Choosing Between Unity and Unreal: Two Leading Virtual Reality Game Engines
Choosing Between Unity and Unreal: Two Leading Virtual Reality Game Engines
Choosing Between Unity and Unreal: Two Leading Virtual Reality Game Engines
For a long time, the best Virtual Reality app developers have pointed out that choosing the right tools, technologies, and platforms is very important for efficient VR app development.
We all know how much the gaming industry now relies on VR technology because of the rising user demand. And the biggest conundrum facing most of the top VR app development companies is which game engine they should choose for development.
Unity and Unreal have been premium VR game engines using which the best VR games have developed. But both are so good and render so much efficacy to game developers that choosing one of them is a hard thing.
In this post, we will put a little light on how VR app developers can choose between these two giants in the industry. Here are a few factors that can play a prominent role in your decision:
VR Mobile Games:
Usually, Unity is considered the go-to engine for VR mobile games. It is the most popular among mobile developers that have resulted in a rich ecosystem. With Unity, developers have access to many free and paid development plugins, ready templates for analytics, in-app purchases, registration, ads.
The only point where Unreal holds an edge over Unity is graphics. However, if the game you are developing has low-density graphics, you are unlikely to feel any difference between Unity and Unreal Engine.
But in the age of 3D, graphics are majorly important. And Unreal is more suited to giving a strong graphical suite even though Unity is catching up in recent times.
Coding:
This is a crucial factor to consider because it will be much easier for a development team to work with a well-known tech stack. While Unreal Engine uses C++, Unity is mostly based on JavaScript and C#.
To add to the dilemma, there are not many expert opinions on which language is better for game development. The choice here more or less depends on the skills of the developers and the resources at their disposal.
Developers who have worked with other languages before can consider the similarities between languages in both tech stacks. Ultimately, moving to C# from Java is easier than from C++, so for Java-proficient teams, Unity can be the ideal choice.
Codeless Interfaces:
Developers who are beginning in game development would want to look at shortcuts rather than learning complicated languages like C++ and C#. Unreal Engine offers a solution to this.
It offers a visual scripting editor called Blueprint. With this editor, developers can forego the need to write code, and most of the functionality is developed with an intuitive interface.
While Unity also offers a similar solution, it is not as elaborate. It consists of a visual interface called Playmaker that acts as an entry barrier for building VR games.
Asset Store:
Additional functionality is always considered a bonus in game app development as they help expand the features and interface of a game. Therefore, developers prefer to choose a game engine that consists of a rich set of plugins and add-ons. This is where you need to factor in the asset store.
Both Unity and Unreal have asset stores where developers can download free and paid 3D character designs, textures, landscapes, sounds, and functionality templates. But when the size and variety of these add-ons are compared, Unity takes the lead.
From animation to GUI elements, everything you need for game app development is available here. Even though a majority of elements are paid, the variety of options is very good.
Price:
Coming to a rather important factor, both Unreal and Unity3D are free as far as price goes. But if and when your product monetized, both these engines demand that you acquire a full version.
Unreal Engine for instance asks the developers to share 5% of their game profit when the gains cross the threshold of $2000. Unity, however, has a more complicated system of price calculation. If Unreal orients on game profits, Unity requires information about the game development company’s profit.
Unless your company makes more than $100,000 annually, you can acquire the free version of Unity. While most developers are inclined to use the free version, the limitations of it alone can peg you behind in the market.
Future of Both Engines:
If you as a game app developer are not thinking long term when choosing a game engine, it is a mistake. While it is the right way to evaluate current functionality and characteristics, you also need to expand your perspective and think about the future.
It is important to gauge both Unity and Unreal Engine’s releases to know where these engines are heading. Because the game engine will have a long-term impact on your app for as long as it will run, it is important to consider the growth factors while making this decision.
Conclusion:
As one of the best Virtual Reality game application development companies, we, at Sapizon Technologies, use both Unity and Unreal game engines. We make our choices by gauging the expectations and requirements our clients have from an application.
Book a free consultation with our team to understand in greater detail how we can help you enhance your business.