Fancy access to the Unreal 4 Source Code for cheap ?
by Jimmy R Armes · 03/19/2014 (2:15 pm) · 44 comments
As of today you can, as an indie developer gain full, (yes I said FULL), access to the Source code to their Unreal 4 engine including their tools. What is the cost you might ask, why a mere 19 smakaroos a month plus 5 percent of your shipped game.
Why would I post this here on Garagegames? Simple the smarter developers will see this a massive boon to their knowledge of game engine development as they can pay to access their source code and study a real triple A game engine and start to incorporate that back into the development and MAJOR refactoring of the Torque 3D engine.
So what similar features could this bring to Torque 3d under the right group of developers ? Lets see what Unreal offers with their features.
What features are included with Unreal Engine 4?
Unreal Engine 4 gives you all the features you need to make just about any game you can dream up! When you get UE4, you have all the rendering horsepower to make a cinematic experience like the Infiltrator demo, and you can also build really simple games like side-scrolling platformers and match-three apps. That call is totally yours to make.
UE4 has many integrated systems, tools and features. There are too many to list!
Here's the abridged version: UE4's DirectX11 rendering features include full-scene HDR reflections, thousands of dynamic lights per scene, artist-programmable tessellation and displacement, temporal anti-aliasing (TXAA) and IES lighting profiles, just for starters.
The new UE4 material pipeline makes use of physically-based shading to give you unprecedented control over the look and feel of characters and objects. Layer materials and fine-tune values at the pixel level to achieve any desired aesthetic.
UE4's robust Cascade visual effects pipeline provides fast, low-cost GPU particle simulation and a collision system that interacts with the depth buffer. Millions of dynamic particles can receive and emit light within a scene, and you can control many particle properties, including size, color, density, falloff and bounciness. You can also use Cascade to create fire, sparks, smoke, dust, rubble and anything else that can be powered by particles.
Blueprint visual scripting is incredibly empowering! Blueprints enable anyone to rapidly prototype and build playable content without touching a line of code. Use Blueprints to author level, object and gameplay behaviors, modify user interface, adjust input controls and so much more.
Built-in Blueprint debugging enables you to interactively visualize the flow of gameplay and inspect property values while testing your game. You can even freeze the game and inspect its state by setting breakpoints on individual nodes in your Blueprint graphs.
UE4 Code View saves time by allowing you to browse C++ functions directly on game characters and objects and then jump straight to source code lines in Visual Studio to make changes.
Make updates to gameplay code while the game is running with Hot Reload. This tool allows you to edit C++ code and see those changes reflected immediately in-game without ever pausing gameplay. Examine your creations from every angle through Play, Simulate and Immersive modes within the Unreal Editor.
Use the Content Browser to import, organize, search, tag, filter and modify terabytes of game assets within the Unreal Editor. The Content Browser features real-time, animated thumbnail previews which can be explored and modified on the fly. Here you can also create any type of asset collection to be used for individual work or shared with hundreds of other developers.
Use the Persona animation toolset to edit skeletons, skeletal meshes and sockets, animation Blueprints and more. Preview animation sequences and morph targets, and set up animation blend spaces and montages.
Modify physics and collision properties for skeletal mesh actors with the Physics Asset editing tool (PhAT).
The Matinee cinematic toolset provides director-level control over cut scenes, dynamic gameplay sequences and movies.
The Landscape system provides advanced sculpting and painting tools so you can quickly create and customize large, open worlds. Landscape paves the way for terrains that are orders of magnitude larger than what have been previously possible thanks to its powerful LOD system and efficient memory use. Quickly and easily create outdoor worlds allow for any type of game! Dip into the foliage editor to apply trees, grass, snow, sand and other terrain elements.
Give AI-controlled characters increased spatial awareness of the world around them and enable them to make smarter movements with UE4's gameplay framework and artificial intelligence system. Dynamic navigation mesh updates in real time as you move objects for optimal pathing at all times.
Define your game's audio pipeline using the Sound Cue Editor.
And, as mentioned before, when you sign up for UE4 subscription, you get full C++ source code access through GitHub! If you require custom license terms, you also have the option of source control via Perforce and SVN. Each solution enable teams to easily coordinate their game development and design efforts, and efficiently manage version control.
Now let me reiterate, access to the full Unreal 4 source code to STUDY and LEARN from and develop SIMILAR systems and tools for Torque 3D.
Why would I post this here on Garagegames? Simple the smarter developers will see this a massive boon to their knowledge of game engine development as they can pay to access their source code and study a real triple A game engine and start to incorporate that back into the development and MAJOR refactoring of the Torque 3D engine.
So what similar features could this bring to Torque 3d under the right group of developers ? Lets see what Unreal offers with their features.
What features are included with Unreal Engine 4?
Unreal Engine 4 gives you all the features you need to make just about any game you can dream up! When you get UE4, you have all the rendering horsepower to make a cinematic experience like the Infiltrator demo, and you can also build really simple games like side-scrolling platformers and match-three apps. That call is totally yours to make.
UE4 has many integrated systems, tools and features. There are too many to list!
Here's the abridged version: UE4's DirectX11 rendering features include full-scene HDR reflections, thousands of dynamic lights per scene, artist-programmable tessellation and displacement, temporal anti-aliasing (TXAA) and IES lighting profiles, just for starters.
The new UE4 material pipeline makes use of physically-based shading to give you unprecedented control over the look and feel of characters and objects. Layer materials and fine-tune values at the pixel level to achieve any desired aesthetic.
UE4's robust Cascade visual effects pipeline provides fast, low-cost GPU particle simulation and a collision system that interacts with the depth buffer. Millions of dynamic particles can receive and emit light within a scene, and you can control many particle properties, including size, color, density, falloff and bounciness. You can also use Cascade to create fire, sparks, smoke, dust, rubble and anything else that can be powered by particles.
Blueprint visual scripting is incredibly empowering! Blueprints enable anyone to rapidly prototype and build playable content without touching a line of code. Use Blueprints to author level, object and gameplay behaviors, modify user interface, adjust input controls and so much more.
Built-in Blueprint debugging enables you to interactively visualize the flow of gameplay and inspect property values while testing your game. You can even freeze the game and inspect its state by setting breakpoints on individual nodes in your Blueprint graphs.
UE4 Code View saves time by allowing you to browse C++ functions directly on game characters and objects and then jump straight to source code lines in Visual Studio to make changes.
Make updates to gameplay code while the game is running with Hot Reload. This tool allows you to edit C++ code and see those changes reflected immediately in-game without ever pausing gameplay. Examine your creations from every angle through Play, Simulate and Immersive modes within the Unreal Editor.
Use the Content Browser to import, organize, search, tag, filter and modify terabytes of game assets within the Unreal Editor. The Content Browser features real-time, animated thumbnail previews which can be explored and modified on the fly. Here you can also create any type of asset collection to be used for individual work or shared with hundreds of other developers.
Use the Persona animation toolset to edit skeletons, skeletal meshes and sockets, animation Blueprints and more. Preview animation sequences and morph targets, and set up animation blend spaces and montages.
Modify physics and collision properties for skeletal mesh actors with the Physics Asset editing tool (PhAT).
The Matinee cinematic toolset provides director-level control over cut scenes, dynamic gameplay sequences and movies.
The Landscape system provides advanced sculpting and painting tools so you can quickly create and customize large, open worlds. Landscape paves the way for terrains that are orders of magnitude larger than what have been previously possible thanks to its powerful LOD system and efficient memory use. Quickly and easily create outdoor worlds allow for any type of game! Dip into the foliage editor to apply trees, grass, snow, sand and other terrain elements.
Give AI-controlled characters increased spatial awareness of the world around them and enable them to make smarter movements with UE4's gameplay framework and artificial intelligence system. Dynamic navigation mesh updates in real time as you move objects for optimal pathing at all times.
Define your game's audio pipeline using the Sound Cue Editor.
And, as mentioned before, when you sign up for UE4 subscription, you get full C++ source code access through GitHub! If you require custom license terms, you also have the option of source control via Perforce and SVN. Each solution enable teams to easily coordinate their game development and design efforts, and efficiently manage version control.
Now let me reiterate, access to the full Unreal 4 source code to STUDY and LEARN from and develop SIMILAR systems and tools for Torque 3D.
#42
Are you able to replicate this at lower ground?
Lukas such an engine does not exist :o)
Experience with Unreal 4 so far:
After some tests with the engine's way of working I must say that the power with Unreal 4 seems to lie in the speed of productivity. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised about the Blueprint script system. It is a visual scripting system made out of blocks. The cool thing is that new Blueprint scripts can be made(or old even changed) in C++ too so the programmer still gets his place in the production.
In many ways I find the Blueprint scripting system to be a kind of revolution in the way game developers script/design a game. It is like Packages in Torque Script but just Visually represented on a 2D diagram.
Even the terrain and texture/material for shapes and terrain is very fast and easy(click, drag and drop) O_o eeeh what? I mean I am used to sit and fix the channels and layers(texture, detail and normal).
Right now I still feel much more strong in Torque 3D(that is what I have worked in for a long time so that is pretty normal). However, I am getting this feeling that as I am getting more and more into this Unreal 4 engine some things are more quick to set up and also very user friendly(perhaps a little too user friendly so that people might never really learn what is going on behind the scene).
On of the things that really surprised me was that when I clicked the button "Blueprints" in the game editor I would be presented with a small visual tutorial and when done a link in the window would guide me to a whole tutorial course in the Blueprints scripting visual system that explains everything very slow and well so a programmer and a artist will understand the idea how they may use this and work together. The whole online youtube course teach you how to use this new system.
It feels like one is nuked with user manuals, tutorials and youtube videos each time one dare click a button in the editor :O)
I am still to test the alternative to Blueprint script... real coding in Visual Studio 2013...
For now I find the engine to be a fine option among many.
That is my experience with it so far.
Edit: 20.07.2015
Some months ago I decided to stick with Torque 3D MIT. It just seems more solid.
03/26/2014 (1:19 pm)
Okay so manage to replicate that. I also manage to fly up on the wall and fall down into the void(in the void!!!). Frankly speaking that can be fixed with a higher wall. I can only replicate this issue at the stairs up at the platforms(not at the lower ground). Are you able to replicate this at lower ground?
Quote:
"perfect-answer-to-everything"
Lukas such an engine does not exist :o)
Experience with Unreal 4 so far:
After some tests with the engine's way of working I must say that the power with Unreal 4 seems to lie in the speed of productivity. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised about the Blueprint script system. It is a visual scripting system made out of blocks. The cool thing is that new Blueprint scripts can be made(or old even changed) in C++ too so the programmer still gets his place in the production.
In many ways I find the Blueprint scripting system to be a kind of revolution in the way game developers script/design a game. It is like Packages in Torque Script but just Visually represented on a 2D diagram.
Even the terrain and texture/material for shapes and terrain is very fast and easy(click, drag and drop) O_o eeeh what? I mean I am used to sit and fix the channels and layers(texture, detail and normal).
Right now I still feel much more strong in Torque 3D(that is what I have worked in for a long time so that is pretty normal). However, I am getting this feeling that as I am getting more and more into this Unreal 4 engine some things are more quick to set up and also very user friendly(perhaps a little too user friendly so that people might never really learn what is going on behind the scene).
On of the things that really surprised me was that when I clicked the button "Blueprints" in the game editor I would be presented with a small visual tutorial and when done a link in the window would guide me to a whole tutorial course in the Blueprints scripting visual system that explains everything very slow and well so a programmer and a artist will understand the idea how they may use this and work together. The whole online youtube course teach you how to use this new system.
It feels like one is nuked with user manuals, tutorials and youtube videos each time one dare click a button in the editor :O)
I am still to test the alternative to Blueprint script... real coding in Visual Studio 2013...
For now I find the engine to be a fine option among many.
That is my experience with it so far.
Edit: 20.07.2015
Some months ago I decided to stick with Torque 3D MIT. It just seems more solid.
#43
It's a behemoth on the market atm, but I'd say it's just one choice out of the behemoth on the market, it fills a niche and it does that well just as every other engine out there fills a niche.
That is whats great about the game engine market atm, no two engines are alike.
And I didn't believe that such an engine existed, I just said that a lot of people exaggerate the consequences of this move ;)
03/26/2014 (1:30 pm)
Yup the engine is a great option! And to be frank, if I was new on the market, I'd probably jump right over to UE4.It's a behemoth on the market atm, but I'd say it's just one choice out of the behemoth on the market, it fills a niche and it does that well just as every other engine out there fills a niche.
That is whats great about the game engine market atm, no two engines are alike.
And I didn't believe that such an engine existed, I just said that a lot of people exaggerate the consequences of this move ;)
#44
04/02/2014 (1:06 am)
I was thinking the same thing about examining the code and using the ideas for Torque3D. I know a lot of people think Torque3D is for a bunch of indies but its not. Like Ubuntu, Torque3D is fast and powerful. It only needs a larger community and smart people who can work on it consistently to make it better. At this point is is great, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it needs upgrades. 
Torque Owner Lukas Joergensen
WinterLeaf Entertainment
I'm sitting with:
For replicating the issue, I simply opened up the third-person demo, walked up on the little platform, and jumped into the wall. Didn't jump straight in, I made sure to have a little angle on the impact.
Also, I see some of the same issues that T3D has in UE4. I wouldn't say I'd jump-ship to UE4 based off the features, it's still a great engine ofc! But it's definetly not the "perfect-answer-to-everything" engine that some people make it out to be, personally I'd prefer T3D over UE4 atm.