Ok, ive been trying to research for game engines lately since, me and some friends in school want to do something in realtime since we all know how to model, rig animate etc. For the programming part we are going to get programmers, but also learn some by ourselves. In my search to find the best option for making a third person game, or first person game, Ive found Torque game engine and unreal engine. so here are my questions: -Is the unreal 2004 level editor that comes with the game the complete engine? if not, what is the difference? are there some restrictions in the editor? tools that are not there? - if they are different, I would really apreciatte a link to where I could find those references or if you know them you can put them here. I would prefer here. what i would like to know is, what am i available to do with the unreal editor?can I make kind of machinima with it? kind of like a movie? -In short I would like to know if there are differences between the editor and the engine, and if they are indeed different, what am I capable of doing with the editor. (maybe just an overview) -Now for torque: my main concern with torque is the graphic quality that you can obtain with the engine. are the shaders good? does it come with a level editor as well? I already downloaded the feauture demo, but I would like to hear from people using it. Please understand that my main confusion is about what can do what? what is it possible. Its the same things that happens to me every time I move to a new field of software, i get confused as to what is the best option. For example when starting with 2d graphics I didnt knew what was photoshop different to illustrator, or painter etc. Or 3d, I didnt knew what was different between zbrush or max, or maya and xsi. Im just telling you because I dont want you to tell me the classic "go and do some research" couse I really have done research but im still confused. anyway thanks

I'm pretty sure that it isn't the complete engine. What the engine does allow you to do is create mods for UT.

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Original post by danydrunk -Is the unreal 2004 level editor that comes with the game the complete engine? if not, what is the difference? are there some restrictions in the editor? tools that are not there?

I think your confusing yourself here. The level editor AFAIL is only for making the actual levels, placing movers and such like (I used to use Unrealed for UrT but not to much depth'd) and maybe scripting. The engine is the code base and is different to the level editor. The engine is the bit that loads everything and decideds how to draw it and stuff.

AFAIK the level editor is complete and will elt you do anything that Epic can do level wise. For the engine if Epic are like iD there will only be the game specific code released (which is all you need to make a mod).

Hope this helps you and good luck with you mod :) (and apolgise for any misinformation in my post)

The engine is the code/system that plays the game. It loads the levels, models, displays the graphics, plays the audio and runs the AI/scripts/physics that make up the gameplay.

The editor is the tool you use to create the maps etc and write the scripts that the engine will run when the game is played.

The creators are happy for fans to make levels/mods with the editor, that run in the game engine. What they don't want is people to make money from their engine (unless they get a share). If you want your mod/conversion to be a commercial product you need to pay for a license to publish the game.

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Original post by Obscure The engine is the code/system that plays the game. It loads the levels, models, displays the graphics, plays the audio and runs the AI/scripts/physics that make up the gameplay. The editor is the tool you use to create the maps etc and write the scripts that the engine will run when the game is played. The creators are happy for fans to make levels/mods with the editor, that run in the game engine. What they don't want is people to make money from their engine (unless they get a share). If you want your mod/conversion to be a commercial product you need to pay for a license to publish the game.

so you are telling me that then it is the complete thing? the editor? just without a license? and what degree of flexibility can you have with scripts, what kind of stuff can you do, that its not in the game.

please keep your help coming, im starting to understand jeje thanks

Unreal mods (and much of the core game) are written in a scripting language called UnrealScript which draws heavily from Java, but adds some incredibly useful abstractions such as the concept of a behavioural "state". The language rests on top of some native code which handles things like raw networking, graphics, and physics. This native code is written in C++ and is not available for mod authors.

The full license would include all the same tools plus the commercial license, plus the complete C++ source & permission to modify & redistribute it. The latter is the primary advantage of the full license.

hey thanks a lot anonimous poster and liquid dark that is almost everything I wanted to know, it is much more clear now, my main confusion was the difference between the level editor and what was called the unreal engine, now i understand the editor runs on the engine but doesnt give you access to the core. thanks again.

-does somebody knows if torque comes with an editor?
- and just for debating, do you think the half life 2 editor will be good? user friendly wise? can anyone comment if its going to compete with UT? and does doom 3 has an editor? thanks again

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Original post by danydrunk -does somebody knows if torque comes with an editor? - and just for debating, do you think the half life 2 editor will be good? user friendly wise? can anyone comment if its going to compete with UT? and does doom 3 has an editor? thanks again

-Torque comes with complete sourcecode, so that if it does not come with an editor, you would be able to write one for it.
-No one can even guess about HL2's editing capabilities right now.
-Doom3 has a built-in editor available. It is very very similar to Quake3's editor.

torque has a quite nice ingame editor. however, you cant create new objects with it - you have to do that in hammer or some comparable editor (for base objects), or 3dsmax or a comparable modeler (for non-structural stuff such as trees, rocks, etc). what it does do, though, is modify the terrain (both geometry and textures), place water, interiors, detail objects.. pretty much anything but modeling type stuff.

Torque has a GUI and a terrain editor - not an indoor editor though (for that you can just use Worldcraft, Radiant or QuArK).

It's in the feature preview demo (the TGE demo, not sure about the TSE demo... probably is) - press F12 (or F11... i can't quite remember)

I managed to figure it out myself - it's really easy to use.