Unity and Unreal are two of the biggest and well known gaming engines that are capable of creating a vast amount of games, this including games within VR or AR. Therefore these engines are some of the basis of some of the most popularised video-games, VR stories as well as AR events. Due to this I had to experiment with both of the software's even if it was just briefly.
Thus looking at exploring these two throughout my time using these softwares, I had to learn each of these from the basics onwards. Therefore I started with Unity which is often used to create indie games and this would be a fascinating software to bring my art into an interactive story. However, Unreal is a highly powerful engine that can design high powered video games, VR experiences and so forth.
So, in order to learn both of these softwares outside of being taught within a lecturer I followed visual guides above that teaches you the mechanics of both softwares step by step. So, in order to do this I wanted to compare which game engine I found to be the most user friendly as well as if I would move forward with using one or the other. Therefore using these as part of my guides I started to gradually learn the basics of Unreal and Unity.
Learning Unity:
When looking into these different engines individually I started off by looking at what can be created within Unity alongside how to actually use the software. So, I delved into learning this software on my own and I did this through experimenting with the basics of the software so I could get used to the layout of the software. Doing this was helpful when learning to navigate the engine and find out the basics of the tools.
Unity does a striking job when it comes to creating interactive and immersive environments as well as game narratives. Looking into what Unity has the ability to create gave me motivation to want to learn more about the engine so that I could bring my own artistic spin to it. Finding that Unity is the engine behind beloved games such as Ori and the Blind Forest and so forth, this allowed me to understand creating environments in Unity would be a good start to maybe learning the software.
I wanted to research more into whether Unity is the right platform for me to use in the future compared to that of Unreal, so I looked into other concepts that Unity has been known for. This is where I started to discover the different assets from Unity where you could take your own art and form it into an asset to be imported into the software and therefore use it to form around a game. Alongside this the software allows for the creation of both 3D gaming as well as 2D gaming so depending on what style is needed, this is a benefit to the software as it can create interactive environments within a range of different styles, this includes creating brand new worlds in order to build these different narratives into.
'Players are drawn into an intriguing world through interactive storytelling. The first step in creating that environment is to make your narrative more engaging so that players and the game can connect.' (Parab, A., Rathod, N., Patil, T., Deshpande, K. Deshmukh, N., 2022)
Unity is not just a platform for gaming but has been known to produce some outstanding animations. Through just the engine alone people have produced full on animated stories, one of these high quality animations that are award winning. The fact that this engine has the captivity for this alongside AR and top grossing games demonstrates just how powerful of an engine Unity actually is.
This is such a fascinating aspect to the software as someone who does art and animation as I did not know that this engine was even capable of making concepts beyond that of gaming. As unity has a range of powerful assets to it I believe it would be able to effectively be used to create an immersive and interactive medium. This can involve any form of story from non-linear or a linear story; these concepts are that ‘a linear story follows a strict sequence, non-linear stories can result in different states (endings, scores, etc.) depending on the players.' (Pérez-Colado, V.M., Pérez-Colado, I.J., Freire-Morán, M., Martínez-Ortiz, I. and Fernández-Manjón, B. 2019). As Unity has been used to create such a range of vastly different stories and due to Unity being one of the biggest platform engines for creating mediums and games it will be interesting to see what the future of Unity will look like.
Unreal:
Unreal is one of the most open and formidable real-time 3D creation tools in the world for photorealistic images and immersive experiences. Unreal has been the engine behind some of the most top grossing and striking games within this digital era, which means that it has been behind the creation of games such as Little Nightmares II, Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab, 2021), Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix, 2020) and so forth. Unreal Engine can also be used to create: film/TV, architecture, automotive, live events, simulations and many more.
‘Technology continues to pervade social and organisational life (e.g., immersive, and artificial intelligence) and our environments become increasingly virtual.’ (Lycett, M. and Reppel, A. 2022).
Unreal Engine is also probably one of the most intimidating engines to go into due to how many aspects there are to learn within the software, especially as Unreal Engine is quickly becoming the big thing in games, visualisation, and even feature films. (Shannon, 2017). As this is the case to learn Unreal I’d have to learn each section one by one within the engine.
Due to the fact that Unreal has been used majorly within the gaming industry, I wondered how exactly it was so popularised and whether the software at the end is worth using. Developers have used this engine to form whole realistic environments as well as ones that are stylised, this is an extremely effective tool for immersion and engaging the audience into a new world. However, I do believe that even though Unreal has an incredible amount of resources and assets to using the engine there are a few downfalls to using the software, the main one being that due to how high powered it is that you also need a high powered computer or PC to be able to properly run the engine. However, if you have access to a good quality computer it could be an extremely effective tool, especially for solo developers or designers due to the pure amount you can create within the software alone if you are aware of how to use the engine effectively.
Not only is Unreal making striking video-games, Unreal is also powerful at making art and environments. Once you know how to form an environment and add textures as well as knowing how to structure places to give off an ethereal or remarkable look to your design it. By knowing this you can make fantastical or whimsical environmental settings.
Alongside this Unreal also has the concept of having Metahumans, which utilises the concept of human facial expressions and movements within a character. Through the years of development Unreal’s Metahumans have become much more advanced, realistic and developed. This type of technology is extraordinary and as technology continues to develop further there is a possibility that Metahumans could look so realistic it would be hard to tell if they are a real person or not through the screen.
‘The same experience of presence that makes VR so well-suited for certain types of games makes it a powerful medium for documentary and journalism applications’ (Mack, K. and Ruud, R. 2019).
Unity Vs Unreal
When it comes to which engine to use for creating purposes I honestly think it depends on what style and look you are going for. However, due to how these softwares do have some similarities it would be understandable that using either one you could get a remarkable result for any project that you are doing as long as you have an idea of how to use the engines tools. Though when it comes to these softwares I do also believe it could depend on what technology that you are working with as they both do somewhat require high powered devices to use them on so that they work 100%, however from my few times using both softwares I have found that Unreal requires more of a powerful piece of technology to run smoothly and not crash, whereas Unity often runs quite well on slightly slower technology than Unreal does.
Therefore when I started looking into what both platforms are capable of and the outcomes that come out of using them it becomes understandable as to why these are two popularised but powerful softwares. It is interesting to see whether they can both perform in creating similar concepts within both of these engines. So, when researching I explored to see if anyone had tested the idea of making the same concept within both engines to see a vague comparison of the two.
Testing The Engines:
Unreal:
So, getting into Unreal 5, there are many options you can do depending on what style of media is needed, such as film, architecture, gaming and more. When going into Unreal I found that it is very much about experimenting and seeing what works for you. I wanted to test out the different aspects of Unreal, using the 3D to create environments and gaming layouts.
In order to do this I began by loading up the engine and experimenting with the different perspectives within the gaming part of Unreal. This gave me a base idea of how perspectives or point of views (POV) could be used effectively and how it would affect the look or style of a game. Therefore, depending on how I design my story for the game would depend on what POV would work best.
Therefore, I wanted to attempt to follow a guide to learn to build a fantastical environment. Thus, following a tutorial to form an environment I learnt about Pluggins and how they can be used to create specific outcomes in the environments, such as realistic water.
Along with pluggins, a powerful tool to use for Unreal would be free textures and other aspects that can be found in Epic games and other websites. This contributes greatly towards a final look to the Unreal project as it adds assets to the game that would previously take a long time to build and allows me to focus on other aspects such as character movements or environmental layout.
Due to Unreal not working efficiently on my computer and constantly crashing I could not finish this experiment, however I still learnt a lot when using the engine either through tutorials or lessons. Even though this is an issue I managed to still gain a good understanding of Unreal.
Despite not being able to fully utilise the software, I still managed to grasp the surface of each element of Unreal and have gained a good understanding of the basics of using the softwares. However, due to not having a computer that can smoothly run Unreal without it crashing, I do not believe I will continue to work within the engine or use it for a major project, despite this I do believe that Unreal would be a useful tool for me to know how to use within the future so gaining the necessary skills to even do the basics would be beneficial if I ever do end up needing to know how to successfully use the engine.
Learning Unreal through lessons and experimentation:
So, when using the software I found that it has many qualities that allows it to have high quality outcomes for games and storylines. However, it does require constant experimentation and practice to fully grasp the full ins and outs of the engine. Even though I have studied different ways to use Unreal and to create inside the software, I know there are even more elements within the software that I am yet to have explored or learned about, so even though I am not planning on creating a major project within the engine it would still be beneficial to continue learning the software when I can.
Unity:
So, getting into Unity I found that there are a range of ways that you can use the platform depending on what type of game is needed. I wanted to experiment with both versions so that I could learn how they vary from one another and how I could use either a 2D or 3D version for a project.
Testing Out Unity In 2D:
I started out testing out the 2D version of unity, this was really fascinating as it is on a completely flat surface and you have to layer the assets on top of one another. Now a lot of the assets that I used I gained by exploring Unity’s free assets. This allowed me to focus on learning how the software worked exactly instead of making art for it to work.
There are many aspects of Unity that I explored but creating an environment for a character to be within was the main one I wanted to demonstrate and explore. Even though there are many aspects of 2D games that I have not managed to demonstrate here, I did end up exploring many of them and experimenting with how gaming can be created within a 2D space in Unity.
The final outcome of trying to form environments:
Creating In Unity In 3D:
After exploring 2D I managed to then start to experiment with the 3D side of the software thus allowing me to understand how they vary and see if I could begin to create the resemblance of a game with Unity’s engine in a 3D space. So, I started off by navigating the basics of Unity’s 3D software and finding elements that would be useful, such as assets or objects for the scene and so forth.
I think that Unity is a highly powerful tool with both 2D settings and 3D settings. Therefore I started to create the basics of what a base of a game looks like from scratch. I started this by creating a platform in which the future character would use. Once I had the base of the platform in place I then parented the grass to the dirt aspect of the platform so that they would stick together and form a prefab.
After creating the basic level platforms I needed to create the base of the character so using an object within the scene to start with I had to figure out how to create basic animations for a character such as jumping. One of the ways I found to do this is through adding code through a c# script, this ended up being slightly more complex than I originally thought it would be and I spent a long time learning the basics of coding with Unity. However, I ended up not completing this aspect due to time, due to still learning, so I continued to learn the next steps of creating a game.
Despite not completely finishing this project I came out of Unity understanding a lot more about the engine than when I first started and although I have a long way to go with exploring and experimenting with the software I still am pleased with the progression I have made using the software.
Conclusion:
After experimenting with Unity and Unreal I do believe I am more likely to use this software within my project to that of Unreal purely due to my understanding of Unity is slightly more advanced than that within Unreal and my Unity engine runs a lot quicker and smoother on my computer than Unreal does. Even though Unreal has some incredible assets and could create some visually stunning pieces, in order to create these pieces the engine needs to run smoothly and efficiently which I have found that on my end of technology it does not, this is not to say that Unreal is not a fundamentally powerful software as it is but Unity has very similar quality that can end up having a similar effect to aspects of Unreal, even though it is more stylised. Therefore for near future projects I am most likely to gravitate more towards Unity.
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