Unreal 3 vs. COD4 as an engine / editing tool for an apsiring Environment to learn.

Filbot

I'm looking to expand my knowledge of level editing tools into one of the next gen tools. Currently I am working at diving deep into the tools packaged with either Unreal 3 or the tool set packaged in the Call of Duty 4 mod pack. For someone aspiring to be an Environment Artist what do you industry vets recommend between the two? I've seen a lot of studios listing a preference for people with experience with Unreal 3 therefore I am leaning toward that one. Any advice / pro or cons for each tool would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

CrazyButcher

while I am no expert with those tools, typically you get the job for what you are capable of doing (the result), and then using the proper tools is secondary. Of course if you had experience and would apply for job at studio x, and you know they use tool y then it's good to get into it before. However if you have to build up portfolio and experience from zero, then use whatever you enjoy most with / gives you the easiest start and shouldnt be too old (which applies to many recent games).

so if you enjoy cod4 and want to make a venice map or whatever, go for it, use the game as additionaly motivator... if you are more into sci-fi probably ue3 is better (giving you more textures to play with...)

Jonathan

COD4 Radiant editor tools leave A LOT to be desired. You'd be better off using Source/Hammer (Orange Box SDK), Sandbox 2/Crysis, or UnrealEd (for Unreal Engine 3).

I'm especially looking forward to Rage, one of Id Software's next big games, as the tools look quite cool.

Talbot

I recently have been starting to get into the ut3 editor and I have to say, with all the video tutorials provided, I find it a lot of fun and not frustrating to learn. I don't know too much about the COD4 editor but I personally would say go with UnrealEd. I was in you position about a week ago, only with a couple more choices, and I chose UnrealEd.