SimForge Engine

1. Parties, acceptance and approved access

This SimForge Engine Non-Commercial Research License Agreement (Agreement) is between the legal entity identified as licensor in the acceptance record (SimForge) and the approved individual or organization identified as licensee (Licensee). It takes effect only after Licensee affirmatively accepts it by electronic signature, signed agreement or recorded click-through acceptance, and SimForge approves access. A person accepting for an organization represents that they are authorized to bind that organization; otherwise, no organizational license is granted.

The Software means the SimForge Engine renderer and simulation runtime, compiled binaries, proprietary runtime components and accompanying documentation that SimForge supplies under this Agreement. An access approval records the approved project, users, releases, deployment limits and any expiry. An organizational or academic email may permit onboarding without a call; it does not replace approval or acceptance.

2. Limited license and permitted research

Subject to this Agreement, SimForge grants Licensee a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable license during the approved term to install and execute the unmodified Software for the approved Non-Commercial Research project. Licensee may make installation and backup copies reasonably necessary within the approved deployment limits.

Permitted activities include synthetic sensor-data generation, closed-loop simulation, reinforcement learning, model training, evaluation, benchmarking and teaching. Licensee may write independently authored scripts, adapters, sensor configurations and scenario instructions that use documented interfaces without modifying or incorporating protected Software code. Permitted configuration and ordinary execution are not prohibited Software derivatives under this Agreement. No source-code access, maintenance, cloud compute or premium capability is promised.

3. Non-commercial use only

Non-Commercial Research means academic research, teaching, independent scientific investigation and scholarly reproducibility that are not undertaken for commercial product development, commercial advantage or monetary compensation for delivering products or services. Ordinary academic salaries, tuition and research grants do not by themselves make research commercial. Industry-funded work qualifies only where it has no commercial-development deliverables or preferential commercial exploitation rights; otherwise, prior written approval is required.

Without a separate written commercial license, Licensee must not use the Software or Results to develop, improve, validate, market or deliver a commercial product or service; perform customer work or paid consulting; operate a hosted service; generate datasets for sale; or train or fine-tune models for commercial deployment. Internal corporate research and evaluation are not automatically non-commercial merely because there is no immediate revenue. Academic status does not authorize work for a commercial employer or sponsor.

4. No modifications or derivative renderers

Except for the expressly permitted activities in Section 2 and nonwaivable rights under Section 14, Licensee must not modify, adapt, translate, patch, port, fork, recompile or create derivative works of the Software, whether for internal use or distribution. Licensee must not alter executable code or runtime libraries, remove licensing functions, or incorporate any part of the proprietary Software into another renderer, simulator or software product. Corrections and modifications require SimForge's prior written authorization.

5. No reverse engineering or circumvention

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Licensee must not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decrypt or otherwise attempt to discover or extract protected source code, nonpublic implementation details or proprietary components of the Software. Prohibited acts include memory or binary extraction for those purposes, defeating license checks or access controls, and using the Software or its outputs to reconstruct or copy the protected implementation or create a substitute renderer.

Licensee must not direct employees, contractors, AI agents or other third parties to perform a prohibited act. Ordinary research benchmarking, observation of authorized outputs and debugging of independently authored integrations remain permitted when they do not involve prohibited extraction, copying or circumvention. Section 14 controls any mandatory legal exception.

6. No redistribution or third-party access

Licensee must not sell, rent, sublicense, lend, redistribute or make the Software available to others, including through public repositories, package registries, container images, shared download links or hosted execution services. External collaborators must obtain their own licenses unless expressly approved in the access record.

An organizational Licensee may permit only its approved personnel to use the Software, remains responsible for their compliance and must restrict credentials and copies accordingly. Private infrastructure and cloud hosting are permitted within approved deployment limits if access remains limited to approved users and necessary infrastructure administration under confidentiality protections. A hosting provider receives no independent use rights.

7. Mandatory citation in publications

Licensee must acknowledge and cite SimForge in every publication or public presentation by Licensee or its approved users that uses, relies on or reports results generated with the Software, including work involving models trained or evaluated using it. This includes papers, preprints, theses, dissertations, posters, presentations, technical reports, benchmark reports, public demonstrations, videos, research websites, repositories and model cards.

For scholarly publications, include a reference entry identifying SimForge, SimForge Engine, the release or version used, the release year and the official citation link or persistent identifier supplied with that release. Use the supplied CITATION.cff or reference entry where available. Also include the following acknowledgment in the methods, acknowledgments or equivalent section:

This work used SimForge Engine, part of SimForge Studio, provided by SimForge.

Where a format has no reference list, provide comparably visible credit in the caption, description, credits, README or accompanying documentation. Cite separately licensed SimForge datasets as required by their license. Licensee must communicate these obligations to coauthors and collaborators and ensure compliance in publications it controls.

Attribution may be temporarily omitted solely where a mandatory anonymous-review process requires it, and must be restored in the camera-ready or non-anonymous public version. Attribution does not imply endorsement or confer coauthorship. A public link or citation should be provided to SimForge after publication where legally and practically possible; confidential manuscripts and prepublication approval are not required.

8. Research Results and permitted publication

Results means lawfully generated sensor renders, simulation traces, metrics, analyses and model parameters trained or fine-tuned through permitted use. As between the parties, Licensee retains its rights in independently created research, code and Results, to the extent protectable, excluding the Software, SimForge datasets and other underlying protected material. This is not a transfer of SimForge intellectual property.

Licensee may retain and use Results for the approved Non-Commercial Research project and publish findings, aggregate metrics and reasonable illustrative images or short clips with the required citation. These authorized Results are not prohibited Software derivatives merely because the Software generated them. They must not expose protected code or provide a substitute for the Software or licensed datasets.

Public release or third-party transfer of bulk synthetic datasets or trained model weights requires separate written permission from SimForge and compliance with applicable dataset licenses. Commercial exploitation of Results requires a separate commercial agreement. Pre-existing models and independently developed materials do not become SimForge property or restricted derivatives merely because they appear in a non-commercial evaluation. This does not authorize using that evaluation for commercial product validation.

9. Separate datasets and other licenses

This Agreement grants no rights to digital twins, HD maps, meshes, textures, semantic layers, scenario datasets or other SimForge Worlds data. Each dataset requires a separate dataset license and approval, even if delivered with the Software. Use of both requires compliance with both licenses.

Third-party components and any SDKs or examples expressly supplied under separate licenses remain subject to those licenses. This Agreement does not curtail rights granted under an applicable third-party or open-source license or require transfer of Licensee's own data.

10. Ownership and nonpublic information

The Software is licensed, not sold. SimForge and its licensors retain all rights not expressly granted. Licensee must preserve copyright, attribution and other proprietary notices. No trademark rights are granted beyond factual identification and required attribution; no endorsement may be implied.

Licensee must protect nonpublic Software implementation details, credentials and technical materials designated confidential or reasonably understood to be confidential, and use them only for the approved project. This obligation excludes information lawfully public, previously known without restriction, independently developed without using protected materials, or lawfully received from a third party. Disclosures legally required by law are permitted, with notice where lawful. These obligations do not make public documentation or compliant research findings confidential.

11. Security and compliance

Licensee must use reasonable access controls, keep credentials private, prevent unauthorized copying and promptly notify SimForge of suspected loss, unauthorized access or misuse. Licensee must not upload proprietary Software to public code-analysis, AI-training or third-party reverse-engineering services.

On reasonable written request, Licensee must provide a compliance confirmation identifying approved users and deployments. This is not a grant of unrestricted access to Licensee systems, confidential manuscripts or unrelated research. Licensee must comply with applicable laws, sanctions and export restrictions.

12. Term, suspension and termination

The license continues until the expiry in the access record, if any, or termination under this section. Licensee may terminate by stopping use and deleting the Software. SimForge may discontinue beta access on 30 days' written notice. SimForge may immediately suspend access to address a reasonably suspected security incident or material misuse.

SimForge may terminate immediately by written notice for unauthorized commercial use, redistribution, prohibited derivatives, circumvention or prohibited reverse engineering. Other material breaches have a 15-day cure period after notice; a citation omission has 30 days to correct publications under Licensee's control or request correction from the publisher. Repeated or intentional omissions may constitute a material breach.

13. Obligations after termination

Licensee must stop using the Software and, within 15 days, delete or return all copies and credentials and certify compliance on reasonable request. Copies retained solely for mandatory legal archiving must be access-restricted and not executed. Lawfully created, non-reconstructive Results and compliant publications may be retained and published for the approved non-commercial research, with continuing attribution; unauthorized outputs receive no such permission.

Ownership, restrictions on retained materials and Results, attribution, confidentiality, accrued claims, disclaimers, liability limits and dispute provisions survive. Termination of this license grants no additional rights under a dataset agreement.

14. Mandatory rights

No provision restricts any activity or right that applicable law does not permit the parties to exclude or limit by contract, including applicable interoperability, observation, testing, backup, security-research or other mandatory exceptions. Any exception applies only to the legally required extent and conditions. Advance notice or a request for information may be required only where law permits, and is not a condition that defeats a mandatory right.

15. Beta disclaimer and liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY OR UNINTERRUPTED OPERATION. SimForge makes no commitment to continued availability, support or compatibility. The Software is not certified for safety-critical deployment; Licensee is responsible for independent validation and lawful use.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SimForge is not liable for indirect, special, consequential or punitive damages, lost profits or lost data. Its aggregate liability under this Agreement will not exceed the greater of USD 100 and amounts Licensee paid SimForge specifically for this license during the preceding 12 months. These limits do not exclude or limit fraud, willful misconduct or any liability that applicable law does not permit to be excluded or limited.

16. General terms

California law governs, without its conflict-of-law rules, subject to applicable mandatory law. The parties submit to the competent state courts in Sonoma County, California, and federal courts in the Northern District of California, except where mandatory law requires otherwise. No nonwaivable public-institution immunity is waived by this Agreement.

This Agreement and its acceptance record constitute the agreement for the licensed Software. A separately signed amendment controls only the terms it expressly changes. New online terms do not retroactively amend this accepted version. Invalid provisions are limited or severed to the extent necessary without invalidating the remainder. Notices go to the contacts in the acceptance record. Commercial, redistribution or other additional rights require a separate written authorization from SimForge.

Acceptance record

Two details to confirm. One acceptance.

Reuse your name and email from beta signup; no re-entry is needed when they are already populated. The same identity details may be used for both the renderer and dataset agreements. Name an organization only when you are authorized to accept on its behalf.

Acceptance

I have read and agree to the SimForge Engine Non-Commercial Research License Agreement v1.1. I acknowledge the non-commercial limitation, mandatory publication citation, and restrictions on derivatives, reverse engineering and redistribution. No dataset rights are granted by this acceptance.

If an organization is named above, I confirm that I am authorized to bind it. Otherwise, I accept in my own name.

☐ Online: I agree to this agreement. Submit through the beta acceptance workflow.

OR sign this document: __________________________________________

Use one acceptance method, not both. No title or manually entered date is required. When both licenses are needed, record one explicit acceptance for each; do not ask for the identity details twice.

SimForge-maintained record | No applicant entry

Before acceptance, SimForge provides its licensor legal name and notice contact and the proposed access scope for review. SimForge reuses the beta application to record the approved project and users, Software release/platform, deployment limits and any expiry. SimForge records the accepted version, acceptance evidence, effective date and approval reference; the electronic workflow uses an initially unchecked acceptance control and records submission and its timestamp. These linked records form part of this acceptance record, and a copy is provided to Licensee with access confirmation. Approval and affirmative acceptance remain required before access.

Acceptance is limited to this identified agreement and approved scope. Exceptions must be documented by a separately signed amendment.