see, even though its way more complicated to create new content in source, there is so much available at the getgo that you can design as you lay out your map. once there are mats, props, blueprints and whatnot its gonna be a breeze to map in unreal - only ram being the limit - but theres like a few dozen different assets and thats it. i already was diving into unreal far beyond this tutorial you posted (actually thats stuff is something you figure out on day one)
The main reason content isn't easier to get for UE4 is $$$. Every little thing you do for UE4 you can place on the market and make money off of it. This is why I suggested to the last attempt at a UE4 port to part out the scripts / code, Models, and maps. Place them on the market to hlp fund things like servers.Or use the funds to pay for any additional things needed for a port that no one wanted to do. Yeah the videos are pretty entry level. But it helps people who are starting out. The main thing I like about Unreal is that it allows freedom. With source mappers / modelers are stuck asking coders to add more support. With unreal it removes the need to have code support. Your basically only limited to your own ability. Or what you willing to learn. How many times have people suggested things for Empires that never got implemented due to lack of code support. With Unreal people could do a blueprint of a suggestion and say "hey here's my idea" and you could see in game how well the suggestion works. Before anyone has to waist time converting the blueprint to code. Source VS UE4 There is also the issue of what is Valve's target ? With source 1 it was making FPS games with the ability of modding. Source 2...Their biggest money maker is now selling 3 party games. I don't see them investing as much into source 2 for modding. So how long would a Empires port to source 2 last ? Unreal makes money by selling Unreal games. Source 2 will be great at first..But a few years down the road It will still just be source 2 while Unreal will still be the best "free" game engine.
So...Been about a month since the development branch on steam has been touched.. any idea when we will see an update ? I know Catface was sick..How sick is he ?
Where do you see that? On steamworks it seems the last release was: Jun 27, 2015, 107 am And the last beta push was 2 days later: Jun 29, 2015, 44 am
Every time anything changes in a repository threw steamworks it's stored. Not necessarily an "update" but someone changed something in "branches/integration" about a month ago.
Thanks for the update. I'm interested to see how Empires evolves. On a side note, I think you guys are going to be hurting yourselves if you switch to UE4. I don't have all the facts and this is somewhat speculative, but I'll bet the transition from Source to Source 2 will be pretty damn simple (Valve is doing it with TF2, L4D2, CS, Dota 2, and HL3) compared to Source -> UE4, and Hammer is getting a complete overhaul. Source will obviously integrate seamlessly with Steamworks, meaning enhanced menus and features like with what the new, extremely successful Insurgency is doing now.
I'm pretty sure ue4 has a bunch of support for steamworks, it's built into the code. I know a lot of people say it'd be simpler to just start from scratch though instead of reusing empires code, because of how much custom and outdated code it runs. I think that was the reason it took quite some time for it to get ported from 2007 to 2013, even though that wasn't suppose to be terribly hard either.
I was curious about this, so I did some digging. My impression is that you're not wrong. I've found several questions about Steamworks being used with UE4 and the hassle it's been for developers to integrate. Lack of documentation. Also, "Lobbies give you free authentication and also access to their newer/more straightforward matchmaking APIs. However, the GameServer APIs are required if you plan to do standalone dedicated servers. I would suggest you go the lobby route for now as it is newer and should save you some time." "You will need to use your own networking system. UE4's native dedicated server doesn't support many of these features and is essentially broken" A separate program - the "Steam Setup Utility" - which is used "to ease the frustrations of configuring Steam with Unreal" More topics regarding Steam integration with UE4 Even if a few of these are from frustrated, unknowledgable users, the number of cases I've found in just a few minutes (not to mention the potency of their implications) leads me to believe that UE4 will be a nightmare. Will it be possible? Sure. But a smart Lead Dev should also take his or her team's constitution under advisement. For example, if the team is on the weak side but is familiar with Steam, Source might be a better option. On the other hand, everything in this post might be irrelevant because it's a strong, flexible team. I don't know. I'm more interested in arming the developers of one of my favorite games of all time with the knowledge they need to make the best possible decision with the most information available. Even if UE4 is chosen, I'll support you and I hope you do well. A wise next step might be to make two lists: One list containing all the pros and cons of using (or waiting for) Source 2, and another list with the pros and cons of using UE4, then compare and discuss them. Food for thought.
It's not really that, it's just over half of the API simply isn't implemented. Like, the auth tickets.
A big plus point for source 2 is that we can already very easily update to using it. I mean, it's not actually a new engine, it's just that valve decides at some arbitrary point that it's now "version 2".
My main question is does source 2 have anything like blueprints? I don't think it does, at least not to the scale that blueprints can do. Blueprints are amazing if you don't have coding experience.
