*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.



Common Interactives - Shot/Damage Doors

I have set up a simple test map consisting of a slab of BSP, a skylight, a playerstart, a skydome, and a directional light.

I will only be using default editor assets which can be found in the EditorMeshes and EditorMaterials packages.

I will be using Movers/Interpactors (the terms are interchangeable) that are sometimes animated through Matinee. If you need to learn Matinee, I would recommend Hourences' Tutorial on them as a starting point.

I added the default mesh cube as a static mesh to the map, converted it to an interpactor, and then made it very thin. The pivot is in the center so I will only animate it up and down, or side to side. A door turning on its hinge requires both a pivot on one side of it, and some forethought to where the player will be so as not to squeeze them against a wall.

*Note: Pivots/Origin points on StaticMeshes serve as the 'hinge points' for interpactors. If you need to create a door, or other moveable object that revolves, rotates, or swings on an edge, you'll need to be aware of the mesh's pivot/origin location. It is impossible to re-assign this pivot permanantly in the engine. For mesh placement, you can currently temporarily assign the pivot to a new location, but when you're done, the pivot will be back at the origin. If you find a mesh that you want to use as a swinging door, and its pivot is in the center, you are out of luck. The origin is determined when the mesh is created in a 3D Modeling application - not in the Unreal Editor.

Shot/Damage Doors: This kind of door is opened when an interpactor receives damage from being shot. I've set up a very simple system.
*Note: Using staticmeshes for these can work, but is not reccomended - especially in an online setting. Interpactors work much more reliably.

Let's use the 'Cooking' analogy I outlined in the Applications introduction to set this up:

1) What are we making?
A door that opens when it is shot/damaged.

2) Gather the ingredients:
Mover (door)
Damage Event
Matinee

3) Put it together. In the level, I've created two walls and placed a thin mover between them.




On the kismet side of things, I created a 'TakeDamage' Event based on the mover. I set its DamageThreshhold to 10, its minimum damage to 5, and its MaxTriggerCount to 0. I hid the unused connectors on the matinee. So when the door takes any kind of damage, it will play the matinee and open.




4) Test it. Go in game and test it out. It worked fine for me.

5) Refine it. First, think about the collison and lighting and get those fixed. Then consider any potential issues. Do we want it to do anything else?
If we wanted to add sounds, we could add them through a matine event track, or through the interpactor itself. Open its properties and expand down the 'interpactor' section as shown. You would select the open/close sounds in the generic browser and assign them to the appropriate fields. Just make sure they sound proper once they're in - they don't play too long or too short, for example. These fields might only work with the 'Mover' event, however, I haven't tested that.




Is there anything else we want to do? Well, should the door stay open? Or close after a certain amount of time? Let's close the door after 5 seconds. I'll add a delay to the system. We'll connect the completed to the delay, set the delay for 5 seconds, and connect the out to the 'reverse' of the matinee. I've added a gate to prevent the damage from firing before the matinee has ended, but now I need a way to control its opening again. So I add another delay that's the length of time the matinee plays, in this case 2 seconds, and add that to the system to re-open the gate. I'll also hit the 'rewindonplay' checkbox in the matinee's properties.




Now I'll add sounds to the system via kismet instead of the interpactor's properties. I've created an open event in the matinee, and I'll attach the close sound coming off the command to reverse the matinee. Also, I've targeted the door for the sounds so the sounds emanate form the door.




Now, what happens if a player is in the way while the door is closing? I'll need to use a 'Mover' event's Actor Hit output to either re-open the door, or kill the player. I'll choose re-open, but you could easily hook up a CauseDamage to the player. However, to I'll also need to create a second, close matinee for the door and hook the mover event into that for this system to work properly. Finally, if the player bumps the door, I'll need to stop the close door sound and play the re-open sound.




6) Adjust it for Single/Multiplayer. As you may have read in the SinglePlayer/Co-op/MultiPlayer section, there are many considerations to take into account for whichever system you're setting this up for. The system as it stands might be ok for single-player and multiplayer both. But you chould still ask yourself some questions. What happens if two players are fighting through the door? Actually, it looks like that might be ok. What if they both shoot the door? Well, it will open again as long as it receives damage so... that seems ok. If you want enemy NPCs to open the door, you'll need to add something that allows AI to shoot at the door. Otherwise, the system looks pretty complete as is. Unless you want to add dynamic lights or emitters to the system...