Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3

Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3 is your start-to-finish guide to modding and level design with the world’s hottest new gaming engine: Unreal Engine 3. Here’s everything you need to know to jumpstart your skills and create stunning new content and games for consoles and PCs alike! Your authors aren’t just the world’s #1 Unreal game development trainers: They’ve even built the training modules that shipped with Unreal Tournament 3: Limited Collector’s Edition. Now, working with the full cooperation of Unreal Engine 3’s creators, Epic Games, they introduce every facet of game development—from simple level creation to materials, lighting, and terrain...even advanced level optimization and streaming!

Packed with tips, hands-on tutorials, and expert techniques, Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I is all you need to create levels that look spectacular and work brilliantly...levels that gamers just can’t stop playing!

You’ll find expert tips on

Understanding the game development process from start to finish
Planning projects for greater efficiency, faster delivery, and better quality
Crafting worlds with stunning beauty and clarity
Bringing amazing realism to characters, objects, and props
Making the most of Unreal Engine 3’s massively upgraded lighting system
Scripting complex gameplay quickly and easily with Unreal Kismet
Building animated game assets with Unreal Matinee
Testing game performance during live gameplay
Optimizing levels by improving the interaction between lights and surfaces
Using advanced level streaming to create vast, rich, highly playable levels

Winner of the Front Line Award for best game development book of 2009!

Customer Reviews:

Worth the price of admission

By Rob "ActivelyX" - January 23, 2010

I've evaluated several 3D game engines, including XNA Game Studio 3 (ok for home enthusiasts), Torque 3D (not ready for prime time as of this writing), Unity (nice), Blender3D (ok for home enthusiasts), and Unreal Engine 3. The Unreal Engine UDK blows them away, although the Unity 3D Platformer is really quite good. You can't beat what you get with the Unreal Engine UDK, especially considering that its free. Some licensing rules apply if you actually create and sell a game.

I purchased this book in order to get a "head start" on developing applications with the Unreal Game Engine. I was very pleased with its contents. The examples in each chapter really drive home the benefits of using the Unreal Game Engine. I especially enjoyed the introductory chapter, the static meshes chapter, the material creation chapter, the terrain chapter, the Kismet chapter and the Matinee considerations chapter.

I downloaded the November and December Betas of the Unreal Development... read more

Reads like A textbook

By E. Southerland II - August 1, 2009

Simply a spectacular how-to book. Covers a lot of ground, and I can't wait for volumes 2 and 3 to get released. Also, not only do you get an amazingly well written and thought out work that reads like a text book for learning the UT3 editor, you also get a DVD packed with all the examples and tutorials covered in the book, and a free copy of UT3 as a download from steam.

Great book!

By Ali Zandi - October 12, 2009

This book has been a great read and resource for helping me get my hands dirty with Unreal Editor 3.0. I am new to the engine, and honestly, this book has really helped give me the insight I need without straying off the beaten path. The information is great and the little tips are extremely helpful. I have searched and browsed through numerous tutorials and websites online, and this book has everything in it to get someone started!

My only complaint is that the illustrations are of average quality and not in color, and the problem with that is trying to see which edges or verts they have selected in the pictures. Sometimes, you can't even see what they have selected or what color they are referring to because of the black and white.

Besides that, great book!