Creating a UDK Installer

Creating a UDK Installer

October 27, 2013

Creating an installer for my UDK demo turned out to be a lot more difficult that I imagined.

DirectX9 versus DirectX11
My first confusion was DirectX9/11. The installer only allows you to create a DirectX9 installation but my UDK Editor was running in DirectX11 AND certain foliage meshes would only display properly if I was in DirectX11. If you want force your game to run in directX11 you will need to pass a parameter into the UDK engine (I cover this below).

Configuration files
It turns out there are a 3 different configuration files for same settings. I found myself making configuration changes that would work when I ran Oculus from the editor but wouldn't work in the installation. Because I don't have the time to study all the configuration files/documentation to become a zen master I took the brute force approach of putting my settings in all 3 files for each setting.

Configuration Settings
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatically load your map
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILES
Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini
UDKGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini
UDKGame\Config\UDKEngine.ini

[URL]
Map=map_02_with_stacks.udk
LocalMap=map_02_with_stacks.udk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exit on escape DefaultInput.ini
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILES
Engine\Config\BaseInput.ini
UDKGame\Config\UDKInput.ini
UDKGame\Config\DefaultInput.ini

[Engine.PlayerInput]
Bindings=(Name="Escape",Command="Exit")

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Improved Appearance
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILES
Engine\Config\BaseSystemSettings.ini
UDKGame\Config\UDKSystemSettings.ini
UDKGame\Config\DefaultSystemSettings.ini

[SystemSettings]
MaxAnisotropy   = 4 -> 16
MaxMultiSamples = 1 -> 8 (THIS CAUSES RANDOM COLORED PIXELS : KEEP AT 1)
ResY            = 720 -> 800
ScreenPercentage= 100.000000 -> 150.000000 (200 TURNS 90% OF SCREEN BLACK)
bAllowD3D9MSAA=True

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabling Oculus Support
https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=2921
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILES
Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini
UDKGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini
UDKGame\Config\UDKEngine.ini

[Engine.Stereo3D]
bEnabled=True

Installation Creation

Prerequisite:
Before creating your installation make sure you have fully built your map in the UDK Editor.

UDK Frontend
UDK comes with a tool called "Unreal Frontend". You will use this to create your installation executable. There isn't much you need to do here.

1. You'll want to create a new profile.
2. Select your map
3. In the launch items I added -dx11 to enable DirectX11 when the game comes up.
4. Click start.

Your executable can be found in c:\UDK\UDK-2013-03

Now test out your executable.