), turn the
collision back on by setting these to true again.

All matching meshes: Open your static mesh browser, locate your
mesh, and set the collision to false under the skins menu. This will
alter all matching meshes. Warning: this method should be done at
the very final build of the map, so that no official packages are
modified. Otherwise, this may effect the meshes in other
levels. |
Strange Widespread Mid-Air
Flickering (2K3/2K4) Epileptic inducing strange
flickering across the map.

This problem is difficult to describe unless you've experienced
it before. The game flickers quickly, in varying degrees of
severity. Usually more severe the higher or more detailed area you
are. This problem will appear on all maps.
Possible Causes & Solutions:
• If you recently changed drivers, patches, or DirectX versions,
try updating these or rolling back to your previous version.
• Your graphics card may be overheating (Mine was, lost my Radeon
9800 to it). You computer cooling could be fine, but the heatsink or
fan on your graphics card may not be. Try taking the panel off your
machine, and see if it helps. Try letting it cool off if you PC has
been on a long time. Check it for dust. Check the fan is working
(All common sense really). |
Dark Surfaces Not Lighting
Properly (2K3/2K4) aka 'The Two Sided Trick'

Solution: Set the surface to two sided in the surface
properties, and rebuild your map to light up problem areas
correctly...

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Special thanks to UTManiac and Unreal
Playground and their forumites. Without their helpful posts,
this tutorial simply wouldn't
exist. | |