""Open Source"" for Unity Plausable?

I’m wondering if there is any chance that in the future Unity will make its C++ code “open”, aka allowing us to build it ourselves. (Obviously with all of the licenses and restrictions) Especially since Unreal and CryEngine does this.

My only guess to why this hasn’t happened is because Unity uses stuff like Recast and Umbra and FBX and other third party stuff. Maybe? I have very little legal knowledge.

Thoughts?
Josh

Never mind, figured it out. If you use pro/enterprise you get access to the source. I guess it makes sense, since modifying source is most useful to big companies. However still kinda sad since all of the other competition gives it to you for free.

However… if it was added to personal edition… that would totally convince me to buy it :wink: Just sayinnnn

So if it were free, you would buy it?

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Unity released the source for the C# side under a license which prevents making modifications or using it for any purpose other than research, which I interpret as no compiling. That tells me that is as far as they are willing to go for the foreseeable future.

Frankly, I think the demand for the full source and a more liberal license is rather low, and would primarily come from those who Unity is already making it available.

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My understanding is that the reason we don’t have source access without a special license is due to all of the middle-ware and the licenses for them. Epic Games was able to circumvent this restriction by largely removing and/or segregating the middle-ware from the game engine. I’m assuming CryEngine is largely the same.

I have limited knowledge of what comes with the source license, but I’m willing to bet you would have to buy the middle-ware source licenses too just to be able to build the game engine itself. If that’s the case then you have no hope of being able to build the engine yourself even if it were given away for free.

Aint nobody got time for that. I want to be using DOTS and going fast with high level code that in no way should ever require engine access unless you’re a very large company doing something so specific that there is staff just for that.

The old benefits of engine access are quite becoming obsolete thanks to SRP, DOTS etc… I mean at this point, engine access doesn’t improve performance or even capability.

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We even have a way to control the garbage collector now (turn it on and off, manually start a pass, etc).

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Scripting.GarbageCollector.html

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Sorry I meant plus! :')

I guess in a way having the engine be closed Source has forced Unity to improvise. Package manager, scriptable render pipeline, and really good extendability. I honestly love the direction their going. :slight_smile:

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The one benefit I have wanted source code access for is when I get an unexpected change in behavior between different Unity versions to be able to diff them and actually see for myself what the deal is. Maybe even revert an undesirable change.

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ftfy :wink:

I think that the people that want source access are looking at developing with Unity the entirely wrong way.

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Source can have a lot of value. Engines aren’t on the leading edge generally like studios are. DOTS is great I love DOTS. But you know studios were doing that a decade ago, it’s Unity that is playing catch up. And for a while they might be in the lead, but then invariably not. That’s just how engines work. Anyone making a sufficiently complex game will find good use of source, assuming they have the talent to actually be able to reason about it.

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There’s this fantastic thing about catch up. It’s called hindsight.

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Regardless, catch up is catch up. There may be pros, but there are definitely cons. Otherwise might as well wait another ten years to gain more hindsight, aye? :wink:

Honestly, between the SRP and DOTS, I’m doubtful that it will be Unity playing catch up. Last I checked there were no equivalents available from UE or CryEngine. Yes, you have source code access with them, but modifying the SRP will be quite a bit easier than modifying their core rendering pipelines or having to scratch build your own coding framework.

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Totally agree on the SRP end. I don’t think either engine has anything as powerful and versatile as that.