Live data from Hacker News

Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

unrealengine.com

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#61
post #28
post #26

I've never really considered Unreal Engine. I'm more of a hobbyist making small 2D games, recently picked up Unity (been using SFML and LibGDX before) to make some small games. I guess UE doesn't really target small games? When I think of Unreal Engine I think of AAA FPS Games with amazing graphics, but has anyone actually used it for small indie games? Also nice to see it's opensource, I guess I read the news a coup…

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

I believe that is still considered open source, just not Free, Open Source Software (FOSS). It's basically one point shy of the GPL in that you can't redistribute the source, but modifications are allowed. I believe they even take contributions.

Open source doesn't depend on whether you pay for it.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#62
post #10
post #3

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

More detail on browser limitations would be nice. I know the article states you can ship builds in 32-bit browsers, but are there any significant limitations involved? This would be problematic since, for example, Chrome 64-bit isn't yet the default release build. I really wish there was more comprehensive documentation relating to UE4's limitations in a WebGL context. For example, lighting, shading, post-process eff…

> I know the article states you can ship builds in 32-bit browsers, but are there any significant limitations involved

There shouldn't be any. asm.js is actually a 32-bit target (probably by sheer coincidence since JS only has 32-bit integers).

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#63
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More detail on browser limitations would be nice. I know the article states you can ship builds in 32-bit browsers, but are there any significant limitations involved? This would be problematic since, for example, Chrome 64-bit isn't yet the default release build. I really wish there was more comprehensive documentation relating to UE4's limitations in a WebGL context. For example, lighting, shading, post-process eff…

This is problematic since, for example, Chrome 64-bit isn't yet the default release build. Surprisingly enough, there isn't even an official supported build of Firefox 64-bit for Windows. Coupled with the Chrome issue you mentioned, I'll bet that at least 80% of users out there aren't using a 64-bit browser.

There used to be a 64-bit Firefox, I think it was short-sighted of Mozilla to drop it.

Oh well.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#64

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

I really, really, REALLY hope that Unity fixes their editor UI in version 5 (I haven't tried the beta yet, so maybe it's the case already), but as it stands right now I can't use Unity for long stretches (visual impairment). The font rendering in the editor is terrible, even at 1920x1200 the text is too small (froget about Retina even). This has been a problem with Unity for YEARS, which is a shame because it's a gre…

I rather like the font rendering in Unity. Text and screen elements are tightly-spaced, small, and compact, just as good power-user software should be

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#65

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 don't know compared to Unreal but Unity has several hidden performance issues. I am currently working on Bullet Boy [1] and we had several obscure problems that you have to fix with a lot of trial and error. Specific combinations of components and attributes can cause frame rate to drop because of the internal organization of the engine (moving colliders without rigidbodies comes to mind). That being said, it is re…

Great game! Good luck finishing it!

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#66
post #52
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.

Xamarin supports C# for Unreal with Mono: http://mono-ue.github.io/

Careful about that one. It's out of date, and half baked.

You need to build unreal from source for it to work(!), and their doco refers to UE 4.4 .....

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#67
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.

I believe that is still considered open source, just not Free, Open Source Software (FOSS). It's basically one point shy of the GPL in that you can't redistribute the source, but modifications are allowed. I believe they even take contributions. Open source doesn't depend on whether you pay for it.

The OSI definition of open source (which was the original coinage) requires that users be able to redistribute the source. Companies have been licensing the source to game engines for ages, but that's not open source.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And I think the key differentiator between MS-style shared source and Unreal is that Unreal takes contributions.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#69

Can this be used as a standalone 3d Engine without it being scene based for iOS applications? That is the big issue with Unity - and most engines actually - which keeps us from using it. We can't find a robust (UE/Unity level) mobile 3D Engine that is not scene based or just built for level based games.

Not sure what the exact ask is here. Are you building an open world or virtual world game? Do you just want a 3D renderer without the game engine? Both Unity and Unreal 4 can be used for non-level based games, and Unreal has some special facilities to support that (world compositor specifically - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/LevelStreami... ).

Looking for an open world/3D renderer for AR rendering that can handle a lot of Polygons, textures and lighting. We don't need a game engine with physics and all that as it is but down the line, physics might be handy. A lot of the renderers like Ogre3D do too much file handling - we need something more bare bones.

OpenGL is what we are using but we would like something more powerful.

Re: Unreal Engine 4.7 Released

#70
post #37

Can this be used as a standalone 3d Engine without it being scene based for iOS applications? That is the big issue with Unity - and most engines actually - which keeps us from using it. We can't find a robust (UE/Unity level) mobile 3D Engine that is not scene based or just built for level based games.

Why is that an issue on iOS? Genuinely curious.

Depends on the application. For us we just need an open 3D rendering engine that allows for good lighting and textures.
Post reply on HN