Game Development has grown to be one of the fastest-growing industries and perhaps one of the most sought after as well. The level of advancement has consistently come in terms of visual graphics, integrated networks, technology augmentation, and real-time performance.
There are several game engines available in the market but those who stand out are the ones whose technology and skills in game design and development are better than any other layer in the market.
Two of such players in the market are Unity 3D Game Engine developed by Unity Technologies & Unreal Game Engine developed by Epic Games.
Unity3D game developed in 2005 by Unity Technologies has been one of the most popular and preferred game engines by game designers and developers. It works across multiple platforms and extends support to more than 25 platforms. The engine is great at 2D, 3D rendering and is gradually gaining expertise in augmented reality, virtual reality and simulations plus other experiences. The game engine has also been adopted outside the traditional sector of gaming to automobile, engineering, and construction.
Think about the statistics! The top 34 % of free mobile games available on the Play Store and App Store are made by Unity. Fascinating isn’t it? Unity 3Ds’ gaming platforms help build games that reached over 500+ million gamers worldwide and that number is increasing year-on-year. It is without a hint of doubt, one the most preferred game engines in the market.
The other market leader is Unreal Engine by Epic Games.
Developed by Epic Games, the Unreal Engine first presented in 1998 — way through the first-person shooter game, Unreal. It has very well been used in a variety of other genres. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and involves a high degree of probability and has many features that are preferred by game developers. The most recent upgrade of the Unreal Engine has been Engine 4 released in 2014.
Unity vs Unreal, Which is best game engine? This debate and discussion between digital artists, game developers, and designers have been one happening for ages. They have their own features and some drawbacks too. Let’s explore each one of them and find out what works best for a mobile gaming engine.
Performance is perhaps one of the most sought after features when evaluating two-game engines side by side.
As mentioned above, the Unreal Engine uses C++ as a programming language. Many developers and users reading this would know that C++ is a lower-level programming language and thus provides more control over memory management. The access provided by Unreal Engine is much more than compared to others with its salient features including the access to editing the source code and upgrading the system anytime.
While Unity uses C# as its’ source programming language. This does not allow a developer to control the memory management system. Consequently, that means the control is denied to the garbage collector that can trigger at random times and impede performance.
While on the other hand, Unreal mobile game Engine offers a diverse and impressive range of visual graphics and effects plus features. Unity, in this case, requires plugins to enable this feature and thus create impressive FX, experiential gameplay, animation, cinematics, etc
In terms of performance, Unreal Engine 4 steals the deal with this one. However, Unity has always been impressed with its great process for developing 2D/3D renders, impressive AR plugins, and simplifying game creation for game developers.
It is worthwhile to note that, the recently upgraded Unreal Engine 4 has been seen to perform basic actions such as starting the engine, opening a project, saving projects, opening the editor, importing and reading files — take a lot of engine memory and time, impeding the development process. And as in the case of mobile gaming, unity takes the crown on this one with its recent upgrade giving it an edge over the Unreal engine and thus becoming the go-to platform for creating mobile games. One of the best performing mobile game engines. On performance factor Unity is best for mobile game development.
Graphics play a huge part in gaming and developers always want the users to have the best of the best experience from the games they design and develop. In that department, Unreal Engine 4 is a mammoth. It has capabilities that can create a stunning and high-quality graphical world with state-of-the-art 2D and 3D rendering techniques.
Unity is not far behind so to say, and because of which the post game development process can sometimes get lowered with the Unity software in case of high-level graphics.
Straight out-of-the-box Unreal Engine offers high-performance, high-fidelity graphics that can produce and render great visuals for mobile games. Unity can also produce high-quality visuals but it takes a lot more effort to get the assets right and to be looking the same at the same level of that of Unreal. Needless to say, more processing power would mean more computing time and slower renders and in many cases, the quality might not be the same also.
High performance, faster renders combined with great visuals are the reasons why Unreal Engine is preferred over Unity especially for big game productions that involve a large scale perspective. However, for mobile games, both Unreal and Unity fair well, but the recommendation would slightly lean towards Unreal Engine.
The needs and preferences of a designer and developer are different. So depending on that — Unity or Unreal can be their first choice.
Developers mostly prefer Unity because of its ease of access, great packaging of assets and real-world-like visuals. On top of that, adding pro-level features in the Pro version improves the experiences multi-fold.
Visual artists or designers like the visual quality and more hands-on controllable platform of Unreal and might prefer that over Unreal. Though it can be mostly said that the two game engines are on the same level in terms of functionality and capabilities.
Especially needed for free tools and softwares – community systems & support can be a deciding factor when evaluating two different products in the same category.
Unity and Unreal both have forums, blogs, threads, that are filled with contributing members who are quick to help out and contribute when someone spots a bug or glitch. Having said that, the developer community of Unity is always available and able to contribute directly because of the inbuilt feature into Unity’s asset store.
That means a lot of time is saved in effort and productivity, because of direct integration. Unity has truly created an integrated environment for designers and developers to contribute and store information making it the better community in terms of reach and help between the two.
Ready to download and free in version — Unity has made it sure that game development is easy and accessible for anyone, anywhere in the world. However, to unlock greater features and advanced options, you have to pay $1500 for the Unity Pro Version. This can also come as a one-time charge or $75 per month charge. The Pro Version unlocks many advanced features that might be of interest to developers and designers to make their mobile game standout.
Unreal Engine 4 is surprisingly free. There isn’t a Pro version in this. However, there is a royalty fee of 5% attached to it if revenue exceeds $3000 in a quarter. So some developers and designers might lean towards this model. But it really depends on personal preference and choice.
Unity and Unreal are top game engines because they are quite economical with the free version, to try and test what suits you.
The two-game engines are nonetheless the most sought-after in the industry. In all honesty, it boils down to the business or developer while choosing the right one for their mobile game.
As discussed above, each has its own merits and demerits. Sometimes, when you start your career the company you are working for might have Unity or Unreal and you became accustomed to that and that is really fine, the important thing is to have a complete faith in your system and ability to create great games.
The language, the graphics, the system UI, the process are all factors that contribute to the choice, but ultimately the choice is yours to make.
Lastly, both the game engines are evolving and changing each year and making it really simple to choose and make different mobile games at a rapid pace! So both are great softwares to own if you want to make a mark on the mobile gaming industry.
If you are looking for end-to-end game design with great development modules and additional support and maintenance, you’ve come to the right place at Juego Studios.
We at Juego Studios provide one of the best, if not the most comprehensive solution to assist you in designing, developing and making your product market-ready. We are experts in creating economical, reliable and expansive game designs and development features.
We are one of the leaders in the game design and game development category, offering start-to-finish solutions. Our team, with over 150+ designers, developers, artists, animators, graphic designers and more help you get your game from idea to reality. We build and deploy games across platforms, especially in PC, web, mobile and console platforms. We are slowly making our mark in VR and Augmented Reality game development. Our numerous games have won multiple accolades using the latest technology and network integration. We develop games from the 2D platform to the 3D engine to the AR/VR environment.
Juego Studios prides itself on creating fun and exciting games that push the barrier with the most advanced tools and latest frameworks in the market. We work with the best game engines featured here and that is Unity and Unreal Game Engines.
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