I am “shopping” to make an informed decision about the best graphics engine for my project. So I have two basic questions. 1) Is the Unreal Engine appropriate for my application and 2) is there a licensing method that works for me. Unfortunately the licensing contact page doesn’t allow me to submit because I:
Do not currently have a web page
Do not have an email account outside of a “free email service” except for work and currently, my inquiry is my own personal business; so I will not provide my work email.
Here is a basic description of what I need in a graphics engine. It should be noted that I am not building a game.
C++ based
An engine that allows itself to be embedded in a non full-screen way at any custom resolution imaginable (within reason) into a Qt Widget and/or .NET control
Allows custom scene nodes of almost any type and at any level.
Allows procedural generation of meshes and other scene nodes.
Supports import of a large variety of mesh formats.
Access to the event pipeline
Access to the rendering pipeline
Shader support
Ability to restrict modding capabilities of engine to zero depending on user credentials. (I know that this is largely my responsibility but I need to know it can be done).
Allows what is moddable in the engine up to me and my teams design.
FYI the free Irrlicht graphics engine (http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/) is perfect for my needs and until recently I was planning on using it. The only reason I am considering another engine is because it lacks support for more modern 3D technologies. (It is currently stuck at Direct X 9 era capabilities and has been for almost a decade).
Here is a short description of my licensing inquiry/needs:
I am prototyping a “new” kind of software that is meant to be available for free. Many of the uses tasked to the graphics engine will not be a source of income. The intended income model will be based on services provided that make the software far more useful than without the services but most of these are not directly related to the graphics engine. Only 2-3 (current count) of these services will require direct use of the engine (though the interactivity of the graphics engine is part of the appeal of the software in general). I am wondering how licensing in this situation could/would work. I would prefer to lower overall royalties though I am not sure if that would be necessary if I would only need to pay royalties for those specific services.
I’m the attorney rather than a developer, so I’m not the best person to respond to your technical questions about the engine.
From the above, it sounds like you are not eligible for a custom engine license. That means your questions about about the standard EULA. I can say that the standard EULA royalty terms cannot be modified.
Your description of your intended use is a little vague or hard to follow, so I find it difficult to say how the EULA will affect your plans. I can say that any Product (as defined under the EULA) which contains all or part of the UE4 Editor functionality can only be distributed to other UE4 licensees, so that their use will be governed by our EULA as well. In other words, it’s effectively not permitted to make a UE4 Product that allows for the creation of other products which would not be subject to Epic’s EULA directly.
EU4 Editor? I am not interested in your editor. My product will come with its own editor that will allow modification and development of independent modules. This editor is in no way connected to your engine except that the engine will be used to model 3d graphics.
The 3d engine (such as UE4) is used for modelling and presentation only and most of these services are provided free of charge. Think of it as a 3d version of flash (used for more than just videos… think of flash games); the primary difference being that instead of a 2d interaction, it is a 3d interaction. I will be providing the “player” and the development kit that allows one to build “presentations.”
The bottom line is that my product is a platform that centers around 3d modelling and its practical applications. As described above, think of it as an interactive “media” viewer that focuses on 3d imagery. The platform itself is free. The modules that can be distributed for the platform are also free. Money only becomes involved when a user wants to gain access to services that the modelling can be used to facilitate. One example would be a service that allows one to save media presentations for cloud distribution (think a 3d version of youtube).
The full definition of Engine Tools in the EULA is as follows:
“Engine Tools” means (a) editors and other tools included in the Engine Code; (b) any code and modules in either the Developer or Editor folders, including in object code format, whether statically or dynamically linked; and (c) other software that may be used to develop standalone products based on the Licensed Technology.
So if your Product is or contains Engine Tools as defined above, it can only be distributed to other UE4 licensees.
If that’s not the case, then it’s just a regular Product. 5% royalties are due on all gross revenue for the Product (see Section 4 for the finer details). If the Product is a platform, as you say, then royalties are due on gross revenue for that platform/
Yes. I already read that section. None of the situations there clearly apply to my situation. That is why I am asking this question. Let me go point by point.
a. Gross revenue resulting from any and all sales of a Product to end users through any and all media, including but not limited to digital and retail.
My product is not for sale and neither is the media developed for it. As I said earlier, all media is provided for free.
b. Gross revenue resulting from any and all in-app purchases, downloadable content,microtransactions, subscriptions, sale, transfer, or exchange of content created by end users for use with a Product, or redemption of virtual currency, either within a Product or made externally but which directly affect the operation of the Product;
No in app purchases will ever occur. Downloadable content is not for sale. No virtual currency exists. Use of the product is not subscription based in the traditional sense. One does not pay to use the product itself.
c. Gross revenue from any Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign which is directly associated with Product access or in-Product benefit…
I am not going to say that these kinds of things won’t happen because I am not really familiar with these concepts (I had to look them up), but they will not happen on a regular or ordinary basis. I am not sure they will happen at all.
d - e do not apply. There is no in-product advertising. I will address f in a second post.
f is very generic so I supposed it does apply but it is hard for me to say exactly. To be very literal here… most of the profit will come from data mining services and social networking unrelated to your graphics engine. There are only three exceptions.
The most important exception is that one mode of use of the product will provide details not directly accessible to others (even though technically they are shipped freely with the product). Those details (like much of the media based content) will require use of the engine to access. I anticipate that this is where most of the royalties you would collect would come from.
One type of data presentation will be more fulfilling given the use of your engine. However your engine is not necessary and given the rudimentary nature of this feature, I will not use your engine for it if you require a 5% royalty for sales involving this feature alone for people to see the data the way it is meant to be seen.
The final service that uses your engine will be a specific type of data mining that requires the use of the engine in order to collect the data.
Let me be frank… this is not “just a regular product.” My saying that is not a conceit. It is a simple fact. I am not willing to give your company profits for services that are not related to your engine. So if you are going to ask for them just because those services are offered through my product which uses your engine for specific functionality, you can forget it. I will stick with Irrlicht or some other engine that provides what I need and you will miss out on a lucrative opportunity in the long run. Sayonara.
This sounds like an interesting use of the engine. Perhaps we should chat more about this to help me get a better understanding of what you want to do with Unreal Engine 4 and how we can be of better service. Would you mind shooting me an email at jay.wilbur@epicgames.com so we can arrange to speak directly.