The text bellow is taken from an email l received from Epic this morning…

Epic Games has released a hotfix for the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) November beta version.

Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases free of charge. Below is a list of technical enhancements included in the updated UDK beta version. These fixes have been incorporated to immediately address stability and performance issues reported by some users.

Everyone using UDK is encouraged to install November Beta 2 to ensure an optimal experience. Please download the updated software build at www.udk.com/download.

Notes on UDK November Beta 2 repairs and improvements:

• Shader compiler no longer crashes when the log is not writable.
• Game/editor will run without having to first check for existing script files.
• Windows XP: Emissive lights causing purple lighting have been fixed.
• Windows 7: Added new SpeedTree binaries to address OS-specific issue.
• Added check to confirm GPU meets minimum requirements.
• Implemented fix for some SpeedTree trees causing crashes.
• Added fix for invalid characters being allowed in journal files causing database corruption.
• Incorporated fix for making a game in non-English and then running it on another non-English machine.
• Installer
• If a prerequisite fails to install, the install will still continue and warn at the end.
• Enhanced the check for a valid install path.
• If the installer is skipped, the EULA comes up once.
• Fixed CZE install not finding the EULA.
• Fixed problem if temp install folders were deleted between install and uninstall.
• Fixed problem if maps were named in non-ASCII characters.

Details are available at the Unreal Developer Network (UDN):

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html

Epic Games also maintains links to download mirrors, technical documentation and support resources at www.udk.com/forums.

Lots of people are getting stuck in already!!

The big news this week is that the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) has been released. I will be evaluating this over the next couple of weeks, before I introduce you to it. However I do encourage you to download it and get it installed, also have a look on the website at all of the features that are now available to you. The UDK contains a free version of Unreal Editor 3 (which is what we have been using), the UI for the Generic Browser has changed slightly, but does more or less the same.

As I mentioned in the session, the Mastering Unreal books are now available in the library…

Interesting tutorials…
Terrain with Foliage & Deco

Foliage & Deco Layers [Hourences] - This is also covered in the Mastering Unreal books 
Foliage Volumes (including Wind) [Hourences]

I will put up the stuff on Particle systems when we have finished working through it.

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Just incase you want to buy the Mastering Unreal books here are the link to amazon…

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 1): A Beginner’s Guide to Level Design in Unreal Engine 3

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 2): Advanced Level Design with Unreal Technology

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 3): Introduction to UnrealScript with Unreal Engine 3 (This one is currently pre-order only)

The newly released beta UDK. I haven’t had chance to install it yet, but it looks like there are lots of very useful tools for Unreal game dev.

Below are the links to other tutorials that link into the examples that we worked though in yesterday’s session.

Materials

Materials 1 [Hourences] - The basics
Materials 2 [Hourences] - Slightly more complex
Materials 3 [Hourences] - Complex materials
Material Expressions List [Hourences] - A list of all the material expressions with explanations.

An alternative Material Tutorial [Waylon-art]

Some one asked about creating mirrored surfaces,  I have found some information on real time reflections [Hourences] which should do the job!

Lighting

Basic Lighting [Waylon-art] - Covers the four basic lighting types.

Terrain

Basic Terrain [Hourences]

Some games events taking place across the UK in November.

The first computer game to get approved by the Department of Health!

Great short piece on casual gaming on social network sites in the workplace. A whole new market for games?

A great short article on playtesting at a small games dev company. Just goes to show how getting different perspectives is essential.

For those of you who are interested, here are some books that might be useful if you are considering iPhone App development/games.

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK

There are lots of other online resources for this online, so get googling!

You need to register on the Developer Program to get started, then take a look at the Dev Center.

I’ve had a work with Adam (who runs the Interactive Media course) and he has come up with a few suggestions for you.

These ones are already in the library (the links go to Amazon)…

Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! - This one covers game development for games with lots of maths. It explains the concepts really well and gives good examples. This is the ActionScript 2 version and there is a newer ActionScript 3 version of the book.

Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator’s Guide: Design, Develop, and Share Your Games Online - This one is also good as an introduction to flash, but is focused around deploying flash on Wii, with some interesting games for Wii controller which can be applied to the mouse too.

ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University

These ones are’t in the library…

Foundation Game Design with Flash (Foundations) - although I’m going to ask the library to get a copy or two of this one.

Real-World Flash Games Development: How to follow Best Practices AND Keep Your Sanity

Here are the links to some tutorials that you might find useful, following on from last week’s session…

Getting Started with Unreal [Lincon.ac.uk] - Be careful with this one, it states that it is for Unreal Ed 3, but I think is is based on Unreal Ed 2004 (an earlier version).

Editor Basic Navigation [Waylon-Art.com]
The Generic Browser [Waylon-Art.com]
Building a Basic Level [Waylon-Art.com]
Lighting & Texturing a Basic Level [Waylon-Art.com]

The Material Editor & Basic Materials [Hourences.com] - This one is a great place to follow up for some more information on Materials. I will cover materials in more depth later.

You may also want to check out the Epic Forum for Unreal 3 and the Unreal Developer Network (UDN). The UDN has lots of very useful info, but is pretty technical.

Books & Software

I mentioned that the library will be getting some of new books on the Unreal Editor. I will let you know when they arrive in the library so that you can get them out.

If you want to get yourself copies they are on Amazon (links below):

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 1): A Beginner’s Guide to Level Design in Unreal Engine 3

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 2): Advanced Level Design with Unreal Technology

Mastering Unreal Technology (v. 3): Introduction to UnrealScript with Unreal Engine 3 (This one is currently pre-order only)

You can pick up standard copies of Unreal 3 with the Engine included for about £5. However the more expensive Limited Edition version has about 20 hours of tutorial videos which were made by the same guys that have written the books.