I would reconsider UE4/5 over Unity if it had Rust. Especially since Unity may never support Rust. While I could live with C#, it’s not as ideal for games as Rust because of its GC.
The thing with Rust is that it is intended to replace C/C++ in the entire industry altogether, not just in game development. And it is getting very close to that goal.
It’s voted 4 times(if I recall) in a row as the Github favorite.
It is almost as accessible as C# but as fast as C/C++.
It’s even as a “system language” a safe language. No seg faults, no dangling pointers, no nulls, no headers, and it got safe threads. Data Oriented design over the OOP non-sense.
It’s eventually going to be fully embraced by Microsoft. According to them, C/C++ is not a valid choice anymore. 70% of their security flaws could have been avoided with Rust. Security may not be an issue with games, at least offline games, but when Microsoft makes the final move to fully embrace it. Rust obviously will come to Visual Studio and the entire MS ecosystem, including DirectX. A COM Rust binding generator is already in the works by MS.
As somebody who comes from C -> C# -> F#. I got zero regrets so far with Rust. I’m still amazed that a “system language” could be designed in such an accessible way, almost as if it was something like managed code C#/F#.
As somebody who follows not too closely, bot close enough the evolution of AI these days. And witnessed the super human genius of AI. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to me if somebody like MS could come up with a AI based translator that can convert full C/C++ code to idiomatic Rust. No need to waste time on mere bindings for UE. Convert the entire engine.
For all we know UE5 could be already on a road map for such a full conversion to Rust. Like I said, Rust is meant to replace C/C++ not just to compete with it as yet another language. And so far the signs show that it does a very good job at it. Not to mention that such a converter would be a huge use outside of MS as well. There is certainly need for that.