The Holy War, of which many flames have wrought and many men have fought: Unreal VS Unity.
Could anyone please tell me where I’m wrong?
Unreal Cons:
x64 only. While this isn’t a big issue, it’s a slight inconvenience.
UI. The UI looks like someone took hazard tape and grayscaled it.
Democracy (Kind of). If you’re making a game, you’re making it the UNREAL WAY.
Performance. Low end computers range around 13 fps, Med end usually about 26, and high end about 55, from what I can tell. That’s not a good sign.
Debugging. Unlike Unreal, in Unity, the debug scene shows you WHAT YOU’LL ACTUALLY SEE IN THE FINAL PRODUCT. They don’t do that in Unreal.
Templates. While these make it a quicker start, it absolutely ties into the Unreal way ideology.
Exporting. I know that Unreal is a much younger and less experienced engine, or at least compared to Unity, but as far as I can tell, it exports the game with ALL OF YOUR ASSETS. That’s a huge disadvantage, what if you’re an indie developer and some asshole from EA steals everything?
Unreal Pros:
Free. Unity is too, but they nickle and dime you through and through. Want nice rigged animation? $30. Want the fabled kinda better Black UI? $1500.
UI. I know I complained about it, but hey, it’s better than Unity’s free UI. Not as sore on the eyes.
Scripting. Unity has more languages, which you would think is an advantage. No, not really. In fact, there was even some controversy over Boo being from the dev of it working for Unity. Also, they give visual scripting. While this is lazy, and slightly weak, it’s much better than anything alternative Unity can muster. C++ also has a much wider demographic compared to C# or US.
Size. Although Unreal is a younger engine, it’s far more robust. In contrast with the crappy performance, you don’t need to worry about if your computer is fast enough for an animation to work. They use a different system for it, and although mecanim is nice, it’s arguably worse. Unreal also allows level editors to make what they want, instead of the strange primitive scaling that Unity offers.
Unity Cons:
Animation. I said this already, but the Unity animation system works only in some cases. In others, it’s complete garbage. Yes, the asset store reinforces that; I already said this, however, trying to animate characters is very difficult.
UI. Again, I already said this, but it’s such a foreign concept to lots of developers who are new to Unity. A lot of engines and IDE’s either make you pay up, or else it’s totally free.
OS Openness. I shouldn’t even talk about this, but I will. Have you ever tried to run Unity on Linux? Most people probably said no, but damn. I think it’s community made, which makes this more forgiving, but it’s seriously bad. It does work, to a degree. However, there are no shaders (everything is purple, standard error shader), a lot of scripting doesn’t work, and even without this, there would be some serious functionality drops.
Unity Pros:
Free. I criticized this, and even though it isn’t perfect, it works.
Import Pipeline. It has so many options, and all you do is drag them in.
Simple. Easy for noobs to pick up, just watch some tutorials and you’ll get it in less than a week, I can guarantee.
Addendum(s): Unity is a good indie engine, especially for a one man team; However, Unreal is great for small indie teams, or pro teams. Performance is a problem, but I prefer Unreal - Although I use Unity. I’m trying to learn both, it’s not easy. I suggest people choose one and stick with it. I just can’t do that. I can’t stick with the free UI. I can’t stick with the awful animation for characters. I can’t stick with those limitations. It’s a good engine, but it’s seriously limiting. That’s just me spewing. Some people will call me a whiny bitch, others will call me insane for typing this out. Sorry, this is just the truth for me, and hopefully some other people. Thanks, adios.