Choosing the right Game Engine is certainly the most important decision a game developer needs to take in order to get the best results out of his or her product. The first riddle a game developer has to solve while creating a game is what game engine should I use to get the best user experience. A game engine not only helps you create classic arcade games like Ping, Tetris, Snake but also the innovative and cutting-edge level games like GTA and Assassin?s Creed. Though there are a lot of powerful game engines available in the market nowadays, we will help you select the best game engine 2018 here in this article.
If you are a game developer, you must have heard about some incredible game engines like Unreal Engine, CryEngine, and Unity3d. These are some of the most predominant and leading game engines for creating advanced level games today. Each of these 3 game engines has their own qualities and potentials. However, we would recommend you select any one of them based on the project you are going to work on. You should be clear about the nature of your project, for instance, your license budget, game platform, the dimensions of (2D or 3D) and so on. Hence, your aim must be clear before selecting the best game engine 2018 for your project.
So, let?s take some time compare CryEngine vs Unreal Engine vs Unity here!
UNITY 3D
Unity 3D is considered as one of the best game engines out there as the engine offers its users a wide range of tools and features that are easily accessible even if you are not a tech-savvy.
One of the best features this tool provides is its cross platform integration, which allows game developers to switch any game platform between Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows as well. Notably, the cross platform integration of the Unity supports as many as 25 platforms, which is way ahead of its competitors, Unreal Engine and CryEngine that support 10 and 5 respectively.
Unity has a large number of members in its community who can help you with the project right away. Another feature that makes it stand out to be one of the best 3D game engine 2018 is its capability to support a number of file formats used in the leading 3D applications including 3D Max, Blender, CINEMA, Maya, Softimage and many more. Furthermore, the game developers can have the access to use more than 15,000 free + paid 3D models, audio, animations, editor extensions, materials, scripts, and shaders while designing the games.
Unity 3D uses C# or JavaScript, which is more preferred than C++, as it gives no pain to switch from Java to C# as compared to C++. None the less, the Unity 3D has a clean and quick interface and is light enough to run even on the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) as well.
UNREAL ENGINE 4 (UE4)
The second one on the list is Unreal Engine 4, which is the latest engine rolled out by one of the greatest American video games and software development companies Epic Games. Unreal Engine 4 is inherited by the Unreal Development Kit, commonly known as the UDK in the world of gaming.
Unreal Engine 4 comes up with the incredible graphics, which give the gaming experience a realistic touch with features like advanced dynamic lightings. What makes this game engine even more miraculous is its new particle system that has the ability to handle as many as million particles in a single scene.
Moreover, UE4 is completely free to use, however, you need to pay a royalty fee of 5% on the money you make off your games, designed by the Unreal Engine 4. In a nutshell, Epic Games will get 5% of everything you earn, be it the in-app purchases, in-game ads or the money you charge the users to purchase your game. However, the makers of the Unreal Engine 4 let the developers use its full version for free in case the revenue you earn from the game is up to $3,000/ quarter.
Besides, Unreal Engine 4 uses the Blueprint Visual Scripting technology, which allows you create games using the Blueprint only. Even a non-programmer can write code and create games using the UE4 to an extent; however, such games would have some limits. Apart from all, the bad sight of this engine is, it is not able to develop games for the past generation consoles.
CryEngine
The last but certainly not the least we have on our list of the best game engines in 2018 is CryEngine. First introduced by the great development corporation, Crytek, in the first Far Cry Game, the CryEngine is surely one of the most powerful and dominant game engines we have today. What makes the CryEngine worthy of the list is its graphical abilities that outshine the Unity?s graphical capabilities and are equivalent to what Unreal holds. Though being a heavy and powerful game engine, CryEngine takes a bit time to be able to use this platform effectively and a bit harder to grasp for the beginners who have not used any other game engines beforehand.
CryEngine supports Virtual Reality and has astonishing visual effects including its volumetric fog and cloud rendering system, which gives the clouds a full 3D spatial rendering and a realistic visualization for fog and weather effects. Moreover, the best part of selecting the CryEngine platform for game designing is that it does not require its users to pay the royalty fee upon designing the game. However, you need to pay a fixed amount viz. $9.90 /- per month in order to gain the access to CryEngine. Besides, CryEngine has a dedication Q&A forum called CryEngine Answers, which clears all your doubts and queries, and helps you get the best experience.
So, now that we have the game engine comparison, what according to you stand out to be the best 3D game engine 2018? Well, let us help you summarize the comparison!
While comparing Unreal vs Unity vs CryEngine 2018, we came across the best features these game engines provide us. While matching the Unity vs Unreal performance, we comprehended that Unity is the better platform for developing mobile and 2D/3D games whereas Unreal is best suited for developing highly graphical and photorealistic games. This turns out to be a big difference between Unreal and Unity.
CryEngine, on the other hand, holds the capabilities of creating the high graphical games as well. Besides, while comparing CryEngine vs Unreal 2018 on the scale of providing the next-gen platform features with more appealing pricing model, CryEngine surely beats the Unreal with its cost-effective structure. However, for a beginner, when it comes to CryEngine 5 vs Unreal Engine 4 on the basis of the easiness and minimalism, despite being the jaw-dropping features that CryEngine has, Unreal Engine 4 and Unity are surely worth giving a try.
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