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

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

#31

Post by walru » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

scott_karana wrote: post #3

It appears they've backed off on the royalties, too: originally, it was 5% of gross[1], and now it's 5% of gross after $3000 sales per quarter.[2] 1 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4 2 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free

I've always wanted to know how the 5% royalty is enforced.

Other, much lesser known, engines have attempted to do something of this sort by acting as an intermediary eg. publisher, planning to pay developers after they were paid by Apple. For obvious reasons that was immediately dismembered by the community.

The only way I can figure is they'll ask for an iTunes connect login so they can check on the numbers for themselves.

Speaking as a developer, it just sounds like something to be avoided from the start.

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

#32

Post by zzalpha » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #26

drivingmenuts wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's free enough for most hobbyist game developers, many of whom will never make enough (or anything at all, really) from their games to matter. You want ideological purity? Go write your own system.

"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.

Yes, you're right, the word "free" does have specific connotations. Those include, but are not limited to:

- not subject to or constrained by engagements or obligations

- given or available without charge

So, is the product free, as in available without charge, as implied by the clause "available for free"? Yes.

Is it free, as in not subject to or constrained by engagements or obligations, something that is in no way implied by the content of the article? No.

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?

Yes.

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

#33

Post by legohead » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

Has anyone got it to install? I downloaded installer for Mac (57mb), and when I launch/login, it says "No Engine installed", but no links on how to install the engine. My profile has a link to download the engine, but it just downloads the installer again.

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

#34

Post by pestaa » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

archagon wrote: post #19

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…

My understanding is that Crytek is in some financial trouble. It would be unwise to rely on them for future support.

Crytek claims otherwise in an IGN article from last year[0], although the circumstances are quite suspicious.

How could a company so successful not turn profit?

[0]: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/24/crytek-reportedly-in-...

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

#35

Post by vlunkr » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:36 PM UTC

mattdotc wrote: post #16

Wow, this is great. I really have no excuses now to not be playing with this on my downtime.

They're probably hoping that's what everyone will think. They're losing their monthly profit but also dropping the barrier of entry to almost nothing.

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

#36

Post by benologist » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

vamur wrote: post #14

tootie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's free as in a bank loan with no time frame for repayment.

It's a positive development, not sure the negative comments. 5% is chump change if a game is successfull. The engine is also open source (so no hidden malware), runs on Linux and WebGL.

At $3000/product/quarter it will also be completely free for many indie game and app developers while they try and build something people want.

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

#37

Post by winslow » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

legohead wrote: post #33

Has anyone got it to install? I downloaded installer for Mac (57mb), and when I launch/login, it says "No Engine installed", but no links on how to install the engine. My profile has a link to download the engine, but it just downloads the installer again.

You install the engine through the launcher. At least this is how it works on windows I assume it works similarly on mac.

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

#38

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

arikrak wrote: post #27

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…

If you don't need the C++ performance, my guess is it makes more sense to go with Unity and use their C# version.

Actually Unity will be compiling C# to native code via IL2CPP to avoid paying royalties[0] for more recent Xamarin versions.

[0] At least that is how I read the whole situation

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

#39

Post by romaniv » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

scott_karana wrote: post #3

It appears they've backed off on the royalties, too: originally, it was 5% of gross[1], and now it's 5% of gross after $3000 sales per quarter.[2] 1 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4 2 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free

Does $3000 reset every quarter or it it a one-tune limit? Is it (gross - $3000) * .05 or gross .05 when the condition is met?

The phrasing is ambiguous, unless I'm missing some grammar rules. And no, I'm not asking out of pedantry.

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

#40

Post by drx » Mon, Mar 02, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

walru wrote: post #31

scott_karana wrote: post #3

It appears they've backed off on the royalties, too: originally, it was 5% of gross[1], and now it's 5% of gross after $3000 sales per quarter.[2] 1 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4 2 https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-is-free

I've always wanted to know how the 5% royalty is enforced. Other, much lesser known, engines have attempted to do something of this sort by acting as an intermediary eg. publisher, planning to pay developers after they were paid by Apple. For obvious reasons that was immediately dismembered by the community. The only way I can figure is they'll ask for an iTunes connect login so they can check on the numbers for them…

Lawsuits.

I imagine the revenue distribution would follow a power law here. So it would only really make sense for Epic to go after non-compliant "whales", where the unpaid royalties exceed the legal costs.

Also, the more profitable the project, the lower the non-compliance rate, probably. It makes little sense to defy the royalty agreement if you have a successful project.