Empires on UE4 (A collaborative project)

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Kylegar, Nov 1, 2014.

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  1. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    What are they doing, theres like one person doing it, actually checking every single credential or what? 2 months wait time seems ridiculous.
     
  2. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    This reminds me of telltales support..
     
  3. Grantrithor

    Grantrithor Member

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    I'm guessing if your email actually ends in .uni and it's from a USA university where they have them in the database it goes, but if it just varies like a different country it's probably just a bot sending back emails of "we're gonna get back to you".
     
  4. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    They actually have a worldwide DB for a lot of unis. I just had to select country and university and then they requested the corresponding e-mail address. 10 mins later I got the edu pack. There are some topics in the UE4 support forum about what students can do if that doesn't work.

    Or you could invest some money, you can still use the engine if you stop paying after a month. (just no updates)
     
  5. MOOtant

    MOOtant Member

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    Yes, Source sucks. :P I have just thought about all this time exotic crash was happening due to some interaction between physics engine and Empires and I had no real idea what caused it.
     
  6. Space_Oddity

    Space_Oddity The Shitstorm

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    So how's this all going then?
     
  7. Krenzo

    Krenzo Administrator

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    I think 90% of crashes said they were from vphysics.dll.
     
  8. Deiform

    Deiform Member

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    I was gonna help you code if Github approved me but they rejected and my second request is still pending (been two months now). I can't dedicate enough time to warrant me paying a subscription either. :( I guess everyone is in the same boat.
     
  9. MOOtant

    MOOtant Member

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    As Kylegar said, it's single $19 for latest version of the engine. You don't receive updates after 1 month ends but you can still use engine & tools.
     
  10. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    You can always think of it like a mmo, the more time you spend on it the more features and content you unlock, thus having more fun towards the end. Unless you are like me and have fun at the start while you learn about everything and slowly lose intrest towards the end... but this is one of the better ones because you can go play a different game while still using the same stuff you slowly have been building up.
     
  11. Grantrithor

    Grantrithor Member

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    I don't want to sound cheap and unmotivated but $19 is quite a price for me, especially for something that I was interested in but not sure if I had the skills or want to invest in.
     
  12. Kylegar

    Kylegar Specstax Rule

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    I am going to resume working on this tomorrow
     
  13. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    Just to get me up to speed again, since I am thinking about a few things: How many mappers would be willing to get their hand on an engine license, once there is an actual game to map for?
     
  14. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    Not many I can tell you that, mapping for empires is a bad idea to begin with.
    I don't think people would want to spend money to map for a game that doesn't get past 100 people.
    All the new maps that were created the past few years have received heavy criticism and tagged as shit because how different they are.

    Can you import maps into it or do you need to recreate the whole thing?
    Like that would make or break it for everyone if you could import something, so you have a base to work with.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2015
  15. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    I am maybe interested but I'll only hop on the ship if it gets going properly.
     
  16. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    I started to make a map, though for the most part it was really an exercise to learn how to work with ue4. I would like to continue working on it, but I don't have my computer with me and won't for maybe another month.

    I will also say that to make huge maps, ones that could probably support aircraft my 8 gigs of ram wasn't quite cutting it. I tried to compile that landscape demo, the one with the little hang glider thing, but it simply ran out of memory. It might have succeeded if I closed everything down and let the computer just work on that, but it had nearly 4.5 free gigs to start and it wasn't having with it.

    Don't take this the wrong way though, that map felt bigger then anything in empires currently. If you made maps on a similar scale to what empires currently has it would work out fine I think.

    Teef, you can't really import maps from source, they use a completely different mapping file. The most you can do is I think make a height map (though I don't really know how to do that one) and convert bsp brushes to static meshes and import them to unreal.

    Making maps is super easy though, I can't stress that enough. Swapping textures, making buildings from brushes, which you should convert to static meshes which only takes like 10 seconds, tinkering with lighting or painting the landscapes to look nice, it all feels easy. Even better is that blueprint system, you can make entire new game modes from that. Or if you are feeling real fancy you can make it do really cool procedurally generated stuff, without really knowing how to program in c++, though knowing some basic programming ideas would really help.

    And remember, you don't have to keep a subscription going. You can probably use that same engine version for quite sometime, they just updated to 4.6 last month I think.
     
  17. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    So its easier to map but it needs the hardware to support it?

    That's good but the hardware one scares me a bit, the appeal to source is that its easy to run.
    We don't want to split the community with hardware constrictions, empires is literately a pick up and play game and has good frame rates.
    No upgrades or bullshit needed to be done, Angry posted some time ago that he played it on a tablet.

    With the small community as it is, would it be wise to do such a thing?
     
  18. Trainzack

    Trainzack Member

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    This all sounds wonderful. I might actually consider mapping for a UE4-based Empires, now.

    Edit:
    Oh, yeah. I might not currently have the hardware for it. Huh...
     
  19. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    Now hold on, it's not that bad. Developing for ue4 is going to have steeper requirements then actually running it. It might not work as nice on toasters as well as source, but you might be able to still get by on low settings. Actually, I feel like low settings almost look like source on higher settings. Here's the system requirements for ue4
    Code:
    System Requirements:
    
        Windows 7 64-bit or Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later
        Dual-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster
        DirectX 11 compatible GPU
        8 GB RAM
    
    Like here's the thing I feel, if you want a newer engine you are going to have to deal with steeper requirements. If the game is developed with the idea of lower requirements then it could also work on lower end systems. It also runs on directx 10 cards, but directx 9 cards are completely unsupported at this point it seems.

    If I had access to my computer I would try removing a stick of ram and seeing what happens on 4 gigs, I imagine quite a few people have at least that much. Also see what happens from trying to work using just the integrated graphics on the i5, though I imagine it might not run with that little power.

    For a frame of reference(mind you this is from memory), My build is a i5 2500k, 8gb ram, and a 6850. I can work on medium settings just fine, it can keep up around 50-60 fps while I'm constantly moving stuff around in the editor. In game, the frame rate is around 10-30 fps higher then when I'm working in that view port, also at a much larger resolution. I do have a nicer processor, but the graphic's card isn't anything to write home about at this point. My point being even if you don't have such a nice system you can do 2 things, one is work in a lower graphic settings and the other one is if you do work on larger maps you can render the lighting( this is what kills my ram) on preview or medium quality and for a final build send the map to someone with a better rig for production quality.

    You are right, a lot of empire community has rigs with various power, but there's work arounds available.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2015
  20. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    ....I actually need to upgrade a bit.
     
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