CryEngine 3 vs. Unreal Engine 3 Comparison
- Posted March 31st, 2009 at 20:18 EDT by
- 86 Comments
Chances are that over the last few years you've played a game built using the Unreal Engine 3. Whether on BioShock, Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War or another game, you've seen the engine in action. Some think it's the best game engine built to date, while others think it's old and overused. Well, with the recent announcement of Crytek's new CryEngine 3, Epic may need to watch its back, as there's a new game engine in town and it's sporting technology surpassing anything seen on the consoles yet. Both game engines support features such as realistic lighting (global illumination), depth of field/motion blur, advanced physics, developer support and rendering tools, so what sets them apart?
With the Unreal Engine 3, developers have access to a wide collection of 3D party plug-ins including FaceFX, SpeedTree, and Morpheme. These partnerships with 3rd party software developers allows Epic's engine to support many world class simulators and sandbox creation and editor tools. For example, studios using Unreal Engine 3 have access NVIDIA PhysX, which offers cloth and destructibility physics, as well as Autodesk Kynapse, which handles complex AI.
On the flip side, Crytek built nearly all CryEngine 3 tools and editors in-house. Boasting everything from Ocean Wave Technology to CryPhyics, Crytek has created an engine built for complex simulations and visual prowess. What was once king of high-end PC gaming, will now be enjoyed on your PS3. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli stated that CryEngine 3 is "not just a little improvement upon CryEngine 2, it's actually a significant rewrite towards a console engine."
To refresh your memory, a few Unreal Engine 3 titles that have come out in the last few years include Army of Two, BioShock, Mirror's Edge, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. So far, Crytek has yet to announce any titles using CryEngine 3, though rumor has it that not only is a PS3 version of Crysis on the way, but even Hollywood is looking at using the CryEngine 3 for creating CGI sequences on silver screen.
Below, we've posted a screenshot comparison of the two engines. For a more detailed look at each engine, you can read more about the Unreal Engine 3 here, and Crytek's CryEngine 3 here.
Click on the images for larger versions.
Comments
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Dave-The-Rave |
Dave-The-Rave- 8:23pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 3
Jeez, I hope devs start replacing Unreal engine with Cryengine !! Unreal is broken
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zombieking36
- 8:28pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 4
epic games is in so much trouble, but Uncharted 2 also looks like a strong contender!
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Cyn |
MrCyn- 8:46pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 8
Good article.
It's pretty obvious the CryEngine3 is superior, but then it has years on UnrealEngine3 so what do you expect? Anyway, the proof is in the pudding as they say. Show me some games using CE3.
@2 Isn't Naughty Dog using the Deferred Rendering Engine on Uncharted 2? -
Two4DaMoney
- 8:50pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 9
It all may come down to how much crytek will charge developers to use their engine. I wouldn't mind at all seeing the unreal 3 engine being replaced with cryengine 3.
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NoUseMercenary |
NoUseMerk_PSU- 8:53pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 10
This is just the begining for the CryEngine 3. Just wait... ;)
However...don't forget, Epic Games has been working on the Unreal Engine 4 for a few years now and will probably begin showing it before the next console systems are out.
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GuitarMaster231 |
Cody0705- 8:54pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 11
CryEngine wins hands down in my opinion. The textures, water feedback, colors all look better and more vibrant. And I don't like the bulkiness of the characters in Unreal.
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pizzamonkio
- 8:54pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 12
From those screenshots it doesn't look like much of a competition. The cryengine shots look superior to the unreal engine. Never was a fan of the unreal engine and thought devs used it just because of the accessibility and ease maybe. I bought Unreal Tournament 3 the other day because it was $12 and I saw it got a huge update. I found it funny how the 'Unreal' engines flagship game 'Unreal' Tournament 3 had so many technical issues, bad ones. I was creating a character and the screen would load so slowly I could see the objects then the texture and lighting would appear slowly, like when you have your graphics settings to high for a pc game. Fun game but glad i only paid 12 bucks for it.
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Girugamesh |
Shidousha- 8:56pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 13
I know this is CryEngine vs. Unreal Engine, but killzone 2 and uncharted 2 look better than either cryengine or unreal engine, and cryengine looks much better than unreal engine
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NoUseMercenary |
NoUseMerk_PSU- 9:01pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 14
For those of you continuing to post Uncharted Engine and Killzone 2 Engine as contenders....those engines are built specifically for the PS3 and are not really licensed out for other developers to use.
The CryEngine 3 and Unreal Engine 3 are for multiplatform development. This is a comparison of the two top engines, multiplatform devs can look at using for their new games.
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coverton341 |
groovy341- 9:07pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 16
Hopefully this will usher in a load of games that are not gimped on the PS3. Because whether we like it or not we should all be able to admit that the Unreal Engine handles the PS3 architecture rather poorly.
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edward_moffet |
edd- 9:39pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 21
dude this is not EVEN neccesary CE3 wins it hands down
@18 UE3 isnt' BAD it's just not nearly as realistic or as technically impressive as CE3, UE3 has a more artistic look to it and is more geared for ease of use from a devs standpint than CE3 is im sure
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Devils1stBorn
- 9:47pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 22
Uncharted 2's engine impresses me more. Cry pawns Unreal
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SolidDrake86
- 9:49pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 23
CryEngine wins hands down. I have a sick PC that can run Crysis Warhead on the highest settings, and it is a sight to behold, I feel like I'm playing Playstation 4 !
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el kevo |
El_Kevo- 9:50pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 24
Woah, Cryengine 3 wipes the floor with Unreal 3. hopefully now developers will stop being lazy using Unreal 3 in every game ever created. Plus now maybe PS3 multi-platform games will actually stand a chance against their 360 counter-parts. I've always hated the Unreal 3 engine and now something i like will finally be coming to the consoles.
Naughty Dog's exclusive engine is probably a bit better due to it being made to pinpoint what the PS3 is best at
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whatisdelicious
- 10:11pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 26
Bioshock was Unreal Engine 2.
Way to do the basic Wikipedia research.
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RogurtNChzz |
RogurtNChzz- 10:11pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 27
CryEngine 3 looks way better in the stills. it just looks more natural and unreal has the CSI Miami look (if u know what i mean)! But the gears of war clip just looked better on my pc (and i dont have a gaming PC), the other part was all blurry.
And the faces of CryEngine 3 look way better!
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Mo-green28 |
Mo-green28- 10:28pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 29
Cry Engine Is Looking Wayyy Better than Unreal
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abombletap
- 10:46pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 31
@ 2.....i agree
but come on comparing Unreal engine to Cryengine is a Aprils Joke!!! lol
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NoUseMercenary |
NoUseMerk_PSU- 10:48pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 32
@26
Yes. You are somewhat right in that Bioshock used a heavyily modified version of Unreal Engine 2.5. However, Irrational Games stated that they would be intergrating Unreal Engine 3 features. I would say that by the time the devs were done with the engine and upgrading it...its similar to what you see in other Unreal Engine 3 games.
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 10:55pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 34
lol at the fact they would even put the unreal engine 3 in the same sentence as the cry engine 3 unreal engine 3 looks terrible these days its getting older and older
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RagingStorm |
RagingStormX- 11:29pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 38
The sequel to Black (Black 2?)will use CryEngine3 ......watch and see. Remember folks that I f-ing called it!!!
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tristan88888888 |
Tristan88888888- 11:36pm BST - March 31st, 2009
- 39
cryengine works, but i still dont like cryengine 3 that much.
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NoUseMercenary |
NoUseMerk_PSU- 12:57am BST - April 1st, 2009
- 42
@Tic2000
Thanks for the lightbox info. I will definitely look into it.
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tadpole3159 |
faulkner8991- 4:27am BST - April 1st, 2009
- 47
...vs killzone engine. "round 1, fight!".... "perfect!"
far to much tekken for me. it all looks good guys, to really compare you need to see under the hood, i say show us the new unreal editor 3 and sand boxeditor 3 and i'll be the judge :)
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ptmww3
- 6:04am BST - April 1st, 2009
- 48
CRY ENGINE 3!!!!! Next generation engine for PS3 NOT for shety xbox 360 with shety HD DVD. CE3 will have a hugely foot if they make the 1st game on PS3 with BLUE-RAY. Big advantage for them with the space they have for a exclusive PS3 game.
Think of putting KZ2 on 360 with less details and wont effect the gaming, just like a normal wave in the sea!!!!
hope bill gates not reading this or he will try to use his big vollet!!! or run to the bank if he need to.
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