Not much. The Engine has a complete overhaul and the removal of the old package system is 10x better / different.
There are a handful of icons and functions that work the same, and a lot of the taglines and specific function names are the same, but if you are looking for the basic down and dirty getting meshes in, setting up a scene, building basic levels....a majority of the stuff in there is different and would probably cause more confusion than help.
A lot of that information can be found on various forums, and the UDN has a lot of stuff for the basic "getting you started" info available to non-license holders.
why wait for the book? plenty of tutorials online for free and the collectors edition (black tin) comes with video tutorials on how to use the editor.
I'd have to recommend the collectors edition as well, sitting down to watch the videos that come with it will get you a pretty firm grasp on the tool-set they distribute with the UT3 game. The UDN is great until you get into the more technical stuff and then it's all restricted to the licensees. But it should at least be able to point you in the right direction.
You said programming, so I'm assuming diving into UnrealScript it top of that list, you should bookmark http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/ You'll refer to it often.
The books have been perpetually 4-6 months away for the last two years. They're not coming out. Jason Busby and Zak won't say as much, but apparently the publisher and/or Epic told them they think it's too much of a niche book to justify the publishing costs. In any case, it's unlikely it will ever happen.
In the mean time UDN.epicgames.com is good, I've heard about ICeCreamYou.com, and Hourcences has some great articles. You might have to search for more than that.
As for the old books, some concepts transfer, but not many. You'd be better off saving your money.
i got this book with some package deal with another book afew years ago.
id say what the others have said. Its useful for the basics and discovering what certain things mean etc , but its out of date by a long shot now for Unreal 3.
You have no material shaders so getting textures working is a diffrent process altogether and the asset browser has been revamped since the book.
Not worth the money now when there is resources already online or bundled with the collectors edition.
Replies
There are a handful of icons and functions that work the same, and a lot of the taglines and specific function names are the same, but if you are looking for the basic down and dirty getting meshes in, setting up a scene, building basic levels....a majority of the stuff in there is different and would probably cause more confusion than help.
A lot of that information can be found on various forums, and the UDN has a lot of stuff for the basic "getting you started" info available to non-license holders.
If you really want a book they, they're coming out with newer it appears in May and July:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Unreal-Technology-Introduction-Design/dp/0672329913/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234314711&sr=8-2]Mastering Unreal Technology Volume I: Introduction to Level Design [/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Unreal-Technology-Bringing-Worlds/dp/0672329921/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234314711&sr=8-3]Mastering Unreal Technology: Bringing World to Life in Unreal Engine 3[/ame]
I'd have to recommend the collectors edition as well, sitting down to watch the videos that come with it will get you a pretty firm grasp on the tool-set they distribute with the UT3 game. The UDN is great until you get into the more technical stuff and then it's all restricted to the licensees. But it should at least be able to point you in the right direction.
You said programming, so I'm assuming diving into UnrealScript it top of that list, you should bookmark http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/ You'll refer to it often.
There's also the start of quite the heap of information forming over in the Master Unreal Thread - http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=60301
In the mean time UDN.epicgames.com is good, I've heard about ICeCreamYou.com, and Hourcences has some great articles. You might have to search for more than that.
As for the old books, some concepts transfer, but not many. You'd be better off saving your money.
i got this book with some package deal with another book afew years ago.
id say what the others have said. Its useful for the basics and discovering what certain things mean etc , but its out of date by a long shot now for Unreal 3.
You have no material shaders so getting textures working is a diffrent process altogether and the asset browser has been revamped since the book.
Not worth the money now when there is resources already online or bundled with the collectors edition.
John