Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free • Hacker News Board

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#131

Post by Detrus » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

archagon wrote: post #57

Has anybody done UE4 dev on lower-end computers? I want to make games that can run on laptops with decent integrated graphics (Iris Pro). Does UE4 allow you to turn down all the fancy effects in order to do this at 60fps?

Last time I tried it on MacBook Pro with integrated graphics, which was 6 months ago, there was no way to turn down enough settings in the editor to make it run acceptably. On Macs with a graphics cards it ran with lag.

Haven't found a list of games made with UE4 to try out the final output, but the simplest demos here open but run at 0.2 fps on Integrated Graphics https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?t=11538

And for phones you can't do much on older hardware. METAL is iOS8 only. So this demo https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epic-zen-garden/id915975445?... starts with iPhone 5S.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#132

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

zzalpha wrote: post #61

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not subject to or constrained by engagements or obligations Free software very much is subject to engagements and obligations, these being the terms of the respective license. Is your argument based on an excessively restrictive, ideologically motivated definition of the word "free" that does not fully represent how the word is used in practice? It's funny, because by your own statement, "open source" is also an exce…

It's funny, because by your own statement, "open source" is also an excessively restrictive and ideologically motivated definition, what with OSI and FSF definitions being largely equivalent. For some reason I doubt you believe this. Why would you say that? I actually explicitly believe that the FSF and OSI have coopted the term "free" in order to bend it to their own definition, while in fact espousing a position th…

> I actually explicitly believe that the FSF and OSI have coopted the term "free" in order to bend it to their own definition, while in fact espousing a position that explicitly advocates for licenses that restrict user freedom in very specific ways.

The OSI doesn't define "free" at all, it defines "open source" via the Open Source Definitions. The FSF defines "free software" via the Free Software Definition. Neither of these definitions restrict user freedoms, though the FSF tends to develop and promote licenses that arguably do so (the licenses the FSF's develops and promotes are not the only licenses it recognizes at fitting the Free Software Definition, which is pretty similar in substance to the OSI's Open Source Definition.)

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#133

Post by antiuniverse » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:05 PM UTC

deelowe wrote: post #28

outworlder wrote: post #9

How does it fare against Unity? My understanding, from previous versions, is that Unity offered a lot more tooling than Unreal. Also, Unreal's SDK demanded a lot of C++ code, which can be unappealing for small studios compared to Unity's Mono and several possible (managed) language choices. However, Unreal appears to be much more capable, and better performing. Also, is Crytek still competitive? It used to be competi…

It's hard to compare unity and unreal. To answer the question about c++, with UE4, the blueprint system removes almost all of that. Entire games can be written in their visual programming language. I also think there are ways to use c# ( https://mono-ue.github.io/ ), if you prefer that as well. C++ is needed if you want to extend the native classes. Regarding the editor, unreal is pretty amazing. It really shines in…

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?52618-Large-S...

According to this thread, as of version 4.6, the maximum supported multiplayer map size out of the box is 20km x 20km. Is this the limitation you were referring to? That wouldn't accommodate an MMORPG or Minecraft, but otherwise seems quite big.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#134

Post by zzalpha » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #132

zzalpha wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny, because by your own statement, "open source" is also an excessively restrictive and ideologically motivated definition, what with OSI and FSF definitions being largely equivalent. For some reason I doubt you believe this. Why would you say that? I actually explicitly believe that the FSF and OSI have coopted the term "free" in order to bend it to their own definition, while in fact espousing a position th…

> I actually explicitly believe that the FSF and OSI have coopted the term "free" in order to bend it to their own definition, while in fact espousing a position that explicitly advocates for licenses that restrict user freedom in very specific ways. The OSI doesn't define "free" at all, it defines "open source" via the Open Source Definitions. The FSF defines "free software" via the Free Software Definition. Neither…

Yeah, fair enough, I shouldn't have mentioned them (to be honest I listed them reflexively because the OP brought 'em up without really thinking about it).

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#135

Post by chippy » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

johntaitorg wrote: post #2

It's available at no charge, but it's not free.

for an open source (MIT licensed) engine that also works in Linux

http://www.godotengine.org/wp/

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#136

Post by nacs » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

archagon wrote: post #57

Has anybody done UE4 dev on lower-end computers? I want to make games that can run on laptops with decent integrated graphics (Iris Pro). Does UE4 allow you to turn down all the fancy effects in order to do this at 60fps?

UE4 even exports to iPhone and Android so I'm sure lower end computers will be fine.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#137

Post by zzalpha » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:11 PM UTC

djur wrote: post #128

zzalpha wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny, because by your own statement, "open source" is also an excessively restrictive and ideologically motivated definition, what with OSI and FSF definitions being largely equivalent. For some reason I doubt you believe this. Why would you say that? I actually explicitly believe that the FSF and OSI have coopted the term "free" in order to bend it to their own definition, while in fact espousing a position th…

Since when does the OSI advocate for copyleft licenses, explicitly or otherwise? It was in fact founded -- and the term "open source" was coined -- in order to advocate for free software licensing separately from the FSF's ethical positions and promotion of copyleft.

Yup, agreed, my mistake.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#138

Post by nacs » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

Detrus wrote: post #126

benihana wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did way more than that. They removed barriers to entry. Unreal becomes available for exploratory actions now. Before there was a $20 entrance fee just to try it out, now I can play with a project for free. You can use it for demonstrations or school projects now with basically zero risk to try it out.

It was really $20 then $20 whenever you want to upgrade. And it's mainly for kids with gaming rigs. Good luck running any demos on Intel Integrated Graphics, much less the editor. Unity can be used for free, with limits on certain features but good enough for school. Runs even on crappy $500 laptops.

As someone that has used both UE and Unity, Unity is far more restrictive in its free state (no soft shadows, forced Unity splash screen, no level of detail support, no inverse kinematics for animations, no profiler, and many more).

Also the Pro license for Unity is pretty expensive up front -- a few hundred for Pro and then another $100-200 for iPhone, another $200 for Android, etc and thats per month (or $4500 one-time payment for desktop + iOS/Android) regardless of how much you make with your game.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#139

Post by nacs » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:20 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #129

How really easy is it to set up a beginner's project with this engine ? I mean it's a commercial engine, it has all the bells and whistles, but how easy is it to learn it ? Does it require one to use the editor to use the engine, or can I start with a simple bit of code and start going from there ? What I hate about unity is the whole interface editor thing, it's big and you must use everything to use it. Is this Unr…

It has a system called Blueprints that allows you to use a node-based system so you don't have to write any code at all.

I haven't used Blueprints myself as I prefer their C++ option but I have seen a number of gamedev streams using Blueprints exclusively.

Re: Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

#140

Post by bumblebeard » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 9:20 PM UTC

morganvachon wrote: post #53

Argorak wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the reason for downvotes. The parent's sentiment is pointed, but has merit. It's initially doesn't cost anything, but if you want to charge for a game, it costs you. You also don't get many freedoms along with it, you gain no rights on the code and are bound to whatever Epic comes up with later.

> It's initially doesn't cost anything, but if you want to charge for a game, it costs you. That's just it though; if you wanted to use this to make a completely free GNU/Linux game, you could, without ever paying a cent to Epic. If you do decide to make a game for profit, it's only when you "make it" that you have to pay for your tools. I see it as a fair and equitable arrangement, where both sides profit if and onl…

Is the source code actually free though? For example, could I redistribute the source code myself and not take any revenue from the people I distributed it to? Could I make some changes to the engine and redistribute it? How would the revenue sharing work if I did something like that and someone using my version of the engine started making money using it?

I'm glad there's another no-cost video game engine available, but I don't think it qualifies as free software in the Free Software Foundation sense of the word free. I haven't seen the actual license though, so maybe it is actually free. It would be awesome if it was.