So I just found this on reddit and I decided to share it here, since those comparasion images feel like total bull**** for me. About the rest, they have some points here and there.
2 Likes
Well switching back and forth it does look a fair amount better (due to many reasons). The issues they had rang true for us, don’t care about BP but editor! ARRRH!.
Edit: Explanation of reasons below.
You probably feel like the comparison images are total bullshit because they are (at least if you compare them directly what the author doesn’t do).
I wonder how the upper screenshot would have looked like if he took the time to:
- Change the quality settings from lowest to high (just look at those MiP maps)
- Enable antialiasing
- Make the screenshot at a proper resolution
- Replace some of the shitty textures
- Create new objects/details that aren’t there yet
- Spend some time tweaking the lighting
- Replace Unity’s crappy default shaders with proper ones (their Lux counterparts for example)
(Which is basically a list of things he did while switching to UE4)
Guess what? The difference would be considerably smaller.
Although Unity has its fair share of problems, those images are a weak comparison. Especially points 1-3 come off as cheap.
4 Likes
Yeah, those comparison images are ridiculous - comparing low-res non-AA’d screenshots with broken lighting/shaders, low-res lightmaps and no postprocessing - to Unreal at 1080p with super-high-res shadowmaps, AA, bloom and DoF…
With the possible exception of the shadows, I suspect Unity could match those new screenshots, if you turned everything up to 11, tweaked a few shaders, and ran it on a suitably powerful PC…
And I can’t agree with some of their positives with UE4 - as a coder, I don’t want to have to deal with visual scripting or visual shader editors (which make it even easier to kill performance)
There’s a discussion of the article on Hacker News, which brings up some valid points, though: An Unreal Decision | Hacker News
Well to me it looks like anisotropic filtering had been turned off (or on lower settings), the quality of the textures were sub par. You can easily get away with de-compressing them in true color for PC and Console without touching the edges in terms of performance. It also looks like it hadn’t been baked in beast (but I’ve had issues with exporting too much to beast and Unity falling over), although I’ve managed to get some saucy looking lighting with Unity.
Anti-aliasing isn’t up to par with UE4, but what’s with all them weird looking black lines? Looks like the shaders are messed up.
I know Unity’s rendering functionality and performance well, because that’s pretty much all I spent my time tweaking and bought a mass array of third party tools. Whilst I’ll stick by my statement and say the UE4 does look a lot better, the Unity one could look FAR FAR better as well.
Then again, being honest the UE4 one could look better.
The screenshot comparison is fair because it’s comparing what comes out of the box for both engines. With Unity, you have to spend $1500 to get post-processing effects, and that’s at the very minimum
1 Like
What about the mip map problems and the ultra low resolution textures, shadows and screenshot (look at those outlines how much pixelly it is)? Plus no AA
1 Like
$1500 to get the ability to do post processing. The post processing that ships with Unity pro isn’t very pretty and doesn’t compare to UE4. Same goes for the basic shaders.
The point is artists are more independent in UE4 than they are in Unity.
Still, point being you can do better than what’s shown in that picture with Unity… It’s not hard to find examples.
As much as I jump up on down sometimes, I’ll also defend Unity for what it does right.
2 Likes
Of course better can be done with Unity pro, but it requires additional investment in either asset store purchases or time from someone to write shaders and post effects.
UE4 is just a friendlier enviroment for artists.
4 Likes
I don’t see the point bashing about one picture (even tho its very ugly) when rest of the post is well written and has a lot of valid points in it. Most of the post is not even about graphics that much but about workflow.
3 Likes
LOL! Yeah they took some “effort” to make that first screenshot so bad.
Here is a pic of some armor I’m working on for a UMA asset. I’m using a Marmoset Skyshop shader in this one, but even without it they can still look pretty cool.
That still doesn’t compare to UE4. Comparing UE4 default to Unity loaded up with a bunch of glitchy asset store modifications is silly anyway.
2 Likes
I agree with you, but let’s be fair here:
Unity 4 is a last-gen engine. Comparing it to the likes of UE4 or CE is simply not fair. I mean what is to expect when one compares an outdated engine with the newest and hottest ones out there?
In this whole engine debate there’s just one important question for me: “What Unity 5 will bring to the table?” or “Will UT deliver or not?”
So far it looks promising. I mean the video about the new physically based shading? Cannot complain. The new GUI editor? Looks sweet. The new audio mixer? Looks cool too (although I don’t really care since we’re using fmod studio which hopefully get’s a Unity 5 version soon after release). And so on…
Anyway, Unite is next week. So let’s see what we learn there.
Get real, it’s completely fair to compare Unity 4 to UE4. Unity 4 is what is available on the market now. UT charges good money for Unity 4 you better believe people are going to compare it against other commercial products. When Unity 5 is out on the market then it will make sense to compare it.
5 Likes
I’m not comparing, because there is nothing to be compared. We are at the dawn of a new Era in 3D games, one that will be around for a fair few years to come. The only real winners out of this is us and how big a part Unity will play in the whole picture is yet to be determined.
Can’t wait for Unity 5.0,
Article reads like a bit of marketing rather than a genuine comparison. Because a genuine comparison it isn’t, going by the 2 screenshots.
2 Likes
screenshot comparison is totally ridiculous
hmm i didnt even know Unity had these negatives you guys are talking about… good to know,
hopefully Unity 5 will be Really Nice!
luckily, currently iam only interested in making “serviceable” looking graphics, and not “amazing” graphics…
by the time im interested in amazing graphics Unity 5 should be out Yay ! 
Big LOL. Rarely seen a comparative like that : totally oriented and bad faith.
The Article is very interesting, looking at the Blue period section, the decision to move to Unreal was an emotional one. The rest of the article seems to be the justification for it. After all, if you don’t drink the kool-aid then you realize, you’ve spend a lot of money and time.