What program should I download for level design? Thread

Source, UE4 and Unity are most likely going to fry my computer. I already had a macbook pro's graphic-card melt. I'm stuck with an economically purchased Toshiba Satellite.

Here are my computer's specs:
AMD A6-52 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics 2.00GHz 4.00GB (RAM) 64-bit Windows 8

I'm really into the whole skybox type environment where you build an FPS landscape/environment. Are there any good older programs to download and experiment with so that I can showcase what I've learned to people? I'd like to eventually be useful as a level-designer for someone in the near future.

If a GPU melted it's the heardware fault (bad heatsink, etc), not the game.

But anyway, Q3A can have some really good looking stuff. Alien Arena is built of Q3A+Q2 and it's got features many modern games have.

I decided to learn Blender.

Sometimes, certain programs can be too demanding of hard-ware, especially if they barely meet minimum system requirements. It's not always faulty hard-ware.
But thanks for your suggestion.

Hardware should never die because software is to demanding. The software should just under perform. If the hardware dies there was something wrong. IE overclocked, bad heat sink connection, etc. I've run dozens of games that were at or below the "min" specs and NEVER had my computer hardware fail because of it.

EDIT: Blender rendering will most likely be more intense on your system then any game.

Edited by: TheHappyFriar

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

I can't speak for UnrealEd as I haven't used the latest version.

I can tell you though that you can run The Hammer for source no problem.
I currently am running a Compaq Presario Laptop 2gigs of ram, ATI Radeon Xpress 200m, 1.8Ghz and have no problem mapping with this PC. Effects are harder to do because of my DX levels lag my PC during game-play. But actually design is very capable. I just lower my DX Level in source on startup so it's bearable.

So there really is no reason why your computer should meltdown. Most 3D applications are demanding Source isn't so bad unless you have low ram and are compiling a map .......... you might be there awhile.

Friar is Correct. 100%

I have ran video cards hot enough to cook on them; without them burning out.

Edited by: NGS616

ChrisCobay wrote: I can't speak for UnrealEd as I haven't used the latest version.

I can tell you though that you can run The Hammer for source no problem.
I currently am running a Compaq Presario Laptop 2gigs of ram, ATI Radeon Xpress 200m, 1.8Ghz and have no problem mapping with this PC. Effects are harder to do because of my DX levels lag my PC during game-play. But actually design is very capable. I just lower my DX Level in source on startup so it's bearable.

So there really is no reason why your computer should meltdown. Most 3D applications are demanding Source isn't so bad unless you have low ram and are compiling a map .......... you might be there awhile.

Thanks for the information. I might give Source a try, but I managed to run Blender smoothly and so far so good. I'm currently taking some online courses which explain the fundamentals perfectly for beginners. I just hope I get good enough to work on game asset creation.

UPDATE
Character modeling was way too frustrating. I passed a lot of my tutorials, but I think the level of geometry to deal with while creating a character model from scratch is a bit too much for me.

I'm going to give mapping and asset creation a try. I ended up downloading UDK. If all goes well, I may be posting images of my progress.

In my experience, Source is not that demanding, and can run on older systems pretty well. UDK is heavier and more difficult to learn, but can produce more impressive scenes. Blender is more for character creation than environment. I still recommend Source and Hammer for start.

I would recommend Gtkradiant. You can easily create advanced structure with perfect alignment and then compile your stuff into ase models and work further on them. You can as well use darkradiant and export your maps as obj models. Then you can easily import them into blender and add materials and high quality textures with normalmaps and cool material settings.

You can do level design in Blender, the learning curve is pretty high and the interface is very strange, but it's free!

Hehe, couldn't describe it more accurate, but nevertheless, you get used to it and suddenly the interface is just feeling very natural and easy.