Unreal Engine and Unity are both free!

[starcrescendo]

So, I don't know if this is old news by now to most people or not but Unreal Engine 4 and Unity are both free (*kinda) now. I'm currently downloading Unreal Engine to play around with (will take forever at 4GB @_@). Has anyone else seen this?

What do you think of the news, and how does it relate to the next RPG Maker?

Personally, I love what Unreal is doing now. The Engine is free to use and even release games on until you make over $3,000 in a quarter, and then they want 5% of profits. I think that's a fair deal.

I know RPG Maker has got both engines beat on ease-of-use without learning programming, but I'm interested to try and see how hard programming can be? I need a challenge, lol

 

[Kyuukon]

I'm glad to see different engines competing with each other. Developers (and thus gamers) will greatly benefit from it !

 

[Bloodmorphed]

You've got to understand programming isn't just writing something to make something work. You have to know about computers, and not just basics. *shrugs* It's harder then what people may make it seem.

 

[EternalShadow]

5% is a pretty good deal, unless you are making hundreds of thousands or something crazy.

 

[Kyuukon]

You've got to understand programming isn't just writing something to make something work. You have to know about computers, and not just basics. *shrugs* It's harder then what people may make it seem.

I believe the hardest part to come by of those engines are the resources (graphics especifically).

 

[GraveBusta]

You've got to understand programming isn't just writing something to make something work. You have to know about computers, and not just basics. *shrugs* It's harder then what people may make it seem.

No one language is the same, so saying it's required to know how computers work is extreme, but you do need at least script coding otherwise you will be stuck buying thousands of dollars worth of scripts and resources to make it work,especially if you want RPG elements implemented.

 

[Shaz]

I believe the hardest part to come by of those engines are the resources (graphics especifically).

You must not be familiar with the Unity store


I've played with Unity, before they brought in the 2D implementation. It was confusing trying to adapt 3D mechanics to a 2D game, but I liked the editor and the scripting (gave you a choice of 3 languages when I used it - I think they were C#, Javascript, and some other that I'd never heard of).


The lure of Unity is the ease of developing for mobile devices, though I'm still not sure if you can just have a single project and build for different devices, or if you have to state (and stick with) a specific device at the start of the project.


I'll revisit it one day.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

Both are are tempting to mess around with, but coding would be over my head and my boyfriend seems to have no time to work on our RM game except for an hour...

 

[EternalShadow]

Unity graphics are verrrrrry expensive though, as are Unreal's - compared to RM.

 

[Galenmereth]

Unreal Engine 4 has a visual coding system called Blueprints. Think of them like the event system in RM except you can also access all the C++ functions they call directly, and create new ones as well.

Here's a short video where some dev at Epic makes a simple 2D game using UE4 and Blueprints only -- not a single line of code: https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/shipping-tappy-chicken

Graphics for UE4 and Unity, like any 3D engine, are a lot more expensive usually, and it's harder to get into than 2d illustrations or pixel art. That is the big drawback of 3D engines. The upfront complexity and learning curve is also vastly different. But personally, after The Vendor, I'm going to collaborate with a few friends on a UE4 game. For me UE4 is just the absolute best alternative for 3D engines now because of one huge element: the source code is open sourced, and you are allowed to do whatever you want with it. That is absolutely huge. It means I -- and anyone else -- can modify the editor and engine however we want, to make it do exactly what we want, without having to wait for Epic to do it for us. The pricing model -- 5% of gross profits -- might sound like a bad deal if you plan to earn a lot, but with the engine on offer and the open source nature of it, it's a steal.

 

[EternalShadow]

Another disadvantage of said 3D engines is that they are very hard for people who can't see 3D to even use (like me: I can't see meshes/perspective without textures)

 

[GraveBusta]

You must not be familiar with the Unity store

I've played with Unity, before they brought in the 2D implementation. It was confusing trying to adapt 3D mechanics to a 2D game, but I liked the editor and the scripting (gave you a choice of 3 languages when I used it - I think they were C#, Javascript, and some other that I'd never heard of).

The lure of Unity is the ease of developing for mobile devices, though I'm still not sure if you can just have a single project and build for different devices, or if you have to state (and stick with) a specific device at the start of the project.

I'll revisit it one day.

I been to Unity store if you do not have a team it does get pricey compared to here and their tutorials are not for beginners UDK and Unreal Engine both offer far better support and tutorials making it far more worth starting out as a beginner to engines alien to RM, at least to me. 

Both are are tempting to mess around with, but coding would be over my head and my boyfriend seems to have no time to work on our RM game except for an hour...

I feel you coding is one of those world problems that have way too many solutions so learning to code without someone holding your hand through can be a real pain in the neck.

Unity graphics are verrrrrry expensive though, as are Unreal's - compared to RM.

Yes,but these engines are made to look professional so of course they are gonna try emptying as many pockets as they can, you're better off as a team if you cannot make your own resources 

Unreal Engine 4 has a visual coding system called Blueprints. Think of them like the event system in RM except you can also access all the C++ functions they call directly, and create new ones as well.

Here's a short video where some dev at Epic makes a simple 2D game using UE4 and Blueprints only -- not a single line of code: https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/shipping-tappy-chicken

Graphics for UE4 and Unity, like any 3D engine, are a lot more expensive usually, and it's harder to get into than 2d illustrations or pixel art. That is the big drawback of 3D engines. The upfront complexity and learning curve is also vastly different. But personally, after The Vendor, I'm going to collaborate with a few friends on a UE4 game. For me UE4 is just the absolute best alternative for 3D engines now because of one huge element: the source code is open sourced, and you are allowed to do whatever you want with it. That is absolutely huge. It means I -- and anyone else -- can modify the editor and engine however we want, to make it do exactly what we want, without having to wait for Epic to do it for us. The pricing model -- 5% of gross profits -- might sound like a bad deal if you plan to earn a lot, but with the engine on offer and the open source nature of it, it's a steal.

So scripting is not necessary for Action RPGS?

 

[Galenmereth]

@Hotfirelegend: Since the engines have 2D suppor too now, you don't have to use them for 3D. Also, UE4 does a great job at displaying objects as textured in-editor. Take a look at this:

 

So scripting is not necessary for Action RPGS?

You might hit a point somewhere where you might have to add some blueprint functionality, but from what I've seen, not necessarily no.

 

[EternalShadow]

Aah, much better. I couldn't see Unity's 3D. Might still have perspective issues when placing stuff, though.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I feel you coding is one of those world problems that have way too many solutions so learning to code without someone holding your hand through can be a real pain in the neck.

I hear you have to be good at math and stuff to be a good "coder". That stuff goes over my head. I'm a slow learner and *very* forgetful. That's why he deals with all that "fun stuff". So unless he wanted to learn a new engine, I won't even bother. We could always wait until after our current game, which we started like 4 years ago, and it still has no content...

OMG 4 YEARS AND NO CONTENT!?

I just realized this. Something is wrong with us.

Yeah, switching would be a terrible idea.

 

[GraveBusta]

I hear you have to be good at math and stuff to be a good "coder". That stuff goes over my head. I'm a slow learner and *very* forgetful. That's why he deals with all that "fun stuff". So unless he wanted to learn a new engine, I won't even bother. We could always wait until after our current game, which we started like 4 years ago, and it still has no content...

OMG 4 YEARS AND NO CONTENT!?

I just realized this. Something is wrong with us.

Yeah, switching would be a terrible idea.

Most of the math to me seems pretty basic... but to me it's not the math that gets me it's the whole process.I suppose that is why they call it a language its learning to think in an entirely different nature much like trying to learn Japanese when raised to speak English  

 

[Tsukihime]

Unreal Engine 4 has a visual coding system called Blueprints. Think of them like the event system in RM except you can also access all the C++ functions they call directly, and create new ones as well.


Here's a short video where some dev at Epic makes a simple 2D game using UE4 and Blueprints only -- not a single line of code: https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/shipping-tappy-chicken

So it's basically script calls in C++ instead of Ruby?


I could pass in a formula and have it evaluated at run-time like in RPG Maker?

 

[Galenmereth]

So it's basically script calls in C++ instead of Ruby?

I could pass in a formula and have it evaluated at run-time like in RPG Maker?

Pretty much. And yes you could.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I wonder how *easy* it would be to learn... It's all very intriguing!

 

[Galenmereth]

Unreal Engine 4 has a lot of great videos to cover the basics all up to advanced use, so it's at least much easier to get into than most.