Unreal vs Unity – The Ultimate Showdown
INTRO: Unity vs Unreal
Unreal 5 outclasses Unity in every important metric. It destroys Unity in terms of graphics, it has higher quality and better assets, it is more stable and able to build a more solid deliverable, it has better inbuilt features out of the box, better asset compatibility, a better asset store, it has blueprint visual scripting as an integral part of the engine, it has realtime global illumination, it has higher quality meshes and assets. Everything is better in Unreal, except 2D. Unreal is also better for beginners. A rarely observed fact.
So which should you choose, I am biased, you know what I will say in this article, choose Unreal. But that doesn’t make Unity a bad engine, I have worked in Unity and it’s great. I just like Unreal even better, but you can still make an amazing game in Unity.
Unreal vs Unity which is better?
Unreal is better at 3D games and has better graphics, and Unity has the edge in 2D games, Unreal has blueprint visual scripting for beginners and advanced users alike, and it uses C++ instead of C#, a comparatively easy language.
What’s easier Unreal Engine or Unity?
Unreal is easier than Unity, because it uses blueprint visual scripting to script without writing any code, if you use languages C++ in Unreal is harder than C# in Unity, but also a more in demand language.
So, should you make the switch? (yes) <—– Then find out why here.
Is Unity cheaper than Unreal?
If you earn more than $3000/quarter, you pay 5% of gross revenue with Unreal. Unity is free, but Unity pro costs $35 a month or $299 annually, if you earned less than $200k last year.
Hello
And welcome to the ultimate showdown between Unreal and Unity.
Unreal wins.
I’ll now spent about 2000 words expounding on that.
Let’s start with stability. Unreal is more stable, it is more professional. Unreal can build a deliverable consistently, and this is something I have discovered, to my horror, is outside of the scope of Unity for me. This might just be a system specific issue. But as I understand it build issues are extremely common.
Though my work in Unreal has gone smooth as silk.
Have a look at this gamedevacademy article, it will breakdown this argument further.
Unreal uses C++ which is a better language to learn if you want to make money, Unity uses C# which is good but a lot less in demand.
If you want to learn how to program in either, then check out our subscription service here:
Which has prettier FBX’s?
When I think of all the hell I went through trying to get my FBX’s loaded into Unity, I shudder with traumatized fear and PTSD. Unity is such a nightmare to use with my fbx’s, they are always breaking, loading weird, doing weird things. In Unreal, they load at high quality, period. They run at high quality. Period.
Skeletal rigging in Unreal is a lot better, it’s a good well crafted system and once you get good with it, you can easily manage the creation of new characters without any difficulty. You have full control over how your skeleton is animated. It really is a nice system.
HDRP is not worth the visual upgrade
Don’t bother with HDRP, it is an addon that Unity has created for people who now regret their choice when looking at the comparative beauty and perfection of Unreal. HDRP breaks anything and everything it touches, you will NEVER load another asset pack again, without several hours of debugging and torment. Do not waste your time with HDRP, when wasting your time in Unity. Hey that rhymes. Hoho.
Although, well, if you build in HDRP, these are the results.
Just keep in mind you have to deal with a lot of bugs if you want results like this, it might be gamebreaking. The visuals are nice, but it doesn’t add up to all the problems HDRP causes.
Unreal is native HDRP
Unreal on the other hand, is native HDRP, except that it shames it in superior visual quality, and runs without a single glitch or error you didn’t program in yourself.
The graphics in Unreal are unthinkably good. They are beautiful and lush and pretty. It is the best looking game engine on the market. Unreal 5 will take this to new levels.
Yes, the high definition render pipeline, is like Unity conceding, I wish I could do better, but I can’t.
Unity has a better asset store
However, it is not all downhill with Unity, for instance, the asset store is significantly superior in the quality of asset packs on offer, in fact I spent approximately 3 thousand dollars on the Unity asset store, before discovering, to my horror, ANY AND EVERY GAME I BUILD IN UNITY CRASHES WITH MEMORY ISSUES.
In editor, I have built the framework for a game, which is so good, it puts most AAA commercial games to shame. It has branching plotlines, it has dialogue system, it has quest machine, it has a huge hub world, it has AI enemies, it has a faction system, it has a beautiful FPS engine to serve as the framework, from my personal friend, the creator of NEO FPS. A fine engine…. with all these pieces, and the storylines I built, and the huge world to explore, and the foundation in place to tell a great story….
Unity has won right?
Not quite….
No wait, Unreal has a better asset store
Lord what was I thinking, here is the Unreal Asset Store.
As you can see, it is built into the Unreal Launcher, it is an application, not a website. So the Unreal Asset store is a better store, per se, right? But Unity has better assets? No Unreal has better quality assets, better assets in general. They have better deals, and better giveaways, in a better engine. Better better better.
Let’s talk stability
My deliverable won’t build.
I can’t distribute the project files.
Unreal doesn’t need an asset store – It is complete, assets are just a bonus
I now shake my fist at God that I did not spend that 3000 dollars on the Unreal Asset store. Another point needs to be illucidated. The Unreal Asset Store, is mostly unneeded. Unreal is a complete package, it has behavior trees and AI built in out of the box. If you are expecting to make a first or third person 3 dimensional game, in the standard AAA style, Unreal gives you everything you need, out of the box. You do not need to waste your money buying assets that serve only to offer bits and pieces of what Unreal does out of the box, like in the Unity asset store, instead, Unreal is perfect, just the way it is. You can augment it with asset packs, but they are not required, in any reasonable sense.
Of course you still need assets with Unreal, and you have better quality assets to work with. You just don’t need them to plug all the holes in engine like you do with Unity. All in all there is no reason to use anything else besides Unreal.
Which handles Skeletal rigging better?
Unreal handles skeletal rigging very beautifully. I use Daz3D for my character models, there is no reason to use anything else as an indie dev. With Daz3D, you can have AAA commercial quality characters, and you’re paying, maybe 8 or 12 bucks for the character, and 5 to 10 dollars for the digital rights, bought separately. With the Daz to Unreal Plugin, you can import your models without issue. They come skeletally rigged already, no strange things are required to make them work, they just work out of the box.
Period.
Unity still recognizes a Humanoid Skeleton and can work with them, actually skeletal rigging wasn’t that bad in Unity, but I did have a whole host of other problems.
If you are an indie dev, save money, shop with Daz3d for Character Models
Go on Daz, get your models, import into the game. Done.
In Unity, it is a headache to swap out and change their clothes, MEGAFIERS can solve some of the headaches, but it costs 150 dollars if i recall. In Unreal, it is so easy it hurts….
You need to study a bit, it will not be apparent at first how this should be accomplished. However, once you learn the system, you can create a character model, animated in the viewport for your examination, you can then import in clothes, which you can pile onto each other by the hundreds, then simply make the clothes visible or invisible, and with some creative coding, you can build a system for swapping out clothes, changing clothes, randomizing clothes, it’s all very easy if you have a modicum of programming knowledge, which I have in spades.
Blueprint vs Nothing – Who wins???
Let’s get into visual scripting now.
So, what does Unreal have in terms of Visual Scripting? Well it has blueprint, a fully featured visual scripting system, where all of the systems inherent in Unreal are at your disposal, without issue. This does have it’s downsides. For instance, in my case, it is such an effective tool, rendering C++ to uselessness, that when prospective employers come to me asking if I can code in Unreal in C++, my answer is always, I mostly work in blueprint. See: always.
So, what about Unity’s Visual Scripting System?
Perhaps a Buddhist sense of calm can be evoked by the examination of nothingness, but when judging the quality of your visual scripting system, generally speaking, Nothing is less than Something.
I shouldn’t say nothing, no…. I should. Unity has a free….. asset pack….. called Bolt. I never learned it, it is not up to scratch with blueprint, there is no point, it is not built into the engine, it is only partially supported.
Unreal Graphics vs Unity Graphics : Which is better?
Unity does not look as good as Unreal.
The standard render pipeline looks so damn bad, it hurts my heart to see my beautiful perfect in form FBX’s reduced to this state. The HDRP pipeline solves the issue partially, at the cost of destroying your game. HDRP is for big companies, with a team of techs to solve your host of HDRP errors. Who then advise the foolish boss to make a game in their own engine, or use Unreal.
Unreal is more professional.
Unreal is possessing of so many features, such depth of features, I have only scratched the surface and I can already make everything I ever wanted to make.
Unity….
Is so incomplete, it staggers the mind.
Exactly how much does Unity cost – in Reality?
You will probably pay 2000 dollars to get Unity doing all the things that Unreal does out of the box. But prepare to drop a few thousand dollars when you’re working in Unreal as well, you’ll want to.
To plan for the future development of your game.
A game engine built to last
You can sit down and learn Unreal for the rest of your life.
It will be your bread and butter, it will feed your family and put food on your table for yourself. Your hobby can rapidly become your job if you learn Unreal.
The same is true of Unity, for fairness sake.
I worked on a Unity game professionally for about six months.
Making a pauper’s wage, but it was enough to sustain me for a while.
Unreal will get you higher paying jobs.
It is more sought after by employers and big companies.
Metahumans are strange
They’re weird….
They’re resource hogs….
Your metahuman is made up of a ….
It’s a human head on a bust, with a separate shirt as it’s own segment making up the body, with a set of legs, and arms, rigged to some weird system.
An FBX resembles a human, it is one large piece, which moves around normally. You can apply clothing to it, and swap it out at your leisure.
But perhaps in time, they will prove themselves down the road.
Conclusion
Anyway, I am running out of words so I’ll cut it short.
Unreal wins.
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