Check out the differences between the UE5 and Unity versions of the Parrot Game sample.
(Image credit: Epic Games)
Both Unity and Unreal Engine have spots in our roundup of the best game development software. Unity remains the most used single game engine overall, but Unreal is increasingly popular for big 3D titles.
Developer Epic Games has been trying to change and to coax more indie devs to Unreal by providing lots of resources for learning and stressing that it's not just for big photorealistic games. It's latest helping hand is a new Parrot Game Sample in both Unreal Engine and Unity versions made with the same assets.
Created with the game dev studio Secret Dimension, Parrot Game Sample is a charming, pirate-themed 2.5D platformer with three levels, a title screen and a full menu system. There are two versions, one made in Unreal Engine 5 and one made in Unity 6. The goal was to achieve maximum parity between the two versions and capture their insights along the way in annotations and documentation offering tips and education for developers.
Parrot shows implementations of input, lighting, shaders, materials, audio, character controllers, physics, and management systems. Specific Unreal Engine systems in use include Lumen for global illumination, Nanite for higher poly meshes, Behavior Trees for enemy AI, World Partition for level streaming, Sequencer for the swimming sharks, Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) and CommonUI for the user interface and Enhanced Input.
You can see differences in the Unity vs Unreal Engine 5 versions below.
Image 1 of 6
A screenshot from the Unreal Engine 5 version of the Parrot Game Sample(Image credit: Epic Games)
The Unity 6 version(Image credit: Epic Games)
Unreal Engine 5(Image credit: Epic Games)
Unity 6(Image credit: Epic Games)
Unreal Engine 5(Image credit: Epic Games)
Unity 6(Image credit: Epic Games)
Devs Dakota Herold and Justin Thomas have aimed to make the code in UE5 as simple as they could. They also created an ancillary set of documents that expands on several topics, including more thorough explanations on concepts, Unreal Engine systems, Parrot’s implementations, and references to the official Unreal Engine documentation.
Both versions of the Parrot Game Sample can be downloaded from Epic Games' Fab store for free.
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For more Unreal Engine-related news, check out the first images from the Rogue Trooper movie, which was animated entirely in Epic's game engine.
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
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