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Blender vs Unreal Engine: What are the differences?
Introduction
Blender and Unreal Engine are two popular software tools used in the field of animation and video game development. While both have their own strengths and features, there are several key differences between the two.
1. Modelling and Animation:
Blender is renowned for its powerful 3D modelling and animation capabilities. It offers a wide range of tools and features that enable artists to create complex models and realistic animations. Unreal Engine, on the other hand, focuses more on real-time rendering and gameplay mechanics, making it a preferred choice for game developers.
2. Cost and Accessibility:
Blender is an open-source software that is available for free, making it easily accessible to anyone who wants to learn and use it. Unreal Engine, on the other hand, has a licensing model that includes a royalty fee for commercial projects. This makes Blender a more cost-effective option for independent artists and small studios.
3. Rendering and Real-time Visualization:
Blender provides advanced rendering features that allow artists to create high-quality still images and animations. It utilizes the Cycles rendering engine, which supports features like ray tracing and global illumination. In contrast, Unreal Engine excels in real-time rendering and visualization, providing photorealistic graphics and dynamic lighting effects in interactive environments.
4. Game Development and Virtual Reality:
Unreal Engine is primarily designed for game development, offering a wide range of tools and features specifically tailored for creating interactive and immersive experiences. It includes built-in support for virtual reality (VR) development, making it a popular choice for creating VR games and simulations. Blender, while capable of game development, may not have the same level of specialized tools and optimizations for real-time performance.
5. Community and Support:
Blender has a large and dedicated community of users who actively contribute to its development. This results in regular updates, bug fixes, and the availability of numerous tutorials and resources for learning and troubleshooting. Unreal Engine also has a thriving community, with extensive documentation and support from Epic Games, the company behind the engine.
6. Platform Compatibility:
Blender is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This makes it a versatile tool for artists and developers working on different platforms. Unreal Engine, on the other hand, is mainly focused on Windows and has limited support for macOS and Linux.
In summary, Blender excels in modelling and animation, is more cost-effective, and offers advanced rendering capabilities. Unreal Engine, on the other hand, specializes in game development and real-time rendering, with built-in support for VR. Both have strong communities and platform compatibility, but differ in their primary focus and target audience.
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).
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.
Pros of Blender
- Free for Commercial and Personal Use9
- Layers4
- Usable For Graphic Design4
- Dozens of free addons, courses and an active community3
Pros of Unreal Engine
- C++11
- Blueprints6
- PBR5
- Suitable for any projects4
- Source Available4
- Convenient and modern UI3
- Most Popular Game engine1
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Cons of Blender
- Long Render Time (every 3d program ever)2
- Blender dropped the game engine, see UPBGE1
- Confusing UI and shortcut navigation for newcomers1
Cons of Unreal Engine
- Heavy6
- A lot of "heaviness" myths around1
