don't see anyone else talking about this, but this seems to be the first time ever you can get access to the source code of a state of the art game engine essentially for free.
Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
81–90 of 168 posts
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been saying there will be a huge middle man market for assets for years. A whole studio specializing in different models for boxes - every era, every state of decay, every material. A studio dedicated to the most realistic rain effects possible - at the lowest price and graphics overhead. You don't have to worry about the "Wilhelm Scream" of boxes or rain effects though because there will be a lot of choice, a l…
Unity3d has this already ( https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/ ). I'm pretty sure the reason why they made their engine/IDE free is because they're making so much money from their asset store.
No, the reason they made their engine and IDE free is to cater to indie developers, hobbyists, and students. Unity is to these people now what Flash used to be ten years ago—an initially simple but ultimately powerful game-making tool. And the small percentage of those that graduate beyond just doing it as a hobby or experiment end up sticking with the tools they know. It's a very bottom-up approach to the market.
Remember also that they offer a Pro version that costs money, and that they restrict the use of the free version to companies that make less than $100k per year.
There are a lot of people wanting to get into game-making these days, since tools have gotten better and the indie market has proven its worth. It's telling that Epic is putting even more emphasis on their tools than their games these days. In a gold rush, as it's said, the ones that get rich are the ones selling pickaxes.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#83Looks cool, but I don't understand the 20$ a month fee, I don't think it will make them any money and it will hurt adoption.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been saying there will be a huge middle man market for assets for years. A whole studio specializing in different models for boxes - every era, every state of decay, every material. A studio dedicated to the most realistic rain effects possible - at the lowest price and graphics overhead. You don't have to worry about the "Wilhelm Scream" of boxes or rain effects though because there will be a lot of choice, a l…
This sounds nice from the point-of-view of somebody looking to put something together in a hurry, but this sounds awful from the point-of-view of the guy getting hired to model boxes all day. Maybe that's not a huge difference from what a lot of people are doing at AAA studios anyway, but my god.
You will be amazed at some of the things people get really passionate about.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the FAQ ( https://www.unrealengine.com/faq ): What platforms can I access under the subscription plan? If you access the source code, you'll see that there is early work on other platforms, including Oculus VR, HTML5 and Linux. You are welcome to extend and modify this code, and also build and ship games for these platforms.
Yes but you can't get a Linux editor (yet).
I saw that Icculus was already cloning the repo... only a matter of time I hope.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#86Anyone know if the authoring work on OS X too?
According to https://www.unrealengine.com/register, "Mac OS X support hasn't undergone serious developer testing yet". So, it's supported but may be buggy
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been saying there will be a huge middle man market for assets for years. A whole studio specializing in different models for boxes - every era, every state of decay, every material. A studio dedicated to the most realistic rain effects possible - at the lowest price and graphics overhead. You don't have to worry about the "Wilhelm Scream" of boxes or rain effects though because there will be a lot of choice, a l…
This sounds nice from the point-of-view of somebody looking to put something together in a hurry, but this sounds awful from the point-of-view of the guy getting hired to model boxes all day. Maybe that's not a huge difference from what a lot of people are doing at AAA studios anyway, but my god.
Some people get really excited about boxes. I could see making a collection of boxes in different styles being a neat project, though there's certainly some busywork involved.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#88Yes! Another step forward in the field of graphics.. Soon we may see graphics approaching eye level quality
I read a blog post recently that outlined why we may never actually see photo-realistic games even as the technology improves. Basically, it's a MASSIVE amount of work/cost to create individual blades of grass that independently react to a person walking on them, vs just pasting an static grass texture on the ground. And unless the movement of the grass is really important to the story, it will never be cost-effectiv…
I haven't read that post. But I think you could have said the same thing about things like global illumination - well, in terms of processor time - yet look at how much more advanced realtime lighting is today than a decade ago. As for artwork and disk space, grass for one can easily be procedurally generated.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unity3d has this already ( https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/ ). I'm pretty sure the reason why they made their engine/IDE free is because they're making so much money from their asset store.
No, the reason they made their engine and IDE free is to cater to indie developers, hobbyists, and students. Unity is to these people now what Flash used to be ten years ago—an initially simple but ultimately powerful game-making tool. And the small percentage of those that graduate beyond just doing it as a hobby or experiment end up sticking with the tools they know. It's a very bottom-up approach to the market. Re…
I know, I actually started developing with the Unity engine for a side project about 6 months ago (I'm primarily a web developer with no previous game-dev experience).
The fact though is that you can publish commercially (even to mobile app stores) without a Pro license. The reason why making the base version free is commercially viable for them (aside from their hope that some users upgrade to Pro) is because of the success of their asset store.
Pretty much all Unity developers spend money on the asset store even if they're on the free plan. I myself have spent a few hundred dollars on the asset store of which Unity gets a cut thus allowing them to immediately monetize their free users.
Re: Welcome to Unreal Engine 4
#90Looks cool, but I don't understand the 20$ a month fee, I don't think it will make them any money and it will hurt adoption.
From the link: Anyone can ship a commercial product with UE4 by paying 5% of gross revenue resulting from sales to users. If your game makes $1,000,000, then we make $50,000.
$20/mo for access to the source code. 5% of revenue to sell something using it.