Unity 2018.1 Previews The New Scriptable Render Pipeline & HD Render Pipeline

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Unity 2018.1 Previews The New Scriptable Render Pipeline & HD Render Pipeline

Unity Technologies has unveiled Unity 2018.1 as the latest stable release of their cross-platform, widely-used commercial game engine...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Unity-2018.1-Released

[Herem]

Wow the Unity developers are really stepping up their game recently!

Some of those scenes look very realistic, can't wait to see this level of graphic fidelity creeping into some games.

[J?rnS]

Unity is really an awesome game engine. I'm using it for like 6 months now and I could not be much more happy with it :-)

In 20 or 30 years I will have my project (game like Neverwinter Nights) ready for release, I think... ;-)

[kpedersen]

In 20 or 30 years I will have my project (game like Neverwinter Nights) ready for release, I think... ;-)

Lets hope in that time Unity will have open-sourced their product rather than take it to the grave like Adobe did with Flash... or you won't actually be able to release your game to current platforms in 20 years .

And that is my one issue with game making products like Unity. UE4 and CryEngine have a massive edge here in that the source is available (albeit under a non-free license) so you can maintain it yourself.

[tessio]

Lets hope in that time Unity will have open-sourced their product rather than take it to the grave like Adobe did with Flash... or you won't actually be able to release your game to current platforms in 20 years .

And that is my one issue with game making products like Unity. UE4 and CryEngine have a massive edge here in that the source is available (albeit under a non-free license) so you can maintain it yourself.

If the license is non-free, how you can maintain it? If you could maintain it, it would be free by definition.

[kpedersen]

If the license is non-free, how you can maintain it? If you could maintain it, it would be free by definition.

Not at all. *I* would be able to maintain it because I would have both the source code *and* paid for a license. However, *you* aka my user would not be able to maintain it (unlike if the entire codebase was under the GPL). So the "freedom" does not carry through down the hierarchy. Which is the crucial thing for free software.

However, for my UE4 projects I don't care if my users can maintain my product so for all intents and purposes, I get all the benefits and am not affected by the rest.

Whereas Unity does not do source code access, regardless of what lies they have told the kids.

[tessio]

Not at all. *I* would be able to maintain it because I would have both the source code *and* paid for a license. However, *you* aka my user would not be able to maintain it (unlike if the entire codebase was under the GPL). So the "freedom" does not carry through down the hierarchy. Which is the crucial thing for free software.

However, for my UE4 projects I don't care if my users can maintain my product so for all intents and purposes, I get all the benefits and am not affected by the rest.

Whereas Unity does not do source code access, regardless of what lies they have told the kids.

How much for the Unreal 4 license?

[kpedersen]

It is on their website (as a guide) but it actually differs when you contact them directly. Ours was a bit of a special case because it is an arcade game for some museums. We went with a revenue share of around 10% rather than an upfront cost. I find it a tad steep but it allows us to advertise "The same engine as COD"

The game itself is using real (albeit decommissioned) weapons which I have put sensors in so the screen can detect aiming (kinda similar to the old lightgun technology but working on LCD monitors). Now this is where maintenance is important. The game cabinet can be updated with new weapons and scenarios to match the weapons. We are also aiming to keep this system in place for many years to come. I am imagining well beyond the lifespan of things like Flash and Unity. Perhaps even UE4 itself.

Now importantly, Unity drops Linux support (It cannot even run on RHEL6 anymore) making it a retarded choice for these kind of offline arcade machines where the OS is pretty much installed once and then left. UE4, I can either keep with the old version (which you cannot do with Unity because it wont allow you to activate the software / DRM once Unity goes bankrupt) or I can port the RHEL6 etc... support to the new version of UE4.

When Epic no longer supports UE4 or goes bankrupt... I haven't really lost anything other than perhaps I no longer need to pay the ~10% revenue.

Also, my "lightgun" driver is obviously written in C. Interfacing with C from bullshit like VB.NET or C#.NET is a waste of time. The fact that UE4 uses C++ rather than daft domain specific scripting language is a big bonus here for simplicity (and maintenance tbh once Microsoft drops C# and Mono follows).

[PackRat]

If the license is non-free, how you can maintain it? If you could maintain it, it would be free by definition.

UE4 is proprietary shared source with a %5 royalty for commercial use and for architecture viz it's royalty free. If you want access to the ue4 code have to sign up with Epic Games on github and join the Epic organization (it is a private repo). Cryengine is changing their business model to something similar to what Epic games is offering but still is public. These Engines typically are sold for a quarter of a million dollars to other companies. Linux developer Yaakuro regularly submits fixes for both engines and maintains the codelite plugin for ue4.

Unreal tournament is on a private repo on github rotting and has not seen an update for like a year ever since the battle royale craze.

I saw a user complain about Cryengine on github saying 'why is this on github and claiming to be open source?'. The irony here is github is not open source or foss.

Epic has never released the older Unreal engines as foss like Id software has, that I am aware of.

[PackRat]

Sad to see MonoDevelop getting swept under the rug by Unity3d ,UE4 and Cryengine ever since Microsoft took over the reins of Xamarin. Xamarin on windows is now just a plugin for Visual Studio. On mac Xamairn is re-branded as Visual Studio for Mac and has a plugin for Unity3d.

Unity3d Monodevelop plugin is depreciated Linux users need to use vscode or use jetbrains rider. Cryengine had a Monodevelop plugin but now that's now they are releasing a windows visual studio plugin. Cryengine can only be used on Linux for servers anyway...

Enbrace Vscode it can do it all. No need for anything else...