*Note: I created the most of the tutorials using the Roboblitz and Gears of War editors. Based on the engine, and the version, some properties specified may be in slightly different locations than what is displayed in the screenshots.

If you need to learn how to create a basic map I would reccomend:
For UT99, UT2K3 & UT2K4: the Unreal Wiki.
For UT3: Waylon's Tutorials.



Actor Factory/Actor Factory Ex





Actor Factories & Actor Factory Ex's are generally used to spawn AI-controlled entities in the level. However, they can also spawn other items.

The only significant differences between and Actor Factory and an Actor Factory Ex that I've found is:

• Actor Factories only provide control over one spawned entity. If more than one entity is spawned, multiple references don't matter - whatever action is further assigned to any reference will only occur to one of the spawned entities, even if hooked up to a difference object variable. Therefore, these seem to only be good for spawning 1 entity.

• Actor Factory Exes provide individual control over each spawned reference/object variable. Therefore they are used for controlling multiple entities separately.

• Spawn Count outlets: which could be hooked up to a variable in order to vary spawn counts.

• Spawned/Spawned #: which can be used to provide greater control over a specific reference.

These shots are of an Actor Factory and Actor Factory EX each with a spawn count of 2 applied through its properties.





Let's go over the ins and outs that are common to each one:

• Spawn Actor: Yes, exactly. This is where the signal will enter the factory.

• Enable: The factory is enabled by default. However, if it is disabled, this will enable its function again.

• Disable: Basically, this will turn it 'off'. Even if a signal comes in, it will not function

• Toggle: I don't know, but my guess would be that it 'toggles' enable and disable whenever a signal hits. If someone does know, I'd be happy to be told.

• Finished: When the factory has finished its work, the signal will continue out through here.

• Aborted: Again, not quite sure what this represents. Perhaps if the spawning was interrupted somehow?

• Spawned: These can be used instead of the 'Finished' outlet on the Actor Factory Ex.

Now that we have one, what can we do with it? Let's add the supporting variables.



• Step 1: In the test map, select a pathnode, and then bring up the context menu. You'll see a new addition to it: 'New Object Var Using PathNode_0'. This tells Kismet to create a new Object Variable, and also assign PathNode_0 to that variable. This is how you link objects in the physical map to the actions in Kismet. We'll get to the 'New Event Using Pathnode_0' in another tutorial.

• Step 2: Now, place it under the 'Spawn Point' outlet of the Actor Factory by ctrl-clicking it, and moving it as you would an actor in the physical map.

• Step 3: Connect it to the 'Spawn Point' by dragging a line from the pink triangle under the 'Spawn Point' text on the Actor Factory, and dropping it on the Pathnode's Object Reference.

• Step 4: We need another one for the Actor Factory EX, so we want to duplicate the Object Variable. Press 'Shift-D' and then move the new Object Variable under the 'Spawn Point' outlet of the Actor Factory Ex. Connect the ActorFactory Ex to the Object Reference. Your Kismet should now look something like this:



• Step 5: At this point, if we set some properties in the Actor Factories, we'd be able to spawn something AT that pathnode. But we may need to give that spawned item some commands through Kismet later in its life. So we'll need to give the spawned entity it's own Kismet Object Variable so that we can reference it in Kismet.
To do this, we'll create an 'empty' Object Variable, that will keep track of the spawned entity, when it blinks into existence, and link it to the Actor Factories.
So, using the context menu, go to New Variable -> Object -> Object, as seen below:



• Step 6: Once you have one, duplicate it, and then connect both to the 'Spawned' Outlets of each Actor Factory so that they look like this:



Let me pause at this point and reiterate one point: The Pathnode_0 object is the 'Where' of what the Actor Factory is spawning. The empty '???' Object Variable is going represent the 'What' is being spawned if we need to use Kismet to perform other operations on it.

• Step 7: This step applies only to the Actor Factory. As you can see, we still have an available 'Spawn Count' outlet on the Actor Factory. Let's create a Integer like so:



and then hook it up to the 'Spawn Count' of the Actor Factory:



And then change it's Value to '1' by entering it into its properties like so:



When assembled like this, it means the Actor Factory will spawn a Quantity of 1 at Pathnode_0 and its Kismet reference is contained in the '???' Object Variable.

Note: The 'Spawn Count' outlet is not exposed on the Actor Factory Ex because it's assigned in its properties. There is also a field in the Actor Factory to type in a fixed Spawn Count. However, if an external variable is used, like in the example above, the Spawn Count Outlet Value will override the Spawn Count assigned in the Actor Factory's properties.
Properties:

Now, let's take a look at the properties within the Actor Factories:



• bCheckSpawnCollision: Like it sounds, it checks to see if anything will collide with the item being spawned.

• bEnabled: Is the Factory On or Off, by Default, when the level starts?

• bOutputObjCommentToScreen: Print the object comment on screen when the action is fired

• Factory: This is what the Factory is going to make is determined. We'll come back to this.

• ObjComment: This comment will appear in text above the factory in Kismet. I personally find it useful to enter a quick comment about what I'm spawning.

• PointSelection: Normal, Random, or Reversed? I don't know what this does.

• Spawn Count: How many will the factory make?

• Spawn Delay: After the signal enters the factory, how long to wait to spawn the item?

• SpawnPoints: As more pathnodes (or whatever) are added to the SpawnPoint Outlet, this list will populate with whatever has been assigned as object variables.

• Target: As more items are spawned, this list will populate with the references attached to the 'Spawned' outlet of the Factory.

Now, let's turn our attention back to the Factory portion of the Actor Factory. If the Factory bar is clicked, a small blue down-pointing arrow will appear. Click it, and it will bring up a menu of possible items to spawn. Like so:



Also, if you click on the small grey box immediately to the right of the blue triangle, that will clear the factory, and allow you to start the factory from scratch.

There are so many options within each factory that you can choose that going through each of them is beyond the scope of this tutorial. In addition, they're fairly self-explanatory. So we will end this one here.