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Unity vs Unreal Engine: What are the differences?
<Unity vs. Unreal Engine Comparison>
1. **Programming Language**: Unity primarily uses C# for scripting, while Unreal Engine uses C++ as its primary scripting language. This difference affects developers' preference based on their familiarity and comfort with the respective languages.
2. **Asset Store**: Unity's Asset Store offers a wide range of assets and tools for developers, making it easier to find resources for game development. Unreal Engine's Marketplace also provides assets, but some developers find Unity's Asset Store to be more user-friendly and extensive.
3. **Platform Support**: Unity has better cross-platform support, allowing developers to create games for various platforms like mobile, consoles, and web. Unreal Engine, on the other hand, is known for its high-quality graphics capabilities, making it a preferred choice for creating visually stunning games on PC and consoles.
4. **Pricing Model**: Unity follows a subscription-based pricing model with different tiers based on the developers' needs, whereas Unreal Engine follows a royalty-based model where developers pay royalties on their game's revenue after surpassing a certain threshold.
5. **Ease of Use**: Unity is often considered more beginner-friendly with a simpler interface and easier learning curve, making it accessible for developers new to game development. In contrast, Unreal Engine's interface and workflow can be more complex, but it offers more advanced tools and features for experienced developers.
6. **Community and Support**: Unity has a larger and more active community, leading to better support, tutorials, and documentation available online. Unreal Engine also has a supportive community, but Unity's larger user base often translates to more resources and help available.
In Summary, Unity and Unreal Engine differ in programming language, asset store offerings, platform support, pricing models, ease of use, and community support.
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 Unity
- Because it's a powerful engine, you can build anything16
- C# language14
- Very Popular12
- Easy to Use7
- He Has A Free VErsion6
- Cross Platform6
- 2nd Game Engine In The World5
- Good Choise4
- Very Large Showcase4
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 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
Cons of Unreal Engine
- Heavy6
- A lot of "heaviness" myths around1
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