It seems like Unity is the go to engine for 2D applications. But I’m always surprised how much developers can squeeze out of it for 3d games. Konami could get their heads out of their asses and sell the Fox Engine or make it publicly available since they aren’t using it anymore. The CryEngine always looked stellar and is available for licensing.
I just dont understand, is the Unreal Engine so much cheaper and better for development than any alternative? Is Epics support better than any competitors? Why does it seem like every 2nd indie or double A title uses UE?
We also have more and more developers transfer to UE for sequels even if they already have a working engine. (Insurgency: Source, Insurgency Sandstorm: Unreal)
I just watched the 2022 desktop/console showcase, I’ve only played Brotato and Cassette Beasts (Switch) out of all of them. Looks very clean but so far mostly focuses on 2D and 2.5D games. I also saw a VR game in the showcase. Looks very interesting.
It is great for 2D. The 3D is definitely getting there, but it’s not on the same level as Unreal or Unity yet. I think within a year or two, It should catch up to Unity at least though. We’re super pleased with it.
Yeah anyone who says that studios should just develop an engine or that it’s not that hard should look to cyberpunk. Most bugs there were engine related, and all of its performance woes were too.
I’m actually sad, it ended up being a fine engine after they fixed it up for a year, and it’d be nice to have some more alternatives to unreal
I completely agree, on both counts. I’m sad about the demise of Red Engine too, especially since the look of Cyberpunk was one of the things they nailed. Not just graphically, but things like small character movement animations during dialogues and facial expressions.
I’m fearful that the upcoming Cyberpunk 2 (when it releases in 10 years) will lose a lot of identity by being Unrealified.
That’s possible. I know rigging for facial expressions used to be a big thing and was very different between engines, but at this point perhaps every option is at a sufficient enough level for it not to matter.
Unreal is way more versatile and easier to use than CryEngine, and a lot more capable for AAA game development than Unity. Looking at UE5, none of these alternatives have equivalents for features like Nanite or Lumen.
I’ve seen the presentation of Nanite and Lumen a month ago and they seem like very interesting technologies. I still haven’t seen a game implement Nanite to get a significant performance boost though. Lumen is more of a filmmakers tool, since lighting in games is often preferred to be more stylized than realistic. But this also brings up another issue with UE. The constant updates distract developers from actually fulfilling their vision and finishing the game. Early Access titles often stagnate development to update to a new engine version and implement new technologies, instead of providing content and bugfixes. And if you don’t update the to a new engine, the community whines about it. So the devs have no choice. The versitality has its price, it’s like UE tries to become jack of all trades, but master of none in an effort to provide everybody with a platform.
Lumen is not a filmmakers tool. Fortnite is already using it in production on current gen consoles, and Immortals of Aveum will be using it exclusively when it launches later this month.
Nanite is about eliminating LoD pop in without a performance penalty. I wouldn’t expect games to run faster, only look better.
Another big factor is developer engine knowledge. It’s expensive to train developers on a new or unpopular engine when you can hire plenty of devs who are already familiar with a popular engine like Unreal. 343i continues to have this issue with Halo Infinite running on their Slipspace engine, which is why (IIRC) they’re switching to Unreal for future games.
There isn’t a great alternative. SSAA is way too expensive, and old anti-aliasing techniques do not work well with shader-heavy games or really fine detail.
The fucktaa crowd would rather just live with really nasty shimmering and other artifacts of aliasing, or they have obnoxiously expensive setups that can drive SSAA or displays with really high pixel densities. Personally I think they’re crazy. I find most TAA implementations look way better on my 27” 1440p monitor than no AA.
These are real issues but what is the alternative?
Most other engines are not better. Creating a new engine is very expensive, takes time, and is risky.
It seems like Unity is the go to engine for 2D applications. But I’m always surprised how much developers can squeeze out of it for 3d games. Konami could get their heads out of their asses and sell the Fox Engine or make it publicly available since they aren’t using it anymore. The CryEngine always looked stellar and is available for licensing.
I just dont understand, is the Unreal Engine so much cheaper and better for development than any alternative? Is Epics support better than any competitors? Why does it seem like every 2nd indie or double A title uses UE?
We also have more and more developers transfer to UE for sequels even if they already have a working engine. (Insurgency: Source, Insurgency Sandstorm: Unreal)
Our studio uses Godot. It’s fantastic and open source.
I just watched the 2022 desktop/console showcase, I’ve only played Brotato and Cassette Beasts (Switch) out of all of them. Looks very clean but so far mostly focuses on 2D and 2.5D games. I also saw a VR game in the showcase. Looks very interesting.
It is great for 2D. The 3D is definitely getting there, but it’s not on the same level as Unreal or Unity yet. I think within a year or two, It should catch up to Unity at least though. We’re super pleased with it.
CDPR are switching from their proprietary Red Engine to UE5 as well.
Yeah anyone who says that studios should just develop an engine or that it’s not that hard should look to cyberpunk. Most bugs there were engine related, and all of its performance woes were too.
I’m actually sad, it ended up being a fine engine after they fixed it up for a year, and it’d be nice to have some more alternatives to unreal
I completely agree, on both counts. I’m sad about the demise of Red Engine too, especially since the look of Cyberpunk was one of the things they nailed. Not just graphically, but things like small character movement animations during dialogues and facial expressions.
I’m fearful that the upcoming Cyberpunk 2 (when it releases in 10 years) will lose a lot of identity by being Unrealified.
Those character animations are an engine agnostic problem. That’s on the art department, any engine can handle it with ease.
That’s possible. I know rigging for facial expressions used to be a big thing and was very different between engines, but at this point perhaps every option is at a sufficient enough level for it not to matter.
Unreal is way more versatile and easier to use than CryEngine, and a lot more capable for AAA game development than Unity. Looking at UE5, none of these alternatives have equivalents for features like Nanite or Lumen.
I’ve seen the presentation of Nanite and Lumen a month ago and they seem like very interesting technologies. I still haven’t seen a game implement Nanite to get a significant performance boost though. Lumen is more of a filmmakers tool, since lighting in games is often preferred to be more stylized than realistic. But this also brings up another issue with UE. The constant updates distract developers from actually fulfilling their vision and finishing the game. Early Access titles often stagnate development to update to a new engine version and implement new technologies, instead of providing content and bugfixes. And if you don’t update the to a new engine, the community whines about it. So the devs have no choice. The versitality has its price, it’s like UE tries to become jack of all trades, but master of none in an effort to provide everybody with a platform.
Lumen is not a filmmakers tool. Fortnite is already using it in production on current gen consoles, and Immortals of Aveum will be using it exclusively when it launches later this month.
Nanite is about eliminating LoD pop in without a performance penalty. I wouldn’t expect games to run faster, only look better.
Another big factor is developer engine knowledge. It’s expensive to train developers on a new or unpopular engine when you can hire plenty of devs who are already familiar with a popular engine like Unreal. 343i continues to have this issue with Halo Infinite running on their Slipspace engine, which is why (IIRC) they’re switching to Unreal for future games.
There isn’t a great alternative. SSAA is way too expensive, and old anti-aliasing techniques do not work well with shader-heavy games or really fine detail.
The fucktaa crowd would rather just live with really nasty shimmering and other artifacts of aliasing, or they have obnoxiously expensive setups that can drive SSAA or displays with really high pixel densities. Personally I think they’re crazy. I find most TAA implementations look way better on my 27” 1440p monitor than no AA.