Chapter 247By opening the archetype properties within the level editor, a designer can quickly change
how objects and actors appear and interact with a level.
Reduction of compile-time and load-time overhead
Unreal Engine 3 loads everything before it is needed, so it may take some time to build scripts
and compile a project each time you make a change to the code, especially if you have a large
number of references to content. There are ways around this, however, in case of dynamically
loading an object, it loads everything during the runtime.
See also
Feel free to edit more parameters or even grab other actors to create archetypes from, such
as weapons. With the assets UDK provides, you can create something such as a rocket
launcher that fires pulse beams and has a particle emitter from the shock rifle.
Creating a subarchetype from an archetype
An archetype is a set of property values which will be assigned to a newly created object, a
template. There may be a time when you want to extend from those values and create another
template with similar properties. The March 2012 update of UDK Epic allowed that to happen
with the addition of subarchetypes.
Getting ready
We're going to create a subarchetype from a weapon pickup factory, so the only thing you'll
need to get started is to open up a fresh map within the editor.
How to do it...
Think of it as extending from a class, just as we would do with an IDE, but instead we are
extending from an actor from within the editor. To do this we'll need to go back to our Actor
Classes Browser, which is necessary whenever creating archetypes of any sort.
- Open the Actor Classes tab and in the Search bar type Weapon to bring up the
list of applicable actors.