So ive been writing up this concept for a Fantasy FPS now at the moment im considering using Unity but I found another team who is doing the same but created their own engine from scratch and is one of the best engines i have put my eyes on so far.So my question is if I had the right team could I push unity to compete with such entities such as Project Offset.www.projectoffset.com
The thing you need to understand with projectoffset (or any other game engine) is that when looking at demos/screenshots, it is not all about techincal hoursepower (even tho some is) but it is also about assets creation (3d models, textures, etc…). Does Unity match up against the projectoffset engine head to head from a purely technical standpoint, from what I have seen, probably not but if you can create the same level of assets, Unity wil probably serve you well (you would probably need Pro if you want the extra graphic features like post-processing effects). Also note the while unity might not be as technologically advance as other game engines, a game built on Unity will probably run on more computers which mean more possible customers for you.
You can make some really nice looking stuff in Unity, especially if you know how to write your own shaders, but even if you don’t it’s still a decent engine.
That being said, it might not look as pretty as that engine, but it WILL be a lot easier to make your game in Unity. 
funny thing about project offset and the other “big” engines: they focus on the visual aspect too much.
gameplay logic, and asset dependencies play a big role in the engine’s success. nearly all of the issues I see in game companies stem from this.
the programmers of these big engines guarantee their job security, because they are the only ones who know how to write those dependencies.
this slows the production down, since they are the bottleneck to the designers and artists requesting tools and gameplay logic.
…aside from the price, the learning curve for creating such logic is pretty steep, thus discouraging others in the team from learning multiple disciplines. you effectively have a programmer shortage.
solution? bring those dependencies down to the level of us common folk wishing to make a game.
Like Maya and XSI, an intuitive scripting system will define the depth of the gameplay and visuals,
because the processes for logic and shading are universal and accessible to those defining the game’s style.
with unity, I can code any object/mesh/script/routine without asking programmers to write me a special script or tool. I’m in charge of debugging, and I’m the only bottleneck to my production.
bottom line for me: the more I can do before I need help(custom code), the faster I get my idea to market. unity does for 3d what flash did with 2d, a great tool even an artist can use.
Unity is just as capable as any other engine, especially if you have a real budget and can license the source version of Unity, then there is really nothing that prevents you to do with unity what you could do for quite a few grands more with engines like Trinigy Vision or Gamebryo.
The main difference is that unity is cross desktop + web + Wii + iPhone without DX10, while others focus on windows + high end consoles, with no web or osx support.
With the source code, you can pretty much make it do anything if you’re good enough. But at the same time, you give up the cross platform compatibility that Unity is known for.
You are not really giving it up (see FusionFall, thats even a webplayer), you just have to keep it in mind should you touch rendering related things for example as those are the most “crossplatform fragile” thing aside of os / browser specific things
Unity is an engine for casual games.
It shouldn’t be compared with Project Offset, Crysis, Unreal, Half Life, etc. Those are big engines, with big pipelines, for big teams, run by big development houses.
Did I mention big?
Big does not mean better.
The main things where Unreal Tech 3 / Crytek and id tech 5 are stronger is the “modern hardware usage”. Unity is restricted to Shader Model 3 and DX9 / OpenGL
But that does not mean you can’t create big games with it. I actually doubt that you can do big games faster with the “big engines” because their big also brings “complex to understand and use” with them.
So for anything thats planned to takes less than 2-3 years of development and 5M+ of investment, I actually doubt that Unity would lose a straight compentition.
There is a reason why TGEA and Unity were in the end round of last years industry fav choice engines (which was won by TGEA back then, but unity was a osx dev tech only then too).
BIG is fine if you are EA, Ubisoft and potentially microsoft, but for all others (and all not so high end gamer targeted franchises), big is just expensive and a big no go, not a “big wanna have”.
Sure one should rationally compare Unity more to Trinigy Vision and Gamebryo than the high end ones, but on the productivity end, the only thing Unity lacks compared to those is concurrent world editing, thats about it.
Yea, BIG companies like EA don’t use Unity, oh wait, yes they do Tiger Woods Online
People who ask the question ‘Is Unity as good as X’ etc, really are missing the point.
If you’re asking if Unity is as good as this or that, it means you don’t really understand ‘how the game is played’.
Its about gameplay, its about assets (even Crysis isn’t capable of making ANYTHING without a team of talented artists/coders behind it), its about design and its about marketing.
Put simply, summarized, its about the quality of your team, thus, the size of your wallet.
Its brilliant, this answer. ‘Its shaders aren’t as good?’ - ‘You need a better shader guy’… ‘The graphics aren’t as good as Crysis’ - ‘Fire you artists and hire new ones’…
If you really want to drag’n’drop a game together, you’re not entitled to judge an engine. Before you purchase an engine, including Unity, you should have…
A) Weighed up what you need an engine to do
B) Talked to representatives from all the relevant engines on your list (the Source guys, the Unreal guys, crytek, etc)… On their front line they have salesman and the prices you hear on the internet are ballparked at best.
C) This list goes on, and on, and on 
Also, these posts are in violation of one of the forum rules… They’re duplicate threads of discussions had months prior
And they’re annoying.
Now go away so I can continue trolling
Bentley, I think you and I are definitely on the same page on this one. If you find yourself asking “Is this engine as good as X?” then you are indeed missing the point. Here’s my little FAQ:
Q: “Can I make Crysis with Unity?”
A: No.
Q: “Can I make Crysis with CryEngine?”
A: No, ‘you’ probably couldn’t do that either.
Q: “Can I make Crysis with CryEngine and a team of professional artists, coders, designers, etc. etc. and the funding to actually pay them, rent office space to work in and buy/lease/license any other required software and equipment?”
A: Yes. Yes you could.
Q: “Can I make Crysis with Unity if I have all that other stuff too?”
A: Not quite, but you can still make a damn fine game.
Q: “Can I make a game AT ALL with CryEngine and none of that other stuff?”
A: Unlikely.
Q: “Can I make a game AT ALL with Unity and none of that other stuff?”
A: Yes.
Sticky it, problem solved!
First time I’ve heard of project offset. That destruction video is incredible. My guess is that they are using hardware that isn’t even available to average consumers, since they have an engine that will always be targeting the next generation of hardware. Unity has an opposite approach of targeting more of a lower high end, down to legacy hardware approach. At least that has been my perspective on it. I see Unity’s market lends itself to developers who are looking to make games and actually sell them. Hence the focus on Web and mobile. Which are two really lucrative markets. It’s not an engine that has a bunch of flashy tech marketed to people with pipe dreams.
In general, it’s very likely you can do all those things. Unity doesn’t have any sort of built in destructible buildings type of deal, but making it yourself would not be difficult. With dynamic batching and the use of texture atlases you can keep the performance good. Same with the tree effects and everything else. I don’t see anything over the top. I personally wouldn’t know how to write those shaders, but I don’t think that you’d hit a road block of not being able to do it… as long as you knew how to.
Also keep in mind, a game like that is going to take a long time, which means, Unity is going to have advanced a lot in say, 2 years. So even if you couldn’t render all your assets at top performance, by the time your game is completed, graphics cards will be twice as fast and Unity will have advanced significantly in tech.
You can tell how great Unity is by using it for about 10 minutes. But what you don’t learn in those 10 minutes is how diligent the Unity team is. They really work for their money and put out a lot of updates. And they aren’t the type of BS updates every year in order to raise the prices up and charge upgrade fees. I’m actually excited about the next paid update because I’m guessing it’ll be a giant leap forward. Sure, Unity isn’t on the bleeding edge as far as tech is concerned, rather they make sure what they have is solid as a rock. That’s why I have a lot of confidence in this engine.
Truly and well spoken
lol. so true. i vote sticky.
Wait. You mean I can’t make Crysis… by myself… with no prior experience in either art, coding, or design… in a weekend… while reading a book… experiencing a bad hang-over… with one arm in a cast… typing via telekinesis… as I watch the latest season of “House”?
That’s it. If that’s true, I’m so switching to Torque.
{A joke, for those of you unable to detect sarcasm. After all, even I know it takes two weekends to make Crysis in Torque.}