Unity vs Unreal Engine in 2022

What is a Game Engine?

A game engine is a set of software tools that developers use to create games. It is the middleware that brings together all the parts of a game, such as graphics, animation, sound, and physics.

Game engines are usually designed for a specific type of game or genre. For example, Unity is designed for 3D games and Unreal Engine is designed for first-person shooters but you can still build other types of games with Unreal.

There are many types of game engines available today. Some popular ones include: Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Game Maker Studio 2, and Construct 2.

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Unity vs Unreal: Graphics

Both Unity and Unreal are capable to render really great 2d and photorealistic 3D graphics. But you can get more photorealistic with Unreal. Honestly, the difference between them in 2022 is minor. Unreal has a little bit of potential when it comes to graphics but that level of graphic detail is hardly seen in games made by independent developers or hobbyists.

Unity also has a lot of tools that help to increase graphic fidelity such as Post Processing Stack or third-party assets such as Beautify 2. For Unreal, they have an enormous photorealistic asset produced by Quixel Megascans which you can get for free as an Unreal user.

If you're an artist that creates highly detailed art and spends a lot of time on graphics, then Unreal is the best fit for you. Still, graphics should not really matter to you if you’re an independent developer as their differences are negligible.

The graphics winner is Unreal.

Unity vs Unreal: Coding

This is the bit that many people find very intimidating but important. If you’re making a game by yourself you have to know how to do the programming.

Yes, they are visual scripting tools available on these two engines that help you to make a game without a single line of code, but you still have to know the fundamental of programming and logic behind it in order to make a game.

The programming languages they use are different, Unity equals c# and Unreal equals c++. This really depends on the programming language itself. It is easier to jump into c# than c++. There are a lot of things you don't have to worry about in c# such as a pointer, memory allocation, header files, and whatnot. If you're starting out on this journey Unity and c# are highly recommended.

Regarding performance, c++ is more efficient and faster since it’s a native code where you can manually manage your memory which is opposite to c# where your memory is automatically managed.

No code solution

This is a proven solution alternative to coding, it’s doable. There are some games on the market such as First Tree that utilize visual scripting without a single line of code.

Unreal has this visual scripting tool that’s called Blueprint. Still, a little bit of programming knowledge will help you understand every little piece of Blueprint and how you can use it to maximize the performance of your game logic.

Unity actually has two visual scriptings that you can use. They have Playmaker and Bolt. The playmaker has been around a bit longer than Bolt. It’s a pretty good tool but not as good as Unreal’s Blueprint.

Bolt, on the other hand, is much more viable, I think it is much more polished, feels good to use and on top of that, it’s free.

I suggest you try out all these tools if you want to use visual scripting other than coding. Try to find which is easier to use and hopefully you can get comfortable enough where you can start to understand the logic and get into coding with less fear in mind. There are actually good tools as a starting point for your journey into game logic and programming.

In conclusion, I would say Unity gets this one, just because c# is easier to use, and much more friendly language, plus Bolt is a free and viable visual scripting tool in Unity. So Unity is a clear winner.

The coding winner is Unity.

Unity vs Unreal: Learning Curve

Unity interface is much more minimal and not very intimidating. This makes it easier for someone who is starting out and not overwhelmed. Unreal on the other hand has a much harder interface to understand for beginners especially if you don't have any experience with 3d programs.

In Unity, they really made it easier for users to just start experimenting with things.

Documentation is a big part of learning any framework or any game engine. When we’re talking about quantity, Unity has a whole lot more documentation or learning resources on the internet. Unity also has a lot of really good quality online resources on their official website.

Unreal on the other hand, they have good documentation but especially the coding stuff is a little bit dull which is less helpful in my opinion. Unreal kind of assumes that you’re a pro c++ programmer already when you visit their doc website.

The great thing when you’re learning this one of these game engines is to use their demo projects. This gives you something to work with that is not a blank-from-scratch project. You can start tweaking things or experimenting to understand how it works and begin to understand the engines this way.

Both engines have really great demo projects. But still feel that Unity is slightly better, it’s a lot easier to understand and beginner friendly.

So the fact that Unity has a minimal user interface and better documentation. It has to be Unity.

The learning curve winner is Unity.

Unity vs Unreal: Community

For every game engine, you want to learn there is a community backing it. Unity is an easy and free game engine before Unreal. That means there is a lot more content out there for Unity, try to go on search Unity tutorials on Youtube, and you will find tons of them. You can find the community anywhere on the internet like on Reddit, Youtube, and Discord. It’s easier to hire for or get training certifications.

Unity also has a forum that’s called Unity answer is a great place if you get stuck. There also has online tutorials, books, and courses just for Unity.

But there is no source code access in Unity. If you want to change something yourself, you’re not able to do that unless you’re Unity Pro or Plus Subscriber.

One of the really fantastic things about Unreal is that the engine source code is available on GitHub for you. You can literally go ahead and modify the whole engine yourself and they also give some free assets.

Marketplace

Unreal Marketplace compared to Unity Asset Store is much smaller but I believe that Unreal marketplace assets are more polished and professional. If you’re an Unreal engine developer who wants to make assets for Unreal Marketplace that means your audience is going to be smaller than Unity Asset Store.

I would say all resources or assets that are out there for Unreal are really high quality despite their low quantity compared to Unity.

I believe Unreal has a smaller development community which means there’s not as much content and resources you can use in order to get your question answered.

👉 Asset Store Unreal   👉 Marketplace

Because of all the reasons above, I do think Unity wins when it comes to community & support.

The community winner is Unity.

Pricing

Both engines are free to start with.

Unity

• Personal: Start creating with the free version of Unity-Free
• Plus: More functionality and resources to power your projects-$399 /yr per seat
• Pro: Complete solution for professionals to create and operate-$1,800 /yr per seat
• Enterprise: Success at scale for large organizations with ambitious goals-$4,000 /mo per 20 seats

Unreal Engine

• Standard license: For creators and publishers who don’t require premium support or custom terms. Also suitable for students and educators-Free
• Enterprise program: For non-games professionals seeking premium support, private training, and/or custom licensing terms-$1,500 PER SEAT / YR
• Custom license: For game development professionals and studios seeking premium support, private training, and/or custom licensing terms. Create a custom solution that fits your unique business needs-NEGOTIABLE TERMS

Final Thought

• Graphics: Unreal
• Coding: Unity
• Learning Curve: Unity
• Community: Unity

Neither engine have bigger benefits over another, so it depends on your situation. What game you’re trying to build and what you’re looking for? If you’re trying to build a 2d or web game, go with Unity.

If you’re trying to build an FPS or TPS game Unreal is the best. That Unreal is built for, their demos have to do with that kind of gameplay they already set up a bunch of stuff just for TPS of FPS

There are both incredible software. You really need to figure out what is going to work for you. Hope this helps you to understand these two game engines, what you can get out of an engine, and which you want to go with.

I do suggest that you try to use both of them, give each one enough time to see which you really enjoy working with.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan.