Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3 [With CDROM] [MASTERING UNREAL TECH-V01-W/CD] [Paperback]

by Jason Busby

Unreal Engine 3 is the gaming platform for today's hottest games, period. It is the primary development platform for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and a massive force in the PC gaming world. Unreal Engine 3 is the technology that works behind the scenes to actually put the video game on the screen. It handles all of the visuals, sounds, and takes in everything the user does (such as push buttons or move a mouse) in order to deliver the final gaming experience to the player. It is the core of the actual game, without which the game could not exist. The creators of Unreal, Epic Games, have extended their full cooperation in the writing of the book. The authors are widely known in the industry, through the previous edition and through the specialized training mods they supplied as part of the hit game Unreal Tournament 2004. Starting from the very basics, this book walks you through the entire process of level design, covering Unreal's level editing application, UnrealEd, and many key topics you'll need to create your own gaming environments. This book will bring you into the world of game development and modding with thorough and easy-to-understand explanations, in-depth tutorials, and all the information you need to start creating your own Unreal environments.

Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 2008

Reviews

[Cynbel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though there are a few things in this book that are either updated or out of date in UDK, unless using UT3 along with the book instead of UDK, it is still a very useful and helpful book for starting off with UDK. It covers a little bit of everything need to design levels in UDK and the knowledge gained can be used to start trying your own ideas out, you can't expect one book to tell you how to do everything and you shouldn't.

Not counting anything outdated, there are quite a few errors in the book, which is to be expected in any large technical manual. A few spelling errors, even some offset figs. Nothing that could really mess things up if you are paying attention and learning the material.

If you are using UDK and not UT3, note that some maps won't load in UDK, only in UT3 also always make sure you Fully Load the packages for each chapter (I copied the files from the disk to the UDK content folder). Also when working on Chapter 12, I'd suggest opening each map then saving them in your own folder, else they fail to import for sequencing, probably because they are in .ut3 format.