Best game engine for modern API?

[laminutederire]

Hi there,

I want to start programming a real game, with stunning graphics. I'm wondering if I should try and do it in UE4/ unity, or if I should do it from scratch usingDX12 or Vulkan APIs?

I ask because dx12 and Vulkan support in UE4 aren't well documented at all, or are nowhere to be seen for desktop, and it feels like ue4 is meant to be used for dx11/openGL games. For now Vulkan support is limited to mobile on UE4 as they present it, and last time I checked Unity doesn't support it yet. Neither does unity fully support dx12 it seems. Any of you guys veterans of awesome gaming have any advice?

[tomm]

not a veteran here, but I don't think you will achieve stunning graphics with programming.

and ue4/unity is a no brainer unless you wanna lose all your hair by writing an engine from scratch.

but if low level graphics programming is your thing then go for it.

[laminutederire]

8 minutes ago, tomm said:

not a veteran here, but I don't think you will achieve stunning graphics with programming.

and ue4/unity is a no brainer unless you wanna lose all your hair by writing an engine from scratch.

but if low level graphics programming is your thing then go for it.

I have plenty hair to lose, won't have to get my hair cut, budget cut. Thanks!

Issue with ue4/unity is that everything rendering wise is already almost entirely written. Or at least it seems like it is. I'm curious about how to optimize things, so I kinda need to do it myself.

But you're wrong and right about the graphics. It is possible to get stunning graphics (Doom is a great example of that). But you're right I'll most probably won't achieve that alone.

[hgn]

1 hour ago, laminutederire said:

Issue with ue4/unity is that everything rendering wise is already almost entirely written. Or at least it seems like it is. I'm curious about how to optimize things, so I kinda need to do it myself.

For graphics you hardly have to do anything written, with both engines. The time you need to write code is to actually make the game function

The reason the docs are so low on this stuff is because it gives you most of the things you need already, for example in unity a widely versatile Default PBR shader, dof shaders etc, all with simple controls, it allows you to focus on making the game instead of fiddling around all the time.

If you look into it there are a lot of aggressive optimization techniques for both engines that won't cause much stress setting up, and both engines already deal with optimization to some extent to start with.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Terri

[laminutederire]

3 hours ago, Terri said:

For graphics you hardly have to anything written, with both engines. The time you need to write code is to actually make the game function

The reason the docs are so low on this stuff is because it gives you most of the things you need already, for example in unity a widely versatile Default PBR shader, dof shaders etc, all with simple controls, it allows you to focus on making the game instead of fiddling around all the time.

If you look into it there are a lot of aggressive optimization techniques for both engines that won't cause much stress setting up, and both engines already deal with optimization to some extent to start with.

They lack some optimization on memory management and draw calls management, which were added on dx12/Vulkan.  Unless I missed that in the documentation of UE4 which I'd extensive on everything but that :/

Aren't there guys from epic here?

[blackdog]

@2d-chris is ?

Anyway if you want to learn low-level programming I think you need to write a renderer of your own. It surely is good for learning. If you want to write a full blown game engine, that's not advisable.