Unreal Engine 4 FREE...

Maybe it meant acknowledging GabeN as the one true deity?

 

No complaining here. The greatest and most exacting critic who detailed the shortcomings of Unity's previous pricing across multiple posts, is now 100% on Unity's side and mocking Unreal's "deal".

Unreal has no deal that can compare now. If your studio is producing large enough games, you can and should pay for Pro licenses. And these Pro licenses, even if you pay for every Dev and Artist in the studio will be a much smaller fee than the 5% paid to Unreal, if your game is producing enough revenue to pay for your team (which it should be and if not you have other problems).

Unity wins.

 

I guess these were probably the best closing words one could think of.

Now let's continue the party at: Unity 5 launch ;-)

 

I don't get the no Dark Skin thing. It just makes it look cheap to people watching Youtube videos.

 

Well there's still tools and post, but I get the feeling Unity are working on that.

 

Even if they are slower, that doesn't matter unless performance hit is very hard (like 15fps instead of 150). You forget that BSP was used in Quake and other id games that had pretty big and detailed levels.

 

Me and some friends were wondering why the dark skin in pro only, could it be a status thing? I prefer the dark one because it's easier to distinguish between editor and game stuff so i guess it impacts my productivity but if someone is used to the light skin they wont really mind. So i still don't get it, what is everyone gaining or losing by this difference in the versions?

Also, good job UT, this might very well be a game changer.

 

Unity always said that they will change it and they are working on it. But at some point you have to make priorities - and the priorities were all the other super cool things. So even if it is important - why do you let the negatives outweigh the positives for yourself?

 

I use both, but I'm multifaceted that way.
They both have their good points.

However, U5 still have no native AI system. Pathfinding alone is not an AI system.

 

OK, I've downloaded Unity 5. I've been messing around with reflection probes.

I have 2 shiny spheres with 1 simple reflection probe inside each. So they reflect each other as a black sphere.

Is there a way to have multiple reflections? Could I have multiple reflection probes at the same point?

This has got to be the first thing everyone tries right?

 

Holy S***, cj31387 won the first prize!

 

You may need to try increasing the reflection bounces in the lighting tab, but I'm not sure. It may actually create a horrible feedback loop that will open a black hole and swallow the world... O_O

 

Two

Two tiers and same pricing if you develop for mobile, An engine with all features included BUT with a list of features it doesn't include. Still $1500+ to get rid of the splash screen. This has got to be the biggest announcement of something special that didn't really change a thing! See past the hype guys.

 

Yeya. That's what I'm talking about!



Erm. Good then.

Always wanted to do that ever since I saw a Newton's cradle as a screensaver on the computers Blue Peter were giving away in a competition about 25 years ago. I thought it was rendering in real time. True story.

P.S. What is the main bottleneck in this process. Can I make it faster? The reflections are a bit jerky.

 

That's why I said in the other thread (about the major Unity announcement) that it would really be disappointing if it were "just" a "U5 has been released" message (which it basically is)... Don't get me wrong... I'm happy for all those who make less than $100k a year...

 

Yes! I honestly don't know what Unity is doing right now. They seem to not be understanding that presentation and aesthetics go beyond what can be produced by the engine. They seem to want a "fair" or "worth it" feature split. But they don't realize that getting users to use the engine is the first step of the game. People want to seem "cool" making games. That crappy background (and the awkwardness of the dev's during today's event) definitely don't make people feel like that imo.

Unity should change that ASAP imo. Anything that makes users feel things are cool and fresh is going to attract them, others and keep them doing what they were doing. I can guarantee you there are not going to be people upgrading solely for the ability to have the pro background. Same with the splash screen. Features that impact aesthetic appearance should not be compromised in the free or "personal" version. Take it one step further Unity, you're almost there! Take some tips from Apple and you'll be past UE with the GI and asset store in no time! Please, I'm getting worried!

 

I have been sick and fed up of cool and fresh since 1990. Authentic rocks.

 

My eyes can't read white writing on a black background. It makes them go weird.

 

The profiler is included in Personal.

Game Performance Reporting appears to be something else that's more like a service.

The info says "A preview of a new service that monitors and analyzes managed code crashes from your games."

 

Can I render a Unity 5 animation out to a video? Can I make Toy Story?

 

So little changed, yet everyone seems so happy. Got to hand it to Unity, they have mastered the art of adding air to ice cream. Here is a breakdown of what's just happened:

Before today;
Unity free if earning less than 100k per year but you don't get Render textures and profiler,Dark skin & custom splash.
Pro Users cost of new licence $4500 or $2700 per year in subs.
Pro Users cost to upgrade $2250 or $2700 per year in subs..

After today;
Unity free if earning less than 100k per year but you do get Render textures and profiler,Light skin, no custom splash.
Pro Users cost of new licence $4500 or $2700 per year in subs.
Pro Users cost to upgrade $2250 or $2700 in subs.
Pro users get access to more offers on the asset store. (value to be determined)

So what changed for pro users? Hardly anything, still the really annoying 3 pro licences needed just to get rid of the splash screen. I'm glad for everyone that doesn't produce anything or very little you now get the profiler and Rendertextures, and thats about it. All hot air.

 

I feel for you folks who paid "real" money and are/were disappointed. Hope they do you guys/gals right in the coming months with perks or something.

As a hobbyist, all I wanted was the profiler and some better eye candy for free. Seems like it fits the bill for me as of now.

Thanks for breaking it down. I never needed to look at the total cost as it never pertained to me.

 

@arkon As i think you are pure game dev... so this may looks like this... but for asset dev this is good deal if not very good... and you forgot about details like many many built-in performance optimisation - culling, LOD-ing, mesh skinning on GPU, shader are forced on GPU where should be rather than on CPU (that was true for U4, shaders runned on CPU as far as i remember from licensing comparision, might be wrong there), stripping + some functionality like IK on mecanim. For me not bad deal. I get your point about splash screen though, dont get me wrong

 

I think that if Unity would give us proper level geometry editing tools it would be good enough for most people. Personally, I'd choose it over Render textures and other things, including PBR and profiler.

Material/Shader editor like one in Unreal would be cool as well but not necessary.

Yes I realize both of those are available as assets (probuilder and various shader editors), but those have prohibitive prices. I'd like to see those somewhere in 5.x line.

 

Paid users now get the Team License without having to pay for it, and even get a refund if you did... that makes me happy, now I can use PlasticSCM.

 

So 5% of 100K is $5000. Unity is back on the ball at being the cheapest engine across the entire price range. And it gets cheaper fast if you make more or less then 100K. This round in the price war goes to Unity Technologies.

 

And profiler, headless server builds, plus rolling in the cache/asset servers into Pro. Those are the main features I need.

Potentially useful: analytics. Especially the fancy crash reporting they talked about. If that works automatically in a similar way to what I'm used to from elsewhere, it makes getting bug reports much simpler.

The 3 licences at the same high price are still baffling, yes. The light skin is an eyesore, and the splash really should only say "Unity", not "Unity Personal Edition".

 

I think some people are missing a very important part of today's announcement besides the licensing changes... a whole new version of Unity came out.

That's enough of an announcement to be more than just hot air.

And if you're not impressed with the new feature set then don't upgrade. Then for you nothing has changed today and you can go on making games with Unity 4.6, 3.x, etc right?

 

Profiler is part of Personal.

 

I think a lot of us are already paid and have been using it for a while.

 

$100,000 in revenue isn't much at all. It's not even enough to cover my salary on it's own.

 

I think that everyone forgets that you rarely are alone in a team.

Full pro costs 4500, right? So, if that would be 5%, then 100% is 90K. I agree, IF you are alone, this is cheaper than Unreal.

In my case we're 4 members, so 4500*4 -> 18K... if 18K is 5%, then 100% is 360K...

MAN, I would be SO happy to have this income with my fellow teammates. But unfortunately, we're not even scratching the 200K (which would be 10K with UE4 in royalties... but then wasn't there a 12k is free clause; 3k per quarter? which would reduce the amout to 188K*0.05 -> 9400)...

So please guys, think a little bit further than the "but it's free and one pro license is sooo much cheaper than the 5% if the main competitor"...

Don't get me wrong: I like Unity very much, I use it for my customers but if I want to expand my team, I have to invest soo much more money...

 

Yes. But look at the part I was quoting - it was about the before-time

 

To be fair, Render textures and profiler, while arguably the most important features that went from Pro to free, are far from the only features. Lighting, shadows, and other visual effects all have parity between versions now, which was not the case before. Other things here and there (LoadLevelAsync) are evened out as well.

And you seem to have left out the host of services that Pro gets for free, including Unity Cloud (1 year), Team License, Unity Analytics, and Asset Store 11 (which you did mention) all total to $90/mo alone - more than the subscription of Unity Pro. Throw in Game Performance Reporting and Prioritized Bug Fixes, plus the fluff of splash screen removal and dark skin, and now you've come closer to covering what your Pro License buys you.

I'm not trying to tell you whether or not this is worth your money, but if you are going to make a list like this, make sure you actually include everything, because a lot of what you left out is nontrivial to many people.

 

It's not from any titles... it's from my SALARY

As a Unity Engineer.

 

No. Pro users get periodic discounts and free assets from the same asset stores that everyone else uses.

Think of it like Gamestop Powerup Rewards Pro. You are paying a monthly fee and in return get a ton of discounts and deals. You still shop at the same store.

Pro users will get this service free. Personal users can opt to pay $20/month.

 

No, pro is going to get free stuff and major discounts in a special window of the asset store. You can view it now... free Playmaker, free White Oak Speedtree, a couple other free things, a character model, some hand grenades, plus some deep discounts on some stuff.

 

It's $19 a month for personal users... and you'd get Playmaker ($95) White Oak ($39)...

Seems legit

 

Is this thread still a thing? lol.

 

Yes, but the whining is much quieter now.

 

it really shouldnt be though.

 

I mentioned the 3 main things that seem to annoy free users the most prior to today, Other stuff like shadows and loadlevelasync? Have you tried these out? I have yet to get shadows looking good and async level loading is a thing to behold. I've not even been able to use the stripping option as it always crashes when you use encryption. static batching has been meh.. as all my games seem to never suit much statically batched.

Whatever way you look at it the cost of getting rid of the ugly splash screen is the same, and it's just got way uglier, it now says "Unity, Poor hard up developers version"

Todays announcement was billed as being some amazing news and it wasn't, and as for announcing Unity5, well we already knew it was coming and what it contained.

 

Thank you this is my exact point, im glad someone else sees it instead of covering up garbage and calling it cherries

 

Todays announcement was billed as being some amazing news and it wasn't, and as for announcing Unity5, well we already knew it was coming and what it contained.

So what free users should use UE4 ?
I tested the shadows and it was not so bad. The main issue is terrain is the same fixed shader, nothing new , perhaps later. Also no Royalties on your game until you win enought to buy a PRo version one time, is a best deal than UE4, but UE4 is better on high end graphics and tools.

 

Great, looks like one of the perks of Pro isn't available to existing 4.x pro users, namely Level 11 asset store.
This has to be the greatest straw man con ever, I've just gone to the store to try out Level 11 and surprise surprise I'm not eligible, worse than that you can get things like Substance database on offer for only $750 the exact same price as it is on the Allegorythmic site, how is this a special deal for Pro users? Still as long as everyone else is happy who am I to point it out.

 

Totally true. I work on my own, so I often forget this calculation.

For a multi user situation you have to earn at least 90k per licence for Unity to win. That's not actually that much, a full time professional employee may cost you this much anyway, in terms of wages, taxes, insurance, super and the like. By the time you then spend money on hardware, assets, artists, third party tools, marketing, servers, QC and all the other stuff that doesn't need a Unity seat you are likely to be needing more then 90k of revenue per license just to break even.

Do the basic math. For a single user, single product here are the engine costs. Unity wins across the board.

Revenue 0 Unity Cost 0 Unreal Cost 0
Revenue 3k Unity Cost 0 Unreal Cost 0
Revenue 10k Unity Cost 0 Unreal Cost 350
Revenue 50k Unity Cost 0 Unreal Cost 2350
Revenue 100k Unity Cost 4500 Unreal Cost 4850
Revenue 200k Unity Cost 4500 Unreal Cost 10000

 

Perhaps in the States, but not here in Belgium. The wages are around 45K per Junior Programmer...

 

Allegorithmic discounted on their own site through March 11, likely BECAUSE they were part of this deal. You can hardly fault Unity for that - any "foul play" would be on Allegorithmic's end (not that I think they are doing anything reprehensible - just smart business).

 

BTW, Is the 'Asset Level 11' marks the end of the 'Asset Store Madness' for every one?