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Open 3D Engine VS Unity

Compare Open 3D Engine VS Unity and see what are their differences

Open 3D Engine logo Open 3D Engine

Open 3D Engine is an open-source 3D game development engine in real-time.

Unity logo Unity

The multiplatform game creation tools for everyone.
  • Open 3D Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-04
  • Unity Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

Open 3D Engine features and specs

  • Open Source
    Open 3D Engine is freely available under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing developers to access, modify, and distribute its source code without licensing fees.
  • High Customizability
    The engine's open-source nature and modular design enable extensive customization, making it possible for developers to tailor the engine to specific needs and workflows.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Open 3D Engine supports development for multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and macOS, broadening the scope for developers targeting different audiences.
  • Robust Toolset
    The engine provides a comprehensive set of tools for 3D development, including a visual scripting environment and a powerful asset processing pipeline.
  • Active Community and Contributions
    An active and growing community contributes to the continuous improvement and updating of the engine, providing support and a wealth of shared resources.

Possible disadvantages of Open 3D Engine

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its complexity and extensive feature set, mastering Open 3D Engine can be challenging, especially for beginners.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running and developing with Open 3D Engine can require significant hardware resources, which may not be suitable for all developers or projects with limited capabilities.
  • Evolving Ecosystem
    As a relatively new entrant in the field, the ecosystem around Open 3D Engine is continuously evolving, which might lead to occasional instability or rapidly changing documentation.
  • Limited Third-Party Plugins
    Compared to more established engines, Open 3D Engine currently has fewer third-party plugins available, which could limit out-of-the-box functionality for some specialized needs.
  • Complex Project Setup
    Setting up projects and configuring the engine might be more complex compared to other engines, requiring more initial time investment to get started.

Unity features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Unity supports development for a wide range of platforms including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and many others, allowing developers to reach a broad audience.
  • Extensive Asset Store
    Unity's Asset Store offers a huge selection of assets, plugins, and tools created by other developers, which can save significant development time and resources.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The Unity Editor is known for its user-friendly and intuitive interface that is accessible even for beginners, while offering advanced features for seasoned developers.
  • Strong Community Support
    Unity boasts a large and active community, as well as extensive documentation and tutorials, making it easier to find solutions to development challenges.
  • Versatile for Various Applications
    Unity is not only suitable for game development but is also used in other industries such as film, automotive, architecture, and virtual reality projects.
  • Real-time Development and Testing
    Unity provides robust tools for real-time testing and iteration which allow developers to see changes instantly without needing to rebuild the project.
  • Proven Performance and Optimization Tools
    Unity offers a variety of performance profiling and optimization tools, helping developers to create highly optimized and smooth-running applications.

Possible disadvantages of Unity

  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic use of Unity is accessible, mastering its advanced features and achieving high levels of performance optimization can be quite challenging.
  • Subscription Costs
    Unity offers a subscription-based pricing model for advanced features, which might be expensive for smaller developers or hobbyists.
  • Dependency on Third-Party Tools
    Reliance on third-party assets and plugins from the Asset Store can sometimes lead to compatibility issues or added costs.
  • Performance Overhead
    Although Unity is highly optimized, it can introduce some performance overhead compared to lower-level programming, particularly for very high-end, resource-intensive projects.
  • Large Build Sizes
    Unity applications can result in relatively large build sizes, which can be a concern for mobile platforms or situations where storage is a limitation.
  • Closed Source
    Unlike some other engines, Unity is closed-source, limiting developers' ability to deeply customize or troubleshoot engine issues at the source code level.
  • Memory Management
    Unity's automated memory management through garbage collection can sometimes result in performance hitches if not carefully managed.

Open 3D Engine videos

Lumberyard Engine Open Sourced!! -- O3DE or "Open 3D Engine" is the new name

More videos:

  • Review - Welcome to OPEN 3D Engine (O3DE)
  • Review - Announcing Open 3D Engine (O3DE)

Unity videos

Assassin's Creed Unity Review

More videos:

  • Review - Assassin's Creed Unity - Review
  • Review - SHOULD YOU USE UNITY IN 2019?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Open 3D Engine and Unity)
Game Engine
6 6%
94% 94
Game Development
4 4%
96% 96
3D Game Engine
4 4%
96% 96
Gaming Software
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Open 3D Engine and Unity

Open 3D Engine Reviews

Best Unity alternatives for game development
Now, if you're looking for an engine that focuses on 3D, Open 3D Engine is a stellar choice (even if it is a bit finicky). You will notice that Open 3D Engine is essentially the successor to Amazon Lumberyard (however, Open 3D Engine is managed by the Linux Foundation). But this time, it is open-sourced and equipped with the Apache 2.0 license. Learning on this platform may...
What Are the Best Game Engines?
Lumberyard is a free, cross-platform engine. But recently, Amazon has taken its game engine and transformed it into an open-source model. Open3D is the latest from Amazon. It builds on top of Lumberyard and creates a more modular approach to game development.

Unity Reviews

  1. Good

    This is such a wonderful abd helpful game-making platform,even for the beginners. And i know and I've played in the several games ,for example,which were made so thoroughly and carefully and also simply by using “UNITY” . So the game quality is just a matter of the programmer's skill,i think.


Godot Engine vs Unity: Which One Suits You Best in 2024
3D performance: For Godot vs Unity 3d, Unity typically leads. Unity's advanced rendering techniques and powerful optimization tools allow for high-fidelity graphics and smooth gameplay in complex 3D environments. This makes Unity the preferred choice for high-end 3D games and VR/AR applications.
Source: rocketbrush.com
Top 13 Picks for Maxon Cinema 4D Alternatives in 2024
Originally launched in 2005, Unity is a robust game development engine, highly regarded for facilitating the creation of intricately designed 3D and 2D games. Unity’s adaptability across different operating systems facilitates a myriad of applications, from Augmented Reality to 3D simulations.
Source: aircada.com
Explore 9 Top Eclipse Alternatives for 2024
Established in 2005, Unity serves as a powerful engine for 3D and 2D game development. Renowned for its adaptability across numerous operating systems, Unity’s premier platform facilitates everything from Augmented Reality to 3D simulations.
Source: aircada.com
Game Engines: A Comparative Analysis
Additional Options: Unity also supports JavaScript (UnityScript) and Boo, but C# has become the standard and most widely used language for Unity development.
Source: medium.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
With its gaming-oriented pedigree, Unity delivers unmatched capabilities for rich interactive apps leveraging physics, particle systems, and complex animations in 2D and 3D spaces. For architects and designers wanting to bring CAD models to life or showcase real estate properties in full immersive detail, Unity shines. Medical imaging apps also benefit from performant...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Unity seems to be a lot more popular than Open 3D Engine. While we know about 204 links to Unity, we've tracked only 17 mentions of Open 3D Engine. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Open 3D Engine mentions (17)

  • Unreal Engine change its price for non-game apps
    O3DE[0] looks interesting - owned by the Linux Foundation, originally based on Amazon's Lumberyard, and it has some big players involved: Amazon, Epic Games(!), Microsoft, NVIDIA, Intel, Huawei, Red Hat, [0] https://o3de.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Alternative Game Engines for Marooned Unity Developers
    03DE: Open source game engine, under Apache License 2.0, developed by Amazon and the linux foundation. Seems to work under a modular package called "gems", that you can use to pull in the functionality you need. It uses c++ as it's main language, but you can use Lua, python or visual scripting for scripting stuff. Has multiplayer built into the engine and what they call a "robust" system for open-world games.... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Someone dropped the source code for Far Cry 1 on archive.org
    Note that Lumberyard became "Open 3D Engine" (yes, very inspired name) which is Apache 2 licensed: https://o3de.org/ https://github.com/o3de/o3de/ AFAIK all development in Lumberyard has ceased and moved to O3DE. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Did they take down the post about motion matching recently?
    Many pages in o3de.org are down. They are working on it. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is SPIRV-Cross a valid option to target Metal from HSSL?
    I've worked on this a bit as part of the shader pipeline of Open3DEngine, From my experience there are very few compatibility issues between hlsl and sprir-v, sprir-v to msl however does run into a few issues.Here are the ones I remember. Source: about 2 years ago
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Unity mentions (204)

  • OOP for Unity Beginners: Build Better Games from the Start
    In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll break down OOP in Unity in a way that’s simple, practical, and directly tied to game development. You’ll learn how to structure your code with classes, inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism—without getting overwhelmed by jargon. - Source: dev.to / 30 days ago
  • Why Does Everyone Forget Java and C# for Backend Development? Why Don’t Full-Stack Developers Learn Java and C#?
    C# was developed by Microsoft in the early 2000s as part of its .NET initiative, led by Anders Hejlsberg. Originally designed as an alternative to Java, C# evolved into a powerful language for Windows applications, backend services, game development (via Unity), and cloud computing. The introduction of .NET Core made C# fully cross-platform, allowing it to run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • One must imagine Sisyphus writing a new JS framework
    The same happened with video games thanks to projects like Unity or Blender. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • How to use an auto-tiling technique in your next game project
    One can get exposed to auto-tiling in different implementations. If you're using a game engine like Unity or Godot, there are features automatically built into those packages to enabling auto-tiling as you draw and create your levels. Also, there are software tools like Tiled, LDTK, and Sprite Fusion, that are a little more tilemap specific and give you native tools for auto-tiling. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • How to Use Virtual Reality for Client Walkthroughs and Approvals
    > Unity is renowned for its versatility and ease of use. With a vast library of assets and plugins, it's perfect for rapid prototyping and iterative design. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Open 3D Engine and Unity, you can also consider the following products

Godot Engine - Feature-packed 2D and 3D open source game engine.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.

Cyberix3D - Free online 3D Game Maker. Make your own 3D games online!

Blender - Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

Castle Game Engine - An open-source 3D/2D game engine for ObjectPascal.

GDevelop - GDevelop is an open-source game making software designed to be used by everyone.