PlayCanvas vs Unity

Overview

Unity

Stacks1.8K

Followers1.4K

Votes78

PlayCanvas

Stacks30

Followers65

Votes0

GitHub Stars11.0K

Forks1.5K

PlayCanvas vs Unity: What are the differences?

Introduction:

PlayCanvas and Unity are both powerful game development platforms that offer a wide range of features and tools. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences that set them apart from each other. In this article, we will explore these differences in detail.

Target Audience and Skill Level: PlayCanvas is designed to be beginner-friendly and accessible to developers with a wide range of skill levels. It provides a visual scripting system that allows users to create games without writing code. On the other hand, Unity is more suited for intermediate to advanced developers who have a strong understanding of programming concepts and are comfortable writing code.
Platform Support: PlayCanvas is primarily focused on developing games for the web, as it utilizes HTML5 and WebGL technologies. This means that games created with PlayCanvas can run directly in a web browser without the need for plugins or additional downloads. Unity, on the other hand, supports a wide range of platforms including web, mobile, desktop, consoles, and virtual reality devices. It offers strong support for cross-platform development, making it a popular choice for developers targeting multiple platforms.
Graphics and Rendering: PlayCanvas is known for its impressive 3D graphics capabilities. It utilizes a WebGL-based rendering engine that allows for high-quality visual effects and realistic lighting. Unity, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive set of tools and features for both 2D and 3D graphics. It provides a powerful graphics pipeline with support for advanced rendering techniques like real-time global illumination and physically-based rendering.
Collaboration and Version Control: PlayCanvas is built around a cloud-based editor, which means that multiple developers can easily collaborate on a project in real-time. It also includes built-in version control functionality, allowing developers to track and manage changes to their projects. Unity, on the other hand, requires developers to use external version control systems like Git or Perforce for collaboration and version control. While it does offer some built-in collaboration features, they are not as robust as PlayCanvas.
Asset Store: Unity has a thriving asset store that offers a wide variety of pre-built assets, scripts, plugins, and other resources. This can greatly speed up development time and help developers add advanced functionality to their games. PlayCanvas, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated asset store. However, it does provide a marketplace where developers can sell or share their own assets and projects.
Pricing Model: PlayCanvas offers both free and paid plans, with the free plan providing a generous set of features and resources. It also offers a pay-as-you-go option for developers who require additional resources or scaling. Unity, on the other hand, follows a freemium model. It offers a free Personal Edition with limited features, and a Pro Edition with additional features for a monthly subscription fee or a one-time purchase.

In summary, PlayCanvas is a beginner-friendly platform focused on web development, while Unity is a more comprehensive and versatile platform with support for a wide range of platforms. PlayCanvas offers impressive 3D graphics capabilities, real-time collaboration, and an accessible pricing model, while Unity provides a powerful graphics pipeline, a thriving asset store, and external collaboration options.

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Advice on Unity, PlayCanvas

Alexey

Software Engineer / Game Developer at Norlin Games

Jun 11, 2020

Decided

When I started to learn game development, I've tried to use Unity multiple times because it's the most popular option. But never get it worked because of the clunky UI which is very hard to understand for a new user. After some time, I've decided to try UE4 despite there was a lot of rumors that it's "heavy" or requires an AAA team. And suddenly it clicked, everything works as I expecting, UI is clear and much more powerfull, no need to build custom tools to work on the game itself. Blueprints are very helpful for beginners, C++ has a lot of "syntax-sugar" - macroses, a lot of convenient in-engine types for everything. Later while working with Unreal, I've realized it has very consistent roadmap with constant improvements and adding new features. At the same time, each major version update is painless so you can upgrade your project during development to get new features. UE4 is free to use with the full list of features and you only have to pay royalty after getting your first $1 million from the project (and that's just the default case, you can always discuss custom license with an upfront fee, if you want to).

92.3k views92.3k

Comments

Arthur

Software Engineer at Value Industry

Mar 1, 2020

Decided

I chose Unity over Unreal Engine because Unity has a more user friendly UI for beginners looking to learn game development. Additionally, as someone who uses a lot of online resources to learn new languages and tools, I found a lot of tutorials covering game development with Unity as the core engine. This doesn't mean Unreal is not a great choice for game development, I just personally found learning game development much smoother with the amount of resources available with Unity.

89.8k views89.8k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Unity	PlayCanvas
Unity is the ultimate game development platform. Use Unity to build high-quality 3D and 2D games, deploy them across mobile, desktop, VR/AR, consoles or the Web, and connect with loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.	It is an open-source 3D game engine/interactive 3D application engine alongside a proprietary cloud-hosted creation platform that allows for simultaneous editing from multiple computers via a browser-based interface.
-	Open source; Tiny engine footprint; Mobile optimized; Zero compile time.
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 11.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.5K
Stacks 1.8K	Stacks 30
Followers 1.4K	Followers 65
Votes 78	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 17 Because it's a powerful engine, you can build anything 15 C# language 12 Very Popular 8 Easy to Use 7 Cross Platform Cons 4 Clunky UI 4 Closed source 4 Hard to get started with 3 No consistency with updates 3 Requires to build a lot of tools	No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available	Vuforia Firebase Felgo Ninject PlayFab Pushwoosh

What are some alternatives to Unity, PlayCanvas?

Godot

It is an advanced, feature-packed, multi-platform 2D and 3D open source game engine. It is developed by hundreds of contributors from all around the world.

Unreal Engine

It is a game engine that helps you make games. It is made up of several components that work together to drive the game. Its massive system of tools and editors allows you to organize your assets and manipulate them to create the gameplay for your game.

Gamemaker Studio 2

It has everything you need to take your idea from concept to finished game. With no barriers to entry and powerful functionality.

Panda3D

It is a game engine that includes graphics, audio, I/O, collision detection, and other abilities relevant to the creation of 3D games.

pygame

It is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing video games. It includes computer graphics and sound libraries designed to be used with the Python programming language.

Corona SDK

It is a cross-platform framework ideal for rapidly creating apps and games for mobile devices and desktop systems. It builds rich mobile apps for iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook. Build high quality mobile apps in a fraction of the time.

Buildbox

It is the easiest drag and drop game maker software.Make your own games without coding and export them to iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, PC and Microconsoles.

AppGameKit

It is an easy to learn game development engine, ideal for Beginners, Hobbyists & Indie developers. It solves many problems caused by mobile device fragmentation. With it you can code your game once and then deploy your game to multiple platforms. Different resolutions and input systems are all easily handled by it.

Amazon Lumberyard

It is a game engine with no royalties or seat fees, frictionless integration with Twitch and AWS, plus much more on the horizon.

Phaser

It is a free open source HTML5 game framework. It uses Pixi.js for WebGL and Canvas rendering across desktop and mobile web browsers. Games can be compiled to iOS and Android apps via 3rd party tools.

Related Comparisons

PlayCanvas vs Unity: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Target Audience and Skill Level: PlayCanvas is designed to be beginner-friendly and accessible to developers with a wide range of skill levels. It provides a visual scripting system that allows users to create games without writing code. On the other hand, Unity is more suited for intermediate to advanced developers who have a strong understanding of programming concepts and are comfortable writing code.
Platform Support: PlayCanvas is primarily focused on developing games for the web, as it utilizes HTML5 and WebGL technologies. This means that games created with PlayCanvas can run directly in a web browser without the need for plugins or additional downloads. Unity, on the other hand, supports a wide range of platforms including web, mobile, desktop, consoles, and virtual reality devices. It offers strong support for cross-platform development, making it a popular choice for developers targeting multiple platforms.
Graphics and Rendering: PlayCanvas is known for its impressive 3D graphics capabilities. It utilizes a WebGL-based rendering engine that allows for high-quality visual effects and realistic lighting. Unity, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive set of tools and features for both 2D and 3D graphics. It provides a powerful graphics pipeline with support for advanced rendering techniques like real-time global illumination and physically-based rendering.
Collaboration and Version Control: PlayCanvas is built around a cloud-based editor, which means that multiple developers can easily collaborate on a project in real-time. It also includes built-in version control functionality, allowing developers to track and manage changes to their projects. Unity, on the other hand, requires developers to use external version control systems like Git or Perforce for collaboration and version control. While it does offer some built-in collaboration features, they are not as robust as PlayCanvas.
Asset Store: Unity has a thriving asset store that offers a wide variety of pre-built assets, scripts, plugins, and other resources. This can greatly speed up development time and help developers add advanced functionality to their games. PlayCanvas, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated asset store. However, it does provide a marketplace where developers can sell or share their own assets and projects.
Pricing Model: PlayCanvas offers both free and paid plans, with the free plan providing a generous set of features and resources. It also offers a pay-as-you-go option for developers who require additional resources or scaling. Unity, on the other hand, follows a freemium model. It offers a free Personal Edition with limited features, and a Pro Edition with additional features for a monthly subscription fee or a one-time purchase.

PlayCanvas vs Unity

Overview