I work at a large university and plan to do research using an Oculus Rift with software made with Unity. We will not be selling our software, but will only use it for research.
Do we need to purchase the Pro version or can we use the free version? Thanks.
Does your university have a total annual budget in excess of $100,000? If so, you can’t use Unity Free and must purchase a Pro licence anyway - nothing to do with OR. Unity Software License Agreement 4.x
Okay, so first off, any professor or student can get a Unity Pro 1 year Academic license for $150.
Or you can get a commercial pro license as a professor for 50% off. The difference is a watermark and what you
can do with the output. (Academic is non-commercial distribution only)
Look here:
The RIFT sdk beta however can work with Unity free as of version 0.4.3
https://developer.oculus.com/
So the choice is yours depending on what other features you need. Academic institutions fall into a special category and a great many of them use Unity Free as a teaching aid today and AFAIK Unity hasn’t said boo to any of them.
Among other things, at least in the US, its generally not worth the hassle of chasing academic institutions as they have particularly broad protections under the category of ‘fair use.’ And its not good press. BUT since you can get a pro license for $150 its probably not worth it on an individual professor/researcher level to struggle with the limits of Community ed.