UDK vs Unity which one do you guys recommend for a student?

Autodesk offers free three-year non-commercial licenses for their products. The site states that they are for students, but anyone can apply for one. My last college class was over a decade ago but I still got a license for Maya LT when I applied.

http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/students-university/all-products

 

According to Epic if you add -d3d10 to the shortcut command line after "exe" it runs UE4 in DX 10 mode and suffice to say I tried it and it worked brilliantly. I tried out the blueprint project and its pretty impressive. the UE4 seems to run just fine in a new blueprint sample which is very basic stuff but I have no idea how it would run in more complex scenes.

however the beauty of this Engine has given me some courage to withstand the torture of my slow dual core CPU and use this Engine. Its like night and day from Unity 4 I must say but jesus the its hitting my PC hard. I think I much rather spend the money on hardware rather than buy unity Pro as the trade off seems much better on UE4 but I highly doubt its going to be indie friendly this thing looks very much AAA studio type.

But even with this I am still trying to decide, UE4 runs frustratingly slow its like nothing would make this thing run fast.

The unreal script you were talking about would it matter in UE4? because UE4 uses C++

 

Grab the Elemental Cave demo. On my system (Phenom II X4 965, 8GB DDR3-1600, GTX 460 1GB) it runs at about 20 FPS.

Totally agree with focusing on better hardware. You will want a quad-core processor, a decent amount of memory, and a reasonably powerful graphics card regardless of the engine you choose.

As for the target audience of UE4, you can get away without having a large budget or team. Koola, an artist who has been posting on the UE4, has made some very nice examples.

http://www.ronenbekerman.com/unreal-engine-4-and-archviz-by-koola/
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?28163-ArchViz-Lighting

Though having some budget and a team backing you definitely helps. Cyan Worlds, the developers of Myst, is developing a game called Obduction using the engine. I believe it is due for release next summer.

They used Kickstarter to get the primary funding and managed ~$1.3 million.

http://obductiongame.com/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cyaninc/obduction

 

@WalkingDead, Yeah Unrealscript is gone from UE4. Unrealscript was nice when it was first introduced but even then we couldn't compile that thing on the fly or debug (UT ' 99). Now, back then Epic did give us some limited C++ access which was cool but that got yanked around UT 2003. Anyway, cool I think you're on the right track (trying out both)

Don't forget what I said about sculpting. Check that out for character modeling. You can also use those apps for environment modeling although I think most environment artists prefer traditional apps for that. But most studios I'm seeing these days will use a sculpting app for characters

 

well I tried UE4 and worked ok I got like 30 to 64 FPS in the Cave demo. Res set to 720P

I wont lie even on lowest graphics this thing looks incredible. Some amazing lighting etc so I think I will like to use UE4 as it seems to be working on my HD 4870 video card in dx 10 mode and still manages to look close to DX 11.

My only concern is would it be possible to get away with a 1 man development team with UE4? atleast for a really good school project and possibly make very small money of a game? even if its a really small game to be sold for I dunno $3?

 

Well it really depends what you want to do. If you want to go get a job in the industry maybe your better off using unreal or maybe even orgre3d or even rolling your stinking engine as you want to do more c++. But if you just want to F*** around and make some games then unity is the way to go.

 

^ ha yeah I see what you mean. I am happy I understand so much more now about these 2 engines than I ever would. Due to the eye candy I seem a lot more motivated into using UE4 though. I played the UE4 cave demo and while its clearly not an indication of how development using the Engine actually is, I seem too spoiled by it for some reason. It reminds me of frostbite 3 engine for Battlefield 3 and 4.

Would learning both UE4 and Unity be a bad idea and a waste of time?

A number of you guys seem to suggest UE4 for its purpose of using C++ scripting which you say is vastly superior to unrealscript of UDK.

I wish Unity Pro was $20 and they took 5 percent of your profits.

 

Unreal script sucked , It wouldn't hurt to dabble with as much as you can get your hands on. I used to add scripting functionality for level designers and bolt in plugs to the engine, integrate third party software and you really need just to get your hands on as much as you can.

I don't think Uni really prepares you for what happens when you leave.

As I said at the beginning, whatever floats your boat. If you prefer Unreal than you can make a good career with it, same as you can with Unity. They both have advantages and disadvantages, hell every engine does...

Now is the time to explore and find out for yourself. I'll stick my hands up and say I suck with UE4 after using Unity for years, in some places I just don't quite "get it".. But practice makes perfect and all that.

 

hey man thanks I am reading up on UE4 documentation and trying out a couple things and I am loving it. Its incredible where the world has come for $20 you can get a state of the art million dollar engine with just a 5 percent cut today!! years ago this never would have been possible. I think due to the eye candy it is motivating me for UE4 its a mind thing you know? lol

It has these blueprint thingy where you can start a C++ straight in Visual studio or start a premade template directly UE4 but I have yet to understand what the heck is this blueprint thingy. All i know is people are saying its the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I hope when Unity 5 comes around it offers in the way of much better lightning effects than what is currently in free unity.

 

This tends to be my problem and others' problem also. There are alot of parts of Unreal that need extensive step by steps on how to do put in the manual, because you can't just intuitively guess how to do it, at least not as easily as you could in Unity. But to be fair, I know the Unreal documentation is being worked on daily and that they will probably eventually catch up.

 

I need someone to explain to me what blueprints in UE4 really are and if people can make games without the need to know how to program? I hope this isn't the case because my professor at school will not be pleased that I am using a engine which allows game creation without the use of programming.

He wants me to use C++ in my projects or well not just that but the ability to know and showcase we can do Object Oriented Programing etc. The actual science of programming, variables and algorithms etc

Please explain this blueprint thingy to me some more. I hope its not a case of no programming etc else how will I show that I have implemented my knowledge of C++ and calculus into game design?

Well my professor mostly wants me to showcase computer science and engineering knowledge the actual ability to program regardless of the language. He will not be pleased if I am going to use an Engine where programming is not involved. But then is UE4 blueprint really like that? it sounds like science fiction is there something I am missing?

 

I think you might find better in-depth explanations of UE4 specifics over on their forums. Or even their documentation!
uScript is similar to UE4's blueprints, if you're looking for a Unity solution.

 

well thanks for all the help guys.

I decided UE4 will now be my primary Engine to learn on. For $20 for the entire Pro feature and what it comes with I could not pass up. Unity Free just does not cut it not even close I am sorry to say. for what epic is offering me its all I will ever need and all I could ever ask for and if one day I decide my work is worth something and I want to sell it I know it can be done without spending a cent extra as opposed to unity which is $1500 because I can't see myself shipping a non pro UT game, the lack of lighting effects is such a deal breaker.

I will still keep Unity installed and dabble around in it if I get free time. But for the most part I decided on UE4

 

It is a visual scripting language. Aside from how you work with it, using nodes and connecting them with wires, it is really no different than any other scripting language in that you still need some basic understanding of programming.

If you're curious to know more about it, Epic's first video in the "Introduction to Blueprints" playlist can do a more thorough job of explaining it.

 

Not to mention it is discontinued so you'd be learning an obsolete language.