Official KitBash3D Joins the Asset Store

The license:
"...You may use the kit on commercial projects while working as a freelancer hired by a studio but you may not use a freelance license on studio projects as a staffed artists at that studio. Use by a professional studio or by more than one (1) individual user under the Freelance license shall constitute a violation of this End User License Agreement. See Restrictions below..."
The term "professional studio" is kinda ambiguous. Many indie titles are indie titles. We are small studios. We are professionals. Are we also a "professional studio"? If so any assets we buy on the Unity Asset Store (and esp. the free sample kit that contains a special license we must agree to) we actually can't use according to the KitBash3D EULA correct? We can only use it as a freelancer working for another studio. Can we own our own studio and subcontract ourselves to meet with license terms. This seems to be a big gotcha.

Also is there a way to register our Unity Assets purchases with you to perhaps unlock a upgrade to Studio license feature on your website?

 

To be honest, I thought some of these packs looked interesting, but the moment the popup about the licensing came up and I actually read the terms and conditions, I could not have been faster to clear out this stuff from my shopping basket. You need to agree to that license to buy or download any of KitBash3d content, not just the free stuff, btw. Which, again, is unfortunate because several of these packs looked interesting.

I suggest any of my fellow game devs considering these packs reads the conditions closely before you click agree, because there are some interesting moments to be found inside.

I have a couple issues with the terms and conditions, including disliking that the packs have their own conditions separate from Unity license, but my main issue is they are vague (!). But the way I interpret this text, you are not allowed to use the normal license if you are a professional game developer (not even if you are a solo dev). It's only for student, hobbyist or freelancer artist use, quote as follows from the licensing page: "For a single individual artist, or a hobbyist, or a student, not working at a studio".

I have nothing against KitBash3d as a company. But I dislike that Unity lets this stuff be sold here with that license, because it feels daft to let anyone sell a product on a professional game dev market that is not allowed to be used by professional game devs.

But as always, caveat emptor, buyer beware.

 

I think the intent is only to limit the number of seats, but I think the wording is confusing like you said.

 

You could be right! But the thing is, I'm genuinely not certain if that's the case or not. This is from the ToS regarding the standard (non-studio) license:
"You agree that use of the 3D Model Kit under the Freelance license shall not exceed more than one (1) individual user, nor shall the 3D Model Kit be used by any individual on behalf of any studio, company, and/or separate entity. You may use the kit on commercial projects while working as a freelancer hired by a studio but you may not use a freelance license on studio projects as a staffed artists at that studio."

Just seems to me even a company run by a solo gamedev could be excluded, if you read that ToS strictly to the letter.

 

I see what you mean, but I'm interpreting that by "studio" they are using that word to refer to a legal entity that's a group of more than one person (i.e. like a company comprised of multiple people). So I take it to mean that I cannot buy the individual license if I'm working in a team, even if it's only on my machine or whatever.

I've not read the whole license agreement, so I don't know if they explicitly define the word "studio" somewhere. I could be completely wrong about this.

 

Why do we have to purchase the

Standard
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/neo-tokyo-2-built-in-176120

and the

HDRP
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/neo-tokyo-2-hdrp-175731

version separately, i. e. why is HDRP not included in the Standard version?

 

While I'd love license clarity, I believe I can answer @Rowlan question.

On their assets they say under the ◼ COMPATIBILITY ◼ headline:
"HDRP/Built-In versions are freely upgradeable to Unity customers."

 

I think they got bad advice on their licensing agreement. It doesn't clearly define the situation with one-man studios. The intent of the license is unclear. It could talk about seats, for instance, but it doesn't.

I would like to make a purchase, but I'm a one man studio, not a freelancer.

If anyone from Unity (@UnityHas ?) or Kitbash3D can advise me on the license, I'd like to take advantage of the sale, which ends soon. I've been trying to find more info, but from what I can see right now, I should steer clear of it.

 

I think UAS customers could run into problems here, as they expect the UAS to sell assets they can actually use in a game. But if you're buying at the listed price in the store, you are getting the freelance version which you can't publish with.

Accordingly, I backed all of my Kitbash3D items out of my cart.

From their website it says the following:

Which license am I?
Freelance License
If you are a freelance artist for hire, or a hobbyist, or a student, and not staffed at a studio, this license is for you. Studio projects of any kind are not covered under this license nor can kits with this license be stored on a company server.

 

KitBash3D staff here!

It sounds like there has indeed been a misunderstanding, but fret not! Our Licenses are structured by number of seats used. If you are a solo developer, you can use an Individual license commercially without issue.

However, if you upload the assets to a shared drive or company owned server, you have effectively brought more seats to the table and must purchase a Small Studio (2-7) or Enterprise (8+) accordingly.

You can visit our Help Center to learn more about the specifics of KitBash3D licenses.

If you have additional questions or concerns about our licenses, please contact us at info@kitbash3d.com. We'll be happy to work with you to determine the correct license(s) for your current or future projects.

Also, thank you for the feedback on this topic, it's incredibly valuable to us as we continue to grow into the space and support the Unity development community!

 

KitBash3D staff here!

We are actively working with Unity to better our UAS experience, but for the time being must display HDRP and Built-In products as different SKUs.

For clarity, if you purchase one, you will have access to the other without an additional purchase.

 

Thank you! When will we this clarified in the legal language we have to agree to?

 

@toomey to me it looks like there is some confusion over the term "studio". It looks like some people interpret that word to mean any professional developing entity (including solo developers) so there may not be a single agreed-upon definition for this term.

 

Yes. I look at this description, and I don't fit:

If you are a freelance artist for hire, or a hobbyist, or a student, and not staffed at a studio, this license is for you.

 

I'm hoping what they mean is "If only one person will ever have access to the product, then the Individual License is for you, irrespective of the circumstances".

But the "not staffed at a studio" caveat in the license definition confuses the situation greatly, because there are a lot of one person studios and business entities that use Unity (myself included).

 

This is correct. In short, if you are a solo dev, or an independent contractor contracted with a studio (read: assets/hardware are owned and operated solely by said contractor), an Individual license applies. For more information about our License Terms, please visit our "Which License Am I?" article in our Help Center.

 

Thanks for the clarification.
I'm looking forward to trying some of these assets out with CityGen3D, to combine them with real world map data.
So should be lots of fun!

 

It looks like you have a really cool project! We would love to hear about (and see!) your experience using our assets.

 

Thanks very much!
Yeah I’ll let you know how it goes

 

I understand how it should be, which is that I, as a single developer, can use the Individual License, and store the art on my computer.

But the terms you refer to aren't clearly permitting this usage, as an individual can be the company.

I'd appreciate it if you can steer the proper person within your company to amend the agreements to be more clear on single user usage. Thanks!

Individual License
License Terms: By purchasing the Individual license, the 3D Model Kit may not be hosted on any company server. Under the Individual license, the 3D Model Kit is for individual use only. You agree that use of the 3D Model Kit under the Individual license shall not exceed more than one (1) individual user, nor shall the 3D Model Kit be used by any individual on behalf of any studio, company, and/or separate entity. You may use the kit on commercial projects while working as an Individual hired by a studio but you may not use an Individual license on studio projects as a staffed artists at that studio. Use by a professional studio or by more than one (1) individual user under the Individual license shall constitute a violation of this End User License Agreement.

 

Yes @hopeful is right. Because we are not presented with a "Do you accept the explanation on the forum as a license agreement" it is rather do we accept the wording provided above as a license agreement which is written by lawyers so there is wiggle room to change your position later on. Which is exactly what we want to avoid - the price jump is out of reach for a solo dev to studio - if you decided to change your mind. So for this reason it needs to be clearly stated in the asset store license we agree. What is said on the forum (while helpful to know the intent) means nothing legally. It needs to be in the license on the store.

 

Unfortunately, this can be a trap for many independent single developers.

"... nor shall the 3D Model Kit be used by any individual on behalf of any studio, company, and/or separate entity".​

If you want to publish something in the App Store, for example, and you are a single unit, you need to buy a Studio license. Period.

 

@toomey Would like to have this clarified as well. What is the necessary license for solo developers working as their own separate business entity?

 

It is simple, (even a single) Developer = Studio, so as a developer you have to buy the Studio License.
Once again: "...company, and/or separate entity".

 

Right, but I wanted them to clarify that this is indeed their intention for this common scenario, since their earlier post made it sound like their intention is different, and the current license wording may be off:

 

I received a similar answer more than six months ago that there was no problem for them with an individual license for one person.

"Thanks for reaching out As long as you are the only artist in your company, you can purchase Freelance licenses. If your team grows even by one person you would need to upgrade to a Small Studio License which we can easily do for you, just email us if and when that day comes."​

But...
So why do not they change the license terms on both their website and Unity AssetStore? It was enough to add an explanation: ...a one-person studio is not a professional studio.

 

Unfortunately these kits are not suitable for game use within Unity, I can elaborate but simply put they require way to much modification for their pricetag. Its like someone got models for rendering and thought they could use them in a game engine. They have way to many draw calls, vertices and polys to be of any use. Even their flat colours are in 4k, nothing is optimized and your FPS will drop to nothing if you use multiple models. The meshes are one sided and have massive holes.

 

I'd be very great to have a precise answer here concerning the polycounts. As we planned to buy several packs for a high end PC game.

Average models are between 200k and 1M poly in those kits, when building heavy scenes we're ending with 40-60M poly. In my world, high end Characters would get around 60-100k nowadays, so it feels quite insane.

However Textures and Materials are well optimized and GPU instancing + Batching seems to get the FPS ok (90-100fps in editor with a 2600RTX super).

Is this the new kind of standard for PC and high end console ? Or should we retopologize/decimate everything by hand? It seems painful.

If its the case are those packs only suited for rendering ?

Thanks.

 

I own the latest pack and I second what you said. I hope they will optimize those kits better soon.

 

Thread title should be changed to:

KitBash3D LEFT the Asset Store

They are gone.

 

Bad feeling there, purchased around 1k€ worth of their packages. As a product that was advertised by a Unity official it's just is a bad move IMO.
[Edit] : Removed sarcasm

 

They still exist. They just don't want to sell on the UAS.

 

Having to add arguments to an obvious bad commercial decision is time consuming but let's go.
0. Fully aware of how deprecated packages work on the UAS.
1. We only retrieved the built-in at the time and so no HDRP version for us now although the upgrade was free. Any idea where to find the missing packages ? Will have to talk to create a ticket, etc.
2. " They just don't want to sell on the UAS." No official quote, we have to figure things on ourselves ?
3. kitbash assets on the store had a certain format, so having to purchase new kit/upgrade would have to force us maintaining two workflow or adapt the old one, if we ever are allowed to get a regular licence from our Unity licence.
4. They officially announced a partnership and closed it silently while people bought the assets on the store specifically because they though it's gonna get some support/optimization for the engine. So now it will never be a thing, we'll have to adapt.
5. Never got any feedback on my post that was here 3 years ago. It seems they overlooked the cost to make this available on the UAS and just closed it right away. Still no message/no answer/no reason makes it difficult to accept being adverstised by Unity itself not a 3rd party

Too many pain points.

 

Talked to Kitbash3D directly and apparently we are not ... wow.

 

There are companies with business models that appear to be aimed at higher profits and more restrictive licenses that get onto the UAS and then leave it.

Kitbash3D is one. TAFI / Morph3D is another. (TAFI did return to the UAS.)

 

I'm ok with that, but it's not even giving them profit, it's nor intuitive nor clever, it will just send off potential long term customers. They are not loosing money making UAS licences work with their Cargo. But they will loose me as a customer and all the people I'd say to get away from them.

I mean I'm already a customer, so I'm likely to pay for more packs/extended licence if needed. But if they show me off asking me to buy the packs again to use the new workflow the hell I'll be. It's just bad customer service.

 

I hear you. But it's what they think. I'm not saying they're right.