52 Game Development and Simulation with Unreal Technology
75. Select the SouthWingCutOu tEast brush, hold the Alt+Shift keys on your key-
board and move the brush gizmo towards the west side of the Lobby. You will
notice that this action will create a duplicate of the selected brush and y our cam-
era will m ove with it.
76. Keep dragg ing the duplicate brush until it is placed in at the WestSideWalkWay.
77. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to SouthWingCutOu tWest.
78. Select the SouthWingCutOu tEast brush, hold the Alt+Shift keys on your key-
board and move the brush gizm o towards the nor th side of the Lobby. You will
notice that this action will create a duplicate of the selecte d brush and your camera
will move with it.
79. Keep dragging the duplicate brush until it is placed at the north wall of th e Lobby,
opposite to the loc ation of the original brush you are duplicating.
80. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to NorthWingCutOu tEast.
81. Select the SouthWingCutOu tWest brush, hold the Alt+Shift keys on your key-
board and move the brush gizm o towards the nor th side of the Lobby. You will
notice that this action will create a duplicate of the selecte d brush and your camera
will move with it.
82. Keep dragging the duplicate brush until it is placed in at the north wall of the
Lobby, opposite to the location of the original brush you are duplicating.
83. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to NorthWingCutOu tWest.
84. Select the Stairs DoorCutOut brush, hold th e Alt +Shift keys on your key-
board and move the brush gizm o towards the nor th side of the Lobby. You will
notice that this action will create a duplicate of the selecte d brush and your camera
will move with it.
85. Keep dragging the duplicate brush until it is placed at the elevator. Place the brush
such that it is centered at the f ront wall of the elevator.
86. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to ElevatorDoorCu tOutFloor2.
87. Select the Elevat orDoorCutOutF loor2 brush , hold the Alt+Shift keys on
your keyboard and move the brush gizmo down towards th e first floor of the
Lobby. You will notice that th is action will crea te a duplicate of the selected brush
and your camera will move with it.
88. Keep dragging the duplicate brush until it is placed on the first floor. Place the
brush such that it is cente red at the front wall of the elevator.
89. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to ElevatorDoorCu tOutFloor1.
90. Place a Box brush from the B SP m ode into the level inside of the elevator. Assign
the following properties to this box brush:
Brush Name: ElevatorFloorCutOut
Brush Type: Subtractive
Brush Shape: Box
X: 380
Y: 2 80
Z: 100
Hollow: Unc h e c ked
Introdu ction to Level Design in Unreal Technology 53
91. Place this br ush inside the elevator on the second floor to create an opening. This
will ensure that when you plac e an elevator mesh, it will be able to move throug h
the elevator stall up and down without colliding with the second floor walkway.
92. Select SouthWingCutOutEast, SouthWingCutOutWest, NorthW ingCutOutEast,
and NorthWingCutOutWest brushes by holdin g the Control key on your key-
board and clicking on them in the Scene Outliner.
93. Hold the Alt+Shift keys on your keyboard and move the brush gizmo down
towards the first floor of the Lobby. You will notice that this action will create a
duplicate of the selected brush and your camera will move with it.
94. Keep dragging the du plicate br ush until the door cutout duplicates are placed on
the first floor.
95. Save your level and progress.
SUBTRACTING GEOMETRY: CUTTING HOLES FOR WIN-
DOWS
Let us add some windows to our building. To do this we will start out on the
west side of the building, place our windows with the subtractive bru shes, and
then copy the brushes to the east side of the building.
FIGURE 2.22: The Final Look from the West Side after the Br ush Geometry Pass.
96. Place a Box brush from the BSP mode into the level. Assign the following prop-
erties to this bo x br ush:
54 Game Development and Simulation with Unreal Technology
Brush Name: NorthWindowFloor1_1
Brush Type: Subtractive
Brush Shape: Box
X: 100
Y: 8 0
Z: 140
Hollow: Unc h e c ked
97. Align the NorthWindowF loor1_1 brush with the west-side wall of the North
Wing.
98. In the Scene Outliner move the NorthWindowFloor1_1 to the Level
Geometry Folder. Alternatively, you can Right-click on the brush in the
Scene Outliner, move your mouse over the Move to Folder option from the
popup menu, and selec t th e Level Geome try folder.
99. With the North WindowFloor1_1 brush selected, hold the Alt+Sh ift keys on
your keyboard and move the brush gizmo to create a duplicate of the selected
brush and your camera will move with it.
100. Keep dragging the duplicate brush until it is placed in the opposite side of the
North Wing to cut out a hole in the second window.
101. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to NorthWindowFloor1_2.
102. Select the NorthWin dowFloor1_1 brush, hold the Alt+Shift keys on your key-
board and move the brush gizmo to cre ate a duplicate of the selected brush while
your camera will move with it.
103. Keep drag ging the duplicate brush until it is placed between the two windows.
104. Rename this duplicate subtractive brush to NorthWindowFloor1_3.
105. Hold the Control key on your keyboa rd and select the NorthWind owFloor1_1,
NorthWindowFloor1_ 2, and NorthWindowF loor1_3.
106. Hold the Alt+Shift keys on your keyboard and move th e brush gizmo up ward s
to c reate a duplicate of the selected brushes while your camera will move with it.
107. Keep dragging the du plicate brushes upwards until they are placed between some-
where on the second floor.
108. With NorthW indowFloor1_1, NorthWindowF loor1_2,
and NorthWin dowFloor1_3 still selected, hold the Alt+S hift keys on your key-
board and move the brush g iz mo upwards to create a duplicate of the selected
brushes while your camera will move with it.
109. Place these duplicates on the upper sections o f the second floor in the n orth win g.
110. Select all o f the window cutout brushes by holding the Control key on your
keyboard and clicking on them in the Scene Outliner.
111. With the 9 brushes selected, hold the Alt+Shift and create 9 duplicates.
112. Drag these 9 duplicates on the east side of the North Wing.
113. Select all of the 18 window cutout brushe s by ho lding the Control key on your
keyboard and clicking on them in the Scene Outliner.
114. With the 18 brushes selected, hold the Alt+Shift a nd create 18 duplicates.
115. Drag these 18 duplicates on the west and east sides of the South Wing.
Introdu ction to Level Design in Unreal Technology 55
116. The view of yo ur building should look similar to Fig ure 2. 22 fr om the west.
117. Save your level and progre ss.
What Happened in TUTORIAL 2.2. . .
In this tuto rial we adde d geometry to our level by placing Binary Space Par-
titioning brushes. We used two different types of brushes for this pur pose. We
added geometry to our level by means of additive brushe s. To place openings in
our geometry for doors and windows we used subtra ctive brushes.
The majority of the work in this tutorial was repetitive and re quires fine align-
ment of different pieces of geometry. So there was not much complicated issues
or steps to discuss in detail. We also learned how to use a folder in the Scene
Outliner to organize our assets - in this particu la r instance our BSP geometry.
2.3 IMPROVING THE LEVEL AESTHETICS WITH MATERIALS
With our BSP geometry c reated, it is now time to give our level a better look. To do
this we will utilize materials. Although designing and creating incredibly realistic
materials is one of the greatest features of Unreal En gine 4, we will not go over the
material creation in this chapter.
CROSS-REFERENCE
To le arn ab out materials in Unreal Engine 4, please check ou t Chapter 4–
Materials In Unreal Engine and Ch apter 5– Advanced Materia l Concepts.
We have a couple of chapters dedicated to materials and material creation later
on. For now, we will use the materials that are in cluded in the starter content to
add to the looks of our level. We will use the brushes’ surface properties to make
simple modifications to pa nning, rotation, and tiling of our material’s textures on the
surfaces and avoid directly modifying the materials in the UE4’s Material Editor.
In the n ext tutorial w e will apply some materials to our level brush geometry.
FIND ON THE WEBSITE
To find updates to this tutorial and u pdated instructions about its implementa-
tion on other UE 4 versions, please visit the book’s companion Website at:
http://www.RVRLAB.com/UE4Book/
56 Game Development and Simulation with Unreal Technology
TUTORIAL 2.3 Enhancing t he Level with Materials
First, we will have to create a special visual actor in the level, called Sp here
Reflection Capture. Since some of the materials we will use in this level have
metallic properties, this actor will enable the light interaction on these materia ls
to take plac e naturally.
PLACING A RE FLECTION CAPTURE ACTOR
1. Make sure yo u are in the Place mode in the Modes tab. Altern atively, pre ss
Control+1 on your keyboard to switch to this mode.
2. Click on the Visua l tab.
3. Scroll down and locate th e Sphere Reflection Capture.
4. Drag a Sphere Reflection Capture actor into the level and place it in front of
the elevator on the lobby, just above the Stair landings.
FIGURE 2.23: Applying Materials to the Ground Geometry.
APPLYING GROUND MATERIALS
Now, with the sphere reflection acto r placed in the level, it is time for us to apply
materials to our brushes. The first material we will apply to our brush geometry
will be the groun d.
5. Left-click on th e Ground bru sh in the editor to select it. A lternatively, you can
select this brush by clickin g on its name in th e Scene Outliner.
6. Locate a folder called Materials in the Starter Content folder in the Content
Browser .
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