NRG - FAQ

Generic Information

What exactly is NRG?

NRG is an engine to built engines; it handles all the low level work that you would be implementing if you were creating your own engine and provides you a high level interface to it. This way you can create from scratch your own customized renderer and CPU code to create games and 3d applications. NRG is neither a graphics API library nor a game development tool; it is a set of tools somewhere in between the two which provide you with the best of both worlds.

Using the NRGeditor, you are assembling and creating your rendering pipeline, create you own specialized CPU code, implement logic and create your 3d worlds. There is no predefined renderer or application "template", and you are free to use it to do anything you want.

At its core, NRGeditor uses OpenGL|ES graphics API and GLSL|ES to code shaders; Lua for scripting and C/C++ to create high performance plugins that allows you to implement both CPU logic & user code to ensure true cross-platform compatibility. The NRGeditor simply provides a visual interface to simplify the user access to the low-level APIs (aka. NRG); it acts as a bridge that dispatch commands locally (and remotely) to realize your vision.

What do I get for FREE?

The NRGeditor along with all the NRG features! You are free to use it in any way you see fit including commercial games and 3d applications. All features are unlocked and you can run ALL samples, tutorials, and Demo Projects. You have access to all the scripting APIs and all internal functionalities are available. You can also publish your project!

Can I use NRG for FREE?

Of Course! As an Individual Developer, you can develop and distribute applications using NRG for personal, educational and, commercial purposes 100% free; all necessary tools for you to develop and publish your application are available for FREE. However, if you need more power under the hood or want to use our automatic publisher (aka Auto. Packaging) to output "release" builds, we are providing multiple types of subscription plans including source code access.

What do I get if I Register?

On top of what you get for FREE, you can have access to extra tools! You'll have access to an additional download section where you can grab the NRGviewer a remote client that allows you to develop on multiple devices simultaneously without leaving the NRGeditor. The viewer can also be turned into an input device allowing you to test Touches functionalities using the Desktop version of the NRGeditor.

You'll also get access to the NRG C/C++ Plugins SDK which contains samples, tutorials to learn from, and a standard Template. Using the default C/C++ template you'll be able to create high-performance plugins for your projects. Add new functionalities to the NRGeditor, expand existing ones and create customized Tools.

In addition, you'll also have access to ALL downloadable content on this site (link is always located on the top right of a page) along with ALL the original Demo Projects files that comes along with its Source Code and ALL 2d/3d assets used in the projects! You can either learn from them or simply re-use the content in your own projects!

What do I get if I Pay?

Direct access to the Source Code via our Git Server simply using your NRG account credentials! The FULL NRG Source Code will be available to you and you can recompile not only the NRGeditor from scratch but NRG itself and the NRGviewer and other libraries (such as GUI, Theme, and IDE) used internally. For Independent Developer you'll receive access to the Stable Branch for Licensed and Enterprise Developers; access to the master branch and can enjoy all the new features and bug fixes before anyone else!

Take note that contrary to other solutions we DO provide not only Dedicated Technical Support to customers but also provide tech. support on the NRG Source Code itself! As a paid member you have access to the whole NRG experience in FULL!

Why the NRGeditor look so different compare to the other Game Creation Software out there?

There are mainly two reasons, the first; it is built to run everywhere even on a mobile device. The interface itself is streamlined and minimalistic to ensure that it runs smoothly no matter what the device. Number two is mainly due to the modern approach to games and 3d applications development that we've designed. In NRG there is no out-of-the-box rendering pipeline; your scenes or levels are designed using external content creation software and imported using industry-standard asset transfer formats such as glTF and COLLADA.

You will create your framebuffers and render to texture to create the final composite of the image using pure GLSL materials; implement logic blocks, using either code or nodes (either using Lua or C/C++) hinting that you will be creating your engine from scratch (or you can use an existing one, from the various Demo Projects we provide).

There is a bit of a learning curve when getting started with the NRGeditor and the overall NRG workflow but once you get familiar with it you will never want to go back to another development software!

In NRG every asset and entity (our very own "Prefab" system) are shared and extendable; everything you do is then re-usable on a local or external project scale. It may sound tedious and more work has to be done at first but in practice, it is faster than other software since you only have to care about what you need and specify.

NRG has been tested countless times against real World Scenarios and various Development Cases; see what can be done using NRG in a very short period:

NRGball WorlZ Cup 3022:	7 days, World Cup Game Jam from Game Jolt (1 programmer, 1 artist)
Pin+Poof:	2 days, Game Jam organized by Kenney (1 programmer, 1 artist)
Xena - Warrior Princess:	10 days, Game Jam organized by Game Jolt (1 programmer, 1 artist)

What I should expect in terms of usage and performance?

Since you are in FULL control, you can modestly expect 3x to 5x times faster performance than any other Realtime Development Platform out there; at a shred of GPU/CPU memory and CPU/CPU usage. To put things into perspective, from scratch building your own handbuilt 3d engine would take about 3.5x times the amount of work compared to using an existing RDP such as Unity, Unreal, CryEngine, Flax, etc... but the rendering performances will always be faster and the resources usage greatly reduced (see video link below to give you an approximation). However, the NRG ecosystem drastically reduce that amount of time to a modest 1.5x times...

If you don't take our words for it; watch this excellent video from Nick Caston who did a very comprehensive test case on the subject.

By using NRG, you have access to a visual set of tools and powerful low-level APIs that are already handling all primary tasks for you such as graphics, physics, navigation, destruction, animations, geometry, textures, etc... As a result, drastically reducing iteration time (WYSIWYG) and the approximated 3.5x creation time evaluation all the way down to 1.5x (or less).

How small are the results produced using NRG?

The answer is: ridiculously small! NRG is mostly built (about 90%) using pure C and C++ (10% give or take). NRG runs 100% natively on all major platforms, with no heavy shared libraries (.so or .dll) or any other types of dependencies whatsoever. In example, the size of a plain standalone NRG application is less than 4MB compressed (i.e. the NRGviewer installer on Windows is exactly 3.1 MB at the time of writting).

To sum this up, the size of your project will strictly depend on the size of your assets (mostly attributed to the size of your textures).

What are the system requirements to run NRG?

NRG runs everywhere! You can even run the NRGeditor on a tablet if you want to work on your projects on the go! For an exact list of the hardware requirements visit the download section of your NRG account.

On which platforms I can develop and deploy NRG applications?

We are currently supporting Windows, Linux, MacOS X, Android, and iOS. More platforms should be added over time based on users’ requests and industry trends.

Do you guys have a development plan?

In fact, yes, we do! A roadmap is constantly updated exposing the future functionalities and R&D features that we are working on, improving or, experimenting with.

Can I get the full C/C++ Source Code?

Yes! The full source code is available to all Licensed and Enterprise Developers, however it is not available for Individual and Independent developers since we are providing full technical support along with it.

Publishing Licensing

What kinds of applications I can release?

You are free to release any type of application you want!

Do I need to pay some royalty fees?

No.

Do I have to put an NRG splash screen in my App?

No.

Do I need to mention NRG in the credits?

Appreciated, but not required.

Can I share or sell my content online?

Absolutely! We are strongly encouraging users to share, exchange, and even personally sell their content created with NRG. It's 100% up to you!

I have a question or need technical support!

You are more than welcome contacting us for any questions or issue you might have! You can receive tech. support via our Forums or Q&A or live via Discord.