8 years using Unity and wanted to check Unreal 4,…Unity can do very nice things, you can see it on the game “Layer of Fear”, “Eleanor Starway P.T.” and “PuNity (Silent Hill P.T. Remake)” … so its graphics are near to Unreal… BUT… … Unfortunatelly AAA games on Unity use a lot of machine power… is fine to do mobile games, and AA games for standalone, but when you put more effects on your game well…
I have compared Eleanor Starway with Unreal`s Reallistic Room Example on an Intel HD Graphics (TADAAA!!!) both worked!.. yeah of course… but Eleanor Starway ran a lot slower than Unreal scene… and still i think Unreal scene looks better…
Btw… Unreal is great to do AAA games … but i think we must not limit to AAA, you can do simple games too… why not?..
I imagine Unreal is a very good tech, sadly the royalty based business model doesn’t suits our studio’s policy. We would prefer a subscription based model. Maybe one day…
i prefer the unreal environment but it runs like a bag o ****, which is the main put off.
stories of it running on laptops with integrated graphics i find hard to believe, the editor surely does not run on hardware like that.
much more that a cube on an empty map sends my (fairly decent) computer into meltdown, anything close to a ‘real’ map and its down to <10 fps even on low settings.
i dont really like unity but my current game is being developed in that engine because it runs on just about anything, in the end giving the highest number of potential players.
yes there are some big problems with unity that anyone who has attempted a serious project will be well aware.
While there are many reasons, I will mention some of them:
I see a lot of people on the internet obsessed with comparing the two engines and in disbelief that “UE4 could be less popular than Unity”. If you are new to game development and is just looking on the surface level, UE4 can appear to be an obvious choice. The graphics capability is superior, the engine editor is more robust and seems more “professional”. But when you spend time developing a game, you soon understand that one of the most important - if not the most important - aspect of the tools you use, is that they are efficient in getting the job done quickly and as painlessly as possible. Most of us want to make games, if we wanted to make engines we would be using our own custom engines. To put it short, while Unreal has better graphics capability and a more robust editor, Unity gets the job done faster. Unity uses C#, it is easier, less complex and arguably more fun to program to than C++. Unity has a huge community and probably 99% of every question you could possibly have, someone has already asked online and you can just google it.
I think a lot of young people get interested in UE4, wanting to make AAA games. The problem is AAA games have dozens if not hundreds of people working on them. When you find out that you can’t make games of this scale with a small team, you will probably understand that graphics are not that graphics are not that relevant on most indie games. The gameplay is, the idea is, the nice execution is. And all of these can be achieved in both engines.
I will say this: if your project is heavily focused on the visuals, if it has high end realistic graphics or if the visual component is the big seller point of the game, you are probably better going with UE4. If graphics is not the focus, go with the engine that suits better your workflow. Because if you are going to make it 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, this is what you will care about.
I have to disagree with you. UE4 only caveat is that it has a learning curve than Unity. However, that learning is to promote proper tried and true game development pipeline.
Unity is so barebones that the one game I did make, I was using UDK’s style of pipeline of controllers, characters, levels, etc.
Basically, I was using Unreal’s method doing things to make Unity games work. I say why bother when UE4 is here?
100% agree. I think fan boyism can also get in the way when comparing 2 engines. Becuase on the surface UE does look like the go to choice.
I would like to add: I disagree that you can’t make great looking games visually with Unity, you just have to play it smarter (and by doing so your games will be runing better and more optimized in some cases) Ofcourse there’s a limit to what kind of visuals in a sense. Look at Ori or Inside, how about Homeworld! Gorgeous looking games all done in Unity.
In fact i have seen more better looking games on average that have impressed me done in unity vs unreal. It’s just how studios/artists use the engines. Besides not too many games have been produced by respected indie studios in UE vs those using Unity. And as you mentioned there are solid reasons why. It’s also that UE is still considered a new WIP engine by so many developers, it sort of feels like in a constant Beta stage with features being added every other month, or breaking backward compatibility, bugs, etc…
Lately I have seen more focus oriented workflow by Unity devs vs Epic which seems to be trying to impress all at the same time (most even outside the game industry), that’s fine if Epic decides that’s the way to go.
Unreal Would be the best thing ever unless it weerent for its retarded API, its the worst of the worst you cant design anything fast, you are forced into a rigid API must do things like unreal designed the engine to.
Also no C# or python just no epic, nope.
Its very important to have programming, the games i plan to make all have online gameplay, you want me to code networking/server with BP’s? oh wait you cant, C++ then? good joke dont even bother.
Must have some genereic managed fast developing language with tons of libraries to extend with custom scripts/components C#/python maybe Go, yes UE4 can do that with C++ but C++ is already unusable by default add Unreal’s terrible macro API on top plus some complicated game design and your productivity will grind to a halt.
Honestly epic is just being childish not implementing C#, dont give me that nonesense about BP’s for artists, what the hell are artists doing the programmers jobs? its just a silly excuse so they use only BP’s and C++ lazy epic. Everyone implementing visual scripting in their engines is just trying to follow the trend to draw attention/users etc, visual scripting is CANCER get rid of it.
I personally am like 4-5 times more productive in Unity C# than unreal BP’s, its just unusable, been trying for ~2 years to get into UE4 i just abandoned it, its productivity 0. Everything else is nice tough.
Anyway UE4 is clearly not made for small teams/indies, i dont think they even advertise it like that, you need medium-large teams for UE4 difficulty, unless you want to make simple insignificant games by yourself.
I messed around with Unity and it just did not work well at all for my needs. In UE4 you get:
-amazing compartmentalization of plugins and features, drag and drop plugins with ease, convert between versions with ease
-amazing lighting, amazing engine code modability. The source code in UE4 has such a higher ceiling than Unity.
-they say don’t try to have too many features and gameplay elements because game engines don’t handle multiple game modes well…and this is where UE4 blows the competition out of the water. Hanglider to motorbike, to rocketship, to racecar, to rocket powered spacesuit with ease.
I can’t say enough good things about UE4. For how insanely complex the engine can get it’s so easy to use. Unity is simple to use but has a ceiling on how much it can handle efficiently in terms of overlapping features. Unity is easier in that lower intelligence people can use it but a high IQ individual will find UE4 radically more easy to use when trying to implement advanced feature.
If you’re the kind of programmer that has simple needs and doesn’t like constantly learning new things Unity will be better. Larger concepts are just going to be easier with UE4 despite how often the features are changing.
UE4s engine can handle collisions at 100,000 m/s, good look pulling that off with Unity.
I’ve seen some amazing things done with Unity by brilliant people. Your comment about Unity devs being not intelligent enough is just rubbish.
In my opinion Unity popularity comes from the fact that Unity has been democratising development long time before Epic jumped on board. There is also another factor - Unity approach is to start plain and build on top of it not to mention one of the best APIs to do that. With UE4 you have a much more developed framework that you need to adopt. I would say that is beneficial to larger and more experienced teams. With Unity, it is up to the team how it will be implemented.
Anyway, at this point, there is nothing you can’t do with either engine. I’ve seen many good opinions and complaints regarding both engines. There isn’t an ideal engine. Forget about it. Use the tool to your advantage.
I agree with @. You can make great games in any engine. Ue4 has it’s issues ups and downs. So does unity. There are a number of factors to decide an engine for yourself.
If you choose an engine based on popularity rather than your ability, or functionality. Than good luck.
This engine itself is great, but the business terms being simplified make it further attractive.
We give you the pro version. You pay us 5%. That’s the deal. It isn’t subscription plus royalties if your game makes more than x. Plus extra license fees, and forced upgrade from small team to corp costs.
Also if you are developing a game on a Mac UE4 is not an option. It runs like a dog on my Macbook Pro whereas Unity flies. That’s the fact. Well, at least that was the fact some time ago. I’m downloading UE 4.16.1 to see if things have improved…
EDIT: Still the same problem with UE4 on my Mac. The fans want to jump out from my Macbook Pro so this is a no go…
Reason why i chose UE4 because code is visible unlike Unity. My personal expected minimal learning timeframe is at-least 5-7 years and what if Something happens within Unity company and they shut off engine, everything i learned is locked inside last released binary. I do not want to waste my years of life in engine that is closed. This is just my two cents.
Don’t be such a fanboy , your comment can be taken as very insulting. It is also not true for the most part of it. And def not true when it comes to user base intelligence. I hope you are just a 14 year old speaking like this and Not older.
Unity does lack behind a little with some visual and lighting/shading features, but that stops no one form producing stunning work, they will also soon invest further in its render capabilities, and when that happens Unreal will be in real deep trouble, mark my words on that.
But all this is irrelevant they are both tools at the end. And both can do amazing things in the right hands. I already mentioned a few great looking games done in Unity.
Edit: While we use both engines for different things, UE gets extra heat from us just because we feel Epic is one of the most pompous companies out there when it comes promoting their currently WIP engine, just something in their attitude when they present things makes us cringe sometimes, it’s as if they own the world of engines. We don’t get this vibe at all from Unity devs, they seem more down to earth with their PR.
I’m not a fanboy, work at a major studio that uses terrible engines, 31 years old. Having experience with the engines multi-national game companies use UE4 instantly sets itself ahead of the pack. Probably going to start my own company in a year or two with just how easy it is to implement complex mechanics in UE4. That or try to get a job at Epic.
Yes they are both tools but to accomplish what I’ve done in UE4 would probably take 3 times longer in Unity and run at 20fps less.
I did not mean to say Unity users are less intelligent at all, on average they might be smarter I have no idea. What I meant is that a person with high IQ will be able to accomplish more with UE4 because of how intelligently it was designed, the hyper compartmentalization of components/plugins/libraries and use of C++ allows one person to accomplish in UE4 what would take teams in Unity or other engines. UE4 in essence puts no restrictions on its users limiting the game design to your imaginations extent.
I think you will definitely get hired at Epic at their PR or human resource department for sure : ). In fact i am willing to bet Sweeney is looking up that number right now!
Tagline on UE Cover page reads:
‘Accomplish your vision with high IQ and hyper compartmentalization of components’
Unless you are a big team I can’t see you updating the engine all by yourself.