Hello,
I will publish my game on steam, so I tried to create a package for my game, but the problem is that the unreal frontend crashes due to the problem of virtual memory although i have plenty more that exceed what is required.
so some one told me if i’m going to publish via steam I don’t have to pack the game just transfer the files to steam content folder and upload them, I just wanted to know what files to copy and what not to and in which directory thank you.
It doesn’t matter which folder you move them to. You just have to make a folder and then copy the needed files into that folder. Then in your app_build_xxxxxx.vdf file, you enter the path to the folder where your files are.
As for the files you need, copy the entire Engine folder. From the UDKGame folder, copy the Script and Config folders. Then from UDKGame\Content, copy the upk files and maps that your game uses. From the binaries folder, I’m not entirely sure because I’m not actually working with UDK, but you should just need your game’s exe files and dlls. You shouldn’t need anything from the Development folder.
Upload those to steam with steamcmd.exe +run_app_build. Download your game. If you can play it, great. If not, you might need more stuff from the Binaries folder.
Also, you could just try playing the game from your Steam staging directory. If it will play from there, it should play after Steam installs it. If it doesn’t play, then you’re probably missing something.
[USER=“238697”]dark space[/USER] I have also experienced the “out of virtual memory” issue when packaging with frontend.
I get around it by first cooking a smaller map containing many of the assets you want cooking (so do a “Clean and full recook” with only the one map included). Then add additional maps and just “Cook”. Once you have everything cooked without the “virtual memory” issue, you can then package the game, install and then upload the installed game via the Steam SDK.
Another thing that fixed the issue for me when it started happening on the smaller maps was two things:
Cleanup asset redirects by running the following commandlet:
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-03\Binaries\Win32\UDK.com fixupredirects SomePackage.upk
Or for the full project:
C:\UDK\UDK-2010-03\Binaries\Win32\UDK.com fixupredirects
Delete your local and global shader cache files from your UDKGame/Content/ folder and replace them with the same files from a fresh UDK install.
This issue was a big worry for me when I first started experiencing it, so now I make sure to regularly run the clean/cook/etc process while working on my project, so i can catch if it is going to start being an issue again, and thus be able to rollback to earlier version to catch what caused it happening.
Hope that helps. If you manage to get a build of your game working on Steam (without using frontend or exposing any of your assets .upk files), please let me know how you did it.
@Nathaniel3W Are you just including your raw .upk files in your Steam build (meaning anyone with UDK can access/view your assets)?
Thanks for your reply, I tried what nathaniel3w said and it worked, what I dead was the following in order to know what files to copy and what not to I did 2 things first I opened batman arkham knight folders which is based on ue4 same concept of packaging and it contaned Binaries , BMgame (as udkgame ) development and engine and I created a package for one of the game maps in my game in unreal frontend of udk to know what the package look like and it seems that all the UDKgame folder is transfered except that the map files and content browser packages are in pccooked folder not in the content folder however since we are not using frontend we can leave them in the content folder, the development and engine folder completely are copied and the binaries you copy ( install data- win64 or win32 or booth - redist folder ) and some of the files like (unsetup.exe and any file similar in naming - shaderkey tool -build properties- p4a-mobileshader -installinfo-rbcutility)
so if you got lost let me sum up:
the difference between using frontend and not using it is that frontend help you to give you a clean folders and files with smaller map sizes ex if a map is 100mb it could be reduced to 80 and get rid of a lot of non published files but since frontend is a pain in packaging and crashes so you can do its job manually by doing so :
in case you are going to upload game via steam :
1- copy development folder and engine folder as it is without removing or deleting any of it’s content.
2- copy UDKGame folder and you can delet the log files but not the log folder, delete autosaves folder - cookedpc content in case you are not using any of it’s content inside it- flash folder - moviecapture folder - screenshots folder ) all of this if yuor maps and game packges (upk files ) are in the content folder and you can delete some of the example maps like foliage map in case you are not using it or its packages.
3- copy the binary folder and only keep inside it what is in the picture below.
hope this helps
ps: I don’t think that any one with udk can access your data because they must have the same data path as you have in the development process I tried that in batman map files I managed to pent the map files but many of the assets didn’t show up because of the path.
[USER=“238697”]dark space[/USER] Thanks for the info, but based on what you’re explaining here, you will be releasing a dev build of your game. So anyone with know-how will be able to view your source-code and assets. This sounds like a very bad idea if you’re ever concerned with people hacking your game or ripping your entire work. .upk files can be accessed even without a matching file path.
I don’t think you need to include the development folder at all. You should be able to run everything with just your UDKGame\Script folder.
Also, I think you could be in a bad position if you include everything in the binaries folder because I don’t know if you have the rights to distribute everything in there, such as SpeedTree.
Isn’t it possible to obfuscate things? It would be pretty strange if UE3 games need the source in near-plaintext to the included in the script packages, just for the game to run properly, that stuff should be compiled.
Then again, UE3 seems to be pretty decompilable in general, you can extract the UnrealScript source code of the Bioshock games for instance with just a few tools, it’s extremely ugly but all the code is right there. And I’m pretty sure they are cooked games and not dev builds.
i didn’t say to copy all binary files , i said to copy only the files and folder fond in the attached photo
and yes you are right I don’t have to copy the development folder at all
TIP: If you compile using the frontend make sure it’s set on release. If you set it to final_release you will have no in game console.
One mire thing most games created in ue3 (not udk ) its map files can be accessed with udk like batman arkham city alfhough much of its content will be missing due to directory change in addition i have tried to only package one map of the game maps to check how the data and content are saved by frontend in onepackage i found out taht the maps still saved in the cookedpc folder with .udk extension and packages with upk ext. And same thing happens can be accessed by udk but missing map files so don’t worry cooldscoter this trick (of transferring data ) works just fine as possible since udk is very unstable in this case