Hi Epic,
I was wondering if there was a chance for you guys to strike a deal with Silicon Studio regarding the use of Enlighten for Indie Developers. Currently they seem to block any request by small companies that don't have budgets north of 1 million dollars.
From what I could gather it appears that all other available GI Solutions (like VXGI, AHR, LPV, etc) have been either abandoned (or at least slowed down significantly in development) or/and turned out not feasible for current hardware, respectively being unsuitable in creating products able to reach a wider market (Exception being DFGI maybe which appears to be only suited for sunlit/outdoor scenarios)
On the other hand there is Enlighten which, at this point, appears to be an industry proven solution which already features an integration for UE4.
I`m not trying to get at this from the angle of wanting some graphical candy on a small budget (One could argue that you simply have to pay premium for premium graphics solutions), rather I try to argue from the standpoint of a small developer trying new things gameplay-wise with dynamic lighting scenarios as well as wanting/needing to save time setting up lighting - not having to worry about how to get enough light into an interior scene with dynamic lighting only (juggling issues like light bleeding into adjacent rooms when using large light sources to get evenly distributed lighting, splotchy lighting when creating more lights with smaller ranges, performance for overlapping shadow enabled light sources, etc). While Lightmass is able to produce really pretty static lighting, we find it really hard to mix it with dynamic needs, like toggling lights in a room. I`m pretty sure that there is a demand out there beyond ours for better dynamic lighting in interiors as well as for many other setups (like 24h day night cycles) where a solution like the one enlighten provides could either improve the visual look and or save time setting up lighting. I think UE4 would greatly benefit from having this tool at it's disposal (not a very bold statement I think
)
So since the chances of our budget climbing that high are very slim, I take the chance to ask if there was a possibility for Epic to negotiate with Silicon Studio on Indie Developers behalf (while realistically already bracing for having to throw dynamic lighting out of the window
)
cheers,
Chris
I was wondering if there was a chance for you guys to strike a deal with Silicon Studio regarding the use of Enlighten for Indie Developers. Currently they seem to block any request by small companies that don't have budgets north of 1 million dollars.
From what I could gather it appears that all other available GI Solutions (like VXGI, AHR, LPV, etc) have been either abandoned (or at least slowed down significantly in development) or/and turned out not feasible for current hardware, respectively being unsuitable in creating products able to reach a wider market (Exception being DFGI maybe which appears to be only suited for sunlit/outdoor scenarios)
On the other hand there is Enlighten which, at this point, appears to be an industry proven solution which already features an integration for UE4.
I`m not trying to get at this from the angle of wanting some graphical candy on a small budget (One could argue that you simply have to pay premium for premium graphics solutions), rather I try to argue from the standpoint of a small developer trying new things gameplay-wise with dynamic lighting scenarios as well as wanting/needing to save time setting up lighting - not having to worry about how to get enough light into an interior scene with dynamic lighting only (juggling issues like light bleeding into adjacent rooms when using large light sources to get evenly distributed lighting, splotchy lighting when creating more lights with smaller ranges, performance for overlapping shadow enabled light sources, etc). While Lightmass is able to produce really pretty static lighting, we find it really hard to mix it with dynamic needs, like toggling lights in a room. I`m pretty sure that there is a demand out there beyond ours for better dynamic lighting in interiors as well as for many other setups (like 24h day night cycles) where a solution like the one enlighten provides could either improve the visual look and or save time setting up lighting. I think UE4 would greatly benefit from having this tool at it's disposal (not a very bold statement I think

So since the chances of our budget climbing that high are very slim, I take the chance to ask if there was a possibility for Epic to negotiate with Silicon Studio on Indie Developers behalf (while realistically already bracing for having to throw dynamic lighting out of the window

cheers,
Chris
Comment