UNREALTournament
Recently Asked Questions

Question: I want to use a VertexAnimation, I made in StudioMax and get it into UnrealTournament 2003?

Answer: In most of the cases I would recommend to produce a skeletal animation. But if you want to use a Vertexanimation, you need to download a recent version of the ActorX plugin.
Download it here: ActorX (vers. 5) (128 kB) and move it to your Studiomax/plugins folder.

Open your file in StudioMax, bring up the ActorX plugin and define a path you want to save your files to.

The section of the ActorX panel, which you need now is at the very bottom of the panel and is called Export Vertexanimation. Create an _a.3d and an _d.3d file for the Animation and the Mesh Data for Unreal.
Now you can setup a folder called "kicks" (in our case) with the subfolders requested, which have to be called "Classes", "Models" and "Textures". The _a.3d and _d.3d files go into "Models". Any textures you used put into "Textures".

Create a text file called kicks.uc and put it into the "Classes" folder. This file will contain the basic Unreal Script code, which controlls the behaviour of the new actor we are about to compile.

//=============================================================================
// kicks.
// This is an example of a Vertexanimation
// The animated Mesh will show up in the UEd Meshes browser,
// if you added kicks to your EditPackages
// and put the file kicks.u into the System folder of UT2003
// Mathias Fuchs, 2/May/2003, model and animation by Kolt Wilson
//=============================================================================

class kicks extends Actor placeable;

#exec MESH IMPORT MESH=kicks ANIVFILE=MODELS\kicks_a.3d DATAFILE=MODELS\kicks_d.3d X=0 Y=0 Z=0
#exec MESH ORIGIN MESH=kicks X=0 Y=0 Z=0

#exec MESH SEQUENCE MESH=kicks SEQ=All STARTFRAME=0 NUMFRAMES=101
#exec MESH SEQUENCE MESH=kicks SEQ=kicks STARTFRAME=0 NUMFRAMES=101

#exec TEXTURE IMPORT NAME=kickstex FILE=Textures\stripes.pcx

#exec MESHMAP NEW MESHMAP=kicks MESH=kicks
#exec MESHMAP SCALE MESHMAP=kicks X=0.5 Y=0.5 Z=1.0

#exec MESHMAP SETTEXTURE MESHMAP=kicks NUM=1 TEXTURE=kickstex

simulated function PostBeginPlay()
{
LoopAnim('kicks');
Super.PostBeginPlay();
}

defaultproperties
{
DrawType=DT_Mesh
Mesh=VertMesh'kicks.kicks'
}


Now compile the script.
If you don't want to go throught is process in our example's case, you can download the compiled class here. (This kicks.zip file is a bit large in size, because it contains the original uncompiled structure as well including the textures.) You should have a new file called kicks.u which has to be put into the System Folder of Unreal. The animated Mesh will show up in the UnrealEd Meshes browser, if you added kicks to your EditPackages and put the file kicks.u into the System folder of UT2003.

After you opened the Unreal Editor, you will find kicks in the Actor classes as a placeable item. Just right click on the floor of your 3D view window and select "Put Actor kicks here".

Play! See it move!