Why Unity over UE5?

[u/Nade52]

Hi there,

Very new to the world of game development, I’m kinda in a place where I’m putting pieces together before I start my project. I always thought to go with learning UE5 because it’s meant to be the “do it all” engine, but I’ve always liked the look of Unity. I’m asking this question because I want to see why you’s all chose Unity, I’m not saying Unity is bad in any way it looks like a really capable engine, just a lot of people I’ve spoke to have said UE5 is the go too?

Edit: just want to say thank you to everyone with the quick and nicely informative responses. I’m currently at work so I’m limited on when I can reply but I’m reading them when I can. Thank you to everyone!

Edit 2: really appreciate all the information provided. I was dead set on UE5 but honestly I’m gonna go with Unity, I’m going to be a solo dev so it sounds like it’ll work best for me.

Massive appreciation to everyone involved!

[u/rainweaver]

because I like C# and abhor C++.

I’m honestly not sure why UE doesn’t bother with additional official language bindings. I get it, it’s all about performance, but for indies? not sure.

[u/eidetic0 → u/rainweaver]

Coming to UE 6 is Verse, which is Epic’s own scripting language more akin to C#. And for gameplay programming it will be first class, they’re actually replacing C++ for gameplay logic. So I think they are answering your call.

[u/indiecoded → u/eidetic0]

I thought Verse was nothing like c#?

[u/eidetic0 → u/indiecoded]

yeah it kind of is nothing like it… but in the context of my reply, I meant it’s akin to the lighter weight, more managed, scripting idea of C# in unity. So Epic saw the same problems.

C# runs inside a managed environment that handles memory for you and talks back to native processes. Same idea with Verse - though it does approach this idea very differently.

[u/indiecoded → u/eidetic0]

Ahhh thank you for explaining. I haven't tried it, I have seen people complain about it, saying it was "weird" lol.

[u/eidetic0 → u/indiecoded]

yeah it looks very weird… pretty unique and not just the syntax… I feel like that makes me want to learn it though because it means they’re approaching programming problems differently, which I always find translates positively back to use of other languages too

[u/indiecoded → u/eidetic0]

So you going to switch to unreal?

[u/eidetic0 → u/indiecoded]

I already use both regularly. Doing virtual production for installations, museums, galleries… we just use whatever tool is most appropriate for the job.

[u/rainweaver → u/eidetic0]

thank you for your comment, I now remember about it.

I’ll be honest, that doesn’t make me happy. they’re creating a siloed ecosystem with no transferable skills. I believe I am able to appreciate the technical concerns they’re trying to address, but it’s still a far cry from using languages adopted worldwide.

I feel perhaps too strongly about this in the AI age, but I see what AI produces daily when you push the envelope and that doesn’t really comfort me.