Do I Regret Leaving Unity for Unreal?

[@ristopaasivirta9770]

One thing that Unity gets the most right in my opinion is the GameObject-MonoBehavior-Prefab. So easy, so straightforward, so fast. Many times I miss the easiness of Unity of just creating an empty GameObject, dropping a script, linking it to other GameObjects and you have a system running. Other thing is the easiness of making changes or custom controls to editor. Godot still cannot natively do custom inspectors easily, in Unreal it's possible but not as easy as in Unity. I have been learning Unreal over the past two years, love playing with high end graphics from time to time, my go-to game engine now is Godot and I still use Unity in my work. All three are really good engines, compared to what we had (or rather didn't have) ten years ago it's really great to be a game dev now-a days.

[@Marth8880]

Btw the thing with the GameObject is just as easy in Unreal. Make new Blueprint, place it, done. Need something reusable? Make it a component instead.

[@coreytaylor3633]

Adding editor modifications is trivial in unreal, you can even use the same UI system the game uses for tools. It's way more flexible and way more powerful, I sincerely miss the unreal editor extensions. Even with Odin, Unity's has significant limitations.

[@keelfly]

@@coreytaylor3633 you can do the same in Unity with UIToolkit. Not Unity to blame people have no clue what UIToolkit does despite some great videos and very useful templates.

[@FrancescosToon]

18:00 Funny thing: I originally also had problems properly importing animations into UE5, then it turns out the problem was in Blender's export settings, not Unreal's. Once you figure things out, the whole Blender to Unreal workflow can become extremely fast & things will look how they should! :)

[@rremnar]

The problem is Unreal Engine treats all animation like character rigs. It's one of my biggest complaints. Also X+ is the forward vector, so that complicates things further. I do agree that Blender's export plugins could be better.

[@FrancescosToon]

@@rremnar The "treats them like character rigs" sounds weird, unless you mean the fact that UE imports animations onto the skeleton... which seems logical... The "X+" should be the last of your worries, just tell Blender's export settings to have -Y as forward & +Z as Up, UE converts them into its own XYZ on import. (Tho I never used other engines so idk, I just managed to make my Import & export take literally 5 seconds after some trial & error)

[@njerurichard3581]

I think his point was about using .blend files, not actually exporting in a particular format.

[@UltimatePerfection]

@@rremnar Isn't Unreal's coordinate system the same as Blender though? Z is up in both.

[@ethancodes7134]

I agree, there are a few settings in blender to set, but beyond that I've not had any problems with my models and animations either. And all of the blender settings are pretty obvious. Like the unit's size and the different transform layout.

[@DrMr.]

Mate, C++ in UE is pretty much on the same level of complexity as C# in Unity. The engine does all of the memory management for you.

[@Ainglish-qj5bb]

More people need to hear this (if it's true). My main reason for choosing Unity is that I despise C++ and love C#. But if it's really just scripting, it doesn't matter much. I use about 10% of my C# knowledge in game programming on Unity.

[@DrMr.]

⁠@@Ainglish-qj5bb I get ya, I’m writing c# all day long on my day job. But yeah, in UE C++ you do have pointers, but all you need to do is slap a member variable with a TObjectPtr and UPROPERTY macro. The engine does all the rest regarding managing the variable.

[@gardian06_85]

most every problem in Unreal C++ can be fixed with checking your includes (this will be caught on compile), checking your bounds on arrays (the crash report will 99% of the time have the offending line in the first 3 lines of the stack trace), and "if ( MyPointer != nullptr )" (C++ also supports declaration, assignment, and null check of pointers in the same if statement out of the box to enforce scope, and data safety) the only time I have really ever ran into issues with memory in Unreal C++ is when I basically created race conditions on async loading, or doing stuff in the "pose Initialize" type functions. when they are still in that fuzzy state between malloc and construction done.

[@thelordz33]

14:30 You kinda can do that, though. If you play the game and then press f8 you'll disconnect from the camera and be able to move around and mess with things as if you were in edit mode.

[@TheMasterOfSafari]

Exactly! That functionality does exist in both Editors.

[@Zinzinnovich]

its called simulation in ue5

[@Thimas]

I have used the engine for a year and I didn't know this. Thank you lol

[@ryanjdevlin87]

yup f8

[@Soraphis91]

while this is "good enough" in most cases. In unity you can just create a second viewport to watch, while you run around in the other in a first person mode. having both perspectives at the same time is super valuable and basically impossible in unreal.

[@devformation]

Programming is not about languages, it`s about way of thinking and problem solving ability, c# or BP or c++ just syntax, not so hard to memorize. Love both engines, something simple web/mobile/pc oriented is Unity, complex, large, realistic, render models as an artist Unreal definitely.

[@Maaguaa]

Yeah, it’s about familiarity and constant application. Memorizing syntax is never the way

[@mandisaw]

Unity can be used for complex projects, and realistic graphics, but it is more programmer-friendly I think. Unreal is probably better for artists, since a lot of the architectural decisions are made for you already.

[@adamodimattia]

In my opinion, the problem is not that "Unity way" of doing things is worse. The problem is that there isn't really a "Unity way" of programming games. Unity is just a tool with a set of other tools and it depends on the programmer entirely to figure out how to use them (there are some indications here and there, some examples, but they are basic ones). The main problem is that there are few to no examples/samples of bigger projects, of extensible projects made with Unity to learn from. Unreal on the other hand, for one: has a lot of them, many of their sample projects are really full games with possibility of extending them further (like Lyra, extremely complex sample, all one needs to learn how the "big boys" do things). And the second thing is that Unreal being so specialized in a few similar generes of games, forces the user to attain to many their practices, principles etc. I use Unity for about 6 years now, and I started Unreal about 4 years ago. Unity was my day job, and although I've been using it also for my own stuff, and to keep up with the engine development, most of my personal stuff game wise (Unity was more about tooling for me) I did in Unreal. I still work in Unity, but I enjoy it much more since I started using design principles and workflows that I learned from Unreal. I believe I became much better Unity developer thanks to my experience with Unreal :) Of course, not every programming principle present in Unreal is up to date and that awesome (like never ending inheritance chains) but that's another story. It can be criticized, but on the other hand: it works! So who cares...

[@sosasees]

ah, that's why i found Unity impossible to get good at and Godot easy: because Godot has a clear vision of how Godot games are made but Unity doesn't have any vision of how Unity games should be made.

[@nikolayiliev3044]

Everyone must witch to Unreal Engine 5.4 . This is the best in life for me. And UE just start to get better and better.

[@shannenmr]

Unreal is very opinionated and has a huge breadth of plugins / features / tooling BUT the Documentation on a lot of it the non "core" things is very lacking or at-least is hidden in official / unofficial videos on their Learning site and YT... but the fall-back is that the whole C++ code is available for you to read through and understand if you are are able to.

[@mandisaw]

Unity's strength is that it's not very "opinionated". You're right that they give you the tools and a sandbox, and say "go play". I find it creatively exciting, myself, but have heard/encountered a lot of folks who seem to be intimidated by not having a clear "blueprint" to follow. Unreal is cool in that regard, since you literally can just follow the steps and get something going. But I think folks don't necessarily know how to diverge from that path, and Unreal doesn't make it easy to do so (unless you are a C++ & Unreal pro). That, and the general lack of tooling support, is what drove me away from UE way back when I started with Unity, even before I knew of the Asset Store, better docs/support, etc.

[@scotmcpherson]

I have often referred to it as a quilt-work application of disparate features.

[@badgerint]

You basically mention everything you shouldn't do in Unity (direct referencing to other objects in editor as an example). Great for prototyping but not good for a large project. What you have accomplished is learning that wasn't the correct way in the first place. So you're on the right track.

[@joey_wittmann]

5 years in unreal at this point, make sure you set up source control. I'm not 100% sure but I think Perforce is free up to 5 users and will save your ass if you ever need to "un corrupt" a project like you had mentioned. Super under-discussed feature of unreal that has super good integration in the editor. I couldn't live without it. For solo devs it usually isn't necessary and therefore skipped over, but it is just so powerful for undoing mistakes and keeping things organized.

[@TorQueMoD]

Blueprints only create spaghetti code if you're being really lazy or rushing. It's so easy to make everything clean, especially with custome nodes and functions and macros and function libraries and material libraries and interfaces.

[@EpicGamer-ny1fu]

Visual programming sounds great on paper... for large projects it will always create spaghetti no matter how much effort you put in

[@litjellyfish]

I mean BP should not be used for real logic more handling som state switching or triggering things. And maaaaaybe prototype some control / game logic. But then that should be converted to C++

[@klausklavikus3836]

@@litjellyfish Not in every case. C++ should be used for logic where happens alot of calculations or there is a bigger amount of data which needs to be handled. Alex Forsythe did a great video about this topic called "Blueprints vs. C++: How They Fit Together and Why You Should Use Both" 👍

[@litjellyfish]

@@klausklavikus3836 sure. Still I am not referring to just the performance aspect but code maintaining. Some logic trees can be very hard to read as VS. In larger projects with a lot of different people working on it. That is another reason why some is good to move to C++ But for sure as you say it all goes down to case by case. Key is to focus on both the end result. Easy of use to produce and ease of use to maintain

[@klausklavikus3836]

@@litjellyfish exactly 👌👌

[@cloudcity4194]

EVery time I've used Unreal it's gotten in my way more than helped. The only time Unreal has been better than Unity (for me) is when I had a team or I was just doing some "environment art".

[@harry6270]

I honestly think Unity is just better for solo development. I also despise how much Unreal forces the blueprint system.

[@dxmxrxsbxxckthxwxxdxlf3931]

I am not a dev, but when you mentioned how much you loved blueprints and how the system screams at you when you made a mistake, it reminded me when I was working on how to use CAD for making patterns for clothes. At first, I wasn't paying attention and then when I noticed how bad my grades were, I tried to follow the instructions a little better but it was still hard to get it right. My point is that making mistake on CAD are very easy to make because of how flexible the system is

[@WebbstreMain]

I struggled with Unreal. I thought I was done with Unity, too, but I simply didn't have the time to dedicate to learning how everything worked in Unreal, and how to unlearn all my Unity habits. In the end I decided it was better to be able to make a game even if I wasn't fond of the monetization of the engine than to never finish a game in the first place.

[@joeysipos]

Plus Unity is way cheaper than Unreal if you happen to monetize. So why one would make the switch baffles me?

[@oyeahisbest123]

@@joeysipos what do you mean. Unreal looks to be way cheaper.

[@joeysipos]

@@oyeahisbest123 it’s not. Unity fees are capped at 2.5% of gross revenue after the first $1,000,000. So at most you would be paying $25,000 if you made a million. Unreal is straight up 5% royalty fee. So you would be paying $50,000. Double the price.

[@ProrokLebioda]

Good learning exercise is to take game you've made in Blueprints and move code to C++. I've picked up my old, small project made in just BP's and I'm currently moving to C++. It's good to keep in mind that not everything has to be defined in C++, some parts are better adjusted in derived Blueprints. I also agree that lack of Web builds is a miss, in UE4 there was such an option and it's a shame it is missing (although running UE5 game on Web could kill a browser, unless a lot of features would be disabled).

[@nikolayiliev3044]

Everyone must witch to Unreal Engine 5.4 . This is the best in life for me. And UE just start to get better and better.

[@summationx8376]

For those undeestimating blueprint, choo choo charles was made only with blueprint, no code used

[@Soraphis91]

sure you can do everything with it ... but code is easier to read, is more flexible, IDE's provide way more help (even when searching for function names) than whatever unreal tries in it's blueprint search box. you ALSO need problem-solving skills anyways and this is the most important thing in programming. nobody really cares about the language. Sure they might have some nice features you like, but that's all.

[@Marth8880]

@@Soraphis91 Good blueprints are easy to read. Likewise, bad code is difficult to read. It all depends on that. Also on big projects, IDEs struggle a ton with very simple things. This is a common painpoint for pretty much everyone working in AAA.

[@NeatGames]

I'm still using Unity quite happily~ :D

[@myrchantkobold8268]

I used Unreal but switched to Unity and love how its organized. I think with Unreal it's easier to make a minimum viable product, but Unity is better at making that product stand out.

[@coreytaylor3633]

​@@myrchantkobold8268 I would argue the complete opposite. Unity is easier to do those things if you don't have a ton of experience, but b unreal is the power user tool. If you have the experience to back it up it whips the ever living crap out of unity to make your game shine, there is just a fair bit of overhead for doing that. There is a reason why larger games overwhelmingly use unreal. Unity is just easier for Indy dev.

[@NoQueso_]

I was in the process of learning Unity when the chaos event happened, so I fully switched over to Unreal 5. I've made a lot of progress. I'm a big Unreal fan now.

[@hypergamedev1381]

Honestly, I switched from Unity to Unreal and I would never go back. It is just so fast and easy to get started with a game. I barely even touch C++ anymore. I mostly use blueprints.

[@Novica89]

blueprints are a shitshow for anything decently complex... Code becomes 10 times more readable than those noodles

[@pythonxz]

It's funny because there are multiple larger games made entirely using blueprints. I would probably kill myself if I had to work entirely in blueprints.

[@Novica89]

@@pythonxz Depends on what you mean by "larger" games. Larger in terms of how popular they are and how much money they made or larger in a sense of complexity. Completely different stories.

[@pythonxz]

@@Novica89 There was one AA game in particular which was a space survival game and I cannot find the name. To be fair, most larger teams probably have programmers making blueprint nodes for designers. This way you get the benefits of configuring functionality without having to recompile the C++.

[@Novica89]

@@pythonxz probably, yeah :) Or they get so familiar with blueprints themselves and learn how to not make a huge mess out of it, somehow :D

[@Stargate16789]

Im using both Unity and Unreal and in both of the engines you can use visual scripting like Unreal = Blueprint or Unity = Playmaker. Both Engines are really good. I totally understand why AAA studios use Unreal for their big games, but still for a mobile game I would use Unity, it is faster creating and building the whole project. In the end one of the most important parts of development is TIME!

[@Zinzinnovich]

not only for mobile, also for AR and VR UNity is far superior.

[@Stargate16789]

@@Zinzinnovich Yes in my head standalone VR devices (like Quest2-3) are just strong android „mobile“ devices ;)

[@rudrasingh6354]

Playmaker is a paid plugin. Unity has had a built in visual scripting solution called Visual Scripting(very creative naming I know, previously it was called Bolt which I think was a plugin they bought and integrated). It is vastly inferior to Blueprint though.

[@fabioxperuggia]

I've published 3 games in steam using unity and it works just fine. Don't update versions unless you need to. It's waaaay easier to publish game now than a few years ago.

[@RobAryeeArc]

Changing software... a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for him. PS thanks Nathan.

[@BlackJar72]

I started learning UE first, but for me the editor crashed every 5 to 10 minutes, so I switched to Unity. I learned C++ years ago, and went from that to Java to C#.

[@ConsuetudoGames]

I've only used Unreal and CryEngine, but it's a shame what happened to Unity. I'm glad you're getting on well with Unreal, you can definitely do more with blueprints than people realise. I do think the in editor modelling tools with the newer UE5 versions are pretty good though, you can do most stuff you need in the editor, although it can be awkward and there is stuff missing. It's good for quickly blocking out things and doing a quick UV unwrap. Or editing super high triangle nanite photoscans that would probably crash Blender.

[@okamichamploo]

Interesting. I stuck with Unity for personal projects, but I DO use Unreal at work. I think what you mentioned about a script being whatever you want it to be is what really kept me from leaving Unity for my private use. I just feel like when I'm in Unreal I'm having to remap my ideas into someone else's framework, while Unity feels like my own playground where I make the rules. Unreal is pretty easy and seamless if you are making something that Unreal is good at, like a 3D shooter, for example. But for my indy stuff it just always felt like I was fighting against the system. That and Unity just feels a bit more light weight. I hear my PC reving up like a jet engine everytime I try to load a level for work in Unreal. Godot feels even lighter than Unity, but I just feel like it still needs a bit more development before I'm ready to jump ship to Godot as well. Although I do have my eye on it.

[@pythonxz]

I definitely prefer Godot. The programming language support is probably one of best things about the engine. Do you want to use rust, c++, C#, etc.? You can.

[@mandisaw]

💯 Unreal is opinionated, and is really good at making what Epic's really good at making. Unity's whole deal is "do whatever you want" 😄 Either there's a tool for it built-in, or there's a useful asset, or you can make your own tool in a day or two. Godot needs more development, could use more of an asset/tool ecosystem, and would need better console support & mobile-optimization before it can really justify the online hype it gets. It's still way behind even engines like GameMaker, PyGame, and RPGMaker, even though it's been around for 10yrs, and has been in the indie zeitgeist for at least 4 or 5.

[@tehsensei]

This is a cool video to watch. It's the first time I've watched another solo dev speak so candidly about his experience with Unreal. All else I've seen is some hyper-edited video, which is alright, but there's something cool and cozy about a passionate game dev talking about how he loves blueprints and misses this or that from Unity.

[@Corysia]

There's nothing wrong with doing a game 100% in Blueprint. It works, mostly. You will run in to some limitations. Especially if you do any multiplayer. But there's lots of courses you can take to learn C++ for Unreal. You know C#, C++ isn't terrifyingly different.

[@blastbuilder2430]

If I want to create a mesh procedurally and animate it through code, is it easy to do with c++ in unreal? What I love about unity is that you can interact with unity components easily with your own script and pretty much everything you can access from UI has an equivalent API to call when you want to do it procedurally.

[@Corysia]

@@blastbuilder2430 Yes.

[@jarekdylewski1626]

For UI Unreal Has common UI plugin which is a gamę changer. Also Unreal understands bones as joints, do they have different orientation. In Blender and Unity major rotation is X Axis. In Unreal its Z Axis.

[@alienrenders]

Yeah, can't promote Common UI enough.

[@OmarAhmed-rg2ii]

yes, its coordination system different between opengl which unity native editor natively run on and DirectX which unreal engine editor run on

[@travanator4366]

Hey you might already know this but in case it helps cuz you mentioned your integrated graphics, you can toggle realtime rendering in the viewport in unreal from the tab in the top left(first option) or ctrl + r. It disables any animations like vfx or moving materials but I can literally hear my fans slow down when I toggle it. Hope it helps :)

[@mezzanine510]

Switched over from Unity during the fiasco last year and ended up rebuilding my entire project in UE. Best decision I ever made! Learning the different systems takes time, just like any engine, but what I love about Unreal is that the systems are reliable, and the community so far has been awesome.

[@ViRiXDreamcore]

Unreal’s input system is….Actually 3 of them and when you realize you have to REDO ALL OF YOUR ENTIRE UI to use the 3rd one is freaking annoying. Plus the fact that UE has very odd quirks that just don’t get talked abouf is a bit bothersom at the very least.

[@ClokworkGremlin]

This was actually really helpful as someone with several months experience in Godot, suddenly having to jump into Unreal for a project I joined.

[@ytubeanon]

I think it's only fair when people gush over Blueprints to acknowledge Unity Visual Script, which in Unity circles is seen as a red-headed stepchild... there's one feature that UE has that makes it hard to leave, with the release of praydog's UEVR, almost anything made in UE will automatically work as full 360 degree VR. Vorpx is a VR option for Unity, but that limits 3D VR in a rectangular screen with depth in front of you

[@vast634]

Well, long loadup and build times in Unity should not be a reason to switch to Unreal. Its way worse there.

[@MonsterJuiced]

use simulate rather than preview scene if you would like grab things and move them, debug and alter variables on the fly to see changes. Make sure the variables are exposed publicly though first.

[@St4rdog]

17:00 RealtimeCSG is probably the best. Hammer is ancient and sucks... 19:00 As far as "AI" systems like FSM's and Behaviour Trees go, I think it's worth understanding that they really are just calling functions. Understanding programming fundamentals will help make these seem less like magic to you. There are free CS video courses from MIT/etc online. Most game devs are self-taught and don't really understand the power of functions being variables, functions returning functions, etc.

[@tedbendixson]

Do I regret never switching engines because I don't use them? No.

[@aussieraver7182]

If graphics is the main reason to change from Unity to Unreal, make sure you try HDRP (High Definition Render Pipeline) and play around with those graphical settings. The graphics feels very AAA.

[@brianjanssens8020]

I have never used Unreal before or any other game engine whatsoever (except for roblox maybe 💀). I'm just learning the basics for navigating around the engine and modeling objects and creating huge environments. I gotta say, it feels so overwhelming at first, but just having a proper tutorial to handhold you trough the process helps so much. I hope i can create really beautiful cinematics, and maybe even animations with it.

[@kpr2]

Gods, I've got a decade or more of Unity in my brain, but I keep meaning to feel out UE... Hell, if it were easy it wouldn't be "interesting" either. Thx! (As a longtime C# dev, C++ looks ever so cumbersome). Thanks for the overview of your own journey between the two platforms. As a long time nerd, I imagine I can at least pretend to handle the transition with some semblance of grace, haha! Rock on & best of luck in your own dev journey! \m/(>.

[@yashkhd1100]

I do have experience wtih both the engines and I can safely say the hands on experience of EPIC shipping their own titles along with years of experience working with AAA studios is really giving them edge. At frist UNREAL looks overwhelming but once you invest time to learn..it pays of really well for long term.In general UNREAL's various systems are well thoughtout, integrated and well supported unlike Unity. To give an example how many UI frameworks Unity have. It's been near to 10 years and still de are trying to figure out what is the final way to build UI. First there was a UGUI than there was a next UI framework and now from few years they are talking about UI toolkit. If an engine dev can't figure out and settle on one UI framework from years it really tells how unorganized they are. From many years people roll out their own Singletones and whta not for Unity which is required for almost every games. There is no in build solution(well thoughtout) from Unity and In case of Unreal they have all these stuff defined like GameInstance,GameModes etc.

[@Maaguaa]

I am an aspiring game dev and I am in a learning phase. when I tried VR dev with both engines it’s clear unity has better vr dev support. I also like Unreal as I come from a software background.

[@coreytaylor3633]

We've been doing some ports for WebGL lately in Unity, and honestly, yeah we had to strip out some stuff and switch out web request backend, but really, the support terrible. It's unfinished and buggy like most of unity, but it's shippable with very little modification if you've structured it right.

[@kellowattentertainment]

I love this. I started in Unity as well. I thought that Unity was the best to start in because that's what was recommended at the time for starters. I wonder why it was so well recommended too because unless you were actually very good at using unity already, its very difficult to do anything in it. Which I though was crazy. In 4 months of unity, I wasn't even able get the character to move properly. 4 months in Unreal, not only able I to get the character moving, I was also able to build at least two systems.

[@Harald723]

16:50 I agree used it once, best editor I've ever used!

[@etchasketch222]

Blueprints rock

[@daffyjuicex]

Have you tried blueprints in a multi user dev environment? It is horrible if more than one tries to work with it. Blueprints for solo devs, nice. Blueprint for more than a few devs is another story....

[@hickna]

10:20 "My brain was fried" - That a good point to use blueprint, I'm being convinced for the first time. Thanks :)

[@Damian_DH]

In my case since im an artist the C++ language was way harder than C#. Tracking errors in Unreal when u dont know what are you doing can be hell. Rider IDE since i was an student back in those days saved me from going to a mental hospital. Another thing is hard is the variable declaration the amount of information u can find from Unreal problems is way lower than Unity. But once u pass that disgusting first curve that it takes about 2-3 weeks and u understand how the H and CPP works together and how blueprints can access certain variables Unreal > Unity . But even after bleeding for a few months in unreal for me unity is like 3ds max. Im forced to know Maya, Z brush, Blender but i feel like im in home when working with 3ds max and that feeling is hard to change once u feel confident with a tool man...

[@CronicGaming94]

i think your missing something when it comes to the simplicity of bringing in animations to unreal engine from blender. Cause it's not really a challenge if your sticking to the unreal engine skeleton.

[@swrcPATCH]

You can select objects within the hirarchy just like you do in unity and change properties while having the game run in editor.

[@ilet2420]

For your reference, Unity has been changed since you left it!

[@Joe-wl8hk]

Sitting down, on my lunch, learning how to learn unreal. Been going on 8 months and its all coming together now. Great video, thanks for the wisdom.

[@irl962]

Could you not create game objects with pro builder and export them as Fbx or Obj and import them into UE ?

[@robertotan2897]

In Unity, you make everything from scratch. In Unreal there is an "Unreal Way" of doing things

[@myrchantkobold8268]

I'm going from Unreal to unity..

[@dadlord689]

Unreal solves more things then it's fuckes up. And he fucks up a lot. It just that the overall volume is gigantic. Unreal is pain, but with Rider it is far less of it. Anyway both engines are poorly engineered and overcomplicated. Maybe it will change for unreal. But at this point - pick your poison.

[@chriscampbell9172]

I would love to be a dedicated Unreal fan boy. The only thing stopping me is how unintuitive the 2D dev process is.

[@njerurichard3581]

how would you compare baking global illumination between the two? which is faster/easier to use

[@bioburden]

How difficult do you find it to refactor when using Blueprints?

[@NathanRohner]

Not very, it's usually adjusting how I referenced things. Simplifying certain aspects or redoing a section because I've learnt a better since the last time I tried. I would say it's very similar to traditional refactoring, there's just an added element if you want to 'beautify' your blueprints as well (adding comments, straightening nodes, colour coding etc)

[@bioburden]

@@NathanRohner But much harder I'd imagine since in C# for example, if using something like Jetbrains Rider, large refactors are a cakewalk.

[@alaslipknot]

the scripting part in unreal seems harder because of the bad habit that unity developer has when it comes to "monobehavioring everything". Unreal does not force you to use a character controller, you can create your own C++ class from scratch. In Unity the [Serializefield] and "drag & drop" is also very very terrible for large scale projects, there are cases of course where it make sense: 1. scriptable object referencing different assets (including prefabs and other S.O) 2. prefabs referencing things from children (like a mesh renderer component or something) its kinda sad that 99% of youtuber content for unity is taking the "monobehavior & YOLO" approach, there are few channels that are fixing that (git-amend, infaliablecode), so if you are a unity developer reading this, and you plan to become a professional programmer, make sure to learn how to avoid that approach.

[@harry6270]

Honesty I just enjoy making indie games more in Unity. Also tbh I just don’t really like the blueprint system that much. I’m not saying it’s bad, I just don’t flow with it like I do when coding and feel like I have less control. If you do want to use Unreal’s c++ the documentation is an absolute joke compared to Unity’s. They really want to push blueprint one me and that’s the main reason I don’t like it.

[@JC-jz6rx]

Mmmmm idk about the unreal doc part. I’ve used both engines. I thought the unreal docs were kinda dookey. They have their learn page that covers in depth some very important stuff. But when it comes to working beyond that it’s entirely up to you. Which is ok if you’re experienced but not as easy for beginners. Another point is the blueprint system. I just can’t get behind them. Coding is 10x faster for me than dragging nodes around but the cpp docs are very dookey bordering on almost non existent. I love the software. But unreal is not an easy engine to learn. And I say this when trying to do anything not in the docs. Which is a lot

[@elderscrawler6202]

Do not regret, I was working with Unity for years until I switched myself to Unreal, never looked back. the reasoning - 1. Lumen. 2. animation system that Unity can only dream of 3. node based material editor... my main complaint about Unity was the archaic shaders system 4. Unreal is more friendly... yes, more friendly than Unity. at least tmo. btw, you can type code in Unreal if you really miss it...

[@jbdh6510]

But for 2D games?

[@elderscrawler6202]

@@jbdh6510 tbh, for 2d games I don't see any reason to use heavy duty engines like Unreal or Unity, it's like hunting rabbits with a tank.. Godot would be the best choice for that tmo, or even better a dedicated 2d engine - there are few

[@jbdh6510]

@@elderscrawler6202 and 2.5D ones?

[@elderscrawler6202]

@@jbdh6510 I guess then it will depend on the visual fidelity and the complexity of the scene and the animations you want to achieve. Godot will do an excellent job at that as well but if you want maximum fidelity with fancy animations and beautiful particle systems and all that Unreal should be your choice. I guess what I'm saying is that between Godot and Unreal Unity has no real advantage, it's not that it's bad - the others are simply better

[@OptimalToast]

Was keen to hear a bit of a detailed rundown on how the switch was going for you and a bit of a comparison of workflows, cheers man. And, glad to hear it's working out for you and you're pushing on. 😎

[@2Jackrabbit]

What I hate about unreal : -Any shipping of build and obscure device specifics bugs, engine config files all over the place overriding themselves. -Source Controls and metadata (lack of) asset in binary + .uasset (this one file format is kinda the root of all this faulty serialization, Which again will come bites you really hard for months and months upon having multiplatform games) -While everyone say forum helped them in my day to day of fixing up deep project issues for clients it's just straight up never answered. You find one for one your bug, then nobody... Or even worse the same dude will post 2 days later "nvm found it" without saying how... But yeah AAA engine, anything is NDA, any AAA still works withing fully customized UE engine version modifying anything they want from source code and extending it. -The tedium overall of performances settings and good practices setup. Yes there is an "unreal ways" of doing things but people still do whatever however with it. Good thinking tho to say if it's not going the way it should you should learn the system, however 90% of studios I,m helping untangle stuff are not allowing themselves the time to do so. -Their strong marketing team, TOP NOTCH marketing... While it's completely sick and insane, well planned, and let's say it Unity is the complete worse and oposite at any marketing or messaging. Here's my hot take... Executive and people without ANY knowledge of games and marketing efforts will just say do like them ! This sets unrealistic goals and situations for many indie studios and novice producing, it's like every gamers will point at a broken game, while marvelling at UE marketing campaign but without connnecting the dots that the broken releases of the past were in it. -It's a freaking beast to master: Strap in you think you know what you are in for, but you've only scratched the surface. Wishing you the best luck and would really advise to build early and setup automated process, streamlining your pipeline first. Make a full flow at least once.

[@pixellifestudio]

I have made the change to Unreal myself and don't regret.

[@edgeofmadness1]

I did try Unity before starting in UE4 back in the day. But coming from UDK, I preferred the UE workflow.

[@santiagoshang]

It's painful to use blender animations with Unreral and Godot.

[@SeanBotha]

Yes you went for the flahy pop option instead of smart calculated decision

[@tutkarz]

I don't regret leaving Unity and Unreal for Godot. Small, fast engine that handles 2D is all what I need to make game quickly. For 3D sure I would choose Unreal but then blueprints for me just take too much time to drag lines around and to keep them straight while in code I can just type what I need faster. Or even copy code from github which is not possible with blueprints.

[@igorfagundes2177]

What. You are the guy of Knights Watch. Nice

[@LuckyRaphi]

I had the same experience to the letter. BUT you didn't mention any crashes. For me crashes and data corruption are pretty frequent, which version are you using?

[@justgamevideos1356]

Thats me. I can fly with Unity but still can not make a basic project in Unreal. The learning curve is too much and CPP is what keeping me back the most.

[@darkoblivionmaster]

I know you from Shadiversity, but I didn’t know you were a fellow game dev!

[@GrimmGitz]

Such a relatable tale. Keep at it my dude, all good things take time!

[@branidev]

I rly want to move to Unreal but i move to country where is so many companies using Unity so i am sticking with it and when i am hired then in work i use Unity and secretly i will use Unreal home :D

[@Domarius64]

Just use Godot or Defold for your lightweight 2D games that have a possibility to run on the web. Larrge scale 3D games that UE is designed for dont go well to web anyway. Choose the right engine for the right projects.

[@ethancodes7134]

Question for you since you brought up UI in UE. Have you used the Common UI plugin? This will eventually be the built in UI I believe, and it is soooo much better than what is currently in UE. However, it's fairly new and documentation is not super nice. You may have to do some digging. But it's well worth the extra legwork to get it figured out.

[@RyuuKageDesu]

I've dabbled mainly back and forth between Unreal and Blender, with a few others on the side. I'm still on the fence between the two.

[@sonic55193]

I'm very new in UE5, very new to game dev in general, and I wanted to make a simulation that NPCs simulate in the background even when the player is not present, I'm having trouble looking for resources about this topic, I found some in the market place but I really want to make my own from scratch, if anyone could point me into the right direction on how to achieve this or what to learn to achieve this, that would be great. Thanks in advance.

[@MrXBJonte]

Regarding the pro builder comments, have you tried the modeling tools in unreal? It is quite a new feature

[@UltimatePerfection]

I've moved to Unreal from Unity initially, didn't regret it, but pivoted to Godot due to the bad editor performance. If I had a better machine, I'd likely still be using UE5.

[@X400DYL]

Great Vid Subbed :)

[@karisvenner3892]

The only I would have regretted more than moving to Unreal would have been staying with Unity. I absolutely hate how clunky and unstable Unreal feels compared to Unity, but Unity has become unusable for me since 2019.4 due to iteration time, and that's truly sad.

[@ayzhol9620]

I moved to unreal which was a dream come true... then over time. Something made me leave. I made a great system but i was missing Unity and I ended up going to Godot which is mad because I am making quite an intense super speed 3D game however I am putting faith that the graphical capabilities will be upped in godot by the time I get round to the graphical stuff. I am not expecting Unreal levels godno(t) but I am expecting unity mid level which is enough for me. Thanks unreal. You gave me hope but i worry one day they will pull the plug on it being free to use.

[@pwhv]

Unreal is a console or aaa game engine nowadays, even if you make low poly games on ue5 they will require a very machine to run

[@dreamingacacia]

I switched from unity to unreal in 2021. People in unity are either vet or cope. Unreal enabling me so much that I think I should have focus on unreal since the udk era(UE3). But well, I wasn't ready back then. I'm glad that I made a decision to switch the engine.

[@Clockwork0nions]

Nah the UE3/UDK era of Unreal was really bad. Unreal didn’t get really friendly and good until Unreal 4.

[@dreamingacacia]

@@Clockwork0nions it's equally bad for everything tbh. In that era the only viable options were either game maker or RPG maker. It's the weird era where flash no longer supported and stuffs were confusing af. If flash still supported when I started gamedev, I'd use flash until I want to try something else.

[@Clockwork0nions]

@@dreamingacacia Yeah I don’t think I really disagree there at all.

[@looniper3551]

Doesn't run well on your laptop - Ther eare guides to set the Editor up to use much less... If you can run HTML5, you should have no problem with UE5 set up to run lite. And the games you make are just as controlable in terms of requirements. You're in a ship coming close enough to see how big the ice actually is. Now you're going to get there, and realize most of it is Under the water, and you haven't seen anything yet.

[@orlovskyconsulting]

Stuff like do it in Unreal way ;) Same pain points on my side.

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

There are sadly still some idiots using Unreal's "old" input system.

[@Seancstudiogames]

Those myst be 4 ver devs. Theres no reason to not use enhanced input in any 5 project. Everytime I talk to a Unity dev about adding controller input, its a “ya I should do that.” Its practactically natural in UE5.

[@thenapoleonlover113]

one more question: If Unity wasn't a sh*t company, would you move back to Unity?

[@NathanRohner]

If it was either open sourced or they added really good features on top of whole fixing their image / trust. Then probably yeah.

[@krz9000]

Start animating in unreal...its really good now

[@phantomabid]

Hi, I am totally new to your channel and really enjoyed watching some of your videos. Don't get me wrong but I noticed your eye movement is not normal. I'd recommend you checking up with a doctor. I am saying it for your good and not making fun of it. Because one of my friends had this problem but I'm not sure if it's the same as yours but it's similar.

[@NathanRohner]

I've had it since birth, it's a condition I have and aware of. So everything's fine.

[@phantomabid]

@@NathanRohner Thanks for the reply! I'm so glad that you're doing well. Because I contacted my friend, and he said that he had neurological issues.

[@dobrx6199]

I love unreal, I think my best decision in game dev was starting with it instead of unity

[@pushthebutton4602]

Hi there, Thanks for your words and thoughts regarding Unreal switch. I'm also from Unity with many years of Pro Unity developer. But Unity forced me out because they wanted me to switch to the Unity industry license which I didn't need. Unity lost 2000€ a year on it. I was forced to start with Unreal against my will. Now I'm an Unreal developer. Need advice on how to do in Unreal to change the HDRIBackdrop with UI buttons in realtime. I need to switch to different HDRIBackdrop when I click a button. Do you know how to do it? Thanks in advance. Sometimes I wish to go back to Unity when you can't find a solution like this!

[@Eliteownage]

nice. glad it's working out for you

[@Ready_Fire_Aim]

doesnt it do hmtl on ue4?

[@darknetworld]

I wonder how much they will try again for Unity. I guess they try to change the term of service but hidden more?

[@justgamevideos1356]

can you make a tutorial for Unity devs to quickly get started? I know exist but still.

[@zORg_alex]

Well, asset pipeline of unreal is a deal breaker for me, i also hate visual scripting, except for shaders it's a necessary evil. 😂 I have over 10 years of experience with c# so switching to visual scripting is not an option for me.

[@BaseRealityVR]

welcome to the club

[@taariqmartin7743]

I just wish unreal can heal the disappointment they made with the new rules I don't like it