4 Month of free Unity pro for rift Devs

[zalo]

And please don't make a new thread for the kickstarter update!

Talk about the videos in the main thread and the pro trial stuff here.

[GeraldT]

How is this anything other than a marketing campaign for Unity Pro?
If Pro is needed to do any work with Oculus, the hole "anybody can start developing for Oculus" is not really true anymore.
They could at least mention that in the press release. (I see it is mentioned in the mail that they just sent out)

4 month trial - everyone can start, not everyone can finish

but seriously, I think it is rather generous that they offer a 4 month trial. gives you a fair chance to decide if this is for you or not.
and you have alternatives to Unity, so you can always skip to alternatives. of course it is a marketing campaign.

[Marv]

So the only news is that Unity is trying to lock indie developers in by having them start projects, and then having to pay the pro license to finish them.
This might indeed make developers look for alternatives and I don't see how that helps Unity. They have the free license model for a reason.

[zalo]

Kind of. You can begin right now (or use a half-finished project) and then finish before the four month time-limit runs out.

However, with the trial, anything you export will have a watermark. So really, you can't finish no matter how good you are (unless you use some nasty GUI tricks to mask the existence of the watermark).

[Aabel]

Alternatives like what? UDK? You think $1500 is expensive wait till you get slapped with 30% royalty, unless you don't plan on selling your project at all. Then there's the whole usability aspect of UDK, that thing is a beast. My wife and I started out project in UDK, because that was what we were most familiar with, but at the behest of a friend who knew Unity we gave it a shot and found it so much easier to get anything done in that we just moved over to it. Yeah UDK has fancy graphics features, but I've been pretty impressed with Unity directX 11 stuff as well. Though I am sure some lead level graphics programmer with years of experience with Unreal could find something to gripe about with Unity's directX 11, it will most likely work out just fine for me and my wife.

$1500 for a game engine of Unity's quality is CHEAP.

[GeraldT]

So the only news is that Unity is trying to lock indie developers in by having them start projects, and then having to pay the pro license to finish them.
This might indeed make developers look for alternatives and I don't see how that helps Unity. They have the free license model for a reason.

The question is if you want to switch after you tried it. Even a low level developer like me can get decent results with Unity. Maybe I could get the same results with UDK, but their license model was not mine. Going smaller engine was not mine because I like to save time with many tutorials and assets available.
Going pro level and starting from scratch ... certainly an option, but I see myself more as a game designer than a programmer. And I would have had to invest more than 1500$ worth of time.

[Baristan6]

I don't have $1500. Wasted my time learning Unity, and will uninstall it. They warned us there would be lots of news, was expecting more of it to be good news.

[DFP]

So the only news is that Unity is trying to lock indie developers in by having them start projects, and then having to pay the pro license to finish them.
This might indeed make developers look for alternatives and I don't see how that helps Unity. They have the free license model for a reason.

The free Unity probably makes quite a bit. I've spent quite a bit on the asset store for scripts and shaders. For the Rift though, you really do need Pro functions to inform the design/development of player experience. My plan right now is just to do as much content/asset groundwork as possible before I absolutely need it, though I have no idea how long I'll be able to sit on the trial before activating it. There's always a trial somewhere.

I don't have $1500. Wasted my time learning Unity, and will uninstall it. They warned us there would be lots of news, was expecting more of it to be good news.

You should continue working on it. You could come up with something great and I'm sure you'll have no trouble getting help.

[GeraldT]

I don't have $1500. Wasted my time learning Unity, and will uninstall it. They warned us there would be lots of news, was expecting more of it to be good news.

It's not exactly a surprise, it was expected pretty much from the start. And somehow I doubt you wasted much time, because if you spend much time with it, I doubt you would uninstall it that easily. You can do A LOT with the free version. And it is not like you have a ton of alternatives.

[Pingles]

I don't have $1500. Wasted my time learning Unity, and will uninstall it. They warned us there would be lots of news, was expecting more of it to be good news.

It's not exactly a surprise, it was expected pretty much from the start. And somehow I doubt you wasted much time, because if you spend much time with it, I doubt you would uninstall it that easily. You can do A LOT with the free version. And it is not like you have a ton of alternatives.

Palmer was very clear that he was going to TRY to get It working with the free version. I actually thought it was a no-brainer. Of COURSE Unity would want some new folks jumping onto their platform.

And personally I have progressed pretty far. A lot farther than I imagined I would which is what makes this decision so hard for me.

I will likely try some UDK tutorials and see what I'm up against.

Or do a "Buy me Unity" Kickstarter.

[DFP]

You can do A LOT with the free version.

This is true, and the more you do, the more you learn in general which is applicable outside of Unity. I understand the disappointment though. Sometimes a dollar can be tight, let alone 1500 of them.

What I've been able to do with Unity Free so far, which I'm hoping will get impressive enough to help get some license funding.

[Aabel]

What I've been able to do with Unity Free so far, which I'm hoping will get impressive enough to help get some license funding.

Keep it up! keep pushing your content so that when you get the 4 month trial you can turn the dials up on the graphics and take it to kickstarter or indiegogo or whatever and score a pro license! You've got the right attitude! I wish you success!

[unsilentwill]

It is a bit of a surprise though actually: http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/update-on- ... g-details/. They didn't promise it'd be free, just said they're working with the free version. So, no trust lost or anything weird like that, but it's sort of disappointing on Unity's side.

I agree that if you were serious about buying a Dev Kit, it was worth considering your other expenses. ZBrush, Photoshop, other game engines are all quite costly. As wonderful as the world would be to be able to create games for free or cheap like you can with 2D games, 3D tech is still fairly new and expensive business. There are always free 3D engines, but then the burdern to make everything work well on every computer is on you. And yeah, $1500 is pretty cheap, welcome to the engine market.

Also, like GeraldT said. If you have enough work sunk into your project, there may be people looking to help you buy a pro license (friends, family, Kickstarter). Turns out you can't distribute or sell anything you make the the trial, but it could be your ticket to a solid investment.

[GeraldT]

@Pingles - show some stuff! do something people want to play and people will pay

Or create some smaller games first. I started with the smaller LEAP titles because I learned that going adventure scale is nothing I can get kickstarter worthy fast enough. Now I am rather positive it will pay for quite a bit of development.

@DFP - that looks nice! what kind of game will it be? do you have video material?

[Pingles]

Ugh. Another post. I'm really chewing on this.

I wonder if Unity will allow us to turn on the Pro version later?

Maybe I will work out my concept, wait until its in a runnable state and THEN turn on Pro to test it on the Rift.

Hmmm...

[Pingles]

Wow. I went from angrily quitting Unity to excited about getting back into Unity in the span of about ten minutes. You guys are monsters.

You've talked me into it. I do really LIKE what they are doing with Unity. I know I would have eventually wanted to support them by buying it anyways.

[Aabel]

Ugh. Another post. I'm really chewing on this.

I wonder if Unity will allow us to turn on the Pro version later?

Maybe I will work out my concept, wait until its in a runnable state and THEN turn on Pro to test it on the Rift.

Hmmm...

This is most likely how it works, as you will have to download the trial from the Occulus dev center. Don't give up hope and trust me UDK is a massive headache compared to Unity, even if Unity is $1500 up front.

[GeraldT]

Ugh. Another post. I'm really chewing on this.

I wonder if Unity will allow us to turn on the Pro version later?

Maybe I will work out my concept, wait until its in a runnable state and THEN turn on Pro to test it on the Rift.

Hmmm...

Sounds like a solid plan. You can always contact them, they are also quite nice about giving you an extended trial period.

[DFP]

@DFP - that looks nice! what kind of game will it be? do you have video material?

It'll be a sci-fi comedy like Red Dwarf, with general plotline being a Contact->Deep Space Nine origin story. The general idea is that this is what people in the 80/90s thought the future would look like. I originally wanted to make a Wing Commander game, but I didn't want to compete with Chris Roberts when his game was announced -- Basically doing what Jackie Chan did when Bruce Lee came on the scene. Become the drunken master.

I might have posted a video or two as part of general Rift news, but I recently started overhauling the graphics since people commented that the character graphics were outdated. On that point, I think it's better I'm further along since it'll look nothing like the previous work I've done on it.

[StreetRat]

Just wondering how hard/easy these 4 month free things will be to pass on to someone else.
Although im a developer of sorts, but i have no interest in any of these engines atm, so 4 months free unity pro is pointless.

There are probably others like me that have no interest in unity pro, that will have these lying around doing nothing.

If its something that can be 'sold' or otherwise passed on to someone else, then someone could get a few of these and have a year or so of free unity pro.

Would be nice to get a comment on if such a thing is possible as it could help out a few people.

[GeraldT]

@DFP - that looks nice! what kind of game will it be? do you have video material?

It'll be a sci-fi comedy like Red Dwarf, with general plotline being a Contact->Deep Space Nine origin story. The general idea is that this is what people in the 80/90s thought the future would look like. I originally wanted to make a Wing Commander game, but I didn't want to compete with Chris Roberts when his game was announced -- Basically doing what Jackie Chan did when Bruce Lee came on the scene. Become the drunken master.

I might have posted a video or two as part of general Rift news, but I recently started overhauling the graphics since people commented that the character graphics were outdated. On that point, I think it's better I'm further along since it'll look nothing like the previous work I've done on it.

I love Red Dwarf and Contact and DS9 ... sounds like a very ambitious project though. Looking forward to see where you are going with this.

Is that all your artwork in the screenshots? Looks really cool.

[Aeroflux]

It's a nice deal to hook people, but as a student I'll be sticking with UDK...I aim to make a portfolio, not sell a game. If I make a jump it will probably be to CryEngine3...depending when (not if) Rift support is integrated.

[Okta]

I have played with Unity before, but realised that without pro its not worth the time investment as it was already sounding like it was a requirement for the Rift. Now with a 4 month cut off its definitely off my list. I don't have the spare time to get a project finished in 4 months then be out on the cold with time wasted.

[German]

How so? Is there a way to render through two cameras and display them at once without using render textures and post processing?

You don't need render textures and post processing to render two cameras in Unity Free. You just set the viewport rectangles to 0, 0, 0.5, 1 and 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1 of each camera for a basic stereo view.

[MSat]

If you're just interested in making demos or little games and such, then do you really need to use Unity? I mean, there must be quite a few open source engines out there that you'll be able to add Rift support to once you get the SDK. Unity might be great, and possibly make developer's jobs easier over other engines, but that only seems relevant if you're making full-fledged games. If that's what you're doing, then $1,500 seems like a bargain.

[Fredrum]

I have never produced an actual game so shouldn't really comment, but in my opinion you need to develop the thing you are doing and constantly review it in the format it is meant to be experienced. With the Rift on your face.
A game is about how it feels to play it, not about how nice the rocks look or if your physics code is scientifically correct.
To know your game surely is to experience it the way it is meant to be consumed.


Pingles Wrote:

Ugh. Another post. I'm really chewing on this.

I wonder if Unity will allow us to turn on the Pro version later?

Maybe I will work out my concept, wait until its in a runnable state and THEN turn on Pro to test it on the Rift.

[German]

If you're just interested in making demos or little games and such, then do you really need to use Unity? I mean, there must be quite a few open source engines out there that you'll be able to add Rift support to once you get the SDK. Unity might be great, and possibly make developer's jobs easier over other engines, but that only seems relevant if you're making full-fledged games. If that's what you're doing, then $1,500 seems like a bargain.

They could also just use the Unreal Engine if they're doing demos or little games that they're not planning on selling.

[Mindvent]

It'll be a sci-fi comedy like Red Dwarf.

Haha! Awesome! I'm currently re-watching all of Red Dwarf right now, classic!

[Ali]

You don't need render textures and post processing to render two cameras in Unity Free. You just set the viewport rectangles to 0, 0, 0.5, 1 and 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1 of each camera for a basic stereo view.

Oh, right. I must've been still thinking about the warp shader.

[rmcclelland]

Is the video in update #24 missing for everyone else?

Says "This video has been removed by user." I wanna watch a driving game!

Edit: Google search found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNR-UOUUNo

[Evenios]

oh i saw the fine print now. ugh requiring Pro is going to be a hender to a lot of small indy people and people who want to use it as a hobby. Maybe in their next version they can work it so that the features needed to work with Oculus Rift will be available for the free version, however that just means most people will have to use the SDK. but i guess its better then nothing!

and they pointed out that other game engines might be working to have integration with the Rift so who knows! but for the time being i think requiring Unity Pro is going to be a henderence to a lot of people out there and to be quite honest you might should have let people know ahead of time that it would require Unity Pro for integration, again my issue is that some of the communication has not been as good as it could have been. Not once up until now did they say that Unity Pro might be required.....and considering they more or less advertised Unity intigration in the kickstarter video i wonder if a lot of people might be upset that it requires the pro version (not everyone can afford 1,500 bucks) becuase some people just wanted to use unity as a hobby, but i guess the 4 month "trial" is nice but still will be an issue for some people.

Oh well at least now we know.

[WiredEarp]

Soo... two Rifts should mean I can get 8 months of Unity Pro for free, right?

[Aabel]

Given Valve's support of the Rift I guess it's a possibility that the Source engine will support the Rift. Even if it doesn't you could still add support for it using the Occulus SDK, in fact I bet someone will do just that once the dev kits starting getting into peoples hands.

[spire8989]

Given Valve's support of the Rift I guess it's a possibility that the Source engine will support the Rift. Even if it doesn't you could still add support for it using the Occulus SDK, in fact I bet someone will do just that once the dev kits starting getting into peoples hands.

Never expect the source sdk to support anything. Always end up disappointed.

[jayoh]

I hope this makes UDK the more popular choice... I've always felt the engine had a much nicer feel to it.

PS the UDK license to sell games is only $99, and you pay royalties once you hit a certain amount of sales, 50k last I read. Don't quote me on this...

[mscoder610]

You can get the Hydra working with the free version, and it is likely someone will build a workaround to get the Rift working in free as well.

Could you point me in the direction to do that? I have a hydra arriving soon that I'd like to play with, and my google-fu was too weak to find a way to get it to work with the free version

mea culpa, I must have mixed that up with the solutions available to get the LEAP working with the free Unity. It is possible and I thought I stumbled across a solution, but can't find it either. Sorry.

I downloaded Unity today. Haven't really gotten to mess with it much yet, but I can use the Hydra in Unity Free by creating a C# wrapper around sixense.dll from the Hydra SDK.
I did the following:
- In MonoDevelop, create a new .NET 4.0 / Mono class library (called SixenseWrapper or whatever)
- Add a class with the following (which comes from the Hydra plugin in the FreePIE source)
http://pastebin.com/CJNrgHSN
- In Unity, create a copy of the AngryBots sample project. Open it, and drag your SixenseWrapper.dll onto the Assets folder.
- In Unity, do Assets > Create > C# Script (called something like SixenseBehavior)
Replace the file contents with the following: (again, adapted from from Hydra plugin with FreePIE source)
http://pastebin.com/ynL05qdP
- Click the Main Camera in Unity, Component >> Scripts >> choose 'Sixense Behavior'
- Find the directory where you'll build the AngryBots.exe file. Place sixense.dll in that directory.

Build and run. When the game demo starts, if you have a Hydra, you should be able to use the right / 2nd controller to spin the camera around in some random direction.

Edit: The Hydra SDK is here: http://sixense.com/developers
Once you install it, you go to Library >> Tools >> Sixense SDK for the Razer Hydra. Double click that to open the SDK folder, and sixense.dll is in bin\win32\release_dll.

[Ali]

Right, so the same exact thing can be done with Rift's tracker. Hopefully a kit can be put together for Unity Free users once the Rift SDK is released.

EDIT: Hell, I'll do it if I can get access to the SDK before my Rift arrives.

[Evenios]

the four free months really is a PR thing somone here stated you could get a trial extention normally if you contact Unity. and i think for the average person it was NOT implied Unity Pro would be required.

I honestly am suprised there is not more threads here with people upset about the news i honestly kind of am. beause i was looking foward to buying a few assets and tools for Unity but if i only get 4 months of Pro use not sure if i see the point? I guess I can anyways..though. but didnt they say that Unity Pro trials technically cant release anything even for free?

[MSat]

t
I honestly am suprised there is not more threads here with people upset about the news i honestly kind of am.

Yes, we know you are. You mentioned it multiple times. What exactly do you expect Oculus to do about it? Should they purchase a pro license for all Rift backers? The situation isn't up to them. Get over it.

[Okta]

Exactly. Its no big deal. No one expects free Unity pro because they brought a $300 dev kit. And as mentioned previously, work your project up to a point, then activate the 4 month trial