Unreal Game Engine Competitors

In this post, I am going to research into Unreal’s competitors and explore which engine would be the most beneficial for me to use.

UNITY

TOOLS

• Animation and Video
• Audio
• Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS)
• Editor
• Effects
• Interface
• Lighting
• Programming tools
• Optimization
• Rendering
• Worldbuilding
• 2D

Unity has been known for ease of use and great for beginners, as the coding is easier to understand for gaming. Unreal does have a lot more tools available on hand which is good but can seem intimidating for beginners. Regarding graphics, Unreal has known to render high-quality images a lot quicker than Unity which impacts the final rendered output.

UNREAL VS UNITY?

Unity and Unreal are the most popular game engines for open-world 3D design and games. According to this article, I can see the comparison between Unity with Unreal to understand which game engine outweighs the other, and which one is more beneficial, regarding my project.

“If you’re gravitating towards more puzzle-based or 2D games, I believe Unity would serve you the best. Unity includes a user interface and tools that are very accessible to people who perhaps aren’t as well-versed in game design.”

“Unity has a great cross-platform base and is accessible over 25 different platforms. The accessibility alone should be attractive to those with an open goal of game design.”

Therefore, Unity is a broad engine so if I was creating a 2D game and was looking for ease of access, I would look at using Unity for my project, although I am looking to create a 3D environment, using high quality and realistic scenes, therefore the dynamic lighting tool and visuals from Unreal would be more beneficial to me.

Both engines have very similar features and resources which makes it harder to compare the two, due to the similarity. Unity and Unreal are both free for students to use, therefore the price is the same regarding my situation.

Unity and Unreal both have an asset store that provides mods, textures, 3D meshes, and packs, etc. Although Unreal has access to the Quixel suite, which Unity does not.

“Unity is a smaller engine that can more easily allow smaller dev teams to create fantastic games. Cuphead is a great example. The art style, gameplay, and more all are a testament to Unity’s power as a smaller engine compared to Unreal.”

“In terms of graphics mattering over gameplay, along with a knowledge of C++, the Unreal engine would be your best bet.”

I found a comparison sheet from this article which is beneficial to my research, to understand which engine is better:

GAMES FROM UNITY

Ori and the Will of the Wisps:

Here is an example of one of the games created by Unity. This game is extremely beautiful and has a unique style.

It costs £24.99 which is relatively cheap for popular games, as they range from £30-£60 or more.

Wasteland 3:

Wasteland is a new game from Unity, demonstrating how the engine is expanding and creating better environments and graphics. Comparing to Unreal, there are more 3D games with high graphics are more popular, whereas there are not as many big open-world 3D games in Unity.

This game is more expensive as it is £54.99 to pre-order, therefore, Unity is increasing their prices, due to graphics and gameplay.

RESOURCES

Unity Learn Premium

Unity have learning resources such as Unity Learn, which includes courses and tutorials. This is very similar to the Unreal learning program, which creates an opportunity for creatives to learn new skills.

Tutorials

Unity also has video tutorials on how to create a scene and landscape. Although, I definitely saw a decrease in the number of tutorials, whereas, with Unreal, there were countless amounts of environment building tutorials. Showing that Unreal is more popular in creating an outdoor environment within a game engine.

Here are some of the video tutorials I have found:

 

 AMAZON LUMBERYARD

TOOLS

There are many pros with Lumberyard, such as an impressive landscape editor, easily being able to create full realistic natural environments, a very lightweight and scalable entity component system. As well as total Illumination v2 Realtime GIobal Illumination.

This is due to built-in terrain, time of day, ocean and volumetric fog systems. There is also a gfx pack with various environmental meshes, clouds, particles, materials, and skyboxes.

Lumberyard is free and includes full sources. There are no seat fees, subscription fees, or requirements to share revenue. Only pay for the AWS services you choose to use.

Reach and Engage Fans on Twitch:

• Twitch ChatPlay
• Twitch Metastream
• Twitch JoinIn
• Mod Friendly
• Amazon GameLift

Build Live, Multiplayer Features in Minutes:

• Amazon GameLift
• Cloud Canvas
• Cloud Gems Framework
• AWS SDK for C++

Create the Highest Quality Games:

• Beautiful Worlds
• Game-ready Assets
• Component Entities
• Compelling Characters
• Real-time Gameplay Editing
• Robust Networking
• Modular Gems

GAMES FROM LUMBERYARD

Lumberyard is not as popular as Unity and Unreal, as it is not as well known, and there are not as many popular games made from Lumberyard.

One example is:

The Grand Tour Game

The game uses realistic scenes and graphics which looks impressive. Although only costs £11.99, which is fairly cheap for a game. 

RESOURCES

Lumberyard also provides resources such as online tutorials and online forums, although the website is not as advanced as Unreal or Unity.

Getting Started

Tutorial Community

Here are some of the tutorials I have found: I noticed a lot of the tutorials are based on creating games in a short amount of time, yet there aren’t any actual tutorials on how to create a realistic outdoor environment within the engine, which makes me think it is not the best option, as I do not have enough guided learning and tutorials.

Why is Unreal the best option for me?

I have decided that Unreal is the best engine for me. I am looking to create a 3D environment, using high quality and realistic scenes, therefore the dynamic lighting tool and visuals from Unreal would be more beneficial. Unreal also has a considerably high quantity of high quality, detailed video tutorials which will guide me through the process of building a 3D environment. Unreal also provides thousands of assets, thanks to the Unreal Marketplace and the Quixel suite. All of this just proves that Unreal is the best option for my project, which will provide me with the best results. As the visuals and graphics is what is most important to me, as I just want to create an attractive scene, rather than a playable one.