Unreal Engine 3 is........... free (for non-commercial use)

http://www.udk.com

Slowly the whole situation is getting.... unreal

thanks for pointing out.

LAWL, every engine in the world is free now

this is going great, soon all engines will be free for non-com use

Take a look at licensing. That's insane!

Seems to be a very reasonable deal.

UE3 $2500 per seat, Torque3d dies.

so if your game doesnt sell you pay nothing?

if it earns less than 5000 (including everything related like sponsoring) you pay nothing, as far as I understood.

it sounds great.

Sounds very tempting

Sounds extremely fair as most indies wouldn't mind paying 2.500$ to earn 12.500$.

And many people starting with game dev probably won't even make the 5000$ mark.

Now the question is just,
what is really required for
the worklow,
and does it have a good documentation

(plus, it probably sounds cooler
when gooing to a publisher, and say: I use the
Unreal engine, instead of: I use a 3D!GameStudio )

I'm downloading now. Unfortunately the SDK won't run on my laptop (first minus ) but I'll check this weekend whether I like it or not.

And depending ont hat I'll see which tool to take.

I did some testing with the Unreal engine a few months ago. The work-flow is ok, but you have to learn it. Some options are a bit hidden. The model import is not very fast. You have to import the mesh, create materials, apply materials. It is not an automatic process. UE3 handles shading very exactly. A completely smoothed model looks ugly in UE3. You have to carefully check hard edges and smoothing groups.
But if you do all this then you can create beautiful sceneries.

The level editor is not that different compared to WED. You can use cg brushes, booleans, automatic texturing. But you can also use static meshes with thousands of polygons and static shadows are still very good. The level and lighting compilers work fast and reliable. It is really fun if you once worked with WED.

I am not sure about scripting and programming. It looks like there is a graphical and a text based scripting language (object oriented approach). I did not find any hints about a C++ API.

I was shocked about the fact that there is everything included, AI and even SpeedTree. How can indie engines survive this?

But at Dexsoft we are really happy. A lot of new game developers can start this hobby now. Many modders will start commercial projects. It will be a great time.

Good.
Maybe you can offer Unreal-Adapted versions of your models then,
so you can quickly service the new UDK developers needs.

but weren't older versions of the unreal engine also free already for non-commercial use? i remember some free unreal engine 2 runtime which was quite popular in the mod community.

Weren't those releases tied to Unreal?
Don't know.

I remember downloading the UE2 runtime, but I think it was only intended for evaluation of the engine's abilities and it had a very limited set of features.

i don't think so. they were standalone engines without any game content. i think the unreal tournament 2003 engine also got offered this way.

so this isn't really anything new. just a lot more publicity now...


i think the engines had the full features. i am not sure if they came with editors but unrealed was available with some games anyway. they even offered very cheap (compared to the $350000 or whatever it normally costs) commercial licenses for successful indie projects.

Woooowwwww !
What is going on , is the end of the world coming that fast ?

Well , perhaps they want to be more popular and parhaps make money income even with studios doing little casual/arcade games that could sell a lot ?
Or they want to make it popular : it could be recommending by people that would have tried it inside a game company for example !
There's some strategy !

Well , don't sure but i think you need 3DSMAX or Maya (not cheap modeler for exporting things).

And if like Frank_G said , you have to be carefull on triangle strips, and the workflow don't seem to be direct for materials: it could be more a pain to do a simple project than using another indie engine !

For beginners or new people to 3D , or people wanting to do some things fast, it's too complicated.
Even more all oriented programming people will stick to indie engines i think, caus they master all features easily.



It has some big power, but do you have enough big 3D talent to really use it's potential ?

But be caful using this for casual games, I just downloaded
the "Whizzle" game from the UDK page.
It looks nice, but runs with quite low FPS (too slow given the
complexity of the scenery)
They should have added some Graphic options to turn of the
shaders.

cool, i´ll check this out

i've read the tutorial for creating the little game.
It have some bunch of programming, but it's ok.

And it's for owners of 3DSAMX (export animated models with ActorX).
If you make and sell a game, you'll have to possess a legal version of 3DSMAX :
Any organism or Discreet company could ask you :
you use UT3 engine , so show us you have a legal version

Not for all indie people, when you see the price of 3DSMAX today.

Cryteck engine have lot more power and powerfull editor, and a real complete terrain engine.
I don't think you will see this last one for Free.

I just wanted repeat my own words from antoher topic lol

it doesn't matter if u have talent for this or not, but it is one of those things everyone should work with if he gets the chance, it's the ferrari of the engines I will playaround with it just to say I have worked with unreal engine but I probably will use for the next Time Unity as my standard engine for games. Since its release I like it everyday a litte bit much, its very powerfull even without the pro feautures :-)

but to everyone, download unreal engine and try it, this is history of gamedev be part of it even only for a moment

well, my first try was to run one of those delivered demo levels (DM Deck) and voila a total system hang. really cool at least it was looking good for about 5 seconds...

well, i guess its because i am using an ati 4850 hd

last time i talked to crytek engineer, they told me ue3 and cryengine2/3 are on completely diffrent tracks and can't really be compared. he said the both engines are AWESOME, both has it's flaws and advantages.

@ello, i tired the same level, works like a charm(i choesd the on pc option btw.), it works as good as ut3 works for me.

i now tried the in editor option and only that works. guess its the ati card which has problems with fullscreen

I'm very keen to get my hands on this. If I get time at the beginning of next year I might like to sit down and make a demo in all the top free engines I can get my hands on.

Jibb

I was shocked by this offer, but when I tried the whizzle demo, I knew this isn't the engine for me, at least not for my sort of projects.
The whizzle demo has a very simple scene low resolution, unplayable framerate and no option to change that, yet...
Sure, it is my pc, but HL2 runs fine - maybe, valve follows epicgames tommorrow!

The developers of that demo simply did not
develop it for a casual game audience..
Used too many expensive effects.
(basically they suck)
I wonder how the framerate is, without these effects..

I think you are mistaken. there is few exporter for blender. Just google a bit and you'll see.


cheers

interesting (also unity3d indie free) but ever see more simple to use the gamestudio
I hope also intenseX release anytime
and then is enought for me

http://www.katsbits.com/htm/tools_utilities.htm

blender ase exporter

This might be true for this special case, but it is easy to change materials and post processing in the Unreal editor.
And besides that I would not make a little casual game for your web platform with UE3. There is still TGB and Unity3d for such a project. And they will survive because of this market niche they fill.
Dont expect UE technology to run fast like hell on your old programmer laptop. It is an advanced technology with lots of bundled features like AI, SpeedTree, SceneManagement and a complex shader system. It is not a minimal Java 3d engine.

So this demo is obviously not intended to run on an iPhone.

I see it this way: the market changed a lot with this offer. Cheap and free indie engines will have a hard time now. They need a niche. TGB has a good niche to create 2d games. Unity still has the option to make iPhone and Wii games. Maybe Wintermute still can live with the 2.5d approach for adventure games.

But all the technologies that basicall tried to be something like Unreal with a cheaper price set (C4, Torque3d, Leadwerks and Gamestudio) have stronger and cheaper competition now. Some hardcore fans will still use it but new customers will simply check demos, tools and power and will use UE3 in the end, if they have big dreams. And I can assure you, most of the beginners start with big dreams (me and all my friends included).

So this is the time to find a market niche for each product, to specialize it (platforms, game style, editor approach).
But in the end the market will experience a fast consolidation.

But, it is nonsense to place such a game example on their side. Irritating to see such a lack of 'feeling' for the needs of casual games by the epic games, then.

well, whizzle runs smooth on my pc and shows some nice visuals... and that way it just shows of that even you can make a game with it

Guess it's better than providing an almost 10 year old office map

Fiddling around with it. Obviously got some things to get used to...

I always took a built-in script editor (such as SED) for granted. Really UDK? All this and no integrated script editor?

I guess I've got a very different flow to get used to

Jibb

well but it has kismet a really powerful visual scripting tool, its easy to use and maybe good to make first steps in scripting with unreal engine

KisMet is nice, but I think it's more targeted at triggering level-specific events, rather than doing some serious programming. UnrealScript is very similar to Java, in a great way. I'm very familiar with Java and want to get my hands dirty, but it just feels incomplete having to use a third-party editor.

Jibb

There is a bunch of script editors for Unreal script:
http://chimeric.beyondunreal.com/tools.php

Thanks Frank. I'll probably stick with something like CodeBlocks or ConTEXT; just wanted to express a gripe I had with the lack of something that is kinda overlooked amongst us GS users, I think. I guess the dozens of large powerhouse companies that use Unreal Engine 3 have no use for an integrated script editor

Jibb

For Casual or little games, using UT3 looks like taking a tank to destroy a bird !

why people keep saying we can't use other tool than 3dsmax and Maya

http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?p=1356311

Maybe I4m mistaken but it look like a fairly good exporter to me.

Didn't know that : good news !
Is there any demo showing that, or does someone have tried it successfully ?
It could finally open the engine to real beginners or indies if it was the case : no need for a very expensive 3DSMAX license perhaps !

You let me no choice now , than downloading UT3 and trying it to see if it is easy to create something with it !

Well just looking at this documentation shows that big potential it has and that you will need a big learning curve :
Animation docs

Like some people said, they don't find documentation very good for free version, but there's some wiki :
UT3 wiki

Perhaps things will change within some months : more users tutorials.

For now you will find lot lot more documentation and example with A7

First approach :
Its like UT2 with shaders on top.
Interface has not changed a lot from UT2 : it is not very intuitive like the icons.
Terrain is same old system, it's not an engine terrain oriented like Crysis engine.

Lot of panels, hard to understand or play with it without documentation; lot less intuitive than Unity 3D.

Well i'll try some simple tutorials if i find ones on the net to see if it's possible to really pull out something cool from it without too much effort and trys ?

i don't like the idea that it can't be used for commercial use. the others can. is the learning curve and price easier or something?

Start with the free version, pay $99 when you want to go commercial, and then they get royalties for sales over $5000. Not a bad deal when you consider it used to be completely beyond the budget of anyone here.

For me, I'm learning to use it because it's just good to have experience with the tools so many big fellas use. In the end, though, I don't see a reason to go past A7, which doesn't ask for any royalties.

Stuff like this worries me a little (from the forum):
Although I guess if that's their interface for materials, perhaps you can do just as much with the "HLSL custom node" as you could writing custom shaders from scratch. I certainly hope so, anyway. Another thing I took for granted with A7 is the limitless and straight-forward shader programming.

Jibb

Even with buying 3D Max and Zbrush , it's not that expensive , 3d Max is like $3500 , and Zbrush under $700 (I think). That's a little over $4000, that's VERY cheap , a good pc can run you just as much. Now consider , that the Unreal Engine 3 license was around $750,000 (estimate) to be able to use the engine for commercial purposes. So , that's $750,000 less than you needed to be able to make a commercial game with the engine. That's a fucking HUGE discount. We now all have the technology the professionals have in our hands , and free , what more can one ask for ? For them to make the game for us and send us a check ? LOL

Unfortunately Max is more than 5,000 Euros here (around 7,000 $) in Europe. I dont know why, but maybe they add some service and taxes but it is ridiculous.

But I understand your point.

The blender plugin looks interesting. We have to research this.

No.

3ds max 2010: 4.641,00 Euro (including 19% TAX)
Maya 2010: 4.641,00 Euro (including 19% TAX)

Prices from www.3dpowerstore.de ...

Blender exporter is cool way.
Caus buying 3DSMAX just for playing is very high price !

In Indie domaine there is no professionnal skilled NExt Gen team : You won't see Gears Of War 2 like pictures
Lot of people here are beginners , indies , people not sure to make a game :
A LOT EVEN WILL NOT SALE ANY COMPLETE GAME WITHIN YEARS OR NEVER !

UT3 si really for Next Gen, if you plan to use simple charaters and levels without normal maps, just stick with more indie engines.

Ask you that questions :
- Am i lonewolf or do i have a Next Gen team
- Will i be able to make a AAA game , that needs a AAA Engine
and Big Tools ?
- Do i have great 3D Next Gen Skills , do i have already
showed next gen things in forums ? to need Zbrush and 3DSMAX

To play, and finally sell nothing , Blender exporter for Unreal really sufficient i think.
(people targetting to work on 3D industry, well it's another story and they can buy expensive tools and use UT3 , it's another totally different story !!)

Even with UT2 free to do mods for years , there has been no game made with it that have been on shelves or that have
made talk a lot about it !

I think it will be the same with UT3 : lot of people playing,
only some two or three real little professionnal studios will perhaps show and sell something.
Caus over 5000$ , the price can be fairly hight.

when someone succeed in making the blender plugin work can he let us know.

I haven't try it myself but as soon I came back home I may have a look too.

ratchet, you are a lone wolf but if you were going to tag with for exampel for or five friend and start to work on a game or build a company ( which many people do) 5000 $ would be nothing compare to waht you'll need to invest. But people do it all the time. Small studio keep opening their doors. So instead of spending 1 year building a engine not good as ut3 you could start working directly and find an investor or do preorder or such.

So yea for the hobbyist it's kind of ridiculous to spend that much money on a tool but for others who are aiming to be legitimate game developpers ( I mean in a team and such ) this is nothing compare to what they have to face a month ago.

This deal for sure is interesting for people who want to recommend themselves for a job in the gaming industry later.

I have worked with the U3 engine certainly is more impressive than I've worked with Acknex or I've worked with Unity.

There are many people who want to improve their skills and not build a complete game - and they'll love this offer.

http://code.google.com/p/steam-punk-pirates-mod/wiki/TutorialPage

I haven't try it yet ( I don't have my computer ) but sounds like a beginning.

The way I see it if you're a lonewolf, then modding Unreal is probably easier than making everything yourself from scratch with an indie engine. Particularly if you're making a first person shooter game since it's a fully functional multiplayer shooter to begin with. I don't think any indie engine provides such a solid and reliable foundation to build on. I think it's the right choice for my project so I'm switching to it.