Forum Discussion
vid artist looking for best dev software
hello, i just preordered the devkit2 and am looking to get started making some stuff for it so I'll have it ready when it arrives. i have invested a lot of time learning UDK and now it seems lik...
If you cancel your Unreal subscription you will just no longer have access to new updates and new demos on the marketplace might require a newer version than you have.
I love Unity and have the pro version. It is very easy to use but they don't have a built in equivalent of blueprint. Playmaker (a plug in for unity) is similar to Blueprint but it's an additional $45-$100. If you want to go past the capabilities of visual scripting (blueprint, playmaker etc) then Unity's C# scripting is much easier to learn than Unreal's C++.
From a purely fiscal standpoint you are looking at $20 for Unreal and $1500 or $75 per month (locked in for 12 months) + the $45 for Playmaker.
If you want to sell your creations Unreal may become more expensive due to their 5% royalty fee (although people on the Unity forums worked out that you need to make about $50k before it starts to become more expensive than Unity).
From a visual standpoint Unreal is prettier than Unity although that gap will close with Unity's 5.0 update coming soon.
So to sum it up: You should definitely try Uneal since you only have to spend $20. Unity is much easier to use but is much more expensive. Still it's worth trying out the free version of Unity even if it doesn't support the Rift just to see the differences for yourself.
*edit: On the differences between Unity Free and Pro
The free version of Unity locks out certain features: real time shadows for spot lights and point lights, post processing effects (which is needed for the pre-warping for the Rift ) and a few other things.
I love Unity and have the pro version. It is very easy to use but they don't have a built in equivalent of blueprint. Playmaker (a plug in for unity) is similar to Blueprint but it's an additional $45-$100. If you want to go past the capabilities of visual scripting (blueprint, playmaker etc) then Unity's C# scripting is much easier to learn than Unreal's C++.
From a purely fiscal standpoint you are looking at $20 for Unreal and $1500 or $75 per month (locked in for 12 months) + the $45 for Playmaker.
If you want to sell your creations Unreal may become more expensive due to their 5% royalty fee (although people on the Unity forums worked out that you need to make about $50k before it starts to become more expensive than Unity).
From a visual standpoint Unreal is prettier than Unity although that gap will close with Unity's 5.0 update coming soon.
So to sum it up: You should definitely try Uneal since you only have to spend $20. Unity is much easier to use but is much more expensive. Still it's worth trying out the free version of Unity even if it doesn't support the Rift just to see the differences for yourself.
*edit: On the differences between Unity Free and Pro
The free version of Unity locks out certain features: real time shadows for spot lights and point lights, post processing effects (which is needed for the pre-warping for the Rift ) and a few other things.