3D World

unity versus unreal

pro thoughts James Burrows, Wayne Jackson and Marcell Rideg of Immersive Studios discuss the considerat­ions you need to make when choosing between the two leading game engines

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Find out when to choose one engine over the other

As an immersive technology studio, we create a lot of projects in-engine, from VR to AR to games. As a rule we work in either Unity 3D or Unreal Engine, but which we use depends on a variety of factors – not least the views of our dev team. Here we run through a few key questions to ask yourself before making your choice.

What level of visuals are you after?

One of the main differenti­ators is the quality of visuals. Unreal offers high-fidelity visuals straight out of the box, whereas Unity – while still able to produce highqualit­y visuals – takes a lot more work to get your assets looking close to the same level as Unreal. And even then, it won’t produce quite the same quality. It’s for this reason that you’ll find Unreal used more on big games and production­s from large studios – and why we chose it to create a VR configurat­or for the hypercar Brabham BT62. So, if you want as close to photoreali­stic assets as possible, it’s quicker and easier to achieve this with Unreal.

What device is your project aimed at?

If you’re looking to create a project to run on lower-powered devices, such as mobile phones, then the high processing power demanded by Unreal isn’t necessaril­y for you. This is where Unity really comes into its own. Originally designed to run on devices like consoles and phones, Unity enables you to create complex projects for low-end devices without requiring such a powerful PC setup as Unreal. If, on the other hand, you’re creating an experience for high-end devices then either Unity or Unreal will set you right. But that also depends on…

What’s your team size?

The consensus amongst the collective experience of the Immersive dev team is that to get the very best out of Unreal, you need a large and specialist team that’s dedicated to different parts of the process – for example someone dedicated just to particles or someone just to shaders. Unity, on the other hand, is much easier for developers to get to grips with straight away – making it a good choice for one-man bands and smaller teams to create an effective experience. Its asset store is also significan­tly bigger, making it simpler to populate your game or experience if you don’t have a massive team.

are you a developer or a visual artist?

There’s no doubt about it, this seems to affect your preference. Our developers prefer Unity, but our visual artists opt for Unreal – and this is purely down to the difference in visuals. Both game engines offer the same sort of functional­ity and capability, just packaged in different ways. For a while now, the lines differenti­ating the two have started to blur as Unreal – starting out as an AAA game engine – aims to make itself more accessible for smaller teams and experience­s, while Unity – originally preferred by indie studios for simple games and experience­s – continues to work its way up to the top by adding pro-level features. The main difference is visual quality and your target platform – but we think it won’t be long until both engines reach a similar level in both respects. In which case, soon it’ll simply be a case of personal preference.

FYI Get in touch at info@immersivev­r.co.uk or visit weareimmer­sive.co.uk

 ??  ?? marcell rideg, james Burrows and Wayne jackson at immersive studios
marcell rideg, james Burrows and Wayne jackson at immersive studios

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