Unity vs. Unreal Engine: Which Game Engine is Best for You?

When it comes to game programming, Unreal Engine and Unity stand out as two leading platforms with a huge user base, each with its unique features and limitations. This article will compare Unreal Engine vs Unity, from graphics capabilities, support features, to popularity and user community, to help you choose the most suitable tool for your game development project.

What is Unreal Engine?

Unreal Engine (UE) is a video game programming engine developed by Epic Games, with the first version released in 1998. It is the most popular game programming engine today, used not only by game developers but also by users interested in video games, thanks to its advanced features for game programming:

• Real-time photorealistic rendering: Bring graphics to life with fast rendering capabilities, capturing the essence of realism.

• Multi-user support: Build and deploy multiplayer games with support from a powerful and scalable network platform.

• Visual effects, particle generation, and dynamics: Allows for the integration of spectacular visual effects and realistic particle simulations, engaging players.

• Film post-production: Enhance image quality with cinematic post-production effects.

• AI Integration: Features a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence engine to enhance gaming experiences with complex behaviors and interactions.

• Immersive Soundscapes: Leverage Unreal Engine's powerful audio engine to create rich and realistic soundscapes.

• Unlimited Customization: Customize and enhance Unreal Engine's functionality to meet every project's unique requirements with unlimited customization options.

It can be said that Epic Games created Unreal Engine to bring a comprehensive and powerful solution for developers, from beginners to experts. In particular, this tool is free, allowing anyone to easily access and program games effectively.

Language used in Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine uses C++ as the main programming language, besides the secondary language Blueprint. This language was chosen for its stability and superior memory allocation capabilities, helping developers optimize game performance.

Although C++ game programming is quite popular and powerful, the C++ language is relatively difficult to learn and requires high programming skills compared to beginners.

Outstanding games programmed by Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is a long-standing and advanced tool with many versions that are constantly updated to add features from basic to advanced. Therefore, it is not surprising that Unreal Engine is behind many famous games with millions of players on the market, typically:

• Fortnite: The survival shooting game combined with the construction that you must have heard or experienced, which was developed on Unreal Engine 4.

• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: An action-adventure game with realistic images, recreating the complex inner world of the main character Senua.

• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: The game puts players in the role of a Jedi Padawan, exploring detailed and challenging environments in the Star Wars universe.

• Sea of ​​Thieves: An open-world adventure game that gives players the experience to explore the sea, find treasure, and confront enemies, all vividly recreated thanks to Unreal Engine.

In addition, the latest version of the engine, Unreal Engine 5, is also being used to program blockbuster titles such as Black Myth: Wukong, Redfall, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, bringing great experiences with impressive graphics and gameplay.

What is Unity?

Unity was developed by Unity Technologies. It was first launched in 2005 as a dedicated game development platform for MacOS. However, Unity has expanded its reach and now supports developers in designing and building games on a variety of platforms, including PCs, consoles, mobile devices, and virtual reality.

Although they are both game development tools, Unity's features are somewhat different from Unreal Engine, specifically:

• 3D and 2D graphics support: Unity supports both 3D and 2D game development with dedicated tools and options for each type of graphics.

• Easy-to-understand architecture: Unity has a clear scene and object system, making game management easy, along with a high level of customization.

• Powerful API script: API makes it easy to access and customize game features, from the interface to object behavior.

• Cross-platform support: You can publish games on diverse platforms by Unity - Android, iOS, Windows, PS4, and more.

• Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) platform support: Unity strongly supports VR/AR game and application development with built-in packages and custom tools.

• Extensive asset store: Unity Asset Store provides a large number of graphics, audio, and model assets to support rapid development.

• Render Pipeline Options: Large quantities of rendering options and APIs to optimize the graphics performance of your game.

• Animation Engine Support: When programming a Unity game, you can create and edit animations directly in the engine, even with 3D and 2D graphics.

• Adaptability to Other Industries: Unity is also used in fields other than games, such as film production and construction.

• Analytics Tool Support: Unity's tools monitor performance, debug, and understand how players interact with the game.

Languages ​​Used in Unity

Unity uses C# as its main programming language. C# is a powerful and easy-to-learn language. With this language, developers write scripts to define the behavior of objects in the game, handle input, and implement game mechanics.

Unity also supports several other languages, ​​such as Rust and JavaScript. Non-programmers or those who need to program game logic more intuitively should take advantage of Unity's Bolt engine. Bolt engine is a prominent engine that supports a node-based development scripting system, making it easy to build game behaviors and mechanics without creating elaborate code.

Outstanding Games Programmed with Unreal Engine

Unity is the optimal choice for Unity Developers when programming games. This engine is behind the success of a series of famous games such as:

• Pokémon GO (2016)

• Ori and the Blind Forest (2015)

• Hearthstone (2014)

• Cities: Skylines (2015)

• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (2020)

• Among Us (2018):

• Genshin Impact (2020)

What are the differences between Unity vs. Unreal Engine?

Unity vs Unreal Engine are two popular game programming tools that most game developers at all levels must understand and learn how to use.

However, each platform will have its unique features that will depend on the game mechanism to choose between Unreal Engine vs Unity. Let's compare the highlights between these two tools:

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Graphics

When comparing the graphics elements between Unreal Engine vs Unity, UE will be the superior tool to help save more time.

Many developers have chosen Unreal Engine, especially UE4, for graphics processing because it has the ability to create images perfectly and quickly. Advanced features such as volumetric fog and post-processing are all pre-programmed for free in the system upon installation, while Unity requires proactive download and installation in the Asset Store.

Especially when developing 3D games, UE has many advanced support tools such as Material Editor, Maya or Blender. Although Unity's Material Editor is also highly appreciated, the API is not yet rich. 

In short, although Unity is capable of achieving high-quality graphics, compared to Unreal Engine, Unity will need more external resources and take more time to optimize.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Performance

Comparing the performance between Unreal Engine vs Unity will depend on the quality of the texture, the number of objects, and the size of your game, similar to the feature section.

Game performance does not depend entirely on the programming language. Therefore, comparing Unreal Engine's C++ language and Unity's C# language to evaluate performance is not recommended because each engine has its own SDK.

However, Unreal Engine excels in optimizing graphics commands such as drawing, especially when developing new game worlds. Unity tends to increase its real-time performance steadily and proportionally, while Unreal Engine maintains more consistent performance.

Another difference lies in the distributed compilation capability. Unreal Engine integrates with Incredibuild to significantly speed up the process of building code and shaders. Epic also uses this technology for its projects. Unity does not have a similar integration, so Unreal Engine has the upper hand in this aspect.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Visual Effects (VFX)

When it comes to VFX, Unreal Engine is still the better choice.

Although both Unity and Unreal Engine can create high-quality visual effects (VFX), Unreal Engine is considered to be superior with the ability to create more realistic and vivid images, allowing players to immerse themselves in the realistic visual space.

Therefore, Unreal is often used for projects that require advanced graphics and complex effects, while Unity is suitable for moderate VFX use.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Rendering

Rendering is an indispensable part of game programming. Rendering is often time-consuming due to its large memory requirements. Therefore, developers often prioritize choosing a tool that can speed up this part, and Unreal Engine has satisfied that requirement.

This tool supports faster rendering than Unity, helping developers save time and improve work efficiency. Although Unity has good rendering capabilities, it is not as fast as Unreal Engine, especially when handling large and complex projects.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Animation

Unreal Engine is somewhat superior for building visual elements in games, and animation is no exception.

The main difference is that Unity's tools tend to be less intensive with simple configurations aimed at less experienced game developers. In contrast, UE animation tools such as FBX Animation Pipeline, Skeletal Meshes, Physics-Based Animation are more complex and specialized, used by professional developers when working in internal development teams or for large projects.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Programming

Unreal Engine and Unity both build programming configurations aimed at specific users.

Unity uses C# language, while Unreal Engine uses C++. C# in Unity often provides faster compilation times, but C++ in Unreal Engine allows for deeper optimization. Unreal Engine will take more time to get used to and is often used by professional developers.

Therefore, users should consider their intended use and game mechanics requirements to choose the right tool.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Features

Similar to the programming comparison, Unreal Engine and Unity are specialized by different users, so the features of each engine will also be different.

Unreal Engine has quite advanced features, such as a powerful AI system to build complex scenarios easily using the Blackboard and Behavior Tree editors, especially in Unreal Engine 4. Besides, Unity is more popular in 2D game programming, notably tools like Sprite Editor and Animation tools.

However, a downside of Unity is that this engine does not have network support plugins, forcing users to look for 3rd parties to use libraries. On the other hand, in Unreal, the cloning feature is built-in and you can build multiplayer games using both C++ and Blueprints.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Player Target

As mentioned, Unreal Engine and Unity build game programming configurations based on the behavior of specific player targets.

Unity is widely known in the indie developer community. However, in recent years, Unreal Engine, in addition to being the tool used by large studios and famous AAA parties, has gradually been chosen by indie developers. 

The reason is not only due to the change in Unreal's price but also thanks to the Unreal Marketplace, which provides a rich asset library for prototyping, combined with additional plugins and an ever-expanding community.

Moreover, for AAA studios, Unreal Engine not only stands out in terms of graphics quality but also has much higher extensibility than Unity.

Another reason why large developers prefer Unreal Engine is because it is open source. It leads them to contribute to the engine to develop features as they wish or completely separate from the engine, similar to what Dice did with Unreal Engine 3.5 for Star Wars Battlefront.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Community

When it comes to community, it’s pretty easy to guess that Unity has a larger user base with a wider and more diverse community than Unreal Engine.

For example, Unity’s Subreddit has 238k subscribers compared to Unreal Engine’s 111k. A larger subscriber base also means more questions and topics are discussed, which in turn builds more knowledge, scenarios, and practical problems to reference on Unity.

However, both have official Learning channels that provide many documents, tools, practice exercises and a constantly updated support team that users should refer to.

Unreal Engine vs Unity: Price

Unreal Engine is free to use but collects 5% royalties for projects with revenue exceeding 1 million USD. Unity is also free but has a paid version Unity Pro with more extended features, priced at 1,500 USD or 75 USD per month.

Unreal Engine vs Unity comparison overview

Unreal Engine and Unity have distinct strengths and weaknesses. Factors to consider include the type of game you want to create, your team's experience and skills, and your budget.

Conclusion

Unreal Engine vs Unity are the two most specialized programming tools today. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages with specialized features that stand out from the other. If you are a beginner, Unity is the tool used by game developers to get acquainted with game programming configurations.

On the other hand, Unreal Engine is preferred by professional developers for more complex projects. However, to find the right tool, you should first consider the nature and requirements of your game mechanics, from which you will make the most optimal choice.

To learn more about Game Engines and other in-depth knowledge related to technology, you can register for Skilltrans courses. A sky of updated knowledge is waiting for you.