Unreal Marketplace Compatibility

Before I waste any money, what do I have to look out for before I get something on UE marketplace? Will things generally work out of the box in TSW editor?

 

most things on the marketplace are for newer versions of unreal engine, if you're going to buy something double check the version our editor is and make sure you don't buy anything for a higher version than that.. there's a marketplace icon at the top of our editor but it's never worked for me

 

Yeah, that's probably the more problematic part Thanks!

 

You will have to adjust the materials in order to get the TSW rain and snow effects but otherwise I don't see a problem from the technical standpoint. As for the legal stuff, the point mentioned by Matt would technically also rule out Megascans and stuff.

Couldn't I just say that my route uses asset pack content and that it isn't up for grabs? I mean I don't want to spend time creating generic content just so that someone else can be clear in terms of licensing.

 

For now, it seems like the Unreal Marketplace license cares about whether or not you give the word and doesn't care about actual physical protection of the copyrighted data. So even if someone gains access to the source files, it's not your fault for letting that happen but they just aren't allowed to take them.

This means that people could make themselves exempt from the infinite re-sharing just like that. Unless DTG makes some sort of counter-rule that demands all user-generated content to allow being built upon.

Last resort, I can just keep my stuff private and make it to my own statisfaction just like any other piece of digital art.

 

Can you clarify some points?

• Firstly, are you saying that the editor can be used to export models from official routes? Since this presumably violates the license we have, I don't see what the issue is with using marketplace content on that front.
  
• Secondly, what happens if you use content from official routes in your route if someone downloads it and doesn't have the route the assets come from?

 

I guess it's the same principle as it is for TSC "free ware" route. If you don't have the needed payware, it won't work.

 

And that's the reason why I tend to do not use third-party assets like Megascans or anything else of UE Marketplace.

Even if the licence owner says their products would be for non-commercial or even commercial use and would be royalty free, the situation might change under certain aspects.

That's why I only want to use the content of DTG's and DTG cooperates (TSG, Rivet, Just Trains), even if I don't find what I am looking for in them.

However, there is the same problem with that as with UE Marketplace content, because Dovetail Games did not clearly gave us the guidelines (terms and conditions) under which we can create and share our projects, which I think should have been there since day 1 TSW4 and the PC Editor is out.

And this hasn't anything to do with the fact that the Editor just and still is a Beta Version.

I'm talking about what I am allowed to do exactly with the tool you provided to me.

This is exactly what I tried to do in various threads here with Dovetail Games and even Maik Goltz whether I can use the content in his third party DLC for my project, but still no response to it.

We even had a dedicated thread for it here.

One of the most prominent and urgently needed answered questions is this one:

Many people actually have the assumption (it's just an assumption, no terms and conditions) that it would be like that:

But this only relies on the premise that I keep the references (dependencies) to the assets in their original DLC folders.

However, I - as a creator - can change that within the Editor.

Would it be a violation, if I would just do the same DTG does when creating a new standalone DLC (also it makes finding assets a lot easier), to copy assets from the original DLC into the respective folders of my plugin and then share my paked/cooked DLC with others for free?

Or am I only allowed to use references to the assets in the original folders?

Note that this is not meant as a seeking for stealing, but for me this would have two big benefits.

A. make finding assets I use regularly a lot easier, but also B. people who are interested in my route could play my route without having to acquire the necessary DLCs on their own (maybe just to get 1 single asset from it).

And I don't necessarily speak for all assets here.

For example, a train is a lot of work to create - I appreciate that - and for locos, cabins and other rolling stock, I for sure would keep the reference to the asset in the original DLC, so that people need to acquire the respective DLC to be able to drive it or have it as AI layer.

I completely agree to and understand that. And even is the better decision in terms of updates and bug fixes to the loco and rolling stock.

But is it really necessary to keep references to other DLCs, just for something simple as basic structure elements like materials, textures or scenery assets (domestic houses, lamps, road pieces, splines etc.)?

I mean, these things are just simple building blocks for creating a route and it would make sense if people wouldn't be required to own a DLC just to get some houses or road chunks.

 

Personally I think it is copyright violation.

For example, I need Beech trees to populate my route ( I have opened a topic abouty this point).
I was informed of the existence of a DLC that has them and costs 35 euro.

If you will reference these trees in your route I’ll be “forced”, in a way, to buy the DLC.
Instead if you will take the trees and incorporate them into your plugin, I’ll be able to use them without paying.

 

Yes, I remember the thread of yours where I also participated.

I recommended the Niddertalbahn DLC to you because you asked for a certain beech type and since this DLC offers a huge variety of beeches and all other high quality vegetation assets, I thought it could be useful to hint you on that.

You know, I'm actually in the same boat as you because I acquired Niddertalbahn just for its high quality assets. I didn't play a single time with this DLC in TSW, yet. The same goes for Linke Rheinstrecke and Cologne-Aachen, which I just acquired for their assets. I purchased them on sale during the last weeks and maybe spent roughly 55€ for them all -> by now, still just for the assets in them.

I actually can see Dovetail Games profits from this kind of thinking of ours and maybe even uses it as new business strategy, which I don't 100% agree with. I think they should provide us a bunch of basic elements to create a route for free. I think actually they intended or started to so with the European Content Pack but this plan is not completely working as A. another user said it should require S-Bahn Vorarlberg but B. also has only a very less amount of standard used assets for europe in it at the moment.

But that's a different topic.

However and this important now for this topic, to differentiate between both of these situations because they are not exactly as equal.

When we acquired these DLCs for getting assets from them, we certainly wanted a specific or several specific assets from them. Just like with any content pack offered at the Unreal Marketplace, we acquired the DLCs to get it/them.

But that does not immediately mean, my route plugin is a free treasure trove for anyone who wants to have the same assets I used.

You do not actually have to (1.) release a route and (even if I said so before) that it needs to be actually for free (2.).

1. I mean yes, it's very unlikely that we don't release the route we're creating, but we are not forced to and just keep the projects private. This could be indeed reasonable if you don't want to release full finished product and want to update and/or fix bugs in it. Or this could be even plausible if Dovetail Games (as I stated missing terms & conditions before) gives us a term that we - the creators - are not allowed to release any project containing content of theirs on third-party platforms.

We have no "presidence case" yet to give the evidence if this is possible. The only thing which has been shared yet are timetables, but in fact, are not exactly the same as they do not contain mesh assets from Dovetail in them. And even if a route project has been shared, only time and the legal department of Dovetail Games can say us if it will stay so or they would will to take it down.

This is a really hard case, yes, but since we got no terms & conditions yet, anything like that could be theoretically possible.

2. Technically, there is the funny but still potential case that Dovetail Games could decide to get in a cooperation with every creator who is able to provide a route complying to their standards and decide to make it a commcercial release and they take let's say a 70% commision of the income.

In this case, the problematic of releasing content of theirs for free would disappear, and a creator could decide to either acquire this or that DLC (given other factors of influence; price, quality etc.).

However, and these are my main issues about the fact that Dovetail Games did not provided any Terms & Conditions yet:

A. I don't whether I could use the technique of copying of assets to my plugin to save time for creation. (Because at the moment I all have them in one place, I could work way more efficiently), and

B. Changing the reference for the thousands of assets I already placed and continue to place isn't (so easy) to do anymore at the end of the project, where you maybe will get this information finally.

And I think in case where DTG thinks about potentially releasing any route project of ours when it's ready and they like it (which they do because, they saying so explicitly in the PC Editor FAQ), then it even could have made sense to gave us a tutorial to exactly do that - copying the assets into your own plugin - simply to make it better to distribute.

Think about the following case: A new route DLC is going to be released, but the assets on the route use references to other route DLCs. For example, imagine the new german route Rosenheim-Salzburg would use references to assets in Main-Spessart-Bahn, Maintalbahn, SFS München-Augsburg and S-Bahn Vorarlberg.

Guess how many people would acquire this DLC if they would say "You need all of these 4 DLCs to have a landscape in this DLC"?

I think things get really complicated now, but these are just thoughts and concerns which are constantly banging in my head since the release of TSW4 and the PC Editor. And I finally want official answers to them.

 

How is it with the Free Assets and Quixel Materials, i would need some of the Materials