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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.
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 PlayCanvas
Pros of Unity
- Because it's a powerful engine, you can build anything16
- C# language14
- Very Popular11
- Easy to Use7
- He Has A Free VErsion6
- Cross Platform6
- 2nd Game Engine In The World5
- Good Choise4
- Very Large Showcase4
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Cons of PlayCanvas
Cons of Unity
- Hard to get started with4
- Clunky UI4
- Closed source4
- No consistency with updates3
- Requires to build a lot of tools3
- Gigantic by being 9gb (thats what setup says)2
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What is PlayCanvas?
What is Unity?
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