Create A Room

This is a Basic Procedure tutorial page. It explains how to perform a single procedure which is required in many different contexts.

This page is intended for beginners and is meant to be in plain english and adopts a learn by doing strategy. No time will be wasted explaining why you're doing anything or try to get you to understand abstract concepts like the Unreal world being like a lump of clay or something. This document is intended to represent the current build, and should be updated accordingly.

Tarquin: This page will be replaced by the Mapping Lessons sequence. I don't see what it does differently. If you don't like the conceptual explanations you can skip those sections: the idea is that conceptual stuff goes in 'Overview' and 'In more depth' sections.

Musicalglass: The only difference is I have tried to make a simple beginner's tutorial which any child can understand. Even if all the rest of the site is in Wiki shorthand, I think at the very least the beginner's tutorial should be in straightforward language. Once they have grasped the basics, all the rest of the Wiki terminology makes a lot more sense. People think differently, you've said so yourself. Some people think in graphic terms, while others are more technical. I'm a more graphic thinker. When I try to read some of the technical pages here, they turn into a bunch of swimming text like a Matrix screen. Just tell me the basic stuff in basic language, then I'll be fine. A few all-in-one tutorials don't negate the need for basic procedure pages. I'm just trying to streamline the parts of the Wiki I found confusing when I was first trying to learn Unreal.

Tarquin: I see where you're going with this. But I really would like the Mapping Lessons sequence to work for everybody. Perhaps you could mark the places that go Matrixy on you so we could try to improve them

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Where to go next

check out Topics on Mapping for a more in depth listing of tutorials.

or Category Tutorial

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Create a Room

First we will build a room, then view that room in the actual game. Simple!

Launch Unreal Editor. Close the default Textures window to get it out of the way. or

If you've been playing around and need to start a fresh map, do UnrealEd Main Menu → File → New

Add a Builder Brush

Down the left side is a bunch of buttons known as the Toolbox.

Left click on the Cube Builder button. (The first button that looks like a cube)

A red wireframe cube appears in your scene, this is known as the Red Builder Brush

Now this time right click the Cube Builder button. The CubeBuilder properties window opens.

Where it says Height, left click one time on the number 256. It becomes highlighted.

Enter a new value of 512, then hit the Tab key.

The Width field becomes highlighted. Type 512, Tab, 1024, Tab.

Now click on the Build button. The Red Builder Brush changes size.

Close the CubeBuilder window.

You can see your new rectangular cube in 3 of the UnrealEd Viewports. Note in the top left corner of each viewport that they represent the Top, Front and Right orthogonal views.

Navigating in the Viewports

In the Perspective window which should be black and say Dynamic Light at the moment, right drag your mouse around in the window. The view rotates around the camera's center.

Right drag left and right to rotate the camera around in a circle.

Right drag forward and back to rotate the camera up and down.

Position the camera so it is facing your cube.

Now left drag the mouse forward and back. The camera dollies in and out. Note that left dragging the mouse from side to side still rotates the camera around in a circle just as before, only somewhat slower.

Now hold both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time and move the mouse forward and back. The camera dollies straight up and down

Try to position yourself in the center of the cube.

For practice, navigate somewhere way outside the box and try to see how fast you can get centered in the exact middle to where you can rotate the camera around and see equally in all directions.

Navigating in the Orthogonal viewports is similar only you can't rotate. To move around, left click and drag around. To zoom in and out, hold both the left and right mouse buttons and move the mouse up and down. If you have a mouse with a wheel you can also use that to zoom.

Subtract a Space

Click on the Subtract button. (Button #2) to Subtract A Space.

Your Builder Brush creates a hollow room with a default bubbly texture.

Now left click on one of the walls inside your room. Note how it becomes blue indicating that it is highlighted. Select another wall. The previous wall becomes deselected.

Add a Light

Now rotate the camera up to look at the ceiling (right drag forward). Click on the ceiling once to select it.

Now hold the L key and right click. A light is added to your scene.

Add a Player Start

Now rotate the camera down and right click on the floor. From the submenu select Add Player Start. A joystick icon appears indicating the default location your character will spawn into the Map.

Build All

Click on the Build All button to render your scene. (Button #6 in the Build category)

Play Map!

Click on the Play Map button (#8, looks like a joystick) and UnrealEd automatically loads and plays the map in UT2003. After you're done oohing and ahhing over your creation, hit Esc to exit and Quit Unreal, you should now be returned to your operating system. Return to Unreal Editor. (On Windows just click on the Unreal button in your Windows menu bar at the bottom of the screen.)

That's It! Welcome to the Unreal world!

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Save your Map

OK let's save our map. Note how you didn't have to save before testing your map. Unreal automatically saves it as a temp file. Although it's certainly a good idea to save frequently. If you're used to saving your files in My Documents or wherever, forget about that for now. You may have noticed how Unreal didn't install in the Program Files folder like most applications, but rather on your root drive. On a PC, most likely C:\UT2003.

That is because all the maps and textures, etc. are stored in folders in the same folder as the application itself, and we shall do the same with our file.

Go to File / Save As and you should be taken by default to the Maps folder in the UT2003 directory.

Save a Template (optional)

Let's save our map as "A Room Template". From now on whenever you want to do another tutorial and you need a basic room to start you can just open up your template file. To prevent from accidentally saving over your template, let's make it read only. Minimize Unreal and go to your Maps folder, (On Windoze that would be Desktop/ My Computer / C: Drive/ UT2003/ Maps) right click on "A Room Template" and under Properties, select the Read Only dialog.

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Next Lesson

Learn the Tools - A must-read for any beginner. Covers several common misunderstandings.

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Where to go next

check out Topics on Mapping for a more in depth listing of tutorials.

or Category Tutorial

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Related Topics

Mapping Lessons: A sequence of basic procedure tutorials, a few of which are covered here, plus a few more.

UnrealEd Interface: A complete reference for UnrealEd's menus, windows and buttons.

General Scale And Dimensions: Compares Unreal Unit dimensions to real world scale.

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Category Mapping

Category Tutorial

Basic Procedure