For a beginner/hobbyist freelancer so to speak?
And how would you also compare it to Unity 3d aswell?
UDK
pros:
easy to use, well developed, lots of tutorials, lots of free samples/examples, great support community, runs on DX9, free to download, is capable of next gen (now current gen:p) graphics if you put the time in.
cons:
no blueprints, slightly outdated(but still good), DX11 can be buggy, except for a bug fix here now and then no more updates.
UE4
pros:
easy to use, updated tools, regular updates/bug fixes, a handful of good tutorials, same great support community, easy to make things look good, blueprints, some good samples/examples, weekly twitch stream.
cons:
still being developed, no free version, only runs well on half decent GPU’s(DX11 only)
unity is only really good at indie games(just my opinion), UDK and UE4 lets you make any game from indie to AAA quality.
that’s all I can think of for pros and cons right now:)
Just wanted to correct this, UE4 can run on DX10 cards aswell, and can also run in OpenGL 3 and 4
forgot that:p, although doesn’t it run poorly in DX10 mode or something like that
You forgot to mention, that udk contains some really great plugins for free(simplygon, scaleform and etc), when ue4 not.
To TS: UE4 is a really great thing, which sold nearly free and can’t be compared with unity or udk at all(it’s only my opinion).
hi I would also like to say UE4 runs on my Radeon HD 4870 DX 10.1 card
Not sure if my card being 10.1 if that helps over a card thats just 10 but UE 4 runs quite well in the underground Cave tech demo
One thing I noticed when compiling shaders it does take quite a while.
But I don’t know about you guys and please correct me if I am wrong, but its better to endure some torture learning and using UE4 on my old PC as the benefits would vastly outweigh any faster running UDK a engine now not supported and not wise at all to learn since UE4 is native C++ and blueprints and is far more future proof etc?
Especially when my situation would simply involve changing hardware which is getting cheaper every year anyways which would be a far better trade off than wasting years of my life learning UDK scripting right? as I cannot relearn UE4 in 1 day but I can change my hardware in 1 day. Just might require me a summer Job or something?
I personally would recommend you to directly start with the UE4, because then you have the latest technology + an active community + always new features 
hi thanks I just have one question while I have made up my mind to start with UE4
Would you say that the dx 11 intel HD 4400 GPU in the core i3 haswell refresh would be enough to develop UE4 with?
Would it still make sense to keep my Radeon HD 4870 DX 10 after I have purchased this new CPU? what I mean is use it until I get a newer GPU later on?
My 4870 is starting to show its age and its pretty slow in compiling shaders in UE4 since its dx 10
That is its your GPU responsible for compiling shaders right?
Actually I dont know But probably you will find a similar one in this list: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?20643-Official-Hardware-Performance-Survey + I would keep the Radeon GPU just in case that the intel gpu wont be enough
that link is a gold mine for me LOL
thanks so much I found a new home here at unreal lol
Awesome! You have found a really friendly and helpful new home/community 