Hi,

I'm developing a 3D visualization application for the entertainment industry. It's used, for example, to plan stage shows.

The application has been released 5 years ago and is mature (large userbase).

I wrote everything in raw DirectX, and the graphics are bad.

To improve the graphics and save time, I want to switch to a commercial, well-supported game engine.

I want state-of-the-art graphics with dynamic indirect lighting and shadows.

I don't need most "game" features (e.g. AI, controller support), but I do want the best graphics I can possibly get.

It should be possible to go deep into the rendering pipeline and adjust all details myself.

I'm looking for an engine with a proven track-record, a large userbase, that will still be around in 5-10 years.

Multi-plattform support is not necessary, all of my customers use Windows.

C++ or C# are both fine.

My candidates:

1. Unity

Pro: well-supported, big community, easy to learn, runs on old hardware.

Cons: less good at photorealistic rendering

2. Unreal

Pro: better graphics

Cons: harder to learn, more expensive, doesn't support old hardware

3. CryEngine

Problem: I am not allowed to use their "pay-what-you-want" game license, because it's not a game. I doubt I could afford their enterprise license, as I'm just a one-man business.

4. Torque3D

Cons: smaller userbase, not sure if it can deliver the super-realistic lighting I'm looking for.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

In your situation I'd recommend Unreal/UE4. Unity is capable of photorealistic graphics but you don't get access to the source code to make any low-level tweaks that you might need. (However, I suspect you won't need to go that far. Shaders can probably cover everything you need. But at least with UE4 you will have that safety net if I'm wrong.)

Thanks for your input so far!

About Lumberyard:

I wonder what will happen long-term. My software has been out for 5 years and I predict it'll still be around in the next 5-10 years. That's a much longer lifecycle than most games.

Unreal has an 18-year history, and I'm confident development will continue over the next years, incorporating new features, even better graphics and support for the newest VR gear.

Lumberyard, on the other hand, has been acquired from Crytek and I'm not sure future CryEngine improvements would be incorporated into Lumberyard.

So by choosing Lumberyard, I may be stuck with the current version of the CryEngine, with no possibility to upgrade.

Thanks for your advice. I looked at Unreal and it's a great engine, and with some adjustments it can be made to run on low-end hardware.

Only thing I wonder is whether CryEngine / Lumberyard may be better for outdoor scenes. A lot of my customers work with outdoor sceneries, including water and buildings.

At the same time, CryEngine seems to be less general, more optimized for particular kinds of games, and harder to use.

The fact that Unreal has open source code is not only good for modifying, but if you are not sure how some of the engine code is implemented, you can just head right back to the source and see how some engine code you are calling is implemented. I have done this many times.