UE3 vs UDK

[Kinos]

I know that UDK restricts source code for user, but I would like to ask what would access to source code do that cannot be done with UDK already?

[Remnants]

Source code lets you modify every aspect of the engine, the editor and anything else you can think of. An example is new graphical features which can be added with access to the source.

[darthviper107]

Or for instance--When Bioware made Mass Effect, they used the source code to be able to integrate their events and conversation system into the engine.

[TheAgent]

You may also modify the rendering engine, to achieve specific lighting effects etc, or post process effects..

[MonsOlympus]

Bioshocks water effects! Physics implementations not included with UDK, such as boats or proper jets, though this isnt limited to native and can be done in uscript it would be optimal to do it in C++.

Modifying pawn physics, say if you didnt want cylinder collision or the gravity model UDK uses.

Adding a varierty of things to the editor, implementing certain kismet functionalities or modifying any of the base engine classes such as particle effects.

In terms of "only" being able to do it in native I think you'll find a majority of that is on the renderer end and even then with custom lighting in the material editor its possible to modify the renderer a fair bit in some aspects.

[SilentKoala]

So how does one get a source license?

[HavocInferno]

pay 350.00$ for a pro license and you get full source access from epic...is it 350k? idk, but i heard it was

[Froyok]

So how does one get a source license?

Send a mail to epic games staff if you want more informations on this subject.

[SilentKoala]

Modifying pawn physics, say if you didnt want cylinder collision or the gravity model UDK uses.

Couldn't you do that by rewriting Pawn? ie, class MyPawn extends Actor (not extends Pawn) then copy and paste everything from Pawn removing the vars for collision and rewriting what you want? Then make your characters based on that class instead of Pawn?

And why tf does UDK still use cylinder collision?

[SilentKoala]

Send a mail to epic games staff if you want more informations on this subject.

I think this would be an excellent candidate for the FAQ

[Kinos]

Couldn't you do that by rewriting Pawn? ie, class MyPawn extends Actor (not extends Pawn) then copy and paste everything from Pawn removing the vars for collision and rewriting what you want? Then make your characters based on that class instead of Pawn?

And why tf does UDK still use cylinder collision?

I was thinking the same thing, can't we write a per-pixel collision detection, then make our pawns use that?

[Crusha K. Rool]

Couldn't you do that by rewriting Pawn? ie, class MyPawn extends Actor (not extends Pawn) then copy and paste everything from Pawn removing the vars for collision and rewriting what you want? Then make your characters based on that class instead of Pawn?

And why tf does UDK still use cylinder collision?

The Pawn class has several native hooks, you can see that from the class modifier native as well as the cpptext and the bunch of native functions defined in that class.

Don't know how big the differences between per-pixel collision and cylinder collision for movement is. I bet pretty big.

[TheAgent]

Wouldnt perpixel be a bit expensive?

[Mougli]

per-pixel collision doesn't make any sense in a 3D world. Don't you mean per-polygon collision?

[MonsOlympus]

Whats the point of per pixel collision anyway? Its not like you perform many operations per pixel anyway, you just need it at the hit location relative to the poly which is actually more detailed as its not limited to pixel depth.

In raegards to pawn physics you could do it in UScript but its a hell of alot of work as people who have done it will tell you, Im willing to bet they wished they had access to the native pawn physics so they could have just adjusted it from there instead of hacking around it.

Cylinder Collision is better over the network by far, also the vehicles dont use correct collision on their wheels, they use what I think is referred to as raycast collision. This means that the turning wheels collision is based on a rigid collision mesh as if they hadnt moved from their original position.