Quickly getting rid of all the peripheral text and imagery that wraps around a given level, especially in console mode, is not easy. A few options exist for removing the more distracting elements such as splash screens and menus. You may want to do this if you wish to show your work without any artwork made by someone else getting in the way of your own. One method is called destructive editing , where your delete or blank out assets at the source, and this isn't as safe as it is quick. Instead you can provide your own menus, splash, and UI by extending on the classes that call up the default ones.
Removing the console mode videos during map loading
- Open
C:UDK~UDKGameConfigDefaultEngine.INI. - Press Ctrl + F and search for [FullScreenMovie], which should expose the startup and loadmap references.
- Comment out the entries as follows:
[FullScreenMovie] //+StartupMovies=UDKFrontEnd.UDK_loading //+LoadMapMovies=UDKFrontEnd.UDK_loading
-
Load a level and play in console mode [
]. You won't get the movies that precede gameplay. If you take out all the pre-loading content there may occur the problem of getting a look at the level too early and "pre-caching" showing up.
- To learn how to instead swap out the .BIK files that constitute the loading movies between levels you can follow the video by Michael J Collins:
Removing the level loading hints
- To totally prevent .BIK movies during development, you can open
C:UDK~EngineConfigBaseEngine.INIand search for NoMovies, then adjust theFALSEin the exposed lines:[FullScreenMovie] bForceNoMovies=FALSE to TRUE.
- Open
C:UDK~DevelopmentSrcUTGameUTGameViewportClient.UC. - Press Ctrl + F to search for bAllowHints = true
;. - Change
truetofalse.
- To remove the map name displayed during map loading, a sneaky method is to insert a transparent font into line 146 of:
C:UDK~DevelopmentSrcUTGameUTGameViewportClient.UC.// Game Type name //class'Engine'.static.AddOverlay( LoadingScreenGameTypeNameFont, Desc, 0.1822, 0.435, 1.0, 1.0, false); // becomes class'Engine'.static.AddOverlay( LoadingScreenGameTypeNameFont, Desc, 0.1822, 0.435, 1.0, 0, false); // and Map name // class'Engine'.static.AddOverlay( LoadingScreenMapNameFont, MapName, 0.1822, 0.46, 2.0, 2.0, false); // becomes class'Engine'.static.AddOverlay( LoadingScreenMapNameFont, MapName, 0.1822, 0.46, 2.0, 0, false);What's happening here is that the last digit of four in an entry 1,1,1,1 is the Alpha value, controlling transparency, so 1,1,1,0 will be invisible. The first three numbers are RGB values, but they can be anything if the Alpha is 0.
Removing the default exit menu
- Open
C:UDK~UDKGameConfigDefaultInput.INIand press Ctrl + F to search for Escape. The first time will expose a removed key binding, so search from the cursor again to find in line 205:.Bindings=(Name="Escape",Command="GBA_ShowMenu"and comment it out with;then add this line underneath instead:.Bindings=(Name="Escape",Command="quit"if UDK should close directly. - If you want to provide a custom menu type:
.Bindings=(Name="Escape",Command="open Menu", where players pressing Esc will be sent to Menu.UDK (a scene of your own design) instead of the default menu. This won't do anything if you don't provision a Menu.UDK map first and cook it with your game levels. The map Menu.UDK would typically include some kind of clickable exit, resume, and reload buttons. - If you want Esc to automatically restart the level you're playing, put in
"open YOURMAPNAME"but bear in mind the only way to exit then will be Alt + F4. - Possibly a strong way to approach the Escape option is to have a Pause command that permits a choice about leaving the game through a floating button: Resume or Exit. In addition you might have a similar floating button when the player dies: Replay or Exit, rather than the default Fire to Respawn.
For making inroads towards providing menus with clickable buttons, see Chapter 10, The Way of The Flash UI.