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Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

unrealengine.com

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Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#51

Post by greggman »

markdown wrote: post #40
Athas wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point of correction: Unreal Engine is not open source, the source is merely available for perusal. You still need a license for most uses.

It's 2015 and people still don't know the difference between open source and free software? As you describe it, Unreal Engine is open source.

Open Source = source is available and free as in beer. Examples: libpng, zlib, apache, python, llvm, chrome, firefox

Free Software = source is available and free as in beer and copylefted (you must also release your derivatives as free software). Examples: gcc, mysql, linux, gnome, gimp

Unreal is neither of these. It's not free as in beer nor copylefted. It's just that if you are allowed to use the source if you license the engine.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#52

Post by cwyers »

pragmar wrote: post #24
benihana wrote: post #13

People who develop on Unity: How does Unity compare to Unreal performance-wise? The only experience I have with Unity is playing Kerbal Space Program which is often a performance nightmare and I'm wondering if it's Unity or the game developers.

I think developers looking for Unreal performance from Unity 3d will be disappointed. What Unity has over Unreal is C#, great interactive tools (a live stage within a running game), and the ability to publish to just about anything.

Xamarin supports C# for Unreal with Mono:

http://mono-ue.github.io/

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#53

Post by greggman »

azakai wrote: post #3

Nice to see this: > HTML5 platform + WebGL is ready to use -- run your game in a compatible browser with a single click!

It's not nearly that easy.

It would be good to know what the minimum size is. If all you want to do is put a cube on the screen how large is the JavaScript blob you have to download?

Then, most games have tens or hundreds of megs of data. Does Unreal do anything to help this? An ideal HTML5/WebGL game engine would have many of the features of flash letting the game start with a minimal amount of data and downloading the rest in the background and/or on demand.

I know of no WebGL game engine that handles that in any graceful and developer friendly way though I'm sure it will come at some point.

On top of that you need to deal with where the user is coming from. Are they on a phone or tablet with only touch controls? A slow desktop? A fast desktop? Do you handle both mouse and touchpad?

I've seen almost no games handle these issues. Almost all assume you're on a desktop with a mouse which might be true for gamers but is not true for most people browsing the web (mobile or desktop).

For mobile you could check and tell them to download the app.

Does Unreal deal with any of these issues in a dev and user friendly way?

Until then though most Unreal->WebGL or Unity->WebGL apps will probably have relatively poor user experiences.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#54

Post by vezzy-fnord »

greggman wrote: post #51
markdown wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2015 and people still don't know the difference between open source and free software? As you describe it, Unreal Engine is open source.

Open Source = source is available and free as in beer. Examples: libpng, zlib, apache, python, llvm, chrome, firefox Free Software = source is available and free as in beer and copylefted (you must also release your derivatives as free software). Examples: gcc, mysql, linux, gnome, gimp Unreal is neither of these. It's not free as in beer nor copylefted. It's just that if you are allowed to use the source if you lice…

Completely wrong on both counts.

Open source software does not necessitate any price requirements, but rights to redistribution, modification and running for any purpose without restriction. The definition you gave - "source is available and free as in beer" can still very well apply to proprietary software, if redistribution is forbidden. There actually is such a thing, it's called "shared source" by Microsoft.

Free software is any software that satisfies the four essential freedoms [1], of which being copyleft is absolutely not required in any way.

For all practical purposes, OSI and FSF standards are equivalent. They differ in that the former is more oriented toward pragmatics and business, whereas the latter toward ethics and philosophy. As a result, the FSF tends to encourage copyleft more than the OSI do, but they do not necessitate it by any means.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#55

Post by evincarofautumn »

scott_karana wrote: post #44
evincarofautumn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the source is open, it’s just not free. (I don’t want to sound like I agree with Stallman. I’m just trying to clarify definitions.)

Well, the source is only "open" to subscribers: it's in a private Github repository. Stop paying, and you stop getting access to it, and it's illegal to publish even for perusal.

Oh, I was mistaken. I thought it was available for anyone to browse, and you just couldn’t use it unless you bought a license.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#56

Post by upbeat_addict »

dhritzkiv wrote: post #34
blister wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What price tag? Unity is free. It doesn't start costing money until you need to start doing slightly more complicated things or your revenue goes over 100k annually. That's plenty of time to experiment.

$19/month for the SDK + 5% of your sales.

The subscription entitles you to updates, but you can cancel it and still have access to the SDK, it's tools and can also release yr game without an active subscription. The 5% is still applied, but you have to reach a certain sum of sales before it's incurred.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#57

Post by fr0styMatt2 »

philtar wrote: post #39
revisionzero wrote: post #5

As a semi-recent Unity Developer, I find myself really wanting to jump ship to Unreal, really great stuff all around.

Same. Can someone pitch in please?

Unfortunately some more Googling has turned up a disappointing result:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/how-to-change-font-size-in-...

The thread has a recent answer down the bottom.

It amazes me how this has seemingly been such a low priority item for the Unity Editor team for so long. This is a tool that people are expected to live in for an extended amount of time. This problem needs more widespread recognition than it's getting.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#58

Post by failrate »

scott_karana wrote: post #41
pragmar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think developers looking for Unreal performance from Unity 3d will be disappointed. What Unity has over Unreal is C#, great interactive tools (a live stage within a running game), and the ability to publish to just about anything.

> live stage within a running game Isn't that also a big selling feature of Unreal 4?... > and the ability to publish to just about anything Likewise with Unreal 4, except that they have a flat-rate for platforms, instead of expensive add-ons to support more platforms. (and no browser plugins required!)

Yes, Unreal Engine 4 Editor has a live stage running within it that you can interact with in a very similar manner to Unity. I have worked with both tools and found them similar. The primary motivator for me to choose UE4 is that I always have the option to drop down to C++. I can implement game features or fundamentally change the engine and editor if I have a clear need.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#59

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

michaelbuddy wrote: post #31
Athas wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point of correction: Unreal Engine is not open source, the source is merely available for perusal. You still need a license for most uses.

That being the case, it still has benefits of open source. For example if your game isn't working and you have the skills you may be able to find out exactly why and then have it requested to fix and verify the fix. I would credit them for that and I'm pretty sure that exact scenario has happened for a dev agency.

That's called a shared-source model.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#60

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

evincarofautumn wrote: post #29
Athas wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point of correction: Unreal Engine is not open source, the source is merely available for perusal. You still need a license for most uses.

So the source is open, it’s just not free. (I don’t want to sound like I agree with Stallman. I’m just trying to clarify definitions.)

It's not "open-source" under the usual definition. It's "shared-source".

To be fair, this is a term invented by Microsoft and only used by them, but I think it's accurate.

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