Sorry if it came across like that. I was merely replying to this specifically:
I just don’t see this “hobbyist” that you’re describing here. What I meant to say is that most people interested to try UE4 are also gamers (after all it’s a game engine) and already has a decent PC to run today’s games so they will most likely be able to run UE4 at least somewhat acceptably. It’s all consumer hardware.
Even the tools that game artists need require the same kind of hardware. Your Modo (which by the way costs as much as a decent PC) runs better on GTX 780 than a 640, and having 16 instead of 8GB memory doesn’t hurt.
Hobbyist doesn’t equal “no money” either. It’s a very individual thing. Many people spend fortunes on their hobbies, naturally. After all it’s what they enjoy.
I suppose by Hobbyist I might mean some one who uses an application in their spare time and might not necessarily be developing a game but is interested in the tools and procedures. Also a person who isnt making money from game dev right now or might never have an interest in doing so. That person might have a 9 to 5 job elsewhere working for the man/woman ( In my case i work for myself in Web design, IT installs etc but would love to eventually be more involved with Game Dev, 3D stuff, CGI - however where I am in Ireland is a very small conservative market )
A professional is someone using UE as part of their working day developing games and getting paid for same which consequently pays for the monthly subscription. The operation might also pays for decent equipment on an ongoing basis.
I would disagree that most people who wish to try UE4 are also gamers. I would not consider myself a gamer however I do have an interest in the process of how games are built. I am also interested in other uses for UE4 like Architectural walk throughs, possible cut scene machinima film making and the like.
Where gaming is concerned and me - I used to be a gamer - late nights and lost hours However I felt that coming around the other side to the development end, looking at how it was done might be more a good use of time, feeling one is doing something useful … I know, you might not agree that gaming all the time is a waste
I also have an interest in the potential for training people in the use of Game engines. Taking kids who normally would be stuck in front of gaming consoles / Screens around the other side and get them interested in the development end.
Where MODO is concerned - YES right now it is expensive relative to ones usage. However I got in at the ground floor when Modo arrived first way back via an offer from DAZ actually. I never had to pay full price. I have not upgraded since v601 because the recession and IMF/EU bailout hit Ireland big time ( this forced evaluation of all cost ), so money very tight PLUS I found BLENDER could now do all I needed plus more than Modo.
ok as mentioned its up to you weather you can spend the $19 or what ever in euro’s a month, it’s more then a magazine sub but you can cancel the sub and still use the version of the engine as much as you like then when you have the cash re-sub and update the engine, this sort of offer you won’t find anywhere else that i know of,
personally while i love using UE tech and would find a way to pay the bill, i’ll never make any money out of it, to me it’s a hobby which atm i can afford atm, but remember you can still use the engine after your sub stops, i can’t repeat that enough, to be honest what Epic gives you with a 1 month sub is more than any other game engine.
Hmm… My system is pretty old. At least three or four years old and not even a high end system.
i5 25K
8 gig ram
XFX Radeon HD 6870 black edition from 2011
I run UE4 pretty flawless. I bought that card from a online shop for around 50$ It was used as a demo card in the shop way back.
6870 cards can be bought second hand for as low as 50$ I would say that even hobbyists should be able to jump on the UE4 wagon. You only need to pay the 19$ once.
Go to ebay and search for second hand cards and your machine will soon be up to date for few gold coins. Their is no need to spend huge cash on hardware at all
I’m actually a bit surprised how well it runs with that GPU Dwarf King.
You said in the other thread that you aren’t working on a large open world project, which is exactly what I (stupidly =p) am doing.
It’ll be interesting to see how my machine goes when I swap my barebones landscape texture over for a much more complex one.
I really don’t want to only be able to work on one landscape tile at a time -_-.
if unreal want more indie dev to join they have to do it.
indie devs make game as a hobby so they have others thing to go and when the have free time they dont want to open the pc and stand again sit they want then when they have free time open the laptop and dedicate to the game some minutes or hours.
this can be in the unreal advantage because hobbyist dont have time they bay more on the marketplace.
Most serious developers have capable hardware. If you’re going to buy a PC and you want to develop games you also need to look for a PC that has the best speed at the price point since most laptops are designed for portability rather than performance.
That’s not something that can be fixed with the engine, textures and geometry take up a certain amount of memory, if you try to have too many objects or too many lightmaps/too high resolution lightmaps then it won’t work, it’s an issue that all game developers have to deal with. Many AAA studios have render farms where the send their levels to servers with lots of memory to bake the lighting because of this.
