[ctdonath]

You make money with it, you give them a fair share. Entry cost is $0. They'll ignore the first $3000 gross because hassling lots of "little people" for under $150 isn't worth the hassle for anyone.

Pretty amazing, really. I've been in graphics since just drawing a line on the screen of a $6000 (2015 dollars) computer was a big deal for a beginner; now you can get a seriously robust graphics engine for no cost, develop on a week's-pay cheap computer, and publish for $50 per $1000 revenue after you make enough to bother paying for.

No reason to whine, save for the sake of whining. You can still start with gcc if you like.

ETA: per another current thread, you can get a suitable Linux workstation for $89 http://symplepc.com/blogs/news/16853255-symple-introduces-th... Tack on a USB monitor for another $89, and you can write the Next Big FPS for $178 plus 5% of meaningful revenue.

[drzaiusapelord]

Specs on that are really low. 2gb of ram with a single core processor? That kind of rig is probably best for 2D development, where something like Unreal or Unity would be way overkill.

A small step up would be something with a proper graphics card and a quard core processor. You can get a very nice computer for $450 nowadays:

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/1786-cheap-gaming-pc-bu...

Also, not being able to test on Windows would be a major problem as that's going to be the lion's share of your sale. If you're budget conscious, I'd spring for a 3 year old laptop that came with an AMD or NVIDIA chip. That would be a low end desktop today, but can probably be had for $200-300 or so. Toss in a $80 SSD, and off to the races. I find laptops depreciate fast and that most people haven no idea how valuable that NVIDIA or AMD sticker is on their laptop. That's the difference between being able to play 70% of the games on Steam and being able to play 10% of the games on Steam.

[gnufied]

> For developing with UE4, we recommend a desktop PC with Windows 7 64-bit or a Mac with Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later, 8 GB RAM and a quad-core Intel or AMD processor, and a DX11 compatible video card. UE4 will run on desktops and laptops below these recommendations, but performance may be limited.

[ctdonath]

"Recommend". If you're trying to develop as close to "free" as possible, "performance may be limited."

(I'm often puzzled that when I suggest a nigh-unto-free solution to a problem, someone usually complains some form of "but that's not optimal!" Of course it's not optimal if you're not willing to put substantial resources into it. Just because the solution isn't perfect doesn't mean there isn't one; do what you can with what you've got, and you'll make progress toward perfection.)

[esrauch]

I think the point is that it is going to be worse than just laggy UI, it's going to be very painful if you try to use that computer for developing using UE4.

Which isn't to discourage people, there is a lot you can do with that kind of mid tier machine, but you are probably much better off trying to something else than UE4.

[SSLy]

> revenue

I know this probably isn't the place, but I am fairly sure they mean income, not revenue.

[ctdonath]

revenue |ˈrevəˌn(y)o͞o| noun

income, especially when of a company or organization and of a substantial nature.