Just curious if any one modding here has used different Development Kits that are more outstanding to the others. These are fairly big, ive used both, but very new to Gamebro, one thing i miss is the CS not having a Shader Preview and texture browser. Are a few other things i find a problem in CS, but ive learn't to live with it. not being able save esp as some thing else etc etc

Gamebryo engine
Unreal Engine

My favorite is Unreal Engine(back in 2006), but im adjusting to CS slowly.

It's not really a fair comparison, I think. The CS isn't an SDK, you can't modify engine stuff with it, whereas that's what you get with the Unreal Engine, etc. The CS just lets you edit Oblivion stuff, apparently you can create TCs with it (nehrim), but AFAIK you can't actually change anything about the engine...

Yeah, i hope they add those to features i miss so dearly(Shader Preview and texture browser) in for Oblivion 5, there is a oblivion 5 i hope

1. CryEngine 2 (Soon to be CryEngine3 :drool: )
2. GameBryo
3. Source

Not a very fair comparison either I'm afraid.

When it comes to modding, the engine isn't the only factor in 'ease of use'. I've found the import and export scripts for modeling applications extremely important as well. Oblivion is awesome in this regard, because you can import and export most things to and from blender, which is free. Many engines only support 3ds or Maya. When I was researching engines for one of my projects, I was continually frustrated by this. The export scripts for Source only support static objects for blender, the X-Ray engine has no support, UDK has limited support, and I don't recall seeing any support for the CryEngine. Of course, it's been a while since I researched other engines, but unless you have a lot of money to throw at the right tools, or you have some other way to access them, most of these engines are right out. (Well, not really; Source supports XSI Mod tool, which is free, but I couldn't really get into it. UDK might support XSI, too; not sure about that.)

Of course, these other engines have other advantages. The Hammer editor (for Source) lets you build pretty much any kind of interior environment you want with tremendous control, is easier to use than a modeling application, avoids export issues, and does its own collision. I can build a convincing interior in Hammer in about a tenth the time it would take me to build it in blender. Of course, Source isn't really built for large exterior environments like Ob/FO, so it's got it's own limitations. It's designed to make shooters, not RPGs.

If you know how to program in C++, though, you can make it do pretty much anything you want. Then again, you need to know how to program just to add NPCs, program AI, and script dialog. With Oblivion, you can literally drag and drop NPCs, AI packages, and add dialog via an editor that isn't much more complicated than Notepad. There is simply no comparison in terms of ease of use here. Oblivion wins hands down in almost every category...except when it comes to making something that isn't like Oblivion.

If you can live with the limitations imposed by the engine (and there are a lot), you can still do some pretty spectacular stuff with this game. And I don't think we've really seen it's full potential, yet, even with Nehrim.

The Unreal Engine editor was always amazing IMO, very user-friendly and the possibilities were almost endless, the Crysis editor was pretty intricate but extremely powerful when it came to creating massive and great-looking jungle-scapes if you could use it, and I find the CS to be a happy middle-area. The fact that it's compatible with blender is great, but after almost 6 years now since Oblivion came out, I still haven't successfully gotten a weapon through Nifskope to work in game, I dunno, it seems really backwards and finicky, unnecessarily so.