Movers II


Third installment coming up. I feel like I am getting pretty good at making these tutorials now.

ABSTRACT:



Well, I have seen several tutorials around concerning movers, but I was asked to do one on movers, so I shall. :-) Rather than take the "easy" was out and simply do one step of motion with our mover, I am going to go over some of the more intricate things movers can do. I will start simple though, rather than overwhelm you with one of the more complicated ones to begin with.

ASSUMPTIONS:



You know how to make a room, put a playerstart in it, how to move and shape your brush, and deal with textures.

TUTORIAL:



First off, make a room at least 512x512x512. Next, right click on your brush, and choose "Reset -> Reset all positioning" (Your brush should be 256x256x256 now. If not, please make it so :-). Put this brush in mid air. Choose a texture, and "add" it into the room.


caption: here, you see the textured block in mid-air

Now, right click on your brush. Choose "reset -> reset scaling" This step was very important. Let me explain why. If you did not reset the scaling at this point, and your brush had been scaled before hand, it would not allow your mover to work right. Instead, it would allow you to walk THROUGH it instead of being solid. So if, after making your mover, you find that you can walk through it and it doesn't work right, this was probably the step you messed up on. :-)

Right click on the "Build a Cube" button on the control panel (the cube to the right of the control panel). Choose "Cube Properties". In here, change the height width and breadth to values of 300. This should cause your brush to be slightly larger than the cube you made.

Next, move your brush so that it surrounds the block. Once you are certain the brush fully surrounds it intersect the block. (To do this, you can either click on the intersect button in the toolbar, or go to the "brush" menu, and choose "intersect). Now, right click on the brush, and choose "Copy polygons -> To brush". This will copy the textures and the shape of your block (soon to be a mover) into memory.

The step I am about to give you can happen anytime that you choose. If you are confident that you did the previous steps right, you can do this step now. If you think something may have gone wrong or are unsure, you can wait to do this step until after you try your mover. This step involves the block you just copied. It is hanging in the middle of your room. You need to delete this at some point. :-) You can either do it now, or after you know your mover works.

Next, place your brush onto the floor. Once you have the brush positioned where you want it, click on the "add mover" icon in the toolbar. (The box with swirling mist coming out of it.) Move your original brush out of the way, and you should see the purple "brush" that is called the "mover".


caption: Here, in purple, you can see the mover at keyframe zero.

Next, we need to tell UnrealED where the mover wants to move. Right click on the purple mover, and choose "Mover keyframe -> Key 1". Now, in the perspective view, while the mover is selected, hold both mouse buttons down and translate the mover vertically. I recommend doing this in the perspective view because you can see clearly where you are placing the mover, and you can easily restrict the motion of the mover to the Z axis only.


caption: Here, in purple, you can see the mover at keyframe one.

We are almost ready to try our mover out. Just right click on the mover again, and put the keyframe back to zero (mover keyframe -> Key 0). This sets the initial position of the mover for when the map starts. Now, you can F8, rebuild map, and ctrl-p it to try your new mover out!

If you walk up to your mover, you should automatically trigger it to move. Watch it as it moves up into the air. :-)

Next, lets assume you want some sound effects associated with your mover. Choose "SoundFX" on the browse side, and load "activates.utx". Now, right click on your mover, and choose "Mover Properties". In this dialog, choose "MoverSounds".


caption: Here you can see the mover properties dialog with the sounds already selected.

Now, in the dialog, click on the "OpeningSound". On the Browse menu, choose "SoundFX", and "Activates" in the dropdown below it. As an example sound, choose "sclick2". Now, you should be able to click on "use" next to "OpeningSound". If you don't see the "use" button, click on "OpeningSound" in the Mover Properties dialog, then you should see the "use" button.

You can do the same thing to set "ClosedSound" to "sclick3" and "MoveAmbientSound" to "phumb6bL". Now do your F8, rebuild, and ctrl-p. You should hear sounds now when the cube moves.

Ok, the last thing I am going to cover in this mover tutorial is the fact that you can have more than 2 keyframes. All of the tutorials on movers that I have seen have only 2 keyframes. Is it hard to do more than 2 keyframes? No. Could you probably figure it out on your own? I think so. But just to be thorough, here we go.

Right click on your mover, and choose "Mover Keyframe -> Key 2". You shouldn't notice any perceptible change. Slide your mover over on the floor to the right of its current location. Next, you need to change the default number of keys from 2 to 3. You do this in "Mover Properties". Right click on your mover to open the properties. Choose "Mover" and then choose "NumKeys" and type in a value of "3". I think it is the fact that you have to change the "NumKeys" value that keeps most people from doing more than 2 keyframes. Ok, do an F8, rebuild, and ctrl-p to try your mover out!


caption: Here is the mover at keyframe 2 position, the red brush is at keyframe 0 (base).

You will probably think your mover only has sound while moving at the beginning. The sound is an ambient sound that occurs while it is moving, and the sound doesn't have a large radius. If you walk over to where the mover is headed, and wait for it to move BACK to its original spot, you will hear the ambient sound because you are close enough to it to hear it.

Just keep in mind, you need to set "NumKeys" to the number of keyframes you want to use. I hope you get a LOT of use out of the mover, it is really an awesome tool in the world of Unreal. For some truly advanced use of Movers, look for my upcoming tutorial entitled "Advanced Doors".

Good Luck