Unreal Engine and Blender are two of the most used software among game developers, each with its own uses and place in the game development workflow. As a beginner entering the video game industry, choosing between Blender vs Unreal Engine can be tough, especially when considering which one best fits your needs. Hopefully, this guide will ease that difficulty and help you decide between Blender or Unreal Engine.

Unreal Engine is an open-source 3D game engine developed by Epic Games, used in popular titles like Fortnite, Octopath Traveller, Mortal Kombat, Fallen Order, and many other AAA games. If you're just starting with Unreal Engine, our Complete Guide to Unreal Engine is an excellent resource to help you learn the basics and beyond.

Blender, on the other hand, is a free 3D modeling program that has dedicated tools for creating 3D assets, rigging, sculpting, and animation. Blender is typically used to create 3D assets that are later imported into Unreal Engine for game development. If you're new to Blender, our Complete Guide to Blender 3D for Beginners can help you get started with this powerful software.

Both software thus occupy two different niches in the game development world and can be used together. However, if your resources are limited and you must choose one software over the other, this guide may help.

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Pricing

The first thing to consider when choosing software is your budget. Luckily, you won’t have to worry about that in this case as both Blender and Unreal Engine are completely free and open-source; though Unreal Engine has the added caveat of a 5% royalty on your commercial product after it hits 1 million USD gross revenue.

For most indie devs, the 1 million USD threshold is a high bar to reach, and you likely will never have to pay that royalty sum, so this shouldn’t stop you from installing Unreal Engine if you need it. However, if Unreal’s royalty stipulation still doesn’t vibe with you or you don’t feel comfortable supporting Epic Games in any way, then Blender is the best choice for you.

System Requirements

Another factor to consider when choosing software is the system requirements. Before you start learning any game development software, you must know if they are compatible with your current setup as it is way more practical to install alternative software than to buy an entirely new rig.

Though both software require a minimum of a quad-core Intel CPU or the equivalent and 8GB RAM, Unreal Engine generally has steeper requirements like an RTX 2000 series NVIDIA GPU or higher, especially if you mean to use the new Nanite and Lumen features.

Ultimately, if your PC setup is modest, then Blender is the tool for you, but if you have a high-end PC or you don’t mind missing out on the new UE5 features, then go ahead and install Unreal Engine.

Game Development

As of Blender 2.8, Blender ceased to ship with a game engine and therefore has no game engine capabilities as of today. If you still want to develop a game within Blender, you can use UPBGE, an open-source fork of Blender’s original game engine, which allows you to code a game without leaving Blender.

UPBGE uses Python, which is a great programming language for a beginner to ease into, making it great for creating small, simple games. However, Python’s functionality is limited when it comes to game development; it is slow and prone to lag when dealing with larger projects, and is thus not ideal for bigger games.

Unreal Engine, on the other hand, is a dedicated game engine used by many AAA companies. It uses C++, and though it is much harder to learn than Python, C++ offers greater game dev capabilities such as speed and an extensive game dev library. Unreal Engine also ships with Blueprints, a node-based visual scripting interface that can help if you don’t want to delve too deep into coding.

In conclusion, if you’re looking to build short simple 2D games, Blender is a good choice, whereas Unreal Engine can be used to build bigger, more complex 3D titles in addition to its 2D game dev capabilities.

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3D Modelling and Texturing, Nanites

Blender is primarily a 3D modeling software and thus has dedicated advanced 3D modeling tools such as procedural modeling and modifiers, which allow you to edit geometry in a non-destructive way, preserving the base mesh. Blender can use computation to create complex geometries using a fixed set of rules.

Blender’s modeling toolkit is so extensive that most developers use Blender to create 3D assets, which they later import for use into Unreal Engine. Blender is therefore the premier tool to use for 3D modeling. For a deeper dive into how Blender stacks up against other industry tools like Houdini, check out our comparison of Blender vs. Houdini for 3D modeling in 2024.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for texturing in Blender, as its texturing tools have limited functionality, especially if you want to create high-quality PBR textures. A lot of professionals, therefore, resort to using Substance Painter and importing the resulting textures into Blender. To understand how Blender's texturing tools compare to other specialized software, take a look at our Blender vs. ZBrush comparison guide.

Unreal Engine modeling tools are still evolving and have yet to catch up to the capabilities of Blender. They can be used to make simple 3D assets but are nowhere near as effective as Blender’s tools. If you do not want to constantly switch between third-party software and Unreal, however, Unreal’s modeling toolkit is usable. For a comparison of Blender and Cinema4D, particularly in 3D modeling, our Blender vs. Cinema4D guide offers detailed insights.

Unreal Engine also has access to a variety of free assets on its marketplace. Users of Unreal Engine have access to the Quixel Megascans library, which boasts a vast array of realistic and detailed 3D assets and PBR materials. Quixel Mixer can also be used to create and edit PBR textures according to your taste. Explore the best Unreal Engine assets to enhance your projects without starting from scratch.

In addition to all this, Unreal Engine 5 has the Nanite system, which allows for a large number of polygons to be displayed in the viewport at once, reducing reliance on normal maps, low-poly assets, and proxies. Blender has no such system, so when you’re creating large complex scenes, the viewport tends to lag if low-poly models aren’t used. If you're debating Blender vs Unreal Engine 5 or Blender vs UE5 specifically for high-end projects, Blender's robust modeling capabilities paired with Unreal’s rendering power make them a formidable duo.

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Animation and Rigging

Blender has a variety of resources that make keyframe creation, character animation, and rigging easier and less complicated. Blender also has 2D rigging capabilities via Grease Pencil, which allows you to rig 2D sprites. Skeletal meshes created in Blender can be imported into Unreal Engine for further development. Curious about how Blender's rigging compares to Autodesk Maya? Our Maya vs. Blender comparison breaks down the differences.

Unreal Engine’s control rig allows the use of Python scripts to aid in the accurate rigging of character models. Although Unreal Engine’s control rig is nowhere near as developed or as extensive as Blender’s rigging system, Unreal Engine has access to MetaHumans, a set of pre-modeled, pre-rigged 3D human assets that can be set up in your Unreal Projects. They can be animated using mocap or various poses available within Unreal Engine.

When deciding between Blender or Unreal Engine for Animation, Blender's advanced rigging tools can give it an edge, but Unreal Engine vs Blender for Animation offers more robust real-time rendering options. Many developers wonder, "Is Unreal Engine better than Blender?" or "Is Unreal Engine easier than Blender?" for animation tasks, and the answer often depends on your project’s complexity and your experience level.

Rendering

When it comes to rendering, the most important factors to consider are speed and photorealism. Blender ships with two engines: Cycles, which is an offline CPU renderer, and Eevee, an online real-time GPU rendering engine. Cycles uses path tracing to calculate global illumination, resulting in accurate lighting and high–quality photorealistic renders.

The only downside of Cycles is that it relies on your CPU performance, so the fewer CPU cores and RAM you have, the slower your renders. Eevee, the real-time rendering engine, is leagues faster than Cycles but sacrifices accuracy for speed. It uses rasterization to calculate lighting for scenes, which estimates how a scene should look and not how it is, resulting in lower-quality renders than Cycles.

Unreal Engine 5 unveiled Lumen in a PS5 tech demo in 2020, showcasing the powerful and dynamic global illumination and reflections system. Lumen is based on a highly optimized form of ray-tracing, which generates accurate lighting and highly detailed photorealistic scenes, rivaling Cycle’s output. If you’re torn between Blender or Unreal Engine 5 for rendering, it might come down to whether you prioritize real-time speed in UE5 vs Blender or the high-quality photorealism that Blender’s Cycles can achieve.

Unreal Engine has the advantage here as it is real-time and the final output is almost instant. Lumen, however, needs an RTX 2000 series GPU to operate. Unreal Engine has access to the path-tracer tool, which can correct any errors generated by the real-time rendering engine. Unreal Engine also provides cinematic tools for easy cutscene creation.

If you have a low-end setup and don’t mind Cycle’s long render times or Eevee’s less-than-stellar output, then Blender is your best bet. Other than that, Unreal Engine’s Lumen provides the best quality images in the shortest possible time, which can be extremely useful when rendering animations with a lot of frames. For those transitioning from Blender to Unreal Engine 5, leveraging both tools’ strengths can optimize your workflow and output.

Also, you can always try using services like Vagon, and reduce your rendering times significantly with the power of cloud computers.

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Conclusion

Unreal Engine and Blender are both great software for different aspects of game development depending on your needs. If you aim to focus on asset creation, character creation, and rigging side of game development, you would want to stick to Blender as its 3D modeling and rigging capabilities are vastly superior to those found in Unreal Engine.

Alternatively, if you want to focus on coding the actual game, then Unreal Engine is the better option as it is a dedicated game engine with visual scripting capabilities. All in-game cutscenes can also be rendered quickly and in real-time. Or, like most professionals, you could incorporate both software into your workflow, using Blender to create your game assets and rig your characters while Unreal Engine handles the coding and rendering.

FAQs:

1. What is the difference between Blender and Unreal Engine?

   • Blender is primarily a 3D modeling software with robust tools for creating assets, rigging, and animation, while Unreal Engine is a game engine designed for developing, coding, and rendering games. Both can be used together, with Blender creating assets that are then imported into Unreal Engine.

2. Is Unreal Engine better than Blender?

   • It depends on your project goals. Unreal Engine excels in game development and real-time rendering, making it ideal for creating complex 3D games. Blender, on the other hand, is better for 3D modeling, animation, and asset creation. Many developers use both tools in their workflow.

3. Blender or Unreal Engine: Which is easier to learn?

   • Blender has a steep learning curve for its modeling and animation tools but offers more accessible entry points for beginners. Unreal Engine is more complex, especially when dealing with game coding and advanced features, but it also provides visual scripting tools like Blueprints to ease the learning process.

4. Can Blender be used with Unreal Engine?

   • Yes, Blender is often used alongside Unreal Engine. 3D models, animations, and assets created in Blender can be imported into Unreal Engine for game development. This combination allows developers to utilize Blender's advanced modeling tools and Unreal’s powerful game engine.

5. Which is better for animation: Blender or Unreal Engine?

   • Blender offers more advanced tools for character rigging and keyframe animation, making it a strong choice for detailed animations. However, Unreal Engine provides real-time rendering and cinematic tools, which can be advantageous for creating animations directly within the game environment.

6. Should I learn Blender or Unreal Engine first?

   • If your focus is on 3D modeling, asset creation, or animation, start with Blender. If you’re interested in game development and coding, Unreal Engine might be the better starting point. Ultimately, learning both tools can be highly beneficial, as they complement each other well in game development workflows.