Keeping textures when copying brushes in UnrealEd

[Dae]

It's a very old and a very simple trick, however I don't remember that I posted it anywhere here. It was very handy in my early mapping days, when I was building maps mostly by copying different things from other maps (I opened two UnrealEd instances, one for my map, one - for the maps to copy from) or using prefabs (see Deus Ex Constructor for the best collection of prefabs). The problem was, when I was copying or adding a brush from a different place, UnrealEd used to reset the textures of the brush, if they had not been preloaded before, so I had to assign textures again on a newly added brush.
The solution is simple:

• Go to DeusEx/System, open DeusEx.ini (for UEd2, go to DeusEx/UEd2 and open UnrealTournament.ini)
• Find

  Code: Select all

  [Editor.EditorEngine]

• Add somewhere under it:

  Code: Select all

  EditPackages=Airfield
EditPackages=area51textures
EditPackages=BatteryPark
EditPackages=BobPage
EditPackages=Catacombs
EditPackages=Cmd_tunnels
EditPackages=Constructor
EditPackages=CoreTexBrick
EditPackages=CoreTexCeramic
EditPackages=CoreTexConcrete
EditPackages=CoreTexDetail
EditPackages=CoreTexEarth
EditPackages=CoreTexFoliage
EditPackages=CoreTexGlass
EditPackages=CoreTexMetal
EditPackages=CoreTexMisc
EditPackages=CoreTexPaper
EditPackages=CoreTexSky
EditPackages=CoreTexStone
EditPackages=CoreTexStucco
EditPackages=CoreTexTextile
EditPackages=CoreTexTiles
EditPackages=CoreTexWallObj
EditPackages=CoreTexWater
EditPackages=CoreTexWood
EditPackages=Dockyard
EditPackages=Effects
EditPackages=Extras
EditPackages=FreeClinic
EditPackages=G_Station
EditPackages=Hangar18
EditPackages=HK_BuildingExt
EditPackages=HK_Decorations
EditPackages=HK_Helibase
EditPackages=HK_Interior
EditPackages=HK_MJ12Lab
EditPackages=HK_Signs
EditPackages=HK_VersaLife
EditPackages=InfoPortraits
EditPackages=MJ12_lab
EditPackages=Mobile_Camp
EditPackages=MolePeople
EditPackages=Moon
EditPackages=NewYorkCity
EditPackages=NYCBar
EditPackages=OceanLab
EditPackages=Palettes
EditPackages=Paris
EditPackages=Render
EditPackages=Rocket
EditPackages=SubBase
EditPackages=subway
EditPackages=Supertanker
EditPackages=UNATCO
EditPackages=V_Com_Center

• Save and close the file.

Notes:

• This will increase the loading time of your UnrealEd, however it saves time and makes selecting textures easy (you don't have to load the packages anymore).
• Ded (the author of Project: 2027) also said that preloading reduced lag in his mod.
• If you're using UnrealEd2 and your map contains non-standard textures or other stuff, I guess you'd agree that it's a bit annoying to preload all of them, by picking one by one from different folders each time before opening the map. Just add these custom packages to EditPackages= of UnrealTournament.ini and forget about preloading.

[MainMan]

This is useful, but I think my computer would struggle with 2 UEds running.

Does anyone want to know about brush hacking? It is related to this.

[Dae]

I did brush hacking to a mover once to change the class. That wasn't hard - copy the brush, paste to some text editor, edit class, copy again, paste back to UnrealEd. Talking about values/vertexes, dunno.

[MainMan]

Я не сомневался что ты знаешь - я хотел другим помочь

So yes, that is what brush hacking is.

After having copied the brush from the editor, paste into a text-program (e.g. notepad) and you can edit things like the class (if a mover), or the location (you can get rid of the annoying +32 units offset when you copy a brush), etc. Then copy the text in the editor, and paste back into UEd.

[~ô¿ô~Nobody~]

That's how I place new Ring-Transporters very fast.
I copy an existing one, change the tags, like Hangar_TC, to Prison_TC, with the replace all function and paste it again. Almost no work after that anymore.

Btw, dae, you can also do it with just one editor instance. Then you also don't need to load all the mods.
You just open the map where you want to copy out something. Then you select the stuff you want to copy out and copy it to the clipboard.
Then you right load the map, where you want to paste it in, followed by pasting the stuff from clipboard.
Rebuilding, saving, done.
This works because the editor doesn't unload the required textures of the prior map.

[Dae]

You just open the map where you want to copy out something. Then you select the stuff you want to copy out and copy it to the clipboard.

Of course, but when you copy a lot of things and from time to time it takes more time in sum.

[~ô¿ô~Nobody~]

Meh, actually the point of my post was, how not to loose the surface properties (i.e. texture) of some copied brush, without loading all possible packages.