There’s still market for low-mid end pcs and that’s where UE3 even UE2 can shine.
(I’m still playing UT2004/UT3 from time to time)
I think it would be interesting to poke around with the UE2 code. And UE3 too, might as well.
If Epic could bundle UE2 and UE3 with the UE4 subscription that would be sweet.
UE4 isn’t open source. The fact that you can access the ssource, doesn’t mean it’s open source. They will never realease any of their engines sources as open source. However, as to the propable intentional meaning of your question, yep, it would be nice to have the source.
You need to look up the definition of open source.
No Cube is right that UE4 is not open source. Open Source means it is available to the public for modification, distribution, etc with NO fees or royalties. UE4 has both fees ($20/mo) and royalties (5% of shipping game).
On the other hand, the OP never said UE4 was open source. He meant the source for UE2/3 should be open to those who care to pay a subscription like UE4.
I can’t see UE3 code being open source in the next ten years, when you consider that hundreds of studios have paid Epic $50,000 and upwards for the source code.
We would like to, but can’t. We have investigated this possibility extensively over the years and concluded that releasing UE2/3 source was infeasible due to a combination of third-party licensing contracts, lack of source, and compiler incompatibilities.
The UE4 code release now has been made possible by an extensive architectural effort to eliminate problematic third-party code dependencies which began back in 2010.
He’s absolutely right! Haven’t you guys noticed that there is no Scaleform, no Simplygon, no Speedtree, no Bink video etc in UE4? Epic can’t simply release source code that they don’t own. It’s a bold and courageous decision to remove all dependencies, and enjoy the liberty of being able to release the source code to Unreal devs!
Simplygon was one of the big things I missed. Helps with time when you don’t have to make every LOD manually.
No doubt, but it’s either continuing to have that so this whole new business model for UE4 won’t be possible, or we can enjoy the new deal from Epic. It’s a tradeoff for sure, but I think they made the right choice.
Yeah, that makes sense. I forgot about all the 3rd party stuff UE used to use.
I am definitely extremely happy and grateful you guys took the effort to make UE4 without problematic dependencies so the engine can be what it is today. It speaks volumes on so many levels.
Understood. So back in 2010, you guys have already the “evil” plan to re-take over indie world?
It is open source… or semiopen if you like. You have access to source, you can submit changes in same nature as open source, people can fork and edit shere with other subscribers. Only diffrence is subscription. You cant say its closed sourced either.
In fact with GPL you can order to pay for your product and you wont give source until somebody pay for it
Interesting tidbit – we actually started preparing for the original UDK to come with full source, but it ended up not being feasible. The desire to release source has been around for a while and I am ecstatic that we finally were able to do so 
Open source is a license. It doesn’t mean you have insight in the code and can modify it. It means that you can freely use teh code, distribute it, modify, and use parts of it. All for free.
Open source is not a license at all, it’s a category. MIT is a license. GPL is a license. BSD is a license, etc.
And the old and good Unreal Engine 1.x ??
Are many people that would like to clean and fix the old Unreal Tournament. Today is very problematic to run in modern computers.
The game engine being used does not automatically add to the performance overhead and its a design decision on the part of the games developer to cater to the needs of a given segment of the market place.
Making a game that will run on a low-mid spec PC using UE4 should be much easier to do than doing so using UE2/UE4 as to tools to do so are there. The mobile tools could just as easily be used for PC games by avoiding the over use of eye candy or technology driven API’s. So having these engines made available is not really necessary as to this need but rather the interest on the part of the games designer to make games that have a low performance requirement.
On the other hand if by low-mid spec PC’s the definition is “old” then the issue of obsolesce by design becomes a factor where the tools needed to to maintain any kind of meaningful development are simply not there or are quickly disappearing being replaced by more advanced technology. Once again in the hands of the games developer is the desire to work with older technology to produce games for a limited market and doing so they become responsible for both the game and “engine” requirements.
As for going open source I’m a fan of the ideal’s but in my experience a game engine is the one thing that should not be open sourced as to the logic as it’s use is not really compatible as to the needs of those who want to play your game.
UE2/UE3 with out Epic’s support is not a very desirable platform to develop future games on.
Hello !
Does that apply to the Unreal Engine 1 also? I think next year it will be 20 years since you started the development of the first Unreal engine. Wouldn’t it be possible after all this time to release the source for the first version of the engine?
Most of the games which had licenses for UE1 don’t have active communities anymore, but there are still people around who create mods and their own content for these games. I think you would make these people very happy by giving them access to the whole source code.
So do you think that would that be possible with U1? Maybe using some non-commercial license which would let people play around with it, but not use if for anything serious?