Unity 3d vs UDK

I know this kind of question for some has a very distasteful nature, but for me it's pretty important at the moment. Long story short, I am looking to hear from people that might have experience with either one of these engines. I've been reading about them both at length and it's pretty well a draw. On the Unity end you have a huge user base with plenty of know how at your fingertips along with a very inexpensive (relatively) license. On the other hand, with UDK, you have cutting edge graphics abilities (if you know how to use it) along with an ability to develope with free software... until you start making sales in excess of 50k... wherein Epic gets 25%.

After writing this down it's becoming clear to me that Unity may be the way to go.

Any thoughts out there?

Well, I guess it was worth a try... anyone use any other engines?

(Lost my post due to internet outage )
Condensed post; I think it depends on your coding/scripting skills, and on what visual style you're going for. Unity is a blast to work with, but it won't have the DX11 eye candy for a very realistic game. That said, a non-realistic style can look fantastic in Unity with old, tried and true realtime tricks and hacks. UDK on the other hand will have that eye candy, but will be a bit trickier to get the gameplay mechanics into.

So I know this isn't terribly helpful, but I think it's up to you; what are your plans and what do you feel comfortable using?

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sorry about the belated reply; I hadn't seen this until just now.

Well to be honest here, I'm just a big dreamer! That being said I have great aspirations to realize those dreams. For me there are some fundamental questions that I'm asking myself that would be or is nonsense to someone that's been doing this for a while. My vision could be hindered if I start in the wrong place, and for me that in itself could stall the whole thing into another one of my half baked idea bins. For right now it's all about planning. I'm fleshing out my story line to go along with certain gameplay elements that I particularly find interesting. Once that's done (or at least close) I plan on starting some concept art. I do have an idea and a plan, it's just fuzzy at the moment. I've got a few irons still in the fire yet that are about to come out and at that point I want to put more of this into a timeline.

I've been reading about this sort of thing and there's definitely a whole herd of stuff to it, so I'm sure if it goes anywhere I'll be looking to outsource portions of it. Right now I'd say that coding will be the biggest hurdle. I had been reading about Unity 3d and have decided that I need to take a stab at C#. I've got a good friend that does that for a living and am going to him for guidance there. Worst case scenario is that I'd have to work with a coder if I can't wrap my mind around it!

About that dx11 thing... I could have swore that I read that it's dx11 capable now. I just downloaded Unity 3D 4.0 and that is what it said about "what's new"... but yeah, from what I've read UE is the graphics king there... especially with UE4 coming soon. All that being said, I've got a feeling that Unity isn't going to take all this lying down. It looks like they've got a fantastic user base that is pushing them to do some great stuff. My gut feeling is that they are the wave, and I'm leaning toward riding it.

I know you've got quite a bit of experience in game assets (that I know of)... any other advice?

I've read everything from, start small to wade right in if you know what you're after! Looks like it all boils down to what you want and what you can really handle. I know what I'm like, and I'm guessing that if I'm going to do it I had better strike while the iron is hot.

Xraygunner wrote:
I know you've got quite a bit of experience in game assets (that I know of)... any other advice?

Without going over every small detail myself, the best I can do is to point out what is likely the single best source for realtime development (especially art assets).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [occasional mature content].

Before pursuing your larger pet project, I personally would recommend doing a small bit of R&D in the way that you create a small, but complete portion of the game. I don't think there's anything better than that to give you an idea of what it'll be like. It will also afford you the opportunity to create a workflow that works nicely for you.

Tools I recommend; xNormal (loads .obj from blender to bake normals with), Photoshop (or even GIMP).

Sorry about the short reply again. I'm terribly busy currently. :/
If you have questions about the art side of things, just ask and I'll see what I can do.

No worries about the time! I completely understand that. Thanks for the imput too. I'll follow up on all that. I'm glad to see that I wasn't too far off on my approach as I was leaning toward taking that piece of the game and seeing about developing that alongside some of the more artsy stuff, such as story and graphics (digital and conventional).