Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design (Paperback)

by Jason Busby (Author), Zak Parrish (Author), Joel VanEenwyk (Author) "The saying goes that the Roman Empire wasn't built in a day, and neither was Unreal..." (more)
Key Phrases: texture browser, placeholder textures, additive brush, Actor Class, Scene Manager, Unreal Tournament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Let your imagination run wild in the world of Unreal Technology. Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design knows no boundaries as it shows you how to build custom mods, maps and levels with the Unreal engine. Its tutorial format will give you immediate results through the tips and demos provided from the industry's top level designers. Learn to create your own characters, weapons and gaming environments, as well as how to go beyond the Unreal environment and export custom elements from 3D modeling applications. A CD that contains the Unreal Engine, graphics, examples and code is also included, giving you everything you need to create custom levels in Unreal or build your own games and virtual environments. Mastering Unreal Technology will help put you on the cutting-edge of gaming technology.

About the Author
Jason Busby is the founder of 3D Buzz, a digital animation consultancy and training firm. Jason is also the Director of Animation for The Renaissance Center in Dickson, TN. He has over 15 years experience in programming and digital animation and is expert in the creation of digital video training.

Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games, a Raleigh, NC developer of cutting-edge PC games. Epic is best known as the creator of the Unreal game series, an award-winning line that has sold more than 3 million copies, including Unreal Tournament which was recognized as the Game of the Year by leading gaming media outlets including Computer Gaming World, the #1 PC games magazine.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 984 pages
• Publisher: Sams (December 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672326922
• ISBN-13: 978-0672326929
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,521 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly detailed and helpful - 2 books in one!, January 10, 2005

By	Ryan Jackson (Toronto, ON CA) - See all my reviews

I was a little skeptical before purchasing this book because I already own and watched the Unreal Tournament 2004 Special Edition training videos produced by the same authors as this book. I was afraid that the 60+ hours of content in those videos would cover all the same material as the book. Boy was I wrong.

Not only does the Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design go into detail far surpassing the training videos, including a surprisingly enlightening (and helpful) section on the theory behind how the Unreal Technology works, but Mr. Busby, Parrish, and Van Eenwyk guide you step-by-step through designing a level. As they begin introducing new, more advanced, features they'll explain - option by option - how the feature works and provide numerous examples of where it would be useful. For a level designer, having a single clear guide of what each of thousands of settings do is an invaluable resource.

This book serves as an excellent introduction to Maya reference as well. As I said earlier, having watched through the video tutorials, I was already somewhat familiar with the Maya package. But even for complete novices, the book will quickly bring you upto speed with the basics of the package, and help you learn how to use it to import your own creations (such as static meshes) into your Unreal levels. The Maya content in the book alone, is worth the price of admission.

The previous reviewer mentioned that he uses 3DS Max instead of Maya. While I have no doubt that Max is an awesome package, it should not be overlooked that Maya has a free personal learning edition - that ships with Unreal Tournament 2003/4. Consequently, I am very pleased that this package was used instead of Max, because in doing so no initial investment beyond a copy of this book is needed. Heck, they even ship a copy of the Unreal Engine Runtime with the book! This means that people who don't own Unreal Tournament 2004, but wish to learn about level editing, can do so. Overall, I was extremely impressed. :) Way to go.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book & great reference, October 14, 2005

By	J. Bauer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book cover to cover; it is the best way to start creating levels. UnrealEd is a level editor aimed towards artists, the info within this book is the best coverage of a level editor that I have seen. You don't need to know scripting or any programming to create your own levels. The book starts by giving you some generals about game development, goes on to basic UnrealEd, then into more complicated UnrealEd. The last third of the book is basic Maya 5 PLE tutorials, which I found helpful because I hadn't used Maya before.

** !!! You need to own a copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 in order to follow along with the tutorials in this book !!! **

UT2004 Level Editors - This book is aimed at you. If you are already playing UT2004, you have everything you need and this book will help you find out how they made all those cool things you see in the game.

Architecture Visualizing - This book will definitely help you find out how you can take your ideas into a real-time render engine to show your clients. You could get by with the Unreal Runtime engine that comes on the CD with the book. However, in order to fully understand the tutorials, I believe you would need to pick up a copy of UT2004 with this book.

3D Artists & Game Developers - If you are already working with other game engines or a 3D animation package and want to look into Unreal, this is the ticket. Like I said before, you do need a copy of UT2004.

There were a couple of errors in the book, however they have all been addressed at [...].

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stuck using the Unreal Editor? This book has the answer!, February 18, 2005

By	L. Amarakoon "Lee A" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the definitive bible for creating 3d content using Unreal 2.5 Engine. I have been using it a lot for the level, I'm working on. Instead of scouring the web looking for a tutorial on how to do "that", you can check the index and learn what "that" does and how to use it in your level.

The book covers everything from learning Maya PLE, learning 3dsmax, unwrapping, vehicle modeling, everything that 3D Buzz's team has on their website for download as a video tutorial is in this book, except the information's is right at your finger tips.

I was recommended to this book from a friend who works in the gaming industry and even his company uses the book for a quick reference. Jason Busby, Zak Parrish & Joel Van Eenwyk thank you for making one of the best references a level artist could possibly have!