UNREAL ED – first class offering: October 20, 27, November 3, 10 – Walter 405

Learn to make your own levels for the Unreal game engine. Unreal is one of the
leading game engines, and can allow users to take 3D walkthroughs in very
complicated environments. UnrealEd is very easy to use, windows-based, wysiwig,
point-and-click world creation. All the objects and textures in the Unreal game
are available for use, or users may import their own textures and meshes.
Programming interaction with the environment is simple, and actual physically
accurate simulation is available. Unreal also supports a scripting language,
which allows programmers to completely control the objects in their world.

These classes will be at a rather introductory level. The goal will be to get
people up and building worlds with Unreal, rather than mastering the
obscurities of UnrealScript. We will assume no previous knowledge whatsoever.
The instructor has been reading about UnrealEd for some time, and has
constructed many worlds that demonstrate many of the features of this
remarkable program, but has no commercial experience with the product. These
classes should perhaps be understood as a sort of an "UnrealEd club", more than
a real course.

The class will be offered in Walter 405, every Monday from 1:30 to 3:30. The
dates will be from 10/20, 10/27, 11/3 and 11/10. Bring your own laptop with
UnrealEd 3 installed. UnrelEd 3 is supplied free with copies of Unreal
Tournament 2003 or Unreal 2. Note that other versions of Unreal may come
UnrealEd 2, which is substantially different from UnrealEd 3. Each week we will
begin with a short talk from the instructor, then work on a project
illustrating the topic. No University credit will be given for the course.

Week 1 (10/20/03):
Tour of Unreal. Making a room, texturing the walls, lights, rebuilding the world and saving it. Importing your own textures.

Week 2 (10/27/03):
Adding furniture, aka static meshes. Importing your own meshes. Fun with UPaint.

Week 3 (11/03/03):
Making things move: bots, paths, movers, triggers and so on.

Week 4 (11/10/03):
Scripting: how to make your own unreal classes.

(The above schedule is subject to change.)

SIGNING UP - Please email me, Pete Border, at border@physics.umn.edu to reserve a space.

GAME LITERACY FOR ACADEMICS

This introduction to five different types of computer games (simulation, role playing games, first-person shooters, quiz games, and strategy games) will provide an overview of the characteristics of the different styles of games, give you a chance to play an example of that game style (with guidance from expert game players), and then discuss what research questions or project opportunities these game genres might bring to academic researchers.

This course will be offered in February 2004 and repeated based on demand.

To sign-up or find out more contact Nora Paul: npaul@umn.edu