Create A Mover (UT)

The following applies to UT

Introduction

A mover is a brush that can change position during play. They are used to make doors, elevators or any other feature in your map that is not static. Movers aren't very hard to make and once you get the basics you can try different things to come up with very cool stuff.

Movers are not strictly part of the BSP, although they block players and projectiles in the same way as the BSP world. Movers can't be subtractive, although it's possible to have glass or masked textures in a mover.

(need to explain in n00b-ish terms that a mover is more an item of brush geom than actors, I saw a N00b post the other day saying why didn't intersecting an actor work to create a moving actor)

Overview

A single mover must be a single brush, so the red builder brush must be shaped exactly how the mover will look before it's used to add it. The procedure is:

1. make the required shape out of ordinary brushes, like an ordinary piece of static geometry
2. texture the template as required
3. use this template to forge the red builder brush
4. make a mover with the red bruilder brush

Note: if the mover shape can be made from a single brushbuilder operation, the templating operation can be skipped: just make the RBB into the required shape and add it as a mover. Making a template does allow for easy texturing though.

irrelevant aside I've just used "forge" to describe making the RBB into a shape. This could be useful terminology to distinguish between "make a cylinder (add a brush)" and "make a cylinder (the rbb only, we want to alter it)". Just a thought... —Tarquin

Making a Template

1. Subtract a cube large enough to hold all of the future mover shape.
   This should ideally be away from the rest of the map in all axes, ie it shouldn't touch any other brushes in any 2D UnrealEd Viewport.
   Alternatively, after subtracting the cube, select it and click the "show only selected actors" button in the toolbox and rebuild.
   Either of these two techniques will avoid BSP cuts running through the cube.
2. Create the shape of the mover within this box. Any combination of additive and subtractive brushes is fine. It's advisable to match the orientation that the mover's resting position will have in the map.
3. Apply textures to the shape, and make sure they are aligned exactly as desired. It's possible to change them later, but a little fiddly.

Notes

• Sheets, including masks and windows, can be added to doors and other movers.
• Sliding glass doors, such as in CTF-Tritium, are Extra 1337.

Forging

If the template is a single brush, use Brush Context Menu → Polygons → To Brush.

Intersecting makes the red builder brush wrap itself around all solid matter that is within its current shape. See the section on intersecting brushes Intersect if you don't already know how to do this.

1. the RBB needs to be 'clean', ie no rotations or scalings. To ensure this, either do Brush Context Menu → Transform → Transform Permanentlyor Brush Context Menu → Reset → Reset All
2. shape the RBB so it encloses all of the template. Remember, you can't use Brush Scaling to do this – only the settings in the brushbuilders window.
3. Intersect the RBB with geometry (menu command of the toolbox button)

At this point, if you want to save the brush for possible re-use at a later time, export it. Select UnrealEd Main Menu → Brush → Export, give it a name and select a directory to save it in.

You can delete the template and the room now, although it's advisable to keep it until your map is finished, in case you want to remake your mover.

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It's essential that the RBB is used to add the mover, it doesn't have any brush transformations currently applied. The RBB remembers transformations such as scaling and rotation until they are cleared with one of the "Reset" commands in the Brush Context Menu. You can either reset it before intersecting, or apply transformations permanently in the next section...

(next paragraph could be shunted & merged into the Intersection page maybe)

It's basically simple. The shape that you have created, if it complex (more than one combined or adjacent primitive) must be just one brush for the mover to operate as a single entity in your level. Surround the complex brushes that are to be your mover with the red builder brush, so that the red builder brush completely encloses all of the the shape (typically with space around it), but, not any other CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry). Then, select from the Brush menu: Brush → Intersect. The shape will be transformed into the red builder brush. At this point, if you want to save the brush for possible re-use at a later time, export it. Select from the Brush menu: Brush → Export. You then must give it a name and select a directory to save it in.

NOTE : you must not rescale the RBB! Else the mover would be completely non-solid So to have it encompass all the shapes of the future mover you have to make it bigger USING THE MENU BOX TO CHANGE ITS DIMENSIONs (Right click in the cube Brushbuilder to do this)

Adding the Mover

Position the RBB where the mover should be when at rest.

If there are any brush transformations applied to it, apply them permanently by doing Brush Context Menu → Transform → Transform Permanently. You can check for these under the brush properties: Brush → MainScale, Brush → PostScale and Movement → Rotation.

(note: I need to check up on the finer points of this, as I know it's fine for a lift to be Yawed into place, as long as you don't want movement rotations)

Changing textures

What if I want to change me textures on the mover you ask? Well too bad!! J/k:) Simply do Brush Context Menu → Mover → Show Polys and tada your mover is now visible as a brush and you can retexture and touch up on it. Once you rebuild the geometry it will return to the purple outline.

Note: If you are just changing something like making a surface of the mover unlit, you can rebuild just lighting, which will not return the brush to its purple outline.

• Careful using the Brush Context Menu → Mover → Show Polys command. Known to cause UEd crashes if used improperly.

Setting Up Keyframes

So you have your mover looking the way you want it, and you have a red builder brush of your mover's likeness. Now what? Well you need to animate it. So go on to the Keyframe page and find out how to put a little life into your mover.

Related Topics

• Mover Topics

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Basic Procedure

Category Mapping

Category Tutorial