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

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

#201

Post by nightski » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #112

nightski wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you are constrained by obligations. The obligation to pay a % of revenue. I mean I think the model is great. But calling it free is ridiculous.

It's hardly ridiculous when you consider where we just came from, the era of $250,000 - $500,000 source access engines. You're not constrained by obligations if you choose not to make money with your product. So yes, it can be free of charge and free of obligations. Developers have to earn money somehow, unless you want Unreal to cease to exist. This model not only makes perfect sense, the product can absolutely be f…

I wasn't whining. Just stating that it wasn't free - because it surely is not.

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

#202

Post by alexgrist » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 3:04 AM UTC

jameshart wrote: post #169

stonemetal wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter. Not only does it reset per quarter, it is per product as well.

That seems pretty gameable (and who would be better at gaming systems than games devs?). "Oh, yeah, we made $2999 on Gem Clan Quest, then $2999 on Gem Clan Quest Super Deluxe Edition, and $2999 on the Gem Clan Quest Candy Kingdom DLC, which is more of a sequel really, so it's a totally different product..."

I think maybe this falls under the EULA?

"6. Records and Audits

You agree to keep accurate books and records related to your development, manufacture, Distribution, and sale of Products and related revenue. Epic may conduct reasonable audits of those books and records. Audits will be conducted during business hours on reasonable prior notice to you. Epic will bear the costs of audits unless the results show a shortfall in payments in excess of 5% during the period audited, in which case you will be responsible for the cost of the audit."

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

#203

Post by alexgrist » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 3:08 AM UTC

antiuniverse wrote: post #133

deelowe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't that the use case for Level Streaming?

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

#204

Post by Shorel » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 3:37 AM UTC

valarauca1 wrote: post #7

The Unreal Engine is free neither as beer, or freedom. Its free as in a mob protection money is given freely , with a lot of strings attached. Overall a very smart strategy. Free Software Walled Gardens I highly believe will start to become a common thing in the software industry. As you get most the benefits of Free Software, without the normally feared industry risks.

I have always believed that the base operating system, and general libraries should be Libre, but individual applications should not need to be restricted this way.

This brings the best of both worlds. Freedom in the foundations, and an incentive to have real innovation in end user apps.

But patents and copyrights should expire after ten years.

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

#205

Post by nightski » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 3:45 AM UTC

pushrax wrote: post #160

fuzar wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's conditionally free. If it were unconditionally free that would permit you to use the term without question or having people call bullshit. When they do call bullshit, which is to be expected, it's absurd to go around accusing them of whining and being ridiculous. Get a grip.

Isn't "conditionally free" still free?

Tell you what. I'll come work for your company for free except any revenue over 3k I'll take 5% of.

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

#206

Post by toufique » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 4:09 AM UTC

I'm hiring a technical Product Manager to work with the Unreal Engine. E-mail me if you're interested in the space, toufique at Google's e-mail service.com

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

#207

Post by _nedR » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 4:37 AM UTC

drivingmenuts wrote: post #92

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Ideological purity" is irrelevant. The point here is that people are abusing terminology to create ambiguity. As we are talking about software, the term "free" has specific connotations that differ from everyday language. UE4 is a source-available, gratis game engine. This is fine. It is not open source, nor is it free or libre.

> "Ideological purity" is irrelevant. The point here is that people are abusing terminology to create ambiguity. As we are talking about software, the term "free" has specific connotations that differ from everyday language. UE4 is a source-available, gratis game engine. This is fine. It is not open source, nor is it free or libre. OK, maybe it's better to call it "we're-not-gonna-be-a-dick-about-it" license.

English is context-sensitive language. When reading "Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free" it was pretty clear to me (and I assume most people here) from the phrasing and context that they weren't releasing it in a copy-left license or even as open-source (Actually source code access is given).

Now if they had said "Unreal Engine is now available as free software" that would have been more confusing and misleading.

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

#208

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 4:49 AM UTC

ffn wrote: post #147

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…

In my opinion, if you're just a hobbyist programmer who want to experiment building games on the side, it makes more sense to build your MVP demo using humble html5 canvas (I personally use pixijs, but things like threejs or whatnot might be more appropriate depending on your idea). This is because building a good indie game is a big commitment requiring lots of time (which is money), and unless you're building this…

[deleted]

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

#209

Post by hayksaakian » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 4:57 AM UTC

shadowmint wrote: post #186

deelowe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Regarding the editor, unreal is pretty amazing. If it runs. ...and that's a big IF. The editor ran like absolute rubbish originally on macs, to the point where it was actually unusable. They've done a lot of work on that, but it's still miles away from the unity editor. I think it's really hard to argue the unreal editor is better; it's a lot slower , but it does have some nice tools. You also can't create extensions…

what about macs running windows? i'm curious to know if it's a hardware issue or OSX related.

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

#210

Post by alok-g » Tue, Mar 03, 2015, 5:08 AM UTC

malkia wrote: post #30

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…

Can you even compare them :) Evaluation of software, be it library, framework, sdk or a whole engine+tools is much much harder than writing actual software, especially when royalties, copyright and other legal issues are involved. In reality there is no way of knowing what would do your best, so you can look at specific bad parts and take that into decision making, for example, for what I've heard (and possibly it co…

Thanks for a great review of both.

I am confused, so is Unreal unable to do 60 Hz?

Do you have any experience with the UI system or know about any projects using it? I wonder what Gotchas or limitations may exist.