The head of the small Japanese indie studio Studio Interrupt, Thomas Grové, attempted to determine which engine is better: Godot or Unity. To do this, he built two versions of the same game and conducted a series of tests.
Grové shared the results of his experiment on YouTube. He mentioned that he is working on a horror game with his son, which is currently in the early stages of development. According to Grové, the assembly of an early build took approximately the same time in both engines, despite differences in functionality. Much more noticeable differences were found in terms of performance.
Specifically:
- The game loaded from the moment the desktop shortcut was clicked to its display in the engine editor five times faster in Godot than in Unity;
- Godot exported the game 19.8 times faster than Unity;
- Compiling the game required 31 times less time in Godot compared to Unity;
- Frame rate is the only parameter where Unity outperformed Godot, achieving a stable 650-730 fps, whereas Godot maintained around 470 fps. However, Grové noted that it depends on the settings, and in some cases, Godot managed to achieve 1050 fps or more.
Grové admits that before the experiment, he had been a Unity loyalist for many years. He even worked as a marketer for the company in the past. However, after comparing the engines, he decided to continue developing at least this game on Godot.
It is worth noting, though, that during his experiment, Grové tested a relatively simple game scene and did not heavily load the engines. It's possible that the results might be different for a fully finished game.