[pemgl]

It is great (and important) that the licensing model has an unlimited time Free Trial because that way non-commercial developers can use MetalGL for learning purposes (or prototyping purposes), give feedback to MetalGL developers, and encourage community growth and adoption of MetalGL… Then anyone who wants to actually release a real project can buy a paid license. So I hope the unlimited-time Free Trial does not disappear.

Obviously open source-ing all (or a subset) of the project might lead to more community feedback, contributions, and broader adoption… But I also understand it could risk more copycat projects or make it easier for nefarious people to secretly use MetalGL (or code form MetalGL) without paying for a license.

One thing that surprises me about the paid license is that there’s only one option regardless of the number of end users, and regardless of whether the project is commercial (ie has revenue). For example, consider (a lone programmer doing a hobby project who wants to release his demo builds for free for his resume and for others to learn and to encourage others to adopt MetalGL) vs. (a small indie game company of 3-10 people with less than 100,000 users) vs. (a big game with millions of users and millions of dollars in revenue). My understanding of the Free Trial license is that a lone developer is not supposed to release his demo builds for free, which to me is a concern. Compare to – Unreal Engine takes 5% royalty based on gross revenue, Unity has a free Personal Edition.

Regardless of these concerns, I am looking forward to seeing further development from the MetalGL developers, and I hope there will be lots of adoption by outside developers using MetalGL for their projects!

thank you & best regards

[Bill Hollings]

@pemgl

Thanks for your thoughts on MetalGL.

We’ve priced MetalGL so that it is compatible with the budgets of any project, whether it be a single indie developer or a large development shop. By arranging the pricing per seat, smaller shops get a decent price, and large development shops, with larger teams and budgets, also pay according to the benefit MetalGL brings to their development team. And keep in mind that MetalGL is essentially risk-free. You only purchase a license after you have confirmed the benefits it provides, and have an app that you are essentially ready to ship!

Regarding open-source, at Brenwill, we have significant experience with providing open-source products, and your summary of the upsides and downsides is fairly accurate. However, we do understand the benefits of source access for certain projects, and do provide a source licensing option to key customers.

BTW…we do not agree with the royalty model. After all, if every tool vendor did that, it wouldn’t be long before any particular project accumulated royalties in excess of 100%! :^)

…Bill

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