Unreal Engine vs Raylib: Choosing The Right Engine

For high-end game development with C++, Unreal Engine is an established choice offering robust features. When simplicity and pedagogy trump high performance, opting for Raylib with its clean C99 codding and minimal dependencies proves advantageous.

Key Differences Between Unreal Engine and Raylib

• Language: Unreal Engine is C++ based whereas Raylib is designed in C99.
• Industry Focus: Unreal Engine targets professional game development and other industries; Raylib concentrates on education, prototyping, and embedded systems.
• Platform: Unreal Engine caters to a larger lease of platforms including VR, while Raylib is primarily cross-platform focused.
• Commercial model: Unreal Engine follows a royalty-based model over USD 1 million, on the contrary, Raylib does not oblige commercial usage fee.

What Is Unreal Engine and Who’s It For?

Unreal Engine (UE), an illustrious gaming engine developed by Epic Games, has been a stalwart in the tech world since its inception in 1998. From the release of its first game, Unreal, to the present, the engine has seen a paradigm shift from catering primarily to PC first-person shooters to finding use in various domains including film and television. Today, UE supports an array of platforms from desktop and mobile, to consoles and VR platforms, rendering its usability to a myriad of tech enthusiasts, game developers, and film industries. The latest release, UE5, is designed to propel your projects into unimagined heights, transcending the limits of imagination.

Pros of Unreal Engine

• Supports a diverse range of platforms
• Powerful features from acquisitions like Quixel
• Free for educational use
• 88% revenue share for content creators on the marketplace
• Industry-wide application potential beyond games

Cons of Unreal Engine

• Royalty fee for commercial use
• Learning curve can be steep for beginners
• Heavy system requirements

What Is raylib and Who’s It For?

A gem in the world of tech, raylib’s genesis dates back to November 18, 2013, when it was sculpted by Ramon Santamaria and fellow contributors. The core of raylib, written in C, is loved for its widespread platform support ranging from Windows, Linux, and macOS, to Android, Raspberry Pi, and HTML5. raylib prides itself on being an educational platform, aiding newbie developers as they venture into game development, and bolstering pros to push their prototyping and tooling further. Its no-dependency, inclusive design has widened its appeal to developers from all shades of the spectrum.

Pros of raylib

• Cross-platform support
• No external dependencies
• Versatile in terms of use cases
• Great for educational purposes
• Hardware accelerated with OpenGL

Cons of raylib

• Not as powerful as some high-end game engines
• Limited 3D capabilities compared to sophisticated engines
• Not suitable for triple-A game creation

Unreal Engine vs Raylib: Pricing

While Unreal Engine operates on a royalty-based pricing model, Raylib is completely free, driving a distinct separation in cost implications between the two technologies.

Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games, offers its advanced game engine technologies for commercial use at a cost of 5% of revenues exceeding $1 million. This royalty model, however, is waived for games published on the Epic Games Store. Despite this, the pricing model remains flexible. In educational settings, Unreal Engine is accessible at no cost. Furthermore, Epic Games incentivizes content creators by offering them an 88% share of the revenue generated on the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Raylib

Raylib presents a stark contrast with its completely open-source and free model. Developed by Ramon Santamaria and contributors, the cross-platform technology charges no fees, encouraging prototyping, tooling, graphical applications, embedded systems, and educational pursuits. Used globally for teaching videogames programming, Raylib stands as a cost-effective solution for those seeking powerful game development tools.

Code Examples for Unreal Engine & Raylib

Unreal Engine

This example features an Unreal Engine blueprint that creates an interactive lightbulb. Required versions include Unreal Engine 4.20 or onwards, assuming basic familiarity with the blueprint system.

    // Header file
    UCLASS()
    class YOURPROJECT_API ALightbulb : public AActor
    {
    GENERATED_BODY()

    public: 
    // Sets default values for this actor's properties
    ALightbulb();

    // Called every frame
    virtual void Tick(float DeltaTime) override;

    // Called when the game starts or when spawned
    protected:
    virtual void BeginPlay() override;

    bool bIsOn;

    public:
    UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category = "Switch Functions")
    void Switch();
    };

    //Implementation

    ALightbulb::ALightbulb()
    {
    InitialLifeSpan = 120.0f;
    bIsOn = true;
    }

    // Called when the game starts or when spawned
    void ALightbulb::BeginPlay()
    {
    Super::BeginPlay();
    }

    // Called every frame
    void ALightbulb::Tick(float DeltaTime)
    {
    Super::Tick(DeltaTime);
    }

    void ALightbulb::Switch()
    {
    bIsOn = !bIsOn;
    }

Raylib

Our Raylib code snippet is about creating a bouncing ball. This simple application provides excellent practice for user input and game-loop functionality. Ensure you have the latest version of Raylib for usability.

    #include "raylib.h"
    int main() 
    {
        const int screenWidth = 800;
        const int screenHeight = 450;
        InitWindow(screenWidth, screenHeight, "Bouncing Ball Example");

        Vector2 ballPosition = { (float)screenWidth/2, (float)screenHeight/2 };
        Vector2 ballSpeed = { 2.0f, 2.0f };
        Color ballColor = DARKBLUE;

        SetTargetFPS(60);              

        while (!WindowShouldClose())    
        {
            if ((ballPosition.x >= (screenWidth - 20)) || (ballPosition.x <= 20)) ballSpeed.x *= -1;
            if ((ballPosition.y >= (screenHeight - 20)) || (ballPosition.y <= 20)) ballSpeed.y *= -1;
            ballPosition.x += ballSpeed.x;
            ballPosition.y += ballSpeed.y;

            BeginDrawing();
            ClearBackground(RAYWHITE);
            DrawCircleV(ballPosition, 20, ballColor);
            EndDrawing();
        }
        CloseWindow();       
        return 0;
    }

The Final Showdown: Unreal Engine vs Raylib

Having scrutinised each technology thoroughly, it’s time to declare the victor. But the choice of the champion isn’t unequivocal; it depends on your precise needs.

Advanced Game Developers

For seasoned developers wanting to transform gaming realms with complex physics, top-notch animations and a wide array of game genres, Unreal Engine stands unrivalled. Offering exhaustive project templates, an open modding system, and a robust development kit, it’s a potent concoction for game creators wanting a shop-top solution.

Academia

If you nurture young minds eager to learn game development or wear a learner’s hat yourself, both Unreal Engine and Raylib warrant your attention. Unreal Engine grants free access to academic institutions. Meanwhile, Raylib, with its inherent simplicity and multiple language bindings, offers an excellent foundation for neophytes.

Tool Developers

For those inclined towards tool creation, Raylib reigns supreme. Its inception rooted in tooling allows it to offer excellent support for this needs set. Additionally, it presents an immediate mode GUI module, better suited for software tools developers.

In the final analysis, if you’re a veteran at game development aiming for complex applications, opt for Unreal Engine. On the other hand, if you’re venturing into tool development or are in academia, Raylib fits the bill perfectly.