EDIT: Please comment in the feedback thread: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?18110-Level-Design-tools-not-quite-fast-enough-for-solo-level-designers
I want to say straight up, that UE4’s ability to create levels is lacking, I feel that Epic’s proposed pipeline for level-editing is slow and inappropriate for many kinds level design. I don’t even think epic has noticed problem themselves. There are level-creation tools out there that are fun to use, which make the Unreal Editors tools feel sluggish and like a chor. It is a shame really, because UE1’s and UE2’s level editing tools where really good for their day and lead to a whole assortment of new and interesting maps to be made.
The Unreal Engine has many amazing tools, Cascade, Blueprint, Persona etc. But I feel that the level editing tools have been neglected since the days of UE2 when it where BSP was used to create the majority of the basic walls and floors of a level.
Today Epic basicly provides its UE devs with one way to make a level as shown in the level-editing tutorial. really bothers me as I know that method is simply not fast or quick enough for individuals and small teams making games and developers often resort to cheap tricks in order to get their levels finished in a reasonable amount of time.
Some of theses tricks include:
- Bending meshs and exporting them to create corners.
- Creating the entire level in bsp then exporting it as a static mesh and re-importing it.
- Simply making the level in another editor and importing it.
You can make levels very very quickly in these older editors, they all use different methods, they all have unique and new ideas to help speed-up the level creation process. I really hope we can improve UE4’s level-editing tools, the “lego method” the process that Epic suggests we use is incredibly slow and bsp brushes are awkward and generally produce very square results.
Other level editors that are faster for basic levels:
Sauerbraten: Cube 2
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Build (Duke 3D Editor)
Unreal Engine 2
Hammer
TrenchBroom (new Quake editor)
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