UDK 'or' Cry Engine 3 Which is BETTER for a complete Beginner Thread

I am some what Completely new to the whole game development scene.... And i found out that these two are the best free options available
i read that UDK requires learning a completely new scripting language ....is it the same case with CryEngine 3 also ???
Also will my knowledge of C++ , VB.Net & Lua Will be of any use ??

Edited by: mishant

UDK uses unrealscript. CryEngine uses Lua/C++/Visual Scripting (depending on what part you are working on)

Maps are usually scripted with flowchart (visual scripting language) but it is REALLY extensive. If you are clever with it, you can make an entire new game out of it.
More complex entities and such are done with Lua
Engine functionality us done with C++

Don't have much experience with unrealscript. but setting it up was the hardest :p so scripting itself is basically learn the syntax (not hard) and learn the api (which you have to do with any new api anyway)
So it goes from easy to hard, just depends on what you want to do with it.
UDK also has a visual scripting tool for maps (the name of it escapes me for a minute here) but its generally only usefull for map stuff as far as i know (please correct me if i'm wrong on this :p)

but they are both free, so why not give both a spin? check my profile, i still have some tutorials for crysis, the basiscs should apply to cryengine 3 too normally

Have a course at university.
We did a little UDK, Unity3D, Blender GE, Vision and next Monday we will do some Cry.
From what I heard UDK is much easier to program for because of much better documentation and community.
A friend who is pro at UDK is trying to get into Cry but cries very often.
(UDK: UnrealScript, Cry: Lua + C++)

You might want to start with Unity3D as it is said that it would be the easiest. (Unity3D: Lua, Boo, C#)
The Blender Game Engine (build into Blender) is also very easy to use(and currently not recognized, but is growing). (I did myself some games with it. Also being a fan of Blender.) (BGE: Python, C++ if you like to hard modify)

ID Tech4 aka iodoom3 could also be an option. One thing I would like to get deeper into in the next weeks. (IDTech4: C++, "ID-Script\")

Generally: just start trying one. If it doesn't fit you - try the next.

Unity also supports [removed]p and it allows you to use all languages trough each other :p
But they all have their benefits
Cryengine is more suitable for outdoors (its better then it used to be for indoors, but still. editor screams outdoor :p)
UDK is all round, can do terrains, not as good as cryengine (but still awesomely good)
Unity has low system requirements. program your game once, deploy to all platforms (pc, mac, ios, android, xbox360 and ps3 with flash support comming soon)

Just try em all :p they all have a free version

50 / 50
Cryengine3 should be extremely easy to get into, most of
all level design is straightforward, and the documentation should allow
anyone to get started.
The source is not too well documented
apparently, but Lua can be used for quite a lot and also now c# can be
used, so while it may not have any special scripting like Unreal, it
does have those three choices. There is also flowgraphs, which is logic
made purely by linking nodes, its pretty much map-based logic, but you'd
have no trouble if you know both Lua and C++ to do things more global.
When I started with it, it maybe a month to pretty much get going with an actual project (on ce2).
Don't
know much about Unreal, but its progressing rather well with many
features arriving. Though I hear updating the engine is a pain as it
could overwrite any files you previously altered.

It may all
depend on what you want to do eventually. (Unreal and ce3 could be
overkill for a small casual game, Unity3d being more appealing) Best try
a few engines if your looking to pick one for a specific project in
mind, or if you got nothing on the table, just try any and see which one
you may prefer to use most and get much more acquainted with it and the
community around it, perhaps you'll get ideas from there or find a team
that needs you.

Thank you all for the quick response
i am thinking of going with CE3 than udk as otherwise i would have to learn a completely new scripting language from scratch & my time spent on learning Lua will go all waste

Anyway a *small stupid query*
since i am better at vb.net than c++ i tried using XNA v4 from microsoft ..... i dont know what i did wrong.. it seemed more of a Framework than a game engine.... I guess i need to poke around in msdn a little more.....

Game Maker and Cosmic Supremacy.
I wish i noticed this thread before posting almost the same thing.
(visual scripting language) is the keyword Just googling it get lots of other stuff like playmaker for unity

Also, you would have to program your own GUI system for CryENGINE 3 or licence a GUI toolkit since Crytek has to licence Scaleform yet.

*** UPDATE ***

Yay, 3.3.9 update of free CryEngine 3 SDK has Scaleform support! 2 days after the post, lol.

Edited by: feillyne

Urfoex wrote:
You might want to start with Unity3D as it is said that it would be the easiest. (Unity3D: Lua, Boo, C#)

Small correction here: Unity3D supports C# and Boo, but not Lua. Instead, it supports UnityScript, which is based on javaScript, but with some limitations. If you do just simple games, UnityScript is enough, however for bigger projects you really want to get into C# because you can access almost a lot of the mono framework with that one, you can define classes and even use externally compiled assemblies in your games (I think up to .NET 3.5 specification).

Unity can support Lua through a library, for example free Unity Lua Interface Library, unfortunately only for Unity Pro: U3d.as

Lua is extremely helpful in making the game moddable. Just like various other input/output addons & libraries.

feillyne wrote: Also, you would have to program your own GUI system for CryENGINE 3 or licence a GUI toolkit since Crytek has to licence Scaleform yet.

*** UPDATE ***

Yay, 3.3.9 update of free CryEngine 3 SDK has Scaleform support! 2 days after the post, lol.

Thanx for the update regarding Scaleform support ......kind of needed it

feillyne wrote: Unity can support Lua through a library, for example free Unity Lua Interface Library, unfortunately only for Unity Pro: U3d.as

Lua is extremely helpful in making the game moddable. Just like various other input/output addons & libraries.

Thanks for figuring this out ...but me &my friends have already chosen CryEngine as the Platform for our Project

Edited by: mishant