Unreal Development Kit Changelog

What's new in Unreal Development Kit 2014.02 Beta

Feb 28, 2014
  • Resolved the streaming memory leak issue.
  • UDID was removed for iOS.
  • Apps on iOS should now have stable and consistent audio, even when opening the Alarm Clock
  • Apps on iOS should now have stable and consistent experiences when Siri is opened during a loading movie.

New in Unreal Development Kit 2013.07 Beta (Jul 12, 2013)

  • Resolved the streaming memory leak issue.
  • UDID was removed for iOS.
  • Apps on iOS should now have stable and consistent audio, even when opening the Alarm Clock
  • Apps on iOS should now have stable and consistent experiences when Siri is opened during a loading movie.

New in Unreal Development Kit 2013.02 Beta 2 (Apr 6, 2013)

  • New Substance Engine Integration for Smart Texturing
  • New Features and Functionality:
  • AnimSet Editor - Custom Notify Buttons:
  • The AnimSet Editor, which allows the user to view and setup animated meshes, now offers the capability to set up to three custom buttons along with tool tips that shows what each button is bound to
  • Clicking the button now will create the notify with the notify object (from defined class or archetype), with the option to set a duration, and/or a fixed start time
  • UnrealConsole - Reconnect Target:
  • There is now a menu item for the debugging tool, UnrealConsole, that allows the user to reconnect to the target at any time
  • Mobile Updates:
  • The Mobile Shader Analyzer tool, which is used for examining mobile shaders and materials cooked for an application, no longer requires the patch from the November UDK to function properly
  • Learn more about the Mobile Shader Analyzer tool and functionality here
  • iPhone audio updates:
  • Fix to iOS audio output, now correctly outputs to stereo / 2 channels
  • Added new music volume slider on iOS
  • NodeSoundWave Quality Property – When this value is set to 100 sound data will stay LDPCM encoded at runtime preserving the exact quality heard on PC.
  • Fixed error that could lead to random noise at the end of some sounds
  • Added support for Game Center iOS Achievement Banners:
  • In IPhoneSystemSettings.ini
  • [SystemSettingsIPhone]
  • bShowAchievementBannerOnComplete=true
  • Scene capturing (optimization for scaleform screens) works on iOS for all paths. Enabled capturing with post processing disabled
  • Added new commandlet “ReplaceMaterial,” for quickly pointing asset material references to new materials or MaterialInstanceConstants (MICs). This is useful for reducing overall material usage, to reduce shader keys, or to fix up old data to use MICs.
  • Syntax: ReplaceMaterial
  • Flags: -ALL, -AutoCheckOutPackages
  • Added texture tiling support for ribbon particles on mobile
  • Extended mobile modulated shadows to support full-scene color fading
  • Improved quality of mobile Depth of Field (DOF) and reduced shimmering
  • Fixed quality issues with lightmap and Scaleform-packed textures. These had previously generated the PVRTC textures from DXT, instead of source art.
  • Removed Depth of Field (DOF) near blur factor, which was still exposed but not being used
  • Added support for disabling game rendering while full screen movie is playing:
  • In IPhoneSystemSettings.ini
  • [SystemSettingsIPhone]
  • bDisableGameRenderingFullScreenMovie =true
  • Added an EditorOnly flag for textures, which prevents the texture from being cooked into final packages
  • Added Subtitle abilities into native m4v movies under iOS
  • Added a –WriteTFCReport option to the cooker, will display all textures added to TextureFileCache (TFC) files to a CSV file on disk. Useful on mobile when all texture data is set to cook into TFCs to see exactly what is inside the files
  • Fixed crash in Scaleform AMP code when returning from iOS application resigning to background
  • Added ‘Fast compression / no resigning’ development option in the UnrealFrontend (UFE) for iOS packaging

New in Unreal Development Kit 2012.07 Beta 2 (Jul 30, 2012)

  • New Features and Functionality
  • Perforce Integration
  • Enables UDK developers to utilize professional-grade version control tools for up to 20 users and 20 workstations at no charge, with no restrictions on time limit or file quantity
  • The software provides branching and merging control, enabling teams to work on different assets simultaneously while keeping file management in order
  • Integrated with graphical tools such as Photoshop, Softimage, 3ds Max and Maya
  • Normal Map Workflow Improvement
  • We have improved the workflow of baking and rendering normal maps
  • Notice it’s a far lower polycount than we could use before since there is no supporting chamfers or subdivisions
  • This workflow currently relies on using XNormal to bake normal maps but produces much higher quality shading than before
  • The Normal map workflow you’ve used in the past will still work, but if you want higher quality shading, this is currently the best workflow to use
  • It also allows you to use much less supporting geometry since you don’t have to fight incorrect shading
  • The first step is to make sure your model consists of 1 smoothing group
  • It also helps to triangulate your model using a modifier, that way you don’t have to worry about any application changing your triangles
  • When exporting your lowpoly model for xnormal, use these settings:
  • The important points are the smoothing groups, and tangents & binormals
  • When loading your lowpoly model into Xnormal make sure “Use exported normals” is enabled
  • After baking your normal map, export your low poly models for Unreal using the SAME FBX settings as before
  • When importing your model into Unreal, enable “Import Tangents” and “Explicit Normals”
  • General Purpose .ini Overrides From Command Line
  • You can override basic .ini values on the command line now (in Debug/Release/Test, not Shipping/FINAL_RELEASE) (arrays and structs not handled)
  • It’s mostly meant for mobile (or console), where it’s easy to change the command line, but can be hard to recook your data just to update a .ini setting
  • It works like this: ini:IniName:Section1.Key1=Value1,Section2.Key2=Value2,…
  • For example: ini:UDKEngine:Engine.Engine.bSmoothFrameRate=False,TextureStreaming.PoolSize=100 ini:AwesomeGame:AwesomeBoss.HitPoints=100000
  • It’s important to use the proper .ini name
  • The functionality has only been tested with the generated .ini files (UDKEngine, not DefaultEngine), so it is suggested that you only use those
  • On PC it will update your local generated .ini file.
  • On consoles/mobile, those .inis are read only, so it will only affect that run of the game
  • Unreal Editor
  • Brush cursor will no longer move in viewport while panning around in Material Editor
  • Child nodes can now be individually added to favorites in the properties pane
  • Holding down ctrl to spectate ‘Play in editor’ now works properly
  • In Geometry mode, Brush Clipping and Pen mode now draws the grid snap box again
  • Removed “Merge Static Meshes” option from right click menu, use Group’s Merge option instead
  • Sound Actor’s Sound Cues can now be found in the Content Browser
  • The content browser now keeps focus after loading/unloading switches
  • Converting a brush to a static mesh now places the pivot of the static mesh in the center of the mesh, rather than at the origin
  • Unless there are multiple brushes selected
  • This also now applies to Exporting the brush as well
  • Added support for multiple search terms to Content Browser’s Package List search box
  • Fixed post process effects on scene captures
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the color picker from updating the property window when values where typed into various color picker controls
  • OpenAutomate Integration
  • Integrated performance automation tool from NVIDIA
  • Currently set up to run NightandDay and DM-Deck flythrough’s to automatically provide performance and compatibility metrics
  • http://www.nvidia.fr/object/openautomate.html
  • Mobile
  • Added DrawTimer to Canvas - it draws a “piechart” type of icon, can indicate time passing, etc.
  • Added better save game encryption support
  • Added support for background (iPod) music (bUsingBackgroundMusic)
  • Added support for showing built in SMS and Mail dialog
  • Improved memory situation on low end devices by tossing unused high detail assets
  • Added partial achievement unlocking (defaults to 100, but can be used on platforms that support incremental completion on the server, like GameCenter)
  • Added an animation option to allow some nodes to tick while paused
  • Added ProcessWorldTouch to MobilePlayerInput to Handle touch events in the 3D world
  • Auto-Reconnect in UnrealConsole now works with iOS

New in Unreal Development Kit 2012.05 Beta (May 15, 2012)

  • RealD Integration:
  • Incorporates best-of-breed stereoscopic 3D gaming technology in the Unreal Engine which allows for PC and console games to be rendered in stereo 3D
  • 3D experience improved by allowing management of camera separation and 3D depth effects in real time
  • Depth Budget Allocation and AutoCAM available with the RealD Game Developer Toolkit
  • Advanced Environment Color:
  • A simplified directional environment light where the environment color depends on direction
  • It is blended between 2 values: ‘environment color’ and ‘environment sun color’
  • For example, the side of the sky with the sun could have a slightly warmer and brighter hue compared to the opposite side
  • Mobile Shader Key Tool:
  • Translates mobile shader keys into a human readable form
  • Shader keys specify the configuration of a particular shader that is used in the game
  • The bits in these keys used to be counted ‘by hand’ which involved counting the position and looking up the source code, this is no longer necessary
  • Non-default key bits are highlighted in bold
  • Unreal Editor:
  • DrawScale is now applied correctly in editor to BSPs
  • Ok to All” will now work when move/renaming several sound files in the content browser
  • Problems with coverslot selection and dragging are now fixed
  • Warning dialogs now launch when reimporting an asset that is older than the one currently loaded
  • Fixed a crash that occurred in the AnimSet Editor when removing Material slot [0] from a skeletal mesh that has more than one slot
  • Wireframe edges now render when importing a brush
  • Matinee:
  • Matinee keyframe selection now happens on mouse release, not press
  • Cameras imported into Matinee from FBX files work properly now
  • Mobile:
  • New Scaleform HUD for Unreal Tournament maps is now used on mobile devices too
  • Fixed crash if mobile emulation mode is enabled when non-mobile features are used in a map (e.g. landscape and morph targets), default material will render instead
  • Mesh particle stat tracking now works properly on mobile
  • Config option ShouldTrackFPSWhenNonInteractive added to allow fps charts to be generated for non-interactive scenes. False by default in Engine. True for UDKGame
  • Texture Paint:
  • The Texture properties window will now update the texture after committing in texture paint mode
  • Added an error in the Mesh Paint Window when the Undo Buffer has exceeded its maximum memory
  • Textures in the window will also say how many possible Undo actions are available
  • Fixed banding issues
  • Fixed the slowdown during undo/redo

New in Unreal Development Kit 2012.023 Beta (Mar 28, 2012)

  • New Features and Functionality
  • Unreal Editor
  • Actors will show regardless of layer visibility when in G mode
  • Before using ‘autoexpandcategories,’ the property window will first check to see if layout info has been saved
  • New ‘Create Sub-Archetype’ feature added to Unreal Content Browser. Right-click on Archetype assets to create sub-archetypes
  • Sound Actors can now be found inside Content Browser
  • Material Editor
  • Added a ‘WorldPosOffset’ category to the Material Editor's context menu
  • Changed the material editor to only update the previews when the viewport’s real-time flag is toggled, or mouse over while the expression’s preview real-time radio box is toggled
  • Converting a Constant 1 Vector into a Parameter now behaves correctly
  • Added functionality for updating a physical material when assigning a new material interface
  • Material instance parameter groups no longer show up when none of the nodes in the group are connected
  • Post-process editor improvements
  • Node color now represents the linked status (green = linked, red = unlinked)
  • Ignores node connections of different types (has to be 1 Input and 1 Output), and reorders them accordingly
  • Only marks the package as dirty when the effects order has been modified
  • Mesh Paint: marking an actor's ‘bHidden’ flag will no longer prevent it from being painted on
  • Texture paint workflow automation will now allow you to duplicate textures and hook them up to a new material instance with a single button click
  • Refreshing the list in Unreal Frontend so it no longer looks just for additional devices, but all devices attached. This prevents devices used previously showing, even though they may no longer be connected
  • You can now use the ‘Screen Capture’ option in Unreal Console to take a screenshot

New in Unreal Development Kit 2012.02 Beta (Mar 1, 2012)

  • iOS Rendering
  • Added support for uniform color multiply mask
  • Mobile Scaleform
  • Added full support for Scaleform user interfaces on iOS devices
  • ReCast
  • Integrated ReCast navigation mesh toolset, which provides fast and robust generation of navigation meshes
  • Unreal QualitySwitch material expression
  • A new material expression that enables you to make High and Low quality versions of a material
  • Controlled by a switch in the material editor within the Utility Group, called QualitySwitch
  • The quality mode used is based on video settings. Similar to the Resolution and World Detail settings, Material Quality can now be set to low for older computers
  • Unreal Landscape
  • You can now save and share foliage settings in packages
  • Unreal Editor
  • New “Create Sub-Archetype” feature added to Content Browser. Right click on Archetype assets to create sub-archetypes
  • Material editor: Added “WorldPosOffset” category to the right click menu

New in Unreal Development Kit 2012.01 Beta (Jan 31, 2012)

  • Simplygon Mesh Proxy Tool:
  • New Simplygon Merge Tool for combining static meshes
  • Grouped static meshes can be combined into a single static mesh
  • This can greatly improve rendering performance
  • Materials/textures are automatically collapsed and new UVs are generated
  • This tool is fully "non-destructive" - you can modify meshes and remerge, and roll back changes if needed
  • Unreal Landscape:
  • Holes of any shape can be cut into the landscape, allowing designers to create entrances to caverns and other features under the landscape
  • The visibility tool can remove or replace individual quads at the highest LOD resolution, with collision added or removed accordingly
  • Holes are rendered per-pixel, independently of LOD, so distant holes retain their shape
  • Added the ability to save foliage settings to packages and to share them between levels
  • Added tool to change component size for existing landscapes
  • Hide unused landscape UI when no landscapes are available
  • Pivot Painter
  • A new 3ds Max tool that automatically generates pivot points for mesh vertices, allowing for advanced foliage animation and other effects
  • iOS Rendering:
  • Added support for color grading
  • Unreal Editor:
  • Added a "Reconnect" button to the "Checkout packages" dialog
  • The function is disabled when a valid connection is established
  • Upon reconnect, the login screen will appear if the connection failed
  • Once the connection is restored, the "Checkout" dialog is reloaded
  • Altered behavior of the "Convert to Static Mesh" operation
  • It not only builds a model from the selected static brushes
  • It also builds dynamic brushes (which includes volumes) and builds from the builder brush (if selected)
  • It treats these as if they were like additive BSP brushes
  • The autosave time is now simply paused during PIE instead of reset
  • The editor is now more responsive during lighting builds
  • Added a context menu option when selecting multiple actors for assigning the material selected from the content browser
  • Auto content saving is now enabled by default for new users and 'content packages to save' can now be specified in the ini
  • Lens flare visualizations will now appear when a lens flare actor is created and will update if any visualization properties are changed on the template lens flare
  • Made the color picker dialog not modal when changing preview background color for textures
  • Unreal Matinee slow-mo tracks will no longer effect viewports in other sub-editor windows (such as Unreal Cascade)
  • Made the wireframe rendering in orthographic viewports consistent in both DX9 and DX11
  • New packages in Unreal Content Browser are now removed from the “New Packages” collection once they've been saved
  • Fixed the “Touch Input Kismet” event in Unreal Kismet so that it sends the proper X and Y values
  • When in Kismet’s hit-testing mode, the Kismet block nubs are drawn bigger to make them easier to select without taking up more screen space visually
  • Enabled the “Paste Here” right-click menu option for nodes in the Material Editor
  • Misc
  • Added support for importing multiple animations from a single FBX file
  • Added new option to ignore missing bones when importing
  • Fixed FBX issues with morph curves and animation ranges

New in Unreal Development Kit 2011.12 Beta (Dec 23, 2011)

  • Texture Paint tool:
  • Allows you to paint textures on static meshes interactively in the level viewport
  • UV seams can now be painted in both Dx9 and Dx11 rendering modes.
  • Landscape LOD System:
  • Allows individual Landscape components to have discontinuous LOD levels
  • Visual Assist X now supports UnrealScript
  • Whole Tomato has released VAX UnrealScript support for VS2010
  • Set up documentation can be found here
  • Misc:
  • Scaleform: improvements to Action Script 3 and full screen movie functionality

New in Unreal Development Kit 2011.11 Beta (Dec 1, 2011)

  • Scaleform 4 Upgrade
  • Vastly improved rendering integration with multithreaded renderer
  • Added Action Script 3 support. Action Script 2 is still supported.
  • Includes CLIK 3.0 (Lightweight Interface Kit)
  • Major improvements to the AMP profiler
  • Updated UDN documentation
  • Unreal Landscape and Foliage
  • Landscape flatten tool tool is enhanced with a flatten to slope option
  • New Clay Brush makes sculpting of landscape vertex data much quicker and easier
  • Foliage scale axis locking allows for variable Z scale but uniform XY scale, plus z-offset settings
  • New reimport Heightmap / layer button for each layer
  • Updated Unreal Landscape documentation with info on new layer nodes
  • Updated foliage documentation with info on new features
  • Foliage now follows base component on copy/paste/move/rotate/move-to-level
  • Much improved brush painting behavior for both vertex and layers in regular (non-clay) mode. Repainting the same area no longer causes artifacts
  • Changed the regular paint tool behavior so that painting over the same area requires multiple brush strokes. The functionality is now consistent with Zbrush and prevent artifacts
  • Editor
  • You can now export skeletal meshes and animations from the editor, enabling bi-directional cinematic workflow
  • Added the ability to adjust sound class volume levels from a matinee track
  • The content browser's 'Packages' view now returns to previously active view (hierarchical or flattened) when filter is cleared
  • Added support for turning off startup movies and toggling cinematic mode for matinee movie captures
  • iOS
  • High level Twitter UnrealScript-accessible support has been added
  • You can now show the iOS 5 Tweet UI and optionally attach a local .png image and/or a URL, making use of the single-sign-on Twitter account(s) in iOS 5
  • You can also submit a generic Twitter request (i.e., get the local user’s followers)
  • Implemented for iOS 5
  • Added ADPCM sound encoding support
  • Mac OS X feature parity work
  • Additions and upgrades
  • Added support for "Maximize" button
  • Added full support for vertex texture fetch
  • Minor PhysX library update, addressing some rare crashes, and adding "quickload" extension support
  • Support for loops and secondary color attribute during shader generation
  • Fixed issues
  • Instanced drawing now on full parity with PC
  • Light shafts now render properly and have full visual parity with PC
  • Full-screen rendering and MSAA
  • Inconsistent lens flares compared to PC
  • Inconsistencies with anisotropic filtering between PC and Mac
  • Shadows from spotlight on dynamic / skeletal meshes
  • New and Updated UDN Pages
  • UnrealScript

New in Unreal Development Kit 2011.03 Beta (Mar 10, 2011)

  • DirectX 11 is now supported in UDK!:
  • Adaptive Bokeh Depth of Field (DOF)
  • Dynamically shadowed image-based reflections
  • Rendering:
  • The ability to scale effects (such DOF and bloom) with the view size was added.
  • Post Process Effect -> Scale Effects with View Size
  • The ability to use tiled normals on fluid surfaces and any material was added.
  • Unreal Landscape, UDK’s new terrain system!:
  • Support for ZBrush-style painting
  • Support for tablet sensitivities
  • Option to auto-update weightmap mipmaps while painting layers
  • Perlin Noise in the Noise tool available
  • Support for thermal and hydraulic erosion
  • NVIDIA APEX Support:
  • To enable the DX11 renderer in the editor:
  • View -> Preferences -> Enable DirectX 11 Rendering
  • The ability to see which DOF layers are in focus is exposed through a new show flag.
  • Image reflections are now toggleable via Unreal Matinee.
  • The checkerboard background in the texture properties window can be toggled through a toolbar option.
  • Importing morph targets from FBX files now uses multi-threading to speed up the importing process.
  • The FBX importer now supports importing lightmap UVs from FBX meshes that have more than one UV set.
  • The error reporting when loading packages and maps that have missing objects has been improved.
  • Matinee now supports jumping on the visibility interp track.
  • Double-clicking anim notifies within animations focus shifts and expands the notify in the properties panel.

New in Unreal Development Kit 2010.11 Beta (Nov 25, 2010)

  • Upgrade Notes:
  • UDK now ships with an additional map, plus many improvements to the Unreal Editor have been made.
  • UDKGame:
  • The new time of day map (as seen in the new trailer mentioned above) now ships with UDKGame example game content.
  • Unreal Editor:
  • UDK’s new welcome screen improves functionality.
  • New Absolute Translation mode moves the widget to the mouse location. This is the new default translation scheme.
  • A new widget has been added to combine common translation and rotation operations. This handy tool for level designers is in the prototype phase and is therefore off by default.
  • Several updates to the Rotation Widget have been made. These can be enabled but are off by default.
  • Box selection is now supported in perspective viewports.
  • New version of the MemLeakCheckDiffer tool can be found in \UnrealEngine3\Binaries\MemLeakCheckDiffer.exe.
  • New HeadTracking track for eye/head tracking of skeletal mesh actors in Matinee has been added.
  • When saving a persistent level to a new name, you can now rename all sub-levels as well, specifying a new prefix if necessary.
  • New “move/rename” source control command has been added.
  • Copying multiple soundcues to another package will now default the “Name Suffix” checkbox to false.
  • New 'Highlight Objects Under Cursor' feature to editor viewports (actors and BSP surfaces) has been added.
  • The AnimSet editor now allows you to search an AnimSet for AnimSequence names.
  • The option to turn on/off horizontal grid lines between properties in PropertyWindows is now available.
  • Double-clicking on sequence start/finished actions now takes you to the parent sequence.
  • Users should no longer have to triangulate meshes before exporting to FBX.
  • A command line option for rebuilding and checking in levels is now available.
  • The automatic build and submit tool no longer needs every streaming level checked out in order to proceed.
  • Miscellaneous Enhancements:
  • Sockets in the socket manager are now in alphabetical order.
  • The following Kismet shortcuts have been updated:
  • C + left-mouse-click: Add console event.
  • Removed the "add comment" shortcut ("C").
  • The Toggle Horizontal Dividers setting will now be remembered across sessions.
  • “NO COLLISION” warnings will again be displayed for static meshes and fractured static meshes on their thumbnail icons.
  • The nFringe script debugging is now supported with 64-bit UE3 executables.
  • You will need the latest version of nFringe (version nFringeSetup-pre-1.1.34.193 or later).
  • The FBX SDK has been upgraded to FBX SDK 2011.3.1.
  • With this upgrade meshes no longer need to be triangulated before importing to UE3.

New in Unreal Development Kit 2010.07 Beta (Jul 14, 2010)

  • Integrated June FBX drop, which includes additional import/export support
  • Physical Material Masks for material instances now available in-editor
  • Enables users to apply two physical materials to different parts of a graphical material
  • First round of bigger improvements to motion blur and depth of field (DOF)
  • Enhancements unify code, improve performance and yield smoother results
  • Further quality improvements will follow
  • Drag and drop prefab support
  • Press Alt+X in the editor to toggle fullscreen
  • Added Gamecaster Matinee recording enhancements
  • Movable decal actors can now project on fracture static mesh components
  • Added 'Save All Writable Packages' button to editor toolbar
  • Added mesh UV display to the AnimSet viewer (click View -> Show UVs)
  • Memory size is now displayed in Content Browser tool tips for loaded assets
  • Improved VisualizeTexture console command to be more useful
  • When importing from a terrain, it now automatically generates a UMaterial from the TerrainLayerSetups using TerrainLayerWeight and TerrainLayerCoords material expressions
  • Fixed script compiler crashes when using '%' in some cases
  • Normal maps can now be used for rendering simple light maps
  • Enable the new 'Use Normal Maps for Simple Lighting' option in World Properties
  • This allows Lightmass to bake bump maps into simple light maps

New in Unreal Development Kit 2010.03 Beta (Mar 10, 2010)

  • New Features and Tools:
  • Autodesk FBX format support (FBX version 2010.2)
  • Static meshes, skeletal meshes and animations can now be imported from FBX files
  • The FBX format is supported by many 3D modeling packages
  • including 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder.
  • Interactive Static Meshes
  • Static meshes now have a property bCanBecomeDynamic that can be set in the editor.
  • Meshes with bCanBecomeDynamic=true will temporarily turn into KActors and react using PhysX physics when shot or pushed
  • giving the environment a more interactive feel.
  • The advantages of this implementation are
  • Consistent behavior
  • all objects using that mesh will be interactive, instead of it depending on level designer set up.
  • Transparent to meshing
  • L.D.s don't have to do anything special but they can prevent specific objects from being able to become dynamic by setting the bNeverBecomeDynamic property in the StaticMeshComponent's collision properties.
  • These meshes are lit like any other static meshes until they move
  • so there is no visual impact to using this system.
  • StaticMeshActors added using a mesh that can become dynamic have bSelfShadowOnly set true by default (so no shadow is left behind when they move).
  • No additional performance or memory cost to these meshes
  • Except during the short period when a mesh is being physically simulated
  • This system is intended for use with small decorative meshes that don't have any gameplay implications.
  • The interactivity is client-side and is not replicated.
  • New Attachment Editor
  • For displaying and modifying object relationships
  • Lets you view and edit the attachment graph for a selected set of actors mipmap sharpening
  • Increases perceived resolution of textures w/o memory or performance impact
  • Property window favorites
  • Simply mark a property as a favorite and it will always be displayed at the top of your property window.
  • Combined with the search capability, this will greatly stream-line data access in the Unreal Editor.
  • New texture viewer options
  • To reimport textures and to 'Compress Now'
  • Allows artists to easily preview results of texture compression
  • In Editor Stats viewing
  • Enables the stat HUD in editor viewports
  • New Kismet actions
  • stream in cinematic mip-levels
  • Allows sharing textures of in-game and cinematics characters
  • Set VectorParam and Get Location and Rotation
  • Adds the ability to get the location and rotation of a socket or bone (if the target is a pawn with a skeletal mesh)
  • Makes it possible to hook a kismet vector object.
  • New 'Select All Visible Levels' option in level browser right click menu
  • Improvements:
  • Continued moving UTGame native functionality either to UnrealScript or to the UDKBase package.
  • Content Browser
  • now tracks recently used assets
  • click the new "Recent" check box in the filter panel to show these
  • asset list now supports drag and drop
  • search now works with full asset path names
  • sound cues can now be moved/renamed like other assets
  • localized sound nodes can now be moved into different packages
  • Crowd Population Manager improvements.
  • Now supports streamed GameCrowdDestinations. (listed as "fixed crowd issues with level streaming" in the engine news)
  • Improved LOD support.
  • Improved designer control over population manager using Kismet.
  • Lighting
  • character lighting improvements
  • fixed shadows from non-directional lights on characters
  • added a WorldInfo property CharacterLightingContrastFactor
  • scales up the light environment's primary light
  • scales down the secondary light on characters
  • added a WorldInfo Lightmass property LightEnvironmentIndirectContrastFactor
  • increases the contrast of lighting volume samples
  • multiple dominant light improvements
  • dominant spotlight cones can now intersect as long as one of them is shadowed in the intersection
  • when multiple dominant lights affect the same primitive, only the brightest is used
  • dominant lights are now toggleable at runtime
  • dominant lights no longer allow bForceDynamicLight set to true
  • improved cinematic lighting
  • added light option bNonModulatedSelfShadowing
  • use normal shadow blending when shadowing themselves
  • use modulated shadow blending on everything else
  • added light option bSelfShadowOnly
  • allows shadows from the light to not affect anything but the caster
  • added a higher quality filtering method to reduce aliasing on character faces
  • Editor improvements
  • you can now press the F2 key to select the builder brush at any time
  • also, added new menu command for this: Edit -> Select Builder Brush
  • selecting objects is now super fast, even with tons of objects!
  • after a map build the editor will now blink in the task bar
  • added auto-save support for asset (non-level) packages!
  • added 'Select All' to the viewport right click menu
  • 'show references' dialog window now allows more than one open at a time
  • you can now customize your PIE launch URL string
  • just right click on the Play In Editor button to edit the URL
  • dynamic volumes can now be initially disabled (new 'Disabled' property)
  • 'Reimport' now works with skeletal meshes and sound waves!
  • just right click on the asset in content browser, and select 'Reimport'
  • level browser now prompts you before streaming volumes are cleared
  • Changes requiring a re-save or change
  • Any texture imported since the December 2009 UDK build that had its import-time texture format specified as TC_NormalmapUncompressed will have had its source art (stored in the .UPK file) corrupted when the package was first saved.
  • This source art data is only used when changing texture formats in the editor at a later date and is not used for gameplay.
  • The bug that caused this corruption has been fixed in this UDK build, and code has been added to detect content with this problem.
  • If you see a warning dialog box when changing texture formats in the editor, the best course of action is to re-import the texture from the source file.
  • Matinee material parameter tracks have been rewritten to create runtime instances of MaterialInstanceConstants so that they do not affect content objects which could have had unintended side effects.
  • However, as a result of this change, a Matinee can now only affect the materials on objects in the same level as the Matinee.
  • This is required so it can determine the affected objects at save time instead of iterating all Actors at game time.