which engine to use

Riptyde

I'm sure this has been asked several times but I am wondering about which game engine to use. I have started using Unity, simply because as I was looking for game engines and tutorials I ran across more for Unity than any other.

But as I browse through Polycount I notice the users tend to favor Cryengine or UDK and I am wondering why this is. In fact a recent challenged stated that a game engine needed to be used (obviously) but had a side note that Cryengine and UDK would probably be more prevalent. This really puts in the minds of people that engines like Unity are not good.

So I am just curious why these two are preferred over Unity.

Any way, looking forward to hearing what people have to say.

Thanks - Riptyde.

Kwramm

depends what you want to do. All those engines have weaknesses and strengths. There's just no best engine as there's no best 3D app. So what do you want to do with it?

PixelMasher

I would say most people swing towards UDK as its super accessible and wideley used throughout the game industry. most studios I have worked at either use unreal or their own inhouse engine. personally i find cryengine the most appealing due to the realtime lighting but to each their own just use whatever you feel comfortable with.

Justin Meisse

You don't have access to a lot of the better lighting features in Unity unless you buy the $1500 pro version. So if it's just for portfolios or making things look pretty I'd use Cryengine or UDK, if I was developing my own game I'd buy Unity Pro.

CordellC

Straight out of the box UDK and Cry are much more powerful than Unity (graphics/tools wise). Unity is a good engine, but it's still on its way.

Richard Kain

If you are looking to push pretty graphics in a tech demo/portfolio piece, than Crytek or UDK would be the obvious choice.

If you are attempting to create your own game, than Unity will likely serve you better.

Unity is better suited for constructing and managing full projects with custom rules. Crytek and UDK are focused on FPS controls. While it is possible to mod them for different game types, they aren't built for that functionality from the ground up. Unity is structured to make prototyping easy and fast.

Unity also has a distinct edge in multi-platform support, and more flexible, affordable licensing. You can pick and choose which platforms you want to support, and only pay for those platforms. And you can do this for the free version as well as the professional version.

Ged

Richard Kain wrote: »

If you are looking to push pretty graphics in a tech demo/portfolio piece, than Crytek or UDK would be the obvious choice.

If you are attempting to create your own game, than Unity will likely serve you better.

thats exactly what I was thinking, it is powerful but you need pro to make stuff that compares with udk or cryengine in terms of graphics and fx.

Ace-Angel

UDK is good for prototyping ideas, but if you plan on keeping everything in UScript and Kismet for a large scale game (which is what many people do) then you're going to have a bad-time without direct access to source code.

CE, I have no idea honestly...get in contact with CT I guess?

Unity is the way to go honestly, it's the most flexible, although you need to take care with their upgrades, as they occasionally tend to like to pop an extra fee or two for no reason.

JamesWild

Ace-Angel wrote: »

you're going to have a bad-time without direct access to source code.

I have to say though, as someone who HAS attempted this with small team, it is impressive how far you can go.

CordellC

JamesWild wrote: »

I have to say though, as someone who HAS attempted this with small team, it is impressive how far you can go.

Part of a two-man team developing a game here, and it's been going great. Kismet and UScript are enough for us.

Ace-Angel

JamesWild wrote: »

I have to say though, as someone who HAS attempted this with small team, it is impressive how far you can go.

It works, don't get me wrong, but I said 'big game' for a reason, trust me, if you're trying to make an Isometric RPG game with puzzle solving and real-time combat with physics, you're not going to enjoy having such a big messy setup a la Kismet, let alone in a less then powerful PC...where...lets just say, isn't going to be fast.

JamesWild

I agree on the Kismet side, Kismet is just invariably messy and should only be used as level-specific scripting. Somewhere a kitten combusts every time someone makes non-level-specific script using Kismet.

Bigjohn

At what point will Uscript and Kismet not be enough? UI? Networking?

Edit:
Also, if Kismet is so messy, isn't that something to worry about in UDK4 with them merging Uscript into Kismet?

JamesWild

If you want to do anything large scale that isn't covered by the existing native code, such as complete procedural generation of geometry. (AFAIK, there's no way at all to create polygon batches from UScript short of using DLLBind to open a separate 3D context, lol!)

UI is a doddle in UScript, multiple ways of doing it, good binding with Scaleform and Canvas isn't bad. Networking is also heavily integrated into the language, but I don't know how good the performance is because I've never used it.

passerby

Bigjohn wrote: »

At what point will Uscript and Kismet not be enough? UI? Networking?

Edit:
Also, if Kismet is so messy, isn't that something to worry about in UDK4 with them merging Uscript into Kismet?

yes but udk4 will offer c++ api to replace uscript.

Jedi

passerby wrote: »

yes but udk4 will offer c++ api to replace uscript.

a c++ api thats meant to be distributed freely with the new udk != source code access that comes with a paid license....not even close

passerby

Jedi wrote: »

a c++ api thats meant to be distributed freely with the new udk != source code access that comes with a paid license....not even close

i didn't say that, i said that would be replacing uscript in referring to Bigjohn's comment i quoted.

Bigjohn

passerby wrote: »

yes but udk4 will offer c++ api to replace uscript.

I don't understand. I thought they're putting all the functionality from Uscript into Kismet, aren't they? So then what's the API for?

Kwramm

C++ will replace Uscript, this is new. Instead of using Uscript as language you use C++.

The C++ API is for integrating the Unreal engine with the rest of your game. This API has been there all the time and it's not a new feature. But it is not for scripting. It is mainly for integration. Unless you're a coder with the full Unreal license you'll probably never have encountered this before.

megalmn2000

If you want to show off some epic assets, I would go with UDK or CryEngine.
Theses engines are the best choice for visual IMO.
Unity is less prefer because it is more programmer-oriented engine. Still, it's very open and flexible, but working with it, you have to have programmers with you if you want some advanced features or functionality like advanced shaders.
So, for portfolio purpose : UDK or CryEngine.

Riptyde

Thanks for the insights everyone. Now I feel a bit better that I haven't necessarily wasted time with Unity. The project I am working on will eventually be a "playable" project so I think I will stick with Unity. That and I have spent a lot of hours learning it.

Again, very much appreciated

Riptyde