What is the best game engine: is Unity right for you?

Game engines work like the design or architecture that developers use to create or modify any game. These are generally reusable components and are used for designing characters, scenes, textures, etc. Application interfaces like DirectX, XNA, and OpenGL help in the designing part. Gaming today has become a booming business and is beyond stopping. It is expected to be worth 200 billion USD in the coming years. The gaming industry is growing by leaps and bounds not only in the developed countries but also in developing countries like India. However, for the right outcome, Game Development Companies in India need to choose the right game engine platforms out of the many options to deliver significant tasks with reduced coding efforts. Physics, Input, and Visual Assets Processing are the key fields the engine must cover. Currently, we have many game engines like Unreal, Amazon Lumberyard, CryEngine, Unity, Godot, etc.

Unity overview

The gaming industry has taken a giant leap from the conventional form. Players at present can personalize gaming characters and accessories with the right game engine. Therefore it is very important for both new and seasoned players to choose the right gaming engine which will prove sustainable. To talk of sustainability, Unity pops up at once in our minds. The advent of Unity happened back in 2005 by David Helgason. The first launch happened at Apple’s universal conference and was designed to function on Mac computers but gradually it got introduced to other platforms as well. Basically, Unity is a third-party tool and currently enjoys popularity in over 195 countries with a medium of above 25 platforms having millions of assets. The time and cost factor makes Unity most approachable. Unity’s easy portability makes it convenient to use on Switch, iOS, PS4, Linux, Android TV, etc.

Parts of Unity

Unity consists of three parts which are;

• Game Engine helps in creating, testing and playing the games in various kinds of environments.
• The Application puts together the user interface with a preview option for graphics and control functions of the game. The visual interface helps the developers in creating video, audio, scenes and characters.
• The code editor helps in creating codes for different functions. The animation and visuals generally follow C# coding.

Built-in components:

• The mesh filter which allows developers to allot materials to 3D mesh to any object related to the game.
• For assigning mesh to a 3D mesh, there is Mesh Render.
• Mesh collider is another important tool that helps in detecting game objects during collision.

Why Unity?

Unity has several specifications which makes it the first choice for a Unity game development company. OpenGL, Direct3D, etc are used for iOS and Android. Unity supports reflection, parallax and bumps mapping, and various file formats. Unity has asset tracing tools for game assets. It uses different back-end systems for audio and video like PostgreSQL for audio and Theora Codec for video. Global illumination and light mapping are other great assets of Unity. The real-time cloth simulation on collision layers and thick ray casts helps in supporting PhysX physics engines.

Pros:

• A great variety of platforms get supported by Unity including web and mobile platforms. One single code base is used for the purpose. IDE works as the single integrated system for all platforms with user-friendly features.
• The documentation process is swift and perfect.
• Deployment of games becomes easy with Unity.
• Unity restricts memory leaks.
• The code used by Unity consists of less error and contains great stability.
• The audio visual effects with Unity are quite satisfactory and do not compromise with the pixel quality when used on mobile phones.
• The popularity and trustworthiness of Unity make it possess over 60% of the augmented reality and virtual reality.
• Unity provides the opportunity to create 3D or 2D graphics using render pipelines.
• There lies a great stock of integrated assets with Unity which are easily downloadable.
• The low cost or no cost makes it budget friendly. If a person’s revenue is less than $100,000 in a year or if the game becomes unable to make $100K revenue, then Unity allows commercial games to be created through its personal license.
• Unity is like the torch bearer of democracy in the gaming world.
• It is easier to find a developer with C# coding knowledge.

Let’s flip the coin to the other side

With all the features aforesaid, Unity is highly popular among coders but struggles to gain the popularity amidst artist community. Unity undoubtedly provides free assets but needs a separate installation. Unity targets mainly indie developers and is not familiar with big studio developers making it unfit for bigger projects.  Unity promotes bad code practice, hence can’t be thought of for long-term use. The non-visual platforms have not seen a satisfactory performance by Unity. A lot of work needs to be done in the case of graphic textures. One needs to spend extra for acquiring the mobile pro license. The folders in abundance make it unorganized.

Choosing a game engine highly depends on the type of developers. An indie developer can work well with Unity for simple experiences but a big studio developer would require more than this. A beginner looking for coding to create a wide range of games must opt for Unity.