[P3DR0]

UDK is in fact one of the best choices for a 3D Sonic engine, if not the best mostly because it's a very "visual" engine and technically you're able to create an entire game without having to write a single line of code.

Most of the stuff in UDK is also pretty "solid", it has a ton of features inside the engine that help developers a lot, minimizing the amount of softwares and third parties programs that one must master before actually making something. Sonic GDK is pretty much a "3D Sonic Worlds", where all you actually gotta do is create the graphical shit (the meshes), and tweak a few settings to your own taste and start building your stages.

It may not be the most flexible engine nor the most powerful of the engines, but it's easy to learn and have a ton of features that help out a lot. One of my favorites being the material editor that's so freaking great that it's not even fair.

UDK may seem scary at first and some stuff may not seem right here and there, but once you start learning, figuring out stuff and begin experimenting, you really understand why it's so popular, even among AAA games. While engines like Unity3D are used mostly for mobile games or indie titles that can't afford the UDK licensing if they want to actually sell their game.


It's easy to learn, easy to use, complete enough that you don't need much help of external plugins/softwares and allows you to create great games without having to write a single line of code. For me, UDK is like photoshop, it ain't hard to learn, it's very complete and how much you get from it depends on how good you are and how much time you put in to learning the software.

[Aerosol]

No. It's not easy to learn why would you even say that. I tried to accomplish something that I considered pretty damn basic in UDK and it took a week of asking around to get a sliver of information. It took me 2 days to achieve in Unity. UDK has a steep learning curve if you want to do anything too far removed from the type of gameplay it comes with, whereas Unity is a lot more flexible in getting it to do what you want it to do. And the community. Oh god the community. UDK's community makes me want to punch every single one of them in the mouth. Unity's community is a lot more helpful and far less haughty.

I dunno. Maybe I just got unlucky. But I hate UDK with a thunderous fury, and It'd take something significant to ever get me to try it again.

[Andrew75]

Aerosol, on 20 November 2013 - 10:02 PM, said:

No. It's not easy to learn why would you even say that. I tried to accomplish something that I considered pretty damn basic in UDK and it took a week of asking around to get a sliver of information. It took me 2 days to achieve in Unity. UDK has a steep learning curve if you want to do anything too far removed from the type of gameplay it comes with, whereas Unity is a lot more flexible in getting it to do what you want it to do. And the community. Oh god the community. UDK's community makes me want to punch every single one of them in the mouth. Unity's community is a lot more helpful and far less haughty.

I dunno. Maybe I just got unlucky. But I hate UDK with a thunderous fury, and It'd take something significant to ever get me to try it again.

Have you tried looking at the UDN? http://udn.epicgames...in/WebHome.html
I feel that UDK looks like its hard to program for if doing something from scratch, the code(unrealscript) is messy! but the user interface is pretty good for us visual guys.
There are so many tools, many of which I have not even learned yet. but most of it was un-related to my project so I didn't go there.
you could always check out some youtube videos for UDK as well.

Oh yeah @ P3DR0 Unity has a shader editor similar to UDK and C4's shader editor , but its a plug in made by a Unity user if memory serves correct.

This post has been edited by Andrew75: 21 November 2013 - 05:50 AM

[Aerosol]

That's just it. UnrealScript is a horrid mess if what you want to make can't be chiseled out of one of the provided examples. I looked at the UDN, and for I was trying to do at the time, nothing was helping. At least, nothing looked like it could be applied to what I was trying to do.

[winterhell]

Speaking of UnrealScript. A year ago I tried to make an integer array and it wouldn't let me declare one with as many as 2000 elements. 2-dimentional arrays are also unavailable, so the solution was to make an object with a 100-element int array, and then make an array of those objects. Tried it on several versions, and another guy independently confirmed the issue.

[Ell678]

As a person who had no experience working with a professional development tool (or tools in general for that matter), I found UDK to be rather easy to learn. I'm obviously no pro - but I feel I know my way around the editor enough to acheive what I want from it. That being said - I can't program things. If that side of it is more difficult than other available engines, then fair enough. I simply can't get my head around programming, so I can't comment on it.

However, Kismet can be extremely powerful. There are some great examples online where people have used Kismet alone to make Pong. People have also used it to radically change how a game plays. Xaklse once made me a Kismet sequence for a Badnik that would shoot at the player when they are seen. Once I studied the sequence, I began to understand how it worked, not only did this help my understanding of Kismet hugely but it also means I can make some Badnik behaviour without ever writing a line of code.

[Aerosol]

To each their own then. I don't like UDK. I don't like having to rely on Kismet because the built-in language is pants-on-head retarded.

EDIT: I just checked back into it and there's still a crazy amount of stuff you have to do and consider to just start a project from scratch. Not only that, but most help you'll find is outdated due to UDK updating every month. Kust isn't for me, then.

This post has been edited by Aerosol: 22 November 2013 - 12:16 AM

[Andrew75]

Most of the help is still relevant I think, even if its old.

[P3DR0]

Aerosol, on 21 November 2013 - 10:35 PM, said:

To each their own then. I don't like UDK. I don't like having to rely on Kismet because the built-in language is pants-on-head retarded.

EDIT: I just checked back into it and there's still a crazy amount of stuff you have to do and consider to just start a project from scratch. Not only that, but most help you'll find is outdated due to UDK updating every month. Kust isn't for me, then.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but all your posts seem like you're looking for excuses to don't like UDK.

No one is relying on Kismet because the built-in languague is crap, Kismet is a alternative for more visual people without much knowledge of programming, it also allows you to create sort-of complex stuff easily and fast. It's an alternative, not a solution. It just speed things up and allow people who don't know jack about coding to actually do something without having to rely on other people.

UDK does update frequently but rarely there is an update that breaks anything or change stuff drasticaly. Even if there is some, the old way of doing whatever is generally still avaliable (Terrain Editor is still there even thought they've released a Landscape Editor that is a thousand times better).


We get it, you didn't liked the engine and you won't change your mind about it. I'm sorry it wasn't for you and I hope you find something that fits your needs, but dude, you don't need to come to this thread just to shit on it.

Just a heads-up. I'm not mad because you didn't liked something that I do like, and I'm always up for having critcism and different opinions in discussions, but you're starting to sound a bit nitpicky, mate.

This post has been edited by P3DR0: 22 November 2013 - 03:14 PM

[Ell678]

I think it might be useful to identify what people are having trouble with when it comes to SGDK. Is it making 2D sections? Moving platforms? Badniks?

I believe if people identified what they are having trouble with, it would be easier to help them. I am certainly willing to help. Knowing the basics will allow you to progress and boost confidence.

[Aerosol]

P3DR0, on 22 November 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

Aerosol, on 21 November 2013 - 10:35 PM, said:

To each their own then. I don't like UDK. I don't like having to rely on Kismet because the built-in language is pants-on-head retarded.

EDIT: I just checked back into it and there's still a crazy amount of stuff you have to do and consider to just start a project from scratch. Not only that, but most help you'll find is outdated due to UDK updating every month. Kust isn't for me, then.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but all your posts seem like you're looking for excuses to don't like UDK.

No one is relying on Kismet because the built-in languague is crap, Kismet is a alternative for more visual people without much knowledge of programming, it also allows you to create sort-of complex stuff easily and fast. It's an alternative, not a solution. It just speed things up and allow people who don't know jack about coding to actually do something without having to rely on other people.

UDK does update frequently but rarely there is an update that breaks anything or change stuff drasticaly. Even if there is some, the old way of doing whatever is generally still avaliable (Terrain Editor is still there even thought they've released a Landscape Editor that is a thousand times better).


We get it, you didn't liked the engine and you won't change your mind about it. I'm sorry it wasn't for you and I hope you find something that fits your needs, but dude, you don't need to come to this thread just to shit on it.

Just a heads-up. I'm not mad because you didn't liked something that I do like, and I'm always up for having critcism and different opinions in discussions, but you're starting to sound a bit nitpicky, mate.

You are wrong. You're also forgiven.

I said I personally don't like relying on Kismet because Unrealscript is weird about everything. I didn't say everyone relies on it. I just don't like Kismet as an alternative.

I'm also not looking for excuses to dislike UDK. I'd love to like UDK. I've tried it many times, and each time I ran into stupid problems. It's frustrating and demoralizing. Maybe I'm expecting the wrong kind of usage out of it, but it often feels like I have to create a mod for UT, rather than have an empty template to get started on. Learning a load of inherits and whatnot to get an actor to do something basic is just not my cup of tea. For what it's worth, what I was trying to do was constrain an object's movement and orientation to the boundaries and rotation of a rectangle mesh, and then tween the rectangle mesh throughout a scene. Took me forever to get nothing done in UDK.

Besides, I'm not coming into this thread just to shit on UDK. Someone said UDK is easy. I beg to differ. It's not. If it were easy, it'd be called Unity3D.

Ell678, on 22 November 2013 - 05:07 PM, said:

I think it might be useful to identify what people are having trouble with when it comes to SGDK. Is it making 2D sections? Moving platforms? Badniks?

I believe if people identified what they are having trouble with, it would be easier to help them. I am certainly willing to help. Knowing the basics will allow you to progress and boost confidence.

My problem isn't with SGDK directly. I'm sure it's been made much easier to work with than when I first tried to use it over a year ago. I've got little interest in it now, though, since anything I'd want to use SGDK for would require heavy modification, which UDK doesn't make easy.

This post has been edited by Aerosol: 22 November 2013 - 06:36 PM

[.Luke]

Every IDE has their pros and cons, so I'm surprised to see a little debate about it going on here. Everyone also thinks differently in very different concepts as well, and each wants to accomplish different things, which either engine can complicate based on their limitations. Both sides of the argument are pointing this out quite nicely here.

UDK seems a little dated to me, but it would be highly hypocritical of me to say, since I am still using Game Maker 5.3a until I can buy a Studio license. No matter how current something is, it really depends on what limitations or shortcomings you're willing to deal with, and if the IDE fits into your work flow.

For instance, Game Maker works for me, and I've been using it since version 4.3, so I don't need to throw years of experience away at MMF2. Looking at Freedom Planet, there is no doubt MMF2 is good for developing games too, even better in some ways, like Steam Integration, but I can't justify the time to learn it when I am already competent at doing things in Game Maker right now.

It also depends on what you want to do with your game. For me, Unity looks like you have to do more footwork in terms of creating your own tools and the like, but that's part of the appeal. I have some crazy ideas for map design tools that would fit a much needed niche in what I want to accomplish in my own games. I may experiment and make it real in Game Maker first, for an experimental 3D game, then see if I have the balls for Unity.

[Nemo]

UDK is pretty darn awesome and I love how it's fully functional and totally free. But I seriously still have trouble figuring out how to use it.

I may not like how Unity is limited by its license, but the interface and scripting are so much easier to deal with. I've managed to nearly rebuild my entire project in a week, complex systems and all. Better this time around, even. Speaking of which, I might actually have something playable by the time SAGE comes around, 'specially since I'll have a laptop to start developing on soon.

[Azukara]

I guess I really like GDK and how it seems to be a great template for making a Sonic game, but at the same time I'm not too big on the player physics themselves. They're fine and all, its just that I wanted to figure out if I can make them a bit (how do I say this without it sounding bad)... floatier? I know it's following the physics guide pretty closely but Sonic feels really heavy in jumping and steering, and while I would want him to have traction I also don't really want to have him feel like he tugs all that much. Something closer to Sonic Adventure I guess is what I'd be aiming for.

Is there any way to edit those variables in the engine without it being a massive hassle to work with? This is coming from a guy who's wanted to use this engine for a while but has never had the time to learn Unreal.

And for another question, is there any sort of preset camera option that allows the camera to follow Sonic in 3D movement, but not vomit-cam style? And if not, how much work do you think it'd take to construct something like that? Never been too keen on the vomit-cam myself.

[Andrew75]

Azukara, on 07 January 2014 - 01:14 PM, said:

I guess I really like GDK and how it seems to be a great template for making a Sonic game, but at the same time I'm not too big on the player physics themselves. They're fine and all, its just that I wanted to figure out if I can make them a bit (how do I say this without it sounding bad)... floatier? I know it's following the physics guide pretty closely but Sonic feels really heavy in jumping and steering, and while I would want him to have traction I also don't really want to have him feel like he tugs all that much. Something closer to Sonic Adventure I guess is what I'd be aiming for.

Is there any way to edit those variables in the engine without it being a massive hassle to work with? This is coming from a guy who's wanted to use this engine for a while but has never had the time to learn Unreal.

And for another question, is there any sort of preset camera option that allows the camera to follow Sonic in 3D movement, but not vomit-cam style? And if not, how much work do you think it'd take to construct something like that? Never been too keen on the vomit-cam myself.

For the physics try looking in the placeable Sonic pawn actor's options . I think you'll find what you need in there. Its the actor that looks like sonic when placed in the world.
you can tweak many parameters without having to go into code this way!

This post has been edited by Andrew75: 07 January 2014 - 11:28 PM