Lets make PlaneShift Unreal

[Salamanderrake]

Hi guys

I just went to download the unreal engine it says windows or mac.
I heard it's ok on linux.

<--- linux user

Regards Pete

Here is the main Linux hub on their wiki.
Here is the wiki page on building the editor for Linux, please read.
There is a #UE4Linux channel on freenode that you can stop by if you have any questions. As for the Linux client of the game they can cross-compile (kinda like Unity3D's export option) a Linux client, or they can build it natively on Linux.

[Pierre]

grazie Salamanderrake, even though I'm osx I looked through the linux instructions, it's awesome to have someone who knows UE4 point us in the right direction.

Would be quite a cool way to break into the bronze doors region.. some pick locked gates in the sewers.

There is a way to do it now 

WHAT.  Eonwind, hints please.

[Roled]

Again, being not very interested in learning to make the tech part of PS function myself, I wonder:

Why please do all the examples you have posted, Venalan and Talad, look so out of focus?  The game on my computer as it is now is much sharper and cleaner and easier to see details.  Am I going to have to learn some other tricks or options or go through the p-i-t-a of finding different drivers AGAIN just to be able to see the details?

Why are the videos and screenshots so fuzzy?
RR

[Candy]

I can't speak for Ven, but it may just be that the images are very compressed or the graphics settings kept low to reduce lag on their ends.

A quick Google shows me that some of the games I've played smoothly on a mediocre desktop use the Unreal engine, so hopefully playing with the graphics up to a bearable level would be easier going than what we currently have.

[Gilrond]

Sounds cool. I might get back into PS if you move to Unreal engine

[Volki]

Why are the videos and screenshots so fuzzy?

The videos are very low resolution. They look better once downloaded and played without being enlarged in Dropbox.

There is no low quality setting in existence which will make your game look blurry, Roled.

edit: All of this UE4 news is making me want to learn C++ again. >.<

[Venalan]

Volki is right, the resolution is low to keep the files manageable. Viewing them in drop box is not ideal. I would also suggest downloading them and view them from your computer and not on the website. They should look MUCH better. I just massively reduce the video to share it.

When I record the video I'm using full HD with all effects on, I've not had a problem with lag playing the game not even when I try.

[Salamanderrake]

Why not upload the videos to youtube, it costs nothing so there is no real loss other then time uploading them.

[Can-ned Food]

Pardon me waking this old topic with no important info, but the blurriness of the screenshots is probably due in part to Unreal's anti-aliasing.

[Annah]

Congratulations for choosing a new challenging path Talad, this will definitely enhance one of the best role playing experiences to date!

I have to admit it's probably one of the most exciting news this year. Good luck!

[MrGadget]

@Roled...silly elf...go back to your market!  You've got a year or two worth of lead before there's a playable game on the UE4 engine. This port will take a while.  Deal with hardware requirements then

@All...as Talad alluded to, switching to unreal opens the door to thousands of game devs through their massive community. Same is true for other popular Indie engines. CS never had that.  Try to separate in your heads the OS aspect of the engine, which is just a tool, and the OS aspect of PS's code that is the underlying game logic that drives the game play.  PS team uses spreadsheets, but that doesn't mean Excel must be FOS.  Is Maya or 3DS Max FOS? No, but they've been used to make a lot of the art.  There's no promise in PS or any FOS project to never touch a non-FOS tool in content creation. Get over it, please?

[CheatCat]

There's no promise in PS or any FOS project to never touch a non-FOS tool in content creation. Get over it, please?

I know I should drop it right here but I could not just let it go.

I do not talk about what tools the developers use, proprietary or open source. The problem is that UE in not just a tool, it is an engine. It would be the core of this game. This forces every user who want to play this game to use (more) proprietary software.

Maybe I was the first one who started this discussion, but things moved on from there. I can accept the fact PlaneShift will use UE, but it does not mean I would like it. I think it is always good to reflect your options before jumping on the mainstream train. Is an engine that does not respect freedom really worth it? Perhaps, for the sake of the community.

[MrGadget]

I do not talk about what tools the developers use, proprietary or open source. The problem is that UE in not just a tool, it is an engine. It would be the core of this game. This forces every user who want to play this game to use (more) proprietary software.

You do understand that a player doesn't need to install the UE4 development software to just play the game, right? There will still be distributed executable downloads for all platforms and that's all that's needed...nothing external required like a flash player or some such. Building a client from PS's source would still require the UE4 software, true, but users aren't forced down that path to play.

Maybe I was the first one who started this discussion, but things moved on from there. I can accept the fact PlaneShift will use UE, but it does not mean I would like it. I think it is always good to reflect your options before jumping on the mainstream train. Is an engine that does not respect freedom really worth it? Perhaps, for the sake of the community.

I'm not sure what you mean by "does not respect freedom" since the source is available on GitHub and reconstructing PS with UE4 won't cost the PS team a dime (at least not to Epic). Turns out that making and continuing to improve and innovate on a rendering engine and set of tools of this quality takes tremendous time, talent, and treasure.  Epic invested millions in their people to do that, so there has to be a return somewhere. It would seem Crystal Space's current state after so many years makes it rather evident that a comparable product doesn't happen with casual volunteer effort. For someone to repackage UE4 under another name and sell it with no compensation due back to Epic would be financially devastating to Epic and all the people who depend on those jobs to feed, house, and clothe their families. Absent legal protections, the source would never come out, and absent the investment, Indie engines like UE4 don't exist.

[jirore]

I'm not sure what you mean by "does not respect freedom" since the source is available on GitHub and reconstructing PS with UE4 won't cost the PS team a dime (at least not to Epic).

There seems to be a misunderstanding here, FREE software does not mean that the source is available, or the program is gratis (free as in beer), but that it is free as in freedom. Software is free if it has the 4 freedoms:

• You can run it any way you want
• You can study the sourcecode
• You can redistribute it
• You can redistribute modified copies

You can't run UE4 to make (1) for any gambling-related activities or Products (as defined by law in the jurisdiction of use); (2) for operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation, aircraft communication systems or air traffic control machines, or for military use in connection with live combat; (3) in violation of any applicable law or regulation; (4) in which the Licensed Technology is rented or leased; (5) that misappropriates any of Epic’s other products or services; (6) in support of a claim by you or any third party that the Licensed Technology infringes a patent. However unlikeli it is that you want to run you nuclear submarine based casinos whit UE4, not allowing it makes it nonfree (regardles of how sensible these regulations might seem). There are other parts of the EULA that make it nonfree but I have'nt read it trough.

There will still be distributed executable downloads for all platforms and that's all that's needed...

People who are concious of their usage of nonfree software would (imo) never ever favour a binary to something with nonfree but available source.

For someone to repackage UE4 under another name and sell it with no compensation due back to Epic would be financially devastating to Epic and all the people who depend on those jobs to feed, house, and clothe their families. Absent legal protections, the source would never come out, and absent the investment, Indie engines like UE4 don't exist.

When a program is free it does not mean that it has no legal protection, ther exist many free licences such as the GPL's wich grant different kinds of protections for the developer. Wheter it is possible to make money working on free software have been discussed countless times, free software is not just for bearded hippies and there are people feeding families by working on free software.

I'm not happy that PS is moving to a propriatery engine, but having never touched crystal space or the PS codebase, I think it is a choice the developers have to make, whatever they cohoose I hope it makes their job easier, more enjoyable, and in the end makes PS better.

[MrGadget]

There seems to be a misunderstanding here, FREE software does not mean that the source is available, or the program is gratis (free as in beer), but that it is free as in freedom. Software is free if it has the 4 freedoms:

• You can run it any way you want
• You can study the sourcecode
• You can redistribute it
• You can redistribute modified copies

Then I don't think PS is now or was ever "free as in freedom". I doubt Talad or AB would ever permit resale for profit, and to the best of my recollection, only the distributed binaries are allowed to connect to the PS game servers by policy, breaking your first rule.  Other than a short-ish span of time years ago when the Linux binaries were bugged during which players were allowed to use built-from-source clients, I think that's been true since they started rolling out binaries. Of all the people to ever come in contact with PS, only a tiny fraction have contributed a thing to PS or CS, so for them, this was always free beer.