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Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

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Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#61

Post by jdlshore »

nness wrote: post #48
refulgentis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naively, I had the inverse question after reading that, how would this be illegal? Why must this be a labor of love? Use of Factorio IP seems limited to visual inspiration and file format parsing, and its clearly transformative (in the legal sense of the word)

In this instance, it would be more than "look and feel" and more "would a person assume this project is done by the original Factorio developers" — are they misleading the audience. They copied much of the UI from the Factorio site for instance — so if they wanted you could make the argument the intent is to mislead.

I think you’re confusing trademark and copyright. Trademark is about confusing the public. Copyright is about derivative works. It seems pretty clear to me that this is a derivative work, due to its direct copying of Factorio sprites.

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#62

Post by leetcrew »

pram wrote: post #45
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The difficulty creep that was demanded by vocal experienced players has made Factorio much harder for newcomers to get into. Factorio is a brilliant Zen garden and an absolutely terrible real time strategy game. Since the beta there's been more and more biter types and a gradual ramp up in how frantic you have to be to keep up. It's tremendously off-putting and completely opposite to what makes Factorio what…

IMO the bugs add some needed entropy. If you’re not paying attention your bases will eventually be demolished. Makes me more thoughtful about my planning and design rather than just plopping some half assed shit down.

they're also the entity that gives "bite" (pun intended) to the pollution mechanic, which complicates lots of tradeoffs in the game. with biters/pollution, trees are both an inconvenience and a helpful pollution buffer. it's not trivial to decide whether to build your starter base in the open desert or nested between forests. additionally, the tradeoffs between solar vs steam and the effect modules are shallower when you ignore pollution.

I understand some people just aren't really into the tower defense side of factorio. that's okay, and it's a good thing that the settings can be adjusted to suit a wide range of playstyles. but if that's you, I'd recommend at least trying a low pollution / efficiency-focused playthrough. the game gives you a lot of tools to manage pollution, and the biter threat can be pretty minimal if you use them. imo this preserves the balance better than just turning off biters.

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#63

Post by leetcrew »

jokoon wrote: post #15

Factorio is already quite CPU heavy so I don't want to imagine how it would behave in 3D. The factory size might be much smaller for this to be possible. I don't really see the point of this, really, except a misunderstanding about game design, UX and programming in general. This thing might be possible with huge sacrifices, though, but I'm not very interested in making something in 3D "just because". I love 3D games…

factorio isn't CPU or GPU bound though. memory bandwidth is typically the bottleneck, at least according to the developers.

I'm glad the developers have prioritized game mechanics and sim optimization over graphics, and I think the game looks good enough for what it is. but I wouldn't mind if they improved them either. they could do a lot before it meaningfully impacted UPS for megafactories.

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#64

Post by concordDance »

newZWhoDis wrote: post #43
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #26

Briefly mentioned in this and rendered: space exploration is an incredible factorio mod and the deepest game I've ever played. In Factorio you launch a rocket and win. Space exploration takes that and continues. You end up developing a base across multiple worlds in the solar system. After developing the solar system from the different unique resources on each planet you expand to interstellar space and then other so…

I just absolutely despise the (lack of) visuals in Factorio. Satisfactory might only be 80% as deep but it being in 3D and gorgeous more than makes up for it. If Factorio looked anything like this model visualizer I’d take it seriously.

Try Dyson Sphere Program then.

Not as repayable as factorio but still good fun.

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#66

Post by soneil »

refulgentis wrote: post #13
DDSDev wrote: post #4

As a game dev, factorio has always been a title that I would absolutely love to see the original source code for. Also, for anyone who’s first question was “how is this legal”: “When asked about the legality of this whole endeavour, they showed great understanding and allowed the project to be released, provided it won’t be used for commercial purposes.”

Naively, I had the inverse question after reading that, how would this be illegal? Why must this be a labor of love? Use of Factorio IP seems limited to visual inspiration and file format parsing, and its clearly transformative (in the legal sense of the word)

Sometimes I think we're far too obsessed with legal. The developer is good to the community, the community is good to the developer. This seems like a much more productive relationship than arguing over what is legal.

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#67

Post by dmarinoc »

concordDance wrote: post #64
newZWhoDis wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just absolutely despise the (lack of) visuals in Factorio. Satisfactory might only be 80% as deep but it being in 3D and gorgeous more than makes up for it. If Factorio looked anything like this model visualizer I’d take it seriously.

Try Dyson Sphere Program then. Not as repayable as factorio but still good fun.

Or add Shapez2 to your wishlist.

It hasn’t been released yet, but the team is publishing a highly interesting devlog: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2162800

Re: Alt-F4 #65 – Factorio visualizer in Unreal Engine 5

#69

Post by xavdid »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #29
fermentation wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually prefer to completely turn off biters. They’ll still be there on other planets, but the anxiety on the home world is gone

Agreed. The difficulty creep that was demanded by vocal experienced players has made Factorio much harder for newcomers to get into. Factorio is a brilliant Zen garden and an absolutely terrible real time strategy game. Since the beta there's been more and more biter types and a gradual ramp up in how frantic you have to be to keep up. It's tremendously off-putting and completely opposite to what makes Factorio what…

I mostly play for the engineering side of it, so in all my bases over the years, I always always play on "peaceful" mode. It makes part of the tech tree useless (no need for better guns if there's nothing to shoot) but I find I enjoy the game much more that way.
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