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I'm confused. Can someone explain why the Epic Games developers team has close to 400k members?

landr0id 4y ago
They require you to acknowledge some terms that grant you access to the Unreal Engine source code. They grant it by adding you to their GitHub org which has the engine source code as a private repo.
- md224 4y ago
  Maybe it's just me but this seems like a misuse of GitHub orgs...
  - Angius 4y ago
    Seeing how there's no other way, well...
  - chupasaurus 4y ago
    An org and the team was opened to join in March 2015 4 months before the "secret" team functionality was added. No one cared for 7 years!
  - olingern 4y ago
    Yeah, seems like a silly way to grant access
  - Gigachad 4y ago
    Is it? How else do you selectively grant access to a repo? Orgs are the normal way, it's just not normal to have a project which is proprietary and somewhat private but available to 400k people. Github just needs to rethink how tagging all users works and a way to prevent this.
- joshxyz 4y ago
  Damn I can't wait until somebody does that on tradingview's GitHub org.
- activitypea 4y ago
  I accepted those terms, and was added to Unreal's repo, but didn't get a notification. I think the mentioned group is some subset of the repo users, but 400k is such a big number that I'm not sure who they could be.
syrrim 4y ago
To download unreal engine, you need to join this org.
- Ansil849 4y ago
  Huh. And yet why is that sort of annoying forced registration not considered 'antisocial', but this accidental tagging is resulting in calls for the poster to be banned?
  - db48x 4y ago
    They sell it (access to the source for the engine) under a commercial license. They were going to have _some_ sort of registration system, so that they can make sure everyone who downloads it paid for it. They reused GitHub for both distribution and registration.
    - cmeacham98 4y ago
      Access to the UE4 source code is free. They probably sell licenses that let you do more than the free license, but the Github thing is not used to gate purchases. I don't know why they do it like this to be honest, they could just put the free license in the repo, that's pretty common practice.
      - Animats 4y ago
        Because it's not a free license. Once you get a million dollars or so in revenue, they take a substantial cut. The idea is that nobody is going to get a million dollars in revenue from a game without being visible enough that Epic's receivables department can bill you. So they can ignore the 99.99% who download it and never get a hit. I'm amazed that 400,000 people have downloaded Unreal Engine, though. It's really complicated, hard to use, takes hours to compile, and is only worth the trouble if you're making an elaborate 3D game. Not that many people do that.
        tobyhinloopen 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
decko 4y ago
Unreal engine is open source but in a private GitHub repo. Anyone can link their GitHub account with their epic games account which adds them to the team.
- jffry 4y ago
  Unreal engine is source-available with a royalty based license for commercial use. Just to avoid any confusion with "open source" and "Open Source"
  - spinaltap 4y ago
    Wait what? I never knew "open source" was different from "Open Source"
    - shp0ngle 4y ago
      “open source” (capitalized or not) means that Open Source initiative agrees with the license. There are some conditions that I don’t remember. It’s different from “source available” - open source should let you fork and reuse it. For example there is microsoft shared code license, that’s “here is the code, but copyright is still ours, you can’t do anything with it but look”. I have no idea what kind of license (if any) is unreal engine.
    - usr1106 4y ago
      That's a misleading, obfuscating way to make the difference. I guess the OP means an OSI-approved licence. If you write your own licence (not recommended, but some developers and especially corporations do) it could be even fully compliant, but not approved.
    - Crabber 4y ago
      "open source" and "free software" are two words for the exact same thing. Both of them are pretty poor descriptors. "open source" doesn't convey the legal freedom you are granted (as you have just found out), and "free software" makes it sound like it's just about price. If someone lets you see source code but doesn't allow you to do anything with that code it's not what people would call "open source", you could probably call it source-available or something. "open source" has a specific legal definition that means code released with a permissive license.
wildpeaks 4y ago
To access the source code of Unreal Engine: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github

They require you to acknowledge some terms that grant you access to the Unreal Engine source code. They grant it by adding you to their GitHub org which has the engine source code as a private repo.

md224 4y ago
Maybe it's just me but this seems like a misuse of GitHub orgs...
- Angius 4y ago
  Seeing how there's no other way, well...
- chupasaurus 4y ago
  An org and the team was opened to join in March 2015 4 months before the "secret" team functionality was added. No one cared for 7 years!
- olingern 4y ago
  Yeah, seems like a silly way to grant access
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Is it? How else do you selectively grant access to a repo? Orgs are the normal way, it's just not normal to have a project which is proprietary and somewhat private but available to 400k people. Github just needs to rethink how tagging all users works and a way to prevent this.
joshxyz 4y ago
Damn I can't wait until somebody does that on tradingview's GitHub org.
activitypea 4y ago
I accepted those terms, and was added to Unreal's repo, but didn't get a notification. I think the mentioned group is some subset of the repo users, but 400k is such a big number that I'm not sure who they could be.

syrrim 4y ago

To download unreal engine, you need to join this org.

Ansil849 4y ago
Huh. And yet why is that sort of annoying forced registration not considered 'antisocial', but this accidental tagging is resulting in calls for the poster to be banned?
- db48x 4y ago
  They sell it (access to the source for the engine) under a commercial license. They were going to have _some_ sort of registration system, so that they can make sure everyone who downloads it paid for it. They reused GitHub for both distribution and registration.
  - cmeacham98 4y ago
    Access to the UE4 source code is free. They probably sell licenses that let you do more than the free license, but the Github thing is not used to gate purchases. I don't know why they do it like this to be honest, they could just put the free license in the repo, that's pretty common practice.
    - Animats 4y ago
      Because it's not a free license. Once you get a million dollars or so in revenue, they take a substantial cut. The idea is that nobody is going to get a million dollars in revenue from a game without being visible enough that Epic's receivables department can bill you. So they can ignore the 99.99% who download it and never get a hit. I'm amazed that 400,000 people have downloaded Unreal Engine, though. It's really complicated, hard to use, takes hours to compile, and is only worth the trouble if you're making an elaborate 3D game. Not that many people do that.
      - tobyhinloopen 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

decko 4y ago

Unreal engine is open source but in a private GitHub repo. Anyone can link their GitHub account with their epic games account which adds them to the team.

jffry 4y ago
Unreal engine is source-available with a royalty based license for commercial use. Just to avoid any confusion with "open source" and "Open Source"
- spinaltap 4y ago
  Wait what? I never knew "open source" was different from "Open Source"
  - shp0ngle 4y ago
    “open source” (capitalized or not) means that Open Source initiative agrees with the license. There are some conditions that I don’t remember. It’s different from “source available” - open source should let you fork and reuse it. For example there is microsoft shared code license, that’s “here is the code, but copyright is still ours, you can’t do anything with it but look”. I have no idea what kind of license (if any) is unreal engine.
  - usr1106 4y ago
    That's a misleading, obfuscating way to make the difference. I guess the OP means an OSI-approved licence. If you write your own licence (not recommended, but some developers and especially corporations do) it could be even fully compliant, but not approved.
  - Crabber 4y ago
    "open source" and "free software" are two words for the exact same thing. Both of them are pretty poor descriptors. "open source" doesn't convey the legal freedom you are granted (as you have just found out), and "free software" makes it sound like it's just about price. If someone lets you see source code but doesn't allow you to do anything with that code it's not what people would call "open source", you could probably call it source-available or something. "open source" has a specific legal definition that means code released with a permissive license.

wildpeaks 4y ago

To access the source code of Unreal Engine: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github