Tutorials on Mod Making

Lessons and tutorials about mods and maps
User avatar
Feralidragon
Godlike
Posts: 5489
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:24 pm
Personal rank: Work In Progress
Location: Liandri

Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Feralidragon »

The following tutorials aim to teach you how to use UnrealScript to create your own modifications and features for Unreal Tournament, starting off by assuming that you do not know anything at all on what "coding" or "programming" even means.

In each and every tutorial (which I call "lessons") I will try to make things as objective, clear and simple as possible for anyone to understand.
However do not fall under the illusion that you will understand it all overnight, as learning how to code is a gradual and phased process which may require lots of dedication at first. So don't get demotivated if you can't understand something at first, just keep trying until you do, none of the today's developers has born knowing how to make code either. :)

Many of these tutorials will have diagrams, images and material to test with, so you can understand the whole thing better, since theory alone is obviously worthless.
Any doubts or further tutorial requests can be put here or in the respective tutorial topics. I hope they prove to be helpful by someone.

Also, it helps a lot to start checking the actual UnrealScript source code of the engine, therefore I uploaded an organized version:
UT UnrealScript Source: http://uncodex-ut.host56.com

And for some of your doubts and better understanding of the language and the engine, you can also take a look at:
Unreal Wiki: http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/
Just be careful to double check if the information you're seeing is related to Unreal Tournament 1 and not the 2004 or III versions.
Plus, do not take all the info there as gospel, since there are a few bits of inaccurate information there. If you have any doubts concerning one of the pages there, you can post here and we will clear it out for you.


0 - The science behind mods
1 - Your first mutator
2 - Your first trigger
3 - Variables, functions and objects
4 - UnrealScript: Language
5 - UnrealScript: Variables
6 - <soon>
7 - <soon>
8 - <soon>
9 - <soon>
10 - <soon>
11 - <soon>
12 - <soon>
Last edited by Metalfist on Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: fixed links
ASLY

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by ASLY »

WOW, This is so nice from you Ferali! Keep it up dude ;)
User avatar
Rakiayn
Masterful
Posts: 550
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:33 pm

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Rakiayn »

Nice!
thank you for this
User avatar
Metalfist
Masterful
Posts: 632
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:54 pm
Personal rank: ^,..,^ rawr

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Metalfist »

Very nice tuts! It's very clearly explained and I'll follow these for sure.
Tut requests:
- modifying HUD/scoreboard
- new gametype tutorial?
Image
User avatar
Feralidragon
Godlike
Posts: 5489
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:24 pm
Personal rank: Work In Progress
Location: Liandri

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Feralidragon »

Thanks. if there's anything off on them, just let me know, they're still up for changes.

Btw, I just added a "next" and "previous" links to the tutorials themselves, so when you finish reading one, you can go straight to the next one if you want.
EDIT: Added UnCodex reference to my first post.
JackGriffin
Godlike
Posts: 3774
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:53 pm
Personal rank: -Retired-

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by JackGriffin »

Not to jump on Ferali's coattails too hard but if there is a particular subject you would like fleshed out I'd be happy to explain something I've done and how/why/what I did that you'd like explained. Teaching is at the heart of what I like to do so please don't hesitate to suggest something to me. I'll write a one-off explanation for you.

Also I'd like to add that here is a nice collection of tools that you can use to do (just about) anything in UScript you want:
codingschool.part1.rar
(1.5 MiB) Downloaded 253 times
codingschool.part2.rar
(1.09 MiB) Downloaded 260 times
The download is broken up to slip under the 2MB size limit.

There is a readme on what to do with the files inside the rar.

Thank you again Ferali for the Uncodex site. That's just invaluable to use as a reference. I also have them for all the other U-games from Unreal to UT3 if you want those too.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
User avatar
Feralidragon
Godlike
Posts: 5489
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:24 pm
Personal rank: Work In Progress
Location: Liandri

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Feralidragon »

JackGriffin wrote: The download is broken up to slip under the 2MB size limit.
I tried to higher it a bit, but it seems to be set in the php.ini, which I can't override (once again, only Shade can access it... otherwise those 2Mb would be 10Mb at the very least already).
JackGriffin wrote: Thank you again Ferali for the Uncodex site. That's just invaluable to use as a reference. I also have them for all the other U-games from Unreal to UT3 if you want those too.
Yeah, no problem. As for the others, I think UT2k4 and beyond are already hosted by someone else, and is used (I remember checking it a few weeks ago, together with the UDK one to start to learn that thing), and the Unreal one may as well be obsolete given that the current versions are 227, thus the source is being modified the whole time, so it seems that is the Unreal community's job to host an updated one themselves (simply because I don't keep track on their releases).
User avatar
editor Dave
Inhuman
Posts: 904
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:40 pm
Personal rank: Passionate SP Mapper
Location: Germany/Bavaria
Contact:

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by editor Dave »

Sublime :tu:
Image
10-Year Anniversary on Jun 08, 2019.
User avatar
Dr.Flay
Godlike
Posts: 3347
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:26 pm
Personal rank: Chaos Evangelist
Location: Kernow, UK
Contact:

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Dr.Flay »

I do actually have the 3 UncodeXs linked on "your Unreal"
... and the original page/creator of the software to make them.

http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/b ... -resources
User avatar
KeeperUTX
Skilled
Posts: 152
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:47 am
Personal rank: Eevee will kill you.

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by KeeperUTX »

Hmmm...

Looks like I could make a custom sniper rifle after all!
Image This is Eevee, a ferocious creature that never relents in tracking its meal. It will lead you to ruin, and when it does, it will finish you.
The way it bobs its head lefty-righty? It's just cracking it's neck so it can get a better grip on you with its jaws.
JackGriffin
Godlike
Posts: 3774
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:53 pm
Personal rank: -Retired-

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by JackGriffin »

You can Keeper, it's really not that hard to do. Get started and we will all help you where you need it.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
User avatar
Feralidragon
Godlike
Posts: 5489
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:24 pm
Personal rank: Work In Progress
Location: Liandri

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Feralidragon »

Tutorials on weapon making will obviously come too, although I will make some very-much-needed tutorials before that so everyone can be in the same page when we reach the "weapon making".

I don't want to scare anyone, but a weapon is one of the most complex things in the game, so don't take them very lightly.
Of course, doing simple snipers or rocket launchers and the like, are "easy", but once you want to go beyond that you better know what you're doing and how a weapon fully works or you're going to spend weeks looking at the code like a donkey looks at a palace.
No kidding, been there myself.

The next tutorial will actually be about how to make a custom trigger with your own properties, something almost as simple as "Your first mutator", and that may interest some mappers (I don't want to limit these to potential modders alone), as I think it would be interesting to see mappers use this knowledge to build astonishing maps. Maps done by Revelation are a great example of what a good combination of scripting and mapping skills can do. Wouldn't he actually start to mess around with code, and his maps wouldn't ever be as great in a thousand years.

And the best thing is that you don't need to know much about code to do astonishing things in your maps, minimal novice skills will suffice for most cases to do far greater things you couldn't do otherwise.
ASLY

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by ASLY »

Can you make weapon tutorial? Just simple modify standard weapons, would be cool :)
User avatar
Feralidragon
Godlike
Posts: 5489
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:24 pm
Personal rank: Work In Progress
Location: Liandri

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Feralidragon »

ASLYE702 wrote:Can you make weapon tutorial? Just simple modify standard weapons, would be cool :)
I will make one soon.

However, I am doing these tutorials by order of difficulty, and with what I posted you should be already able to create a class and compile it, so modifying a weapon is just about creating the same kind of classes, but with "extends" to the weapon class you want.
Check the UnCodex link I posted, and in the Class Tree check the TournamentWeapon branch, pick up a weapon class, and start from there for now.

My next tutorials won't be about weapons yet, but to explain a bit better how the game code works, so by the time we reach weapon making, everything starts to fit and make much more sense.
Torax
Adept
Posts: 406
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:38 pm
Personal rank: Master of Coop
Location: Odessa, Ukraine

Re: Tutorials on Mod Making

Post by Torax »

Very needed detailed tutorials which explain replication and simulated functions. Guides that i found long time ago very slightly discovers this theme. Always had annoying troubles with those parts of code)
Unreal. Alter your reality..forever...
Post Reply