I hate to say it, but this Jeff guy is fairly cluesless when it comes to Unity. And is, therefore, in a poor position to give any useful insight into Unity vs. UE4.

My studio (of roughly 27 years) has used a lot of tech in its time. We even developed our own engine, HeroEngine (used in games like Star Wars The Old Republic MMO). We've made lots of games and have lots of experience with Unity. I used Unity to do the Android port of Temple Run, and we've made a lot other titles with it too. We're currently working on a marquee franchise for a major publisher... using Unity.

Unity is not just for small teams. Jeff didn't do his homework on this one. Our team is 27 strong, using git for version control. We use a deep feature-branch approach and it works well not only for our developers, but our non-techies: artists, designers, sound guys, etc. Sure there are issues with Unity and version control, but you find ways to make it work through convention and approach. Same thing happens in all Engines. They all have their issues. The only engine that put collaboration at the forefront was our HeroEngine, but even that has issues. Though we sold off that tech, you can still check it yourself... just Google.

The 32 bit editor limit is true, but is it really an issue? It never has been for us. His problems smell strongly of bad development practices... they can't seem to manage their memory resources well and that suggests other major issues in their group. Just reads a bit amateur to me. No engine will save you from bad practices. The game builds are 64 bit, and the Editor will be also in Unity 5 (how did he not know this?).

It is notable that the guy is fascinated with a lot of things in UE4 that, as it turns out, you can also do as well or even better in Unity. He loves, for instance, Blueprint visual scripting... did he bother to check out uScript for Unity? He loves the node-based Shader in UE4.... well there is ShaderForge in Unity. He loves Physically Based Rendering in UE4 but doesn't mention Alloy in Unity. Sure some of these things are add on costs (usually pretty tiny) and there are also lower cost or sometimes even free alternatives to many of them. The best part is you can mix and match which pieces work best for you. If you don't like UE4's node-based shader... tough! But in Unity you have a few to pick form..... .... or better yet, you can make your own! The best part of Unity is how seamlessly extensible the editor is. This is a huge productivity booster. Every game we do we create custom tools that enhance the efficiency of the designers and artists. It's so easy to do, you just naturally create augmenting tools as the need comes up. Our designers and artists can do amazing things without ever having worry about writing any code... much less even a visual scripting system. This is because we made the tools specific to the game that let them express what they need all from the inspectors and the scene tools.

Another cool thing: make a great addon that is generally useful... then wrap it up and sell it in the Asset Store. Monetize that sucker! Or give it away for free if you like.

Is Unity perfect? Nope. But it is insanely efficient for developing games. Works with any sized team well enough, and creates titles that run across tons of platforms. And the Asset Store is a treasure trove of extensions that just make it better and better all the time.

The places where it falls behind a tad are either addresseable from add ons, and ultimately in Unity 5.

I am not advocating that one choose Unity over UE4... but if you are going to make an argument, at least make a balanced one with all the facts. I would take his critique with a grain of salt. Try each engine yourself, but make sure you take the time to fully understand both the tool and its eco-system and how it applies to what you are doing. And above all, make sure you have sharp developers on your team who understand the fundamentals. Like I said, no tool will get you out of a jam of your own making.

I can confirm, you can reboot those systems while driving. I had to reboot my system (the center screen anyway) the very next day after I took delivery when the thing locked up. Oddly, not had to do it since.

If only... my Tesla cost $130K!

I know service can unlock your car remotely, since I have one (model S) and they did it for me.

The interesting thing is Elon made his fortune at PayPal. You think he'd know better.

FULL DISCLOSURE: These are products I created and operated by my company. But very relevant.

The term MUD tends to harken back to an earlier time before 'puters had graphical horsepower of any note. But the reality is, online text-based games come in all varieties, and the one's we operate are in a league all their own. More significantly, they are still serious ongoing commercial efforts. If you want to see what a MUD can be when it's been in continuous development, expansion for decades, then check out:

http://gemstone.net/

http://dragonrealms.net/

GemStone IV, which began its life as a sequel to GemStone ][ (then called GemStone III just to confuse everyone) first came to existence on the online service GEnie. Eventually it moved to CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy and others. When online services went the way of the doodoo bird, we moved them to the internet machine. DragonRealms is somewhat younger than GemStone, but same sort of history. I began work on it shortly before forming my company Simutronics, something like 27 years ago.

Despite having worked on lots of other types of games, such as mobile titles, and working on other PC/Mac/Linux games of a much more graphical variety now... these text based games remain the corner stone of Simutronics.

I got the SEIKI 4K TV from TigerDirect not long ago. I hooked it up as a 4th (!) monitor. It dwarfs the 3 30" dells I have next to it since, well... it's frikin 50"!

Despite being a lot bigger the pixel density is roughly the same as the 30" Dells which are only 2560x1600. The SEIKI 4K is rocking, obviously the 4K resolution of 3840x2160.

So is it cool?

Kinda of.

The fundamental problem, of course, is that the refresh rate is only 30 hertz. This is driven by the fact that current 1.4 HDMI spec can't push faster than that. So the screen has a soft pulsing. It also tears badly on fast moving things, but this may be a separate issue not related to the TV, not sure. Been messing with my video card to try and solve that. VSync doesn't seem to help, so maybe it is the TV.

Color reproduction is just ... meh. You have to switch modes to get things to look right depending on what you are doing... say work vs. play. Games do look spectacular at the high resolution and the big size. I have the monitor at a normal seated distance, so it's ... immersive. Much like the Rift in that way, but without the nausea and fatbits.

The bottom line is, don't get this TV unless you are a crazy early adopter who just likes cool toys and throws money away to do it. Wait until next year when HDMI 2.0 comes out and more monitor-class 4K units come onto the market. Then, yes... if you are a resolution junkie like I am, get one! Because even in this early form, the promise is quite clear.

Oh, and it impresses friends. Very important point. :)

I find that an even better way to construct a password (that you can still remember) is to use a language other than English for all or part of it. More specifically, it works best if you use a language that that requires transliteration to type in the Latin character set and then use your own transliteration/transcription spelling (rather than, necessarily, the common or "official" one). Good examples might be words in Hebrew, Russian or Greek.

Consider the Russian word for 'good'. I will spell it using substitute Latin characters since /. seems to strip it otherwise: "xopowo"

I love Russian because it uses mostly Latin or Latin-like characters, but they are usually pronounced differently (that "p" looking guy sounds like an "r" and that "w" looking character is more like "sh").

So that word is pronounced, to the American ear, something like "hur ah show" (leaving out the hard-to-transcribe soft guttural). You might spell it in your own transcription style as "herisoh" or "whoreashow" (which might be easier to remember!) or whatever.. the more you make it your own, the better.

You don't have to master another whole language to do this, just a few words will do.

Oh, and be sure to stay out of the rainbow table range or none of these techniques are all that helpful.

Didn't notice if this was mentioned or not, but there are some commercial solutions like deathswitch.com

They fire off emails to you on a schedule. If you fail to respond, then they suspect maybe you are pushing up daisies... other fail-safes kick in (they check with a designated friend, etc.). If you are, indeed gone, then they spew whatever you want to whomever you designate. You can even program in a follow up or two for later. A year after you are dead, a nice parting practical joke, eh?

What??? Game Programmers are NOT secretive at all. We share virtually everything! I'm sitting right now at the tail end of GDC where we spent a week of doing nothing but sharing. Where did you get that notion?

Seriously.... a book?

Just Google what you want to know.

If you've done C#, then look at XNA. It lets you do game stuff in C#. You know how to program, now just pick up things you don't know to build on that toolbox. On sites like http://create.msdn.com/ you can find all the information you need, and better yet, full functioning examples projects to pick apart and learn from.

Why back in my day there was no Google machine. Much less any book son the subject. Now there is so much information out there, for free, you have no excuse to not just trip over it even if you take 10 seconds to look for it.

ROWE was initiated at Best Buy internally and has grown way past that. It may be the one great thing Best Buy ever came up with.

You can be snarky about it. Or... educate yourself.

Actually, I don't care either way. For those of us who live it, there is absolutely no going back. Ever.

Yes, I was being hyperbolic to make a point and get attention.... :D

We did away with formal vacation time, sick time, etc.

You have unlimited amounts of it.

ROWE is a system where an employeer treats their employees like competent adults who know how to manage their time.

Does everyone know how to do that? No. And those people fail to get good results under ROWE and get fired.

Is measuring results hard? It's as easy or as hard as you want to make it. You can do 360 Reviews and all that BS if you want. Or you can keep it more informal, like we do.

ROWE increases productivity and employee's become amazingly loyal.

The biggest difficulty with it is for the boss(es) who feel like they are somehow losing control. Who fear that the day after they start ROWE no one will come into the office anymore. Know what really happens? People come into the office, they get work done, and they feel far, far less stress.

It is amazing. Its simple. It works. And of all the BS systems that have come and gone, this is the one that just flat out does what it says.

We'd never consider going back. Ever.

At my company, we did away with vacations. You get no vacation time. At. All.

But that was just for starters, we also did away with sick time. None.

Personal days? Don't make me laugh.

I am proud to say that was my initiative.

One might think this could have some impact on moral. But when asked during on camera interviews, how much would people have to pay you to leave? Some said at least double, and most said they couldn't even think of a number.

If you want to know how that's possible, then Google ROWE. Results Only Work Environment. And you'll understand why.

I give talks about our transition to ROWE, and it's been nothing but phenomenal.

David

Does this mean things that patents that were previously invalidated by prior art will then be patentable again?

I know that's the common belief, but that's not technically accurate. It is not "illegal" to not buy health insurance. You might be subject to a surtax that's basically the same as the premium, if you don't. I say "might" because there are exemptions.

For the boring details: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/H.R._3962/Division_A/Title_V/Subtitle_A/Part_1/Subpart_A#Sec._501.