UDK Pirate Challenge - Qmaster

[Qmaster]

This will be my 3rd competition on here. So here I go!

I'll be trying something different, a ghost pirate theme. Primary colors are going to be green, pale pink lanterns, yellowish tint to the sun, and dark dark green for distant silhouttes and fog. Here's a quick color shot, though I don't know how to turn the sky completely green...is there a way?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP001.jpg

This is just a quick rough initial lighting, you can ignore my playing around with some of the meshes for now ;) (p.s. the sail is the concrete stone model :p)

[Qmaster]

Umm...problem! As soon as I finished downloading the new UDK and opened it up I got right to work in the default scene that opened up, which is how I got my sky and height fog but my point lights aren't doing anything!?! Why is that??

Should I start a fresh scene without any sky or anything? Point lights work fine if I do that (tested it). :(

[Inksworth]

The only thing I can think of is checking these options on the PointLight actors:
-Radius
-Brightness
-Color

Other than this, check your lighting channels. If it's set to the defaults, you may also want to try toggling the dynamic channel just to see if it shows up.

As a last diagnostic, do they show up after a build?

The way I built mine was working directly out of the night template, but even with pretty substantial changes I haven't run into any major problems. It could just be a series of mismatched properties between UDK versions. They like to change things like that month-to-month lately, it seems.

Worst case, copy and paste your meshes/BSP into a new map?

[Qmaster]

Ya, I had to copy them into a new map. Thanks! Everything is working good though I haven't figured out how to get the sky green. Is there a way to export the texture for the skydome and then reimport it and apply it to the sky model? Seriously don't know what I'm doing when it comes to UDK materials, at all.

[Deltathunder]

Export a default skydome texture?click on textureRight click export to file.
If your intention is to make a green sky color.Just add a const 4 vector add value 1 to green channel.the apply with a multiply on diffuse.that should make it greeny.

[Qmaster]

Okay I understood what you said about exporting to file, but after that it was all Greek to me. :| So let me see: 4 vectors + 1 value times 1 diffuse = greeny

I'll try randomly clicking in the material editor...

[Qmaster]

Okay! Got the backdrop looking spiffy:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP002.jpg

Score one for random clicking! Now then on to layout. Perhaps I should post up my sketch later.

[Deltathunder]

ahhh thats looking great..Very nice green mood light.

[Foufoune_Rose]

Yep, I often tend to add a main green tint in all of my works, even I'm my nick is Rose.
Green is underrated, and match a lot of color's combination. It can give a peaceful or a gloomy pace in a composition, and is strong with some orange lighting.

You're the first I see thinking of the background before everything. Maybe we will have some nice surprise with the construction of the scene?

[Qmaster]

Got the foreground of the one of the main shots up to 90% or so:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP003.jpg

The story behind this is that there once was a sea here, riddled with wars between the pirate factions. After the earthquake, the sea drained down to much lower levels through fissures down into vast underground caverns beneath the sea. This left moutainous spires with shipwrecks, hidden caves, and hidden treasure all throughout Shipdown Bay.

Here, decades later the ghosts of the dead pirates haunt their former homes and zombify any who trespass, using the animated corpses to build their city from scrapped parts of broken vessels. This is their land, their shallow sea, full of shallow graves and a bounty of unclaimed treasure.

[Qmaster]

I haven't gotten much done. How are you guys so fast?!? I'm horribly slow with UDK. Oh well, I got some more of the rough shape of the rocks surrounding the actual "play" area (not really playable but I'm pretending it's a tf2 type of level (been loving tf2 lately, it's free!)). Still having trouble getting a layout that I like and has enough vertical variation to be interesting. I spent some time creating some prefab walkways and stairways. I wish I had more time for this, I've only spent maybe 6 hours total and that spread out. Hopefully this weekend I'll have a good chunk of it done. Plans coming tomorrow...
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP004.jpg

[Qmaster]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP005.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP006.jpg

Not much progress. Got a cool looking central building. More pics later, I'm trying to get as much done as I can since I'll be away on vacation for a week. I'll probably try to finish by this Sunday...time crunch! I think I need more piratey-ness.

[BasketQase]

That's really cool. I like the contrast between the dark landscape and the brightly lit interior. Gives it a lot of moodiness. Lookin' forward to seeing the rest of it.

[Qmaster]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP007.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP008.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP009.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP010.jpg

Working furiously! Trying to make more prefabs/groups to speed things up. Draping chains, platforms, walkways, roofs with lanterns under them, etc. I'll be adding a small shipwreck and a board path along it up to the front entrance of the storehouse type building. I need to add more paths around the cliffs. I plan on having 2 sideways shipwrecks near eachother with holes blasted in the sides, this will be behind the storehouse. Also off to the right in the first picture I have the startings of more buildings and docks for the town. So many ideas, so little time!

[Qmaster]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP011.jpg

Overall shot, I didn't realize it was so big hehe :)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP012.jpg

Still not sure where I want my 3 main shots to be from. Here's another view of the shipwrecks and the storehouse, as seen from the "rear" compared to the other shots.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP013.jpg

This last area is where I'll be making most of the town which is raised up on docks.

[Qmaster]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20160676/UDK_PirateChallenge_QmasterWIP014.jpg

Hmm...need more details, need more time. and roofs rooves roof's whatever. :)

I'm a little uncertain about how well I'm sticking to the theme. I think I need some treasure troves. Any suggestions?

[Qmaster]

Qmaster strolls back into the WoLD Challenge pub. Still tired from his week long vacation in Florida, he sluggishly looks around and notes with horror that the competition deadline has passed!"OOOPS!" he says, uncertain now of what to do. Resigned to the fate of having an unfinished and rather hastily thrown together entry, he slowly and sadly walks out leaving a final statement: "Good luck everyone, looks like I'll have to wait till the next competition. Stay awesome, and don't get sunburnt. I'm going back to bed now, it hurts to move...ow ow ooch! ;D "

[Inksworth]

I still want to see this finished, I liked the ethereal feeling the green sky was giving. :D