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Unity 3.5 free version questions?

polycounter lvl 10
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melviso polycounter lvl 10
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SksljyTz8LM"]Autumnal Nature Pack - Unity 3.5 - YouTube[/ame]
Watched this and I have to say I like the graphics and it doesn't have that plastic look like UE.
I checked out the license comparisons between pro and free and I am a little bit disappointed with the absence of realtime shadows,post processing and video playback/streaming unlike udk post processing and dynamic shadows are available.I understand the unity guys have to make their money.

From that vid,its graphics capabilities are better than UE's plastic look yet UE is so popular.Another question is about unity's free license,there is something about if u make over a 100,000,u have to pay royalities?or is it for using Unity Pro,this applies to the user?or it applies to both free and pro.So how much is paid for royalties?

Btw,is unity4 now available in the pro or free versions?

Thanks.

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  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    Just a quick note, UE and Unity have similar rendering capabilities. If something looks plastic its bad shading/texturing, not the engine.

    You can achieve great looking stuff with both engines.

    If you just starting out and want to write a game go with unity, its very well documented, there are loads of good tutorials and its really easy to get content into.

    So far as the shadows and post processing go forget these, they're eye candy.. if your just starting out you don't need them.

    Unity 4 is available in both pro and free.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks for replying,r_fletch_r.
    Wow!Unity 4 is already out?Whats taking UE to release 4.0?

    What about the licenses for Unity?Could u give me more info about the royalty?
  • equil
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    there are no royalties. you can use the free version until you have a revenue of 100,000 usd.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    I know..the question is what is the amount of payment made when it gets to 100,000 usd.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    melviso wrote: »
    Thanks for replying,r_fletch_r.
    Wow!Unity 4 is already out?Whats taking UE to release 4.0?

    What about the licenses for Unity?Could u give me more info about the royalty?

    I dont know about the 100k cap, I've never heard that. TBH tho, if your making that much then you can afford a pro license.

    So far as UE 4 goes, comparing the version numbers is meaningless.
  • AlexLeighton
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    Once you get to 100,000 you have to buy a pro licence. There's no royalties or anything, you just pay up front.
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    "May be licensed and used by companies or incorporated entities that had a turnover in excess of US$100,000 in their last fiscal year."

    That's one of the differences between Unity Free and Unity Pro. Unity pro is $1500, so above 100,000 revenue a year you pay 1500 per person using the program.

    As for UDK, it's also free until 100,000. If you make more than that, you have to pay 25% royalties.

    Unity is generally cheaper, especially if you're in a small team.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks for the info,guys.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Guys..I wanna ask.Is there a reason why ppl prefer udk to unity or cryengine?A lot of badass games are being made with udk.
  • James Ordner
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    melviso wrote: »
    Guys..I wanna ask.Is there a reason why ppl prefer udk to unity or cryengine?A lot of badass games are being made with udk.

    This is just my take on it, I'm sure there's lots of different reasons and arguments for and against it. Cryengine's licensing (from what I hear) is very indie-unfriendly, and so very unattractive for startup devs. It also doesn't have near the documentation or community that UDK and Unity does. Unity, while it has very friendly licensing, just doesn't have the eye candy or the "professional" feel that UDK has. UDK has the best of all worlds, good licensing, good documentation, a great community, UE3 rendering capacity (plus UE3 renown), and great features like Kismet, Matinee, built-in pathfinding, etc.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    I think perhaps you need to download them and try them out.
  • AlexLeighton
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    I used to prefer UDK but Unity is just so much more user friendly. UDK took me a fair amount of time to get used to, Unity basically took a couple of hours. Many things in Unity are much more straightforward and there's more built in functionality for all different types of games. With UDK, unless you're making a shooter, you're probably going to be doing a lot of work.

    CryEngine could be amazing, but for whatever reason, they've decided to make it super difficult to have any hope of releasing your game. Not to mention that it has to phone home whenever you want to use it, might not be a problem for most people, but since I spend about 6 months of the year with an unreliable dial-up connection, it's just not practical. In my opinion, it's just not worth learning, unless you're really bent on working at a studio that happens to be using it.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    @AlexLeighton
    yep...I think Cryengine has good graphics but the license and internet connection requirement is a complete drawback.
    @James Ordner
    Udk does seem to have the best of both worlds but why do their games especially the characters always have a plastic look.
    @r_fletch_r Sadly,I don't have the time or energy to learn both.

    I have tried udk before but got frustrated with the rebuild lighting thing.Very annoying.Everytime u move something,u have to rebuild and most times,it takes up to 2 hours for one rebuild.

    My problem with udk is the abscence of udk offline documentation for download.I have searched high and low with no result.Someone suggested using httrack to download the documentation part from the site.I am not familiar with httrack and I don't know if thats legally okay.Thats one of the things that pisses me off about udk.With all the money udk makes,can't they just assign somebody in their office the task of putting up an offline documentation for ppl to download,everytime they update it,or if they are too lazy,put one up and update it every 6 months for goodness sake.

    Btw,does the Unity4 install contain the documentation or I would have to download it from their website or its not available for download?
  • James Ordner
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    melviso wrote: »
    Udk does seem to have the best of both worlds but why do their games especially the characters always have a plastic look.

    I've never noticed it in the commercial UDK games, but it would be due to setting up the materials improperly (unless of course you wanted a plastic look :poly121: ). Adding a reflection map to the material really helps, and you can even set up custom lighting and specular highlights if you wanted to.

    Building lighting does get annoying, but you shouldn't have to do it every time you move an object. Generally speaking, you should arrange everything how you like, set up the lighting, and then build lighting at the end. Building the lighting unnecessarily as you go just because is really a big time waster. And something I am often guilty of :poly131:
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    what is it you want to make?
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    @James Ordner
    Even if u do not move objects,u might want to change the color or brightness of the light source,or u decide to move the light because u want to change the direction of ur light,or u do not like how the shadows have been cast.For each experimentation,thou shall rebuild.I can't stress how annoying that is.
    Thats why I am looking for an app with realtime dynamic lighting.
    @r_fletch_r
    I am trying to find an app I can render out cinematics with.Using Mental ray in Maya takes time.I recently tried to use viewport2.0 to render out after getting frustrated with udk rebuild lighting and no offline doc.Hence the interest in unity 3d.It could also be useful for architectural visualizations.Just trying to find the one I can use comfortably.
    Someone just showed me this-

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc9JWYuUa2o"]Blender Game Engine: Bathroom demo - YouTube[/ame]
    Why does Blender have a game engine with graphics this good and dynamic lighting since 2008?and I am just finding out now.Maya's viewport 2.0 can't even handle dynamic lighting without crappy shadows.What is Autodesk waiting for?Even Maya's modeling tools have not been updated for sometime now.
    More-
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxDVzby_XU"]Atmospheric Scattering in Blender Game Engine - YouTube[/ame]
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ht8SUjdifM"]Blender Game Engine: LowPoly Character - YouTube[/ame]
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyZWu23xpWA"]pseudo lens flare in BGE - YouTube[/ame]

    I am getting Blender asap and its free!!
    EDIT- Em..I am reading something about Blender game engine license having to do with GPL format which means it has to be free?So if I make a cinematic using Blender game engine.All my models,assets would have to be free?*raises on eyebrow*
    Anyone familiar with this?
  • ivanzu
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks ivanzu for the link.Reading through it is a bit technical.Obviously,if one makes a tutorial for Blender showing the GUI,it has to be free?
    I have no idea how one can render out cinematics using the blender game engine,but I am sure its similar to udk,where u use a player to play out the cinematics.I would have to ask the blender game engine users on yt to find out in full detail.
    If it falls under GPL,I guess Unity is the only option.Still want to know if unity 4.0 has an offline documentation I can download.
    Thanks.
  • ivanzu
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    ivanzu polycounter lvl 10
    Blender has built-in viewport recorder so you can render stuff the way they look in real time similar to any game engine.I didnt use blender for some time so I will check some stuff tomorrow and then post here the results.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks..will really appreciate it.
    Btw,If u haven't used blender for sometime,what are u using?
  • James Ordner
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    melviso wrote: »
    Em..I am reading something about Blender game engine license having to do with GPL format which means it has to be free?So if I make a cinematic using Blender game engine.All my models,assets would have to be free?*raises on eyebrow*
    Anyone familiar with this?

    Artists can use Blender commercially for models, stills, animations, etc, because the final product does not contain Blender's source code. However, games made with the BGE actually run on Blender's code. For that reason, releasing a standalone game that runs on the BGE must also be licensed under GPL. There are workarounds, but these are difficult and not really worth the trouble.

    So you would be fine modeling, animating, rendering cinematics, etc in Blender, but you'll run into trouble if you actually try to sell a BGE game.

    By the way, you would be best off rendering the cinematics using Blender Internal renderer or Cycles, which supports unbiased pathtracing and a bunch of other nice features. You'd also have much more control over the scene, rather than trying to create all the cinematics in BGE.
  • RMeeks
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    http://www.blender.org/education-help/faq/gpl-for-artists/#c2128
    Seems like there are ways to use the BGE and actually sell it.
  • ivanzu
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    ivanzu polycounter lvl 10
    melviso wrote: »
    Thanks..will really appreciate it.
    Btw,If u haven't used blender for sometime,what are u using?

    I use 3dsmax and blender but for real-time recording I would use UDK.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    @James Ordner
    Thanks for explaining it clearly.
    @RMeeks
    Yep..there are other ways but kinda complicated.
    @ivanzu
    udk..with the thou shalt rebuild principle?Why would u use udk over unity 4 that has dynamic lighting?or u are hoping to get a job with udk experience?I wonder why studios use udk even though lighting is problematic.
  • ivanzu
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    ivanzu polycounter lvl 10
    They dont use UDK,most of the studios use custom built engines.You can use any game engine if you want to get a job in game ind.
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    Thats true.so why is udk ur preferred choice for real time recording?
  • ivanzu
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    ivanzu polycounter lvl 10
    Powerful material editor,easy to use,free with full features,lots of tutorials etc..
  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10
    so u don't mind rebuilding lights for 2 hours,and if u change the light,u repeat the same process.
    No worries,I guess we all have what we like working with.
    If u get the info on the record player for BGE,let me know.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    both unity and udk have dynamic lighting and light baking. your not supposed to bake lighting until you've got your level layout down.
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