REDkit is a modding tool that kinda got me pumped for its public release. It's creator, CD Projekt RED, is one of my (if not my single) favorite game development companies. They hold a very strong opposing viewpoint of any form of DRM, and launched a completely DRM-free game purchasing website, GOG.com. They're the creator of both the Witcher and the Witcher 2, and are set to release the Witcher 3 sometime in 2014. When I heard that RED was planning to release the tools that they used to create the Witcher 2, I was pumped. The very idea that a game dev company would release their tools is pretty awesome, so when REDkit was finally released to the public, I set it to download overnight, and went to bed pretty hyped. What I found the next day, however, really shoved my spirits down. In all honesty, I went to the program expecting a Skyrim Creation Kit like experience, with most everything already set up, and an open world to play around with and mod. REDkit isn't like that at all though, rather than the world already set up, you simply get a black screen in the "Render" window. I was stuck for a while before any tutorials surfaced to give me some general pointers into how to proceed.
What it boils down to, is that REDkit offers much, much more versatility and customization than Skyrim or Morrowind offer in their CK and CS's. Rather than most everything being set up and easy to use, REDkit allows you to craft your world and tweak every detail while doing so. You have to start off by actually picking how large you'd like your world mass to be, and by setting some options that were rather foreign to me (hence me just doing what the Youtube Tut did, and not worrying about them). Once your world mass is created, you have to set the Skybox you'd like to use, and the lighting/sun conditions thereof. So where most stuff is already set up in Skyrim's CK, it has to be set up manually in REDkit. But from there, it gets even more complicated.
After my world was set up, I was directed to the terrain tools. When you set up your world mass, it appears as a big white square. Terrain tools fix that. You can set the default ground texture, so instead of the default ground being white (or dirt, in the case of Morrowind's CS), you can set it to be grass, moss, or any other texture, thereby potentially saving you a lot of ground texturing time. There's also many options for terrain elevation. Where Skyrim/Morrowind only allow you the options of dragging ground up or down, REDkit allows you to paint cliffs or valleys (similar to the system used in Zoo Tycoon 2, if you've played that....), without dragging ground around. The system used is quite advanced, but it just takes so much time to set up to use, which leads me to my next point...
The static object system is just messed up... Up to this point, I was really ready to forgive the extremely long set up time and complex system to prepare a level. Sure, everything takes time, but it allows for incredibly detailed options, right? Yeah... following the tutorial, I placed a bridge between two cliffs I'd set up. Placing the bridge was easy, but I wasn't prepared for what was going to happen next. The character couldn't even walk on it. Apparently there are separate options for each mesh when you put them in the level, one of which determines if the character can walk on the mesh -- oh, and that option is disabled by default. So in a nutshell, every single mesh that you're planning on coming into contact with needs to have that option enabled manually.
The last straw that REDkit pulled with me was the "areas". If you want the character to be able to walk anywhere, you have to specifically place a big box (area) over where you want him to be able to walk; but you can't make the box too big. So if you want the character to go very far, you have to have a number of boxes. This is when I stopped, saved my work, and closed down the program. In the fantastic trailer RED released regarding REDkit, they talked about building worlds. To me, a world (at least in gaming standards) is something that you're free to run around in, and do whatever you want to do in, Not, a connected grid of overlapping boxes. This isn't to say that REDkit is a bad piece of software, it's just not for me.
As a recap, I'm still very glad that RED went ahead and released REDkit. It's a fantastic modding tool that allows for a far greater scope of detail than even Skyrim can offer. I'm really excited about the potential for new mods and stories that are bound to start being published with this new tool, and it'll be interesting to see just how far some of the more advanced modders can push the boundaries of REDkit. And I guess that's just it. REDkit isn't really meant for mod-dabbling people like myself; it's for the hardcore modders -- the guys who are passionate about what they create. I guess I could keep trying to learn REDkit, but I don't think I will. For most of the simple stuff my brain is capable of, Morrowind's CS works just fine.
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