   Developing for ut2004 - what does it provide?
  Hi,After taking advice from the forum members on what engine to use to create a third-person Diablo-style game, I've decided to develop a prototype using the ut2004 engine, both as a learning experience and to test the feasibility of what I'm thinking of doing.  It seems to be the one lots of people recommend.But I have a few questions:1) Why is everyone recommending it?  And why not Unreal Engine 3?2) Do I get to use all the cool tools that I read about, like the level editor, etc. if I don't own a commercial license for it, just to see if it fits my needs?Thanks   
  I don't know why people might of suggested you use 2K4 instead of Unreal 3.Yes you get to use the level editor and scripting system.  The only thing you don't have access to is the actual C++ source.The only reasons I can think of why people might have suggested 2K4 over Unreal 3 is the 2K4 level editor is less demanding on your system and there are probably a lot more tutorials out there for it.   ;  Hmm... possibly because I suggested I might want to go commercial with the game, and obviously licensing ut2004 would be cheaper than ut3.But I've decided to eventually write my own simple game engine using open-source components (Ogre, ODE, OpenAL, etc.), but need exposure to existing ones for best practices/ideas.  So maybe I'll just go with Unreal Engine 3?;Quote:Original post by ayqaziHmm... possibly because I suggested I might want to go commercial with the game, and obviously licensing ut2004 would be cheaper than ut3.According to the (German) Wikipedia page licensing Unreal Engine 2 costs $350,000. Don't you need something cheaper?;Quote:Original post by KambizQuote:Original post by ayqaziHmm... possibly because I suggested I might want to go commercial with the game, and obviously licensing ut2004 would be cheaper than ut3.According to the (German) Wikipedia page licensing Unreal Engine 2 costs $350,000. Don't you need something cheaper?ARGH.;  Unreal 2 is cheaper, faster, and easier to develop with than Unreal 3. It is still prohibitively expensive for an individual to license, though.If you're looking for something flexible and fairly powerful, then checkout something like Unity3D, Shiva, or Visual3d.NET.   ;  I really want to use a 'complete engine' - i.e. one that has been tried and tested in a full game, if you know what I mean.  Preferably one that IS a game, so that everything is there and I just have to re-factor it to do what I want slowly, and so that I'll have something running from day one, along with usable editing tools, etc.Would the above-mentioned engines fit this specification?Thanks.;  All three of them have example scenes / games, though none of them really provide a full commercial game with them, otherwise they'd be just as expensive as Unreal.Of course, you could have just looked at their respective websites to figure that out ...   ;  Well, I don't think there ever will be a "complete" game engine, just one that suits the purposes established by the developers. Some may be more flexible than others, but nothing out there is going to be the absolute end-all be-all for your needs; you'll still be spending enormous amounts of time learning the engine at an intimate level and trying to find ways to accomplish what you want through it.  Let's take for instance the Quake3 engine; a great engine, great graphics considering it's age. Urban Terror, a modification based on the Quake 3 engine, has gone through many many major and minor revisions, new coding, and new models/graphics. They amount of time that the team has invested into making it what they wanted could have easily been used to create a proprietary engine, however, the main benefit that they reaped from using the Q3 engine is that it's community supportable thanks to level editing capabilities of GTKRadiant and it's predecessor, QERadiant.   When they started the project, I'm sure that they held the very same sentiments that you have; finding a tried and true FPS engine that would easily accommodate what they wanted to do. In the end, it's often more work to "bend" an existing engine to fit your needs, than to create your own. It'll be a lot of ad hoc work, but it can be done.  As a matter of fact, if you're interested in using an existing engine, I would recommend the Quake 3 engine. It's source code is readily available on iD's website, and there is also a community effort called IO Quake3 that you really should look into... sweetbread   ;Quote:Original post by sweetbreadAs a matter of fact, if you're interested in using an existing engine, I would recommend the Quake 3 engine. It's source code is readily available on iD's website, and there is also a community effort called IO Quake3 that you really should look into...sweetbreadI've considered that, but as you said, the main thing they got from using the Quake 3 engine was the editing tool.  I'm actually looking for a free engine that has an editing tool like that supplied with Titan Quest or Far Cry 2... but I don't think such an engine exists.Looks like I may just have to go it on my own.  No matter, I can just out-source the more technical work to freelancers who have experience in this field.   