[dogles]

C# remains a plus for a lot of game code, but not as much as you might imagine. C++ usage in Unreal is really a small restricted subset of C++. For typical gameplay code, you play within their rules for uclasses/ustructs/etc and it feels pretty much like any other managed GC language. Meanwhile, for places where it matters, "raw" C++ is of course always available.

Re: iteration time, Live++ [1] integration has matured a lot in UE5. That means compiling most code changes without having to restart the editor (or even in-editor game session). Again, not much different than Unity here, though both can break and require editor restarts for certain types of changes.

To double-down on OP, by far the biggest advantage Unreal has for professional development (aka anything you want to ship) is full source code. I've worked in both but can't imagine going back to a black-box engine. Unity/Unreal are both MASSIVE codebases ported across every modern platform imaginable and guess what: there a plenty of bugs in both. I can't imagine going back to an engine where I can't A) see what it is doing and B) fix issues without waiting weeks/months for a patch.

[1] https://liveplusplus.tech/

[Jensson]

> Re: iteration time, Live++ [1] integration has matured a lot in UE5. That means compiling most code changes without having to restart the editor (or even in-editor game session). Again, not much different than Unity here, though both can break and require editor restarts for certain types of changes.

A week of doing things in unreal engine 5 C++ has resulted in more editor restarts than years of doing things in unity. They are not really comparable. And this is from someone who have written a a few hundred thousand lines of C++ at Google and no professional experience with C#, getting to a productive state in unreal engine C++ as a solo developer is a huge slog compared to unity.

If you do most things in blueprints then unreal might be fine, but for an experienced programmers blueprints feels extremely slow and clunky to work with. I want to write code.

[Danieru]

FYI, you will want to launch the editor from inside visual studio. Here is a wiki game documenting the workflow: https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/ProductionPipelines...

Launching the editor from visual studio makes the code and compile workflow quicker. On our project we take map ids from the command line. Thus I can set my visual studio to open a specific map when I hit run. Compined with a powerful cpu and optimized include what you use header usage the iteration time is compatible to a large unity project.

Unreal has a ton of hidden magic most people only learn from other people. Which is fine if you are working at a studio with other more experienced devs. Not great if like me you started as a hobbiest.