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[Lord_Balkan]

C4 Website

C4 Engine Version 4.0 Released
October 14, 2014

C4 Engine version 4.0 is now available to all licensed users. This is easily the largest and most important release ever made in the history of the C4 Engine, and it includes many major performance improvements, new features, and usability enhancements. The details can be found in the release notes, but here are the highlights:

• The built-in physics system has received a complete overhaul and is now considerably faster as well as more accurate. In particular, the constraint solver is multithreaded and takes advantage of all available cores for maximum performance.

• Some new internal scene organization structures have been added to the engine, and they provide a huge reduction in CPU processing time for very large and highly dynamic worlds.

• The PlayStation 4 rendering code has been completely rewritten at a level much closer to the metal and is now significantly faster.

• Major changes have been made to the lighting and shadowing systems in the engine, and these provide big performance increases in addition to higher-quality rendering.

• Several changes have been made to the World Editor in order to provide more functionality and better usability.

With the release of version 4.0, we have also consolidated the different types of licenses that previously existed into a single low-cost license that applies to everybody. The C4 Engine can now be licensed for a mere $88.00 per user, and this includes a full year of free upgrades.

Licensing Information

The following is a list of important facts about the C4 Engine license.

The price is $88.00 (USD) per user.
The full source code for the engine, tools, and demo game is included.
The engine runs under Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac OS X 10.9+, and Linux.
Project files are included for Visual Studio 2013 (Windows) and Xcode 4 (Mac). Makefiles are included for Linux.
You receive all updates for one year at no additional cost. If you do not renew after one year, then you can still use the latest version you have forever.
You can sell any number of games for any price, and you won't owe any royalties.
You have access to private licensed user forums.
You cannot receive $100,000 or more in external funding (like publisher funding or a Kickstarter campaign). If you do have such external funding, then you need to purchase a studio license.

I have a copy of it. I would personally say it has a cleaner / tidier code base than UE4. This is just a heads up for all the programmers / indies that are interested. This isn't meant to start a fight / flame war against different engines (I personally mess around with both), so if that is your intention don't even bother. This is merely just to spread the news.

All in all, it is a good time to be an Indie Dev.

And for those that are not familiar, you can download a free demo that lets you play around with some demo levels and mess with the in-game editor.

Engine made by this guy:

http://www.terathon.com/lengyel/

Eric Lengyel, Ph.D.
Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer
Terathon Software LLC

Eric Lengyel (pronounced LENG · el, with no Y) is the founder of Terathon Software and the creator of the C4 Engine. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Davis, and a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Virginia Tech.

Eric is the best-selling author of the book Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics (Charles River Media, 2002), and he is the editor for the Game Engine Gems series. Eric has also been a long-time member of the editorial board for the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques, and he has been a major contributor to the successful Game Programming Gems series.

Eric previously worked in the advanced technology group at Naughty Dog and is now credited on several PlayStation 3 titles based on technology that he developed there. Long ago (in programmer years) he was the lead programmer for the fifth installment of Sierra Studio's popular RPG adventure series Quest for Glory. Eric has also worked in the graphics and imaging department at Apple. When he's not engaged in multiplayer deathmatch, Eric can usually be found running somewhere in the mountains of northern California.

 

[ZiZ]

never heard of it. was this engine used in any games we might know?

 

[Lord_Balkan]

never heard of it. was this engine used in any games we might know?

Not really, not yet anyway. It is made by a pretty smart guy and the support is really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lengyel

 

[gngf123]

If I remember correctly, wasn't C4 really good at handling crazy terrain? Seem to remember it being one of the first to do good large scale voxel terrains instead of height maps.

Not many projects have used it, but it has been around for a while.

 

[Lord_Balkan]

If I remember correctly, wasn't C4 really good at handling crazy terrain? Seem to remember it being one of the first to do good large scale voxel terrains instead of height maps.

Not many projects have used it, but it has been around for a while.

Yeah it uses voxel based terrain for a while now.
Here is the paper on it - http://www.terathon.com/lengyel/Lengyel-VoxelTerrain.pdf

 

[King_Richard]

Not really, not yet anyway. It is made by a pretty smart guy and the support is really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lengyel

Damn, he's got a Ph.D. in CS. Other than that Naughty Dog guy, I've never heard of people in game development with Ph.D.s. Cool beans.

EDIT

Unless it is the guy I'm thinking of?

 

[Lord_Balkan]

Damn, he's got a Ph.D. in CS. Other than that Naughty Dog guy, I've never heard of people in game development with Ph.D.s. Cool beans.

EDIT

Unless it is the guy I'm thinking of?

Maybe? http://www.terathon.com/lengyel/

Eric Lengyel, Ph.D.
Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer
Terathon Software LLC

Eric Lengyel (pronounced LENG · el, with no Y) is the founder of Terathon Software and the creator of the C4 Engine. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Davis, and a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Virginia Tech.

Eric is the best-selling author of the book Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics (Charles River Media, 2002), and he is the editor for the Game Engine Gems series. Eric has also been a long-time member of the editorial board for the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques, and he has been a major contributor to the successful Game Programming Gems series.

Eric previously worked in the advanced technology group at Naughty Dog and is now credited on several PlayStation 3 titles based on technology that he developed there. Long ago (in programmer years) he was the lead programmer for the fifth installment of Sierra Studio's popular RPG adventure series Quest for Glory. Eric has also worked in the graphics and imaging department at Apple. When he's not engaged in multiplayer deathmatch, Eric can usually be found running somewhere in the mountains of northern California.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, you don't have to pay any royalties, which is pretty cool.

 

[Lord_Balkan]

-

 

[ElectricThunder]

The more lively and robust the game engine scene becomes the better it will ultimately turn out for everybody in terms of making some serious progress---good on them throwing down the gauntlet anew.

 

[Dictator93]

Maybe? http://www.terathon.com/lengyel/


EDIT: I forgot to mention, you don't have to pay any royalties, which is pretty cool.

He pronounces his own last name incorrectly. lol

But! This engine is cool

 

[Lord_Balkan]

The more lively and robust the game engine scene becomes the better it will ultimately turn out for everybody in terms of making some serious progress---good on them throwing down the gauntlet anew.

Yeah I definitely agree. It is great for everyone.

Here is some cool videos of what some people have done

http://youtu.be/onJzPQn0hNw?list=PLFMheY4jcWhfeKPNUHZcKneQ7YaI1CnfN

http://youtu.be/5TXOuVGcFDI

and some things I've been messing around with-

 

[blu]

Just to chime in: Eric is among the most capable-and-sharing game devs whose work I've stumbled upon during the years, and C4 is among the most concise, well-written game engines/framework I've laid my hands on. For $88 one basically gets a primer in good game engine development - its sheer educational value is more than than. I heartily recommend this to any aspiring indie dev out there.