I would like to learn Scaleform for the creation of UIs. Im already proficient in using Flash as an animation/motion graphics tool. It will likely help to know Actionscript.
Does anyone know how the workflow between Flash, Scaleform and a game engine works? I know that UDK comes with Scaleform, with a few features omitted. I’m not interested in the Unreal Engine however. Hopefully we get to see Unity with Scaleform soon?
It’s been there for quite a while now. They haven’t released anything regarding how it works with Unity; though I guess it allows you to call swfs generated using Flash (or Flex) and run it in your game using their own custom runtime with callbacks in your game for events.
Yes they showed it working in Unity but with nothing solid on when it will be available. I guess people (including me) were hoping for a bit more correspondence via the aforementioned signup.
I think that it would still be useless for most indies if it would be included. Most engines that use it have non-exclusive license and you have to pay 10k bucks just to include it in game. For any indie that is silly.
I would be very surprised if they charged anything close to that with Unity. I expect a pricing model that reflects the cost of Unity itself. And, if they did it at like $500 or $1000, they would sell thousands of copies. There are some … 300,000 unity devs worldwide. And scaleform is a widely accepted industry standard for making UI’s.
First make sure that you count off 80% of this 300,000 developers that are actually owners of Free license and are years away to purchase Pro. Second even for those who purchase Pro, 1k license just for GUI is damn expensive. I belive that Unity didnt announce anything about Scaleform becouse Autodesk offers were just too high.
Well the pro requirement can likely be assumed to be there, unity has no plugable architecture without pro. So the 700k (thats the latest number I think I read) shrinks down to 70k if not lower and of those many are hobbiest and unfunded indies where a 4 figure license fee per title upfront can be quite a bit of money and plugin it in in the end isn’t gonna work.
And I don’t see why it should be much cheaper than normaljust cause unity does not cost much, its not like they are desperate for exposure like other techs, they are used in enough places and more customers also means worse support, more support effort and more work for the legal department enforcing the license terms. For a technology like this, ‘more’ does not equate to ‘better’. For unity it partially did, the support has not grown anywhere as fast and to a proportional degree of what the userbase which for example would be a point on the shadow side
I talked with the guys from Scaleform at Unite 2011 and they gonna announce soon pricing options for Scaleform Unity.
They will target a price which will also be fair for indie developers, they said this was also the first time they had to think about this
so they wanted to take them time to make a good price so they can attract lot’s of developers.
They had the angry birds demo with a Scale Form Gui and it looked awesome and use little drawcalls.
Ideally Would like this included in Unity, however your right it most likely gonna need pro. I would doubt that UT would do a new GUI Editor for Unity that couldn’t be included in Free.
Although that would be a good incentive to buy pro, would piss of a lot of people.
I am pretty sure it will not happen as integrated piece of software but sold as a Pro Plugin for Win and OSX (perhaps mobiles too, as thats even easier to hook graphic stuff in)
Received request from Autodesk to gauge interest in a Scaleform Unity plugin, and the questionnaire they sent included projected pricing info.
USD $750 / PER PROJECT.
Yep, you read it correctly, seems Autodesk wants to DESTROY Unity’s excellent “Pay Once - Publish Many” ecology by requiring a separate license PER PROJECT for using a Scaleform plugin with Unity.
Guess they didn’t get the memo that the community has moved past such DRACONIAN LICENSE SCHEMES.
Yet another example of Autodesk throwing it’s weight around, completely ignoring the priorities of whatever community they wish to dominate.
I say NO to this offensive proposal, now and forever.
Unity has a per-project license for console export and they may change their licensing at any time. I don’t think you should even compare unity in this case, it’s insane.
I think 100 dollars per project is sane, with 500 dollars for a lifetime license (for indies).
Yes, Unity does have existing per project licensing for console export, but it isn’t Unity’s choice; it is driven by the hardware manufacturer.
To say, in order to support such very specific hardware (such as consoles) they are forced to follow the rules of the hardware manufacturer. The % of Unity-Console users to Unity non-console users is very small, by all measure.
To contrast this, Autodesk makes software; software available to everyone. Being the first to require per project fees on a plugin, they will start the ball rolling towards an exclusionary, fragmented tier model; destroying an otherwise highly functional, much lauded, and sane software ecology.
My guess is you’ve never used software where they NICKLE DIME you for every good feature? Look at Virtools (now 3DVIA); they charged extra for Physics, Quality Renderers, etc. Such draconian licensing models kills thriving communities for a short-term profit gain. Ask anyone who used Virtools before it died.
Actually what killed Virtools is that they sold bit by bit an obsolete technology at a price superior to better techs like Unity. The business model is not responsible for Virtools’ death but the quality / price ratio is. It’s always a question of market as a whole, not of price only.
As of today, if the final pricing for Scaleform plugin for unity is indeed 750 dollars per project flat, I don’t see any better 3D technology for UI creation which doesn’t involve rev shares or with a smaller price. I’ll gladly throw my money at them for each of my projects if I consider Scaleform to be useful for them. 750 dollars is equivalent to the cost of 3 to 4 days of internal dev (salary, taxes,…), the only real question is : will scaleform allow us to spare 3 or 4 days of work in each project ?
@Krobill
Virtools was dead dying long before Unity came around; anyone who was there knows this. Unity helped seal the coffin is all.
Also, wasn’t arguing that price only was responsible. Not sure why you think that?
As for alternatives, there are plenty available if you look; nGUI for one is fantastic and very “Unity-like”. Sure it is not flash technology like Scaleform, but the trade-offs are minimal.
Well, I guess I won’t be using scaleform so soon. And if that information is correct a tool with such a price won’t less long, specially when Unity community is mostly Indie.
And yes we can afford to buy Scaleform for each project that calls for non-trivial UI too… But this issue isn’t about being able to afford it (feel sorry for people who think spending more money gives them special status!)
It’s about the impact such old-world license models have on software ecologies. Unity is hugely successful in-part because they eschewed such draconian models when no-one else was.
So the question remains, the one that no-one seems to be asking:
Do you want to see Unity become another lame software program that NICKELS DIMES USERS PER PROJECT for individual quality features?
Another good reason for Unity to release that GUI update, they could even have the API match or be compatible with Autodesks and then if you need / can afford Scaleform you can ‘port’ to it easily.