I’m working on downloading the dev kit now, so I haven’t gotten a chance to actually get my hand dirty in it yet. I’ve only done tons of research. I’m sure I’ll figure everything out as soon as I’m in there looking at things, and I’ll probably export a few creatures to look at how they are rigged, animated, textured and all that so I can try to get a good workflow going. The thing is, I’m just so out of my element right now, haha. I’m nervous about this because some of my fellow Ark players are actually super excited about this mod idea and my agoraphobia is holding me back. I know how to use Unreal Engine, it’s just that I’ve had WAY more experience with Unity, and I also have way more experience with ZBrush and Blender than I do Maya. I’m also super scared that I’m going to get stuck using Maya because that’s what all the tutorials I’ve seen so far have used. I’ve searched and researched and still can’t find any information about adding your own unique creatures to Ark. Like I said, I’m sure I could figure out something that would at least work, but I’m worried that if I don’t do it the ‘right’ way (namely in the way of rigging), that I would end up with a dirty mod and uncountable hours of work (hopefully exporting something to study will help me figure it out). Thankfully, I’ve already experienced sculpting, rigging, animation, know a decent amount of C++ to at least survive this journey, and have experienced tons of modding headaches from my times with the TES games! What fun!
I know I have my work cut out for me, and I’m wringing my hands as this download inches onward, but I know I’ve got this. I just want to know if there is any information about creating mods with your own custom creatures from scratch out there already or if I’m going to have to document my suffering, I mean, experience, for others since there simply isn’t any.
-And I genuinely mean from scratch: mesh, bump maps, texture, rigging, animation, sound effects, etc.
@BigMommaWolf You won’t need to do any c++ with ADK, as all code is actually not exposed and you can’t add your own code/scripts with this version of UE4. You can attach graphs (kismet) to blueprints and do some minor visual scripting at least when you want to do complex things that the default vanilla version does not do, or have an exposed parameter to do.
I would suggest doing t he variant guide first just to identify all the files you will need to go through and make, and how to get them in and live in your world, and after you complete that you can work on introducing your own assets.
My post wasn’t live yet so I couldn’t respond or edit my message before you replied! Sorry! I did find out that I wouldn’t have to do any scripting- well, honestly I knew I wouldn’t have to do much, if any at all, because I would simply be duplicating and modifying what already existed. Which was great when I saw that variant guide, because that’s what I was already in the process of trying to teach myself. Thank you for linking it, but I did stumble across it already!
I’m sure I’ve got this. I guess I’m just really nervous! Wish me luck! …Or wish me serenity? I just need to stay calm and enjoy myself! This is all stuff I’ve done before with Unity, I just need to figure out how to do it with Unreal and try not to get stressed out.
ADK is a very modified version of UE4.5 so it’s prone to crashing and errors, even if you save and use save all a crash can still make files go missing, so everytime you finish a dinosaur or a lot of work, you will want to reset ADK as a precaution.
You can also make a backup of your mod folder safely when you close the ADK, and making a copy of the folder. There is also common issues with settings reverting if you alt tab or scroll past the field without compiling/saving.
