UDK Documentation

Using the basic tools on the left toolbar to create a cube.

Right clicking green cube icon on the left toolbar brings up properties so that I can select the exact parameters I wish, in this case I will also click the hollowed selection to make a room.

View of the newly created cube from the outside.

And from the inside.

With all the geometry built I now right click anywhere within the room and add a player start point.

I now right click on the surface and bring up the surface properties, I want the tiles to be larger so my custom textures will fit.

I open the content browser and import all my png image files I created in Photoshop to use here. When importing I made sure they had the "Create Material" box ticked.

Simply drag and drop the newly created materials onto any surface to apply them as a texture.

I finished texturing the level using materials from the UDK content browser.

The room with all my textures applied.

Now I add lighting, the same method as adding player start works here too.

I change all the light properties so each light that emanates from the symbols has a matching colour. To bring this properties window up I select the object and hit F4"

Adding triggers is the same process as adding lights and player start.

It's best that the trigger area is scaled up, so it isnt too difficult to find the right place to activate the switch. To do this I bring up the properties and change the collision height and radius in the collision properties.

The last part of setting up the room is adding a static mesh. I chose one from the content browser to fill the gap here and later animate out of the way when the puzzle is solved.

Change the static mesh's properties so that it fills the gap.

The most important part, and one that I won't forget again. Convert the static mesh into a "Mover" so it will be able to animate later.

I now open up Kismet, In the preview window I select the trigger I want to use and right click within kismet to add it.

Right Click and add matinee, this will be what powers our animation.

After double clicking on the matinee box in the kismet window, the matinee editor opens. The first thing I do here is add a new empty group. This could be a whole group of animations, but I will only be using one.

Then I right click the new group and add a new movement track.

The green triangles influence the length of the animation with the left being the start and right being the end. The middle black line icon with white line above indicates what point through the animation it is. For this purpose I will animate for 5 seconds. To do this I move the black line icon all the way to the very end of the animation point.

With the animation scrubber in the correct place I move the static mesh to its final point in the animation.

With these two elements complete I then went back into kismet and linked the trigger to the matinee, this would mean that when in game, the animation would play when the player activated the switch.

I was totally unable to make a full 4 switch puzzle the way I had wanted. It was just too much to learn in such a short space of time, that I am still trying to get to grips with. So at the moment it is coded with a kind of placebo effect in that the last switch only needs to be activated to open the door.

I really overlooked some things in the design of this puzzle, for a start I think the clue I have written for it is far too obvious. Additions like the lights going off or changing when they are activated would have made the puzzle more easy to understand too.

Overall, it's been an interesting learning experience, and one that I'm sure will help me with the final project of the third year. When I think that two months ago, I barely knew how to do anything with this program, I think I have learned a lot.