UnrealEd 3 vs. UnrealEd 2

Despite this image from the Unreal Wiki (which highlights some all too common problems with the UnrealEd 2), since starting with UnrealEd 3 I've found that it's a major step up. That's probably to be expected as there was a gap of four years between the latest two versions of the editor, but I was still surprised to discover how easy it was to make things that look decent. This is partially due to the emphasis on static meshes - a library of premade objects that you can throw into your map and work like normal geometry. It's a much easier way of making levels, but I can't help but feel it's like cheating a little.

Nevertheless, my resolution is simple - to create a map that doesn't suck. As I have decided to reinstate my Flying Fortress series as my first project, some may argue that I'm heading in the wrong direction already, but thanks to the new system, I was able to stick together a competent-looking platform within a matter of minutes. (It's nothing spectacular, but those who have seen my earlier attempts will surely agree that it's a step in the right direction.)

I think that there's a fundamental difference in the use of the two versions of the editor - the newer one is more complex, but compensates by making things that were difficult before much easier. Some examples that I've discovered this afternoon:

	UnrealEd 2 Method	UnrealEd 3 Method
Making a Jump Pad	Set up the scenery. Insert a Kicker. Insert a Sound. Attach them to each other. Adjust the Kicker properties to get the height and distance of jump you want. Test it. Get it wrong and do it again about ten times.	Insert a handy jumppad static mesh. Set its Target to where you want it to go.
Lighting an outdoor map	Insert a huge array of lights. Make them as bright as possible to stretch over the map. Mess up your shadows. Slow down your map.	Put in a SkyBox. Whack in a Sunlight object. Sorted.
Decorating a map	Insert hundreds of little geometry brushes. Switch them from Solid to Semisolid and back. Spend hours trying to prevent BSP holes.	Throw in some static meshes.
Adding weapons	Open the Actor browser. Navigate to Pickups -> Weapons -> UTWeapons -> (94 directories deleted here) -> The weapon you want. Add it. Try to add some decoration so it doesn't look like it's been thrown in at random.	Open the Actor browser. Put in a WeaponBase. Select the weapon.