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Hey,
we are currently considering using SharpEngine in a new component of our software. Unfortunately, we did not find any information on licensing and purchasing SharpEngine. While there is clear information on DXEngine and Powertoys the information just seems to be missing for SharpEngine.
Could you please clarify what license is needed to use SharpEngine commercially?
Kind Regards
Nicholas Schuster
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The Ab4d.SharpEngine is currently in beta. This means that it is free to use but it has an expiration date that is roughly 6 months from the release date.
The initial plan was to release the engine for Windows and Linux in Q3 2023. But this date has been missed and the new plan is to release in November 2023.
The licensing plan for the engine is not yet final, but at the moment I am thinking about the following (this may change):
There will be a free personal license that could be used for private and non-commercial use. The user will still need to register and there will be the Ab4d.SharpEngine logo shown (3D hash symbol) for the first few frames.
There will be the following commercial licenses (similar to what is available with Ab3d.PowerToys and Ab3d.DXEngine):
- Single developer license (for one developer) - price around 800 USD,
- Team developer license (for up to 4 developers) - price around 1300 USD,
- Site developer license (for an unlimited number of developers at one location) - price around 1900 USD,
- Corporate developer license (for an unlimited number of developers at all subsidiaries in a corporation) - price around 3000 USD.
The plan is that the price is higher than a Ab3d.DXEngine (500 USD) library but lower than both Ab3d.PowerToys + Ab3d.DXEngine library (around 900 USD).
The prices are for using the engine on a single platform (Windows, Linux, Android, MacOS or iOS). To use the engine on multiple platforms, there will be an additional fee - around 200 per additional platform for a single developer license.
The licenses will be perpetual - so you will be able to use the library for unlimited time, but you will need to renew the license after one year to continue getting free updates and propriety email support (price: 30% of the current price before expiration; 50% of the price after expiration).
Those licenses will allow the use of the engine in an application (the license will need to be activated in the Assembly.GetEntryAssembly()).
There will also be an SDK license that will allow creation of libraries that can also be sold to other end customers. The price for that is dependent on the use case and will also include a per-user fee.
There will also be big discounts for the early customers.
I will update the readme for the library with the next beta release and include that info there.
Andrej Benedik
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Thank you very much for the quick and detailed answer. Based on that we decided to proceed with the prototype and will probably purchase a license as soon as available.
One minor thing I would like to note: It would be great if you could clarify the "location" part of the "Site" license in the final description. In my experience this limitation usually leads to questions from because it can be unclear what counts as a location.
For exampe in our case we only have one software department but we work in various buildings of a single city and some of us only work remotely. I would guess this counts as a single location but in the end we would have to discuss this with you.
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Yes, "at on location" means one company department in one city. Multinational corporations can have multiple independent departments in different countries. In case when multiple departments need to use the license then the corporate license needs to be purchased.
Andrej Benedik
