UnrealScript Game Programming Cookbook

Crafting Pickups

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3. Next, we need to add the light environment for our pickup. Write this code in your
   defaultproperties block:
   /* Offers a light around our texture so that it can be
   seen within the game and editor/
   Begin Object Name=PickupLightEnvironment
   AmbientGlow=(R=1.0f,G=1.0f,B=1.0f,A=1.0f)
   End Object

Without a light environment you would have a very dark texture, and it would be

nearly unrecognizable. We'll use an ambient glow and set all values (red, green,

blue, and alpha (transparency)) to one. If you want more of a washed out look,

feel free to increase the values across the board.

Perhaps you'd like to bask your pickup in a glow that represents the current

environment or atmosphere of a level. If you were in a stage filled with lava

and fire, it may be wise to have a stronger red value than green or blue.

Stages surrounded by water would be best suited to have a blue hue, so

consider raising the blue value.

4. With our light environment taken care of, we can now add the visible mesh for
   our ammunition.
   /* The static mesh, or object you physically see within
   the editor and game /
   Begin Object Name=AmmoMeshComp
   StaticMesh=StaticMesh'Pickups.
   Ammo_Link.Mesh.S_Ammo_LinkGun'

/** Slight offset, to allow for the mesh and base to line on

center */

Translation=(Y=-10.0)

Rotation=(Roll=16384)

End Object

I always thought that the link gun's ammo looked pretty neat, so let's add that in

there. The rotation value does exactly what you would imagine; it rotates the ammo

in place. If you remember from our camera tutorial, UDK uses its own system for

rotation, as illustrated in the camera tutorial.

That's all there is to scripting an ammo pickup. We'll now need to create an archetype

for it in the editor, so that we can place it in a level.