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[Mythoclast]

I think it’s fair to divide them between open world engines and engines built for more linear games.

In case of linear games, I’d say that the best one is the RE Engine, the games look beautiful and run so well even on old hardware. After that I’d say the COD engine and ID (or whatever Doom runs on).

For open world games, I’d say the CD Projekt Red engine and even Bethesda (with all the jank but you can’t deny the interactivity is unparalleled).

Overall, I’d say the RE engine is the best engine on the market right now, kudos to Capcom.

And RIP Fox Engine, the true GOAT

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

 

[Ribi]

Unity

*Pays fee for using name*

 

[Meicyn]

 

[kikkis]

Ue5 is most versatile. Rest is bit too subjective to say.

 

[KyoZz]

You got good mentions OP. I would add the Northlight engine which was recently illustrated in Alan Wake II. Frostbite can also be very good if in the right hands.
Rage Engine (Red Dead II) is incredible too, especially with Euphoria. Tempest Engine (Last of Us II) is also greatly optimized for the PS5.

I think all of those can showcase some of the best stuff in a video game and at this point it all comes down to preferences.

 

[Pfroebbel]

I want to throw Decima from Horizon Forbidden West and Death Stranding in the Ring for the best Open World Engine.

Both Games look great and run great at 60 Frames.

 

[Majormaxxx]

SCUMM engine is pretty good. Also AGS. Great games there.

 

[killatopak]

The best engine is only as good as the best games released on it. Even then some engines are the best only in the context of what they specialize in.

For me it's Source. It's very versatile and runs on a potato while still looking good. Highly customizable, moddable and feature rich.

Unity is another one. Despite its reputation, it's probably the best 2D engine right now.

Renpy. If you know, you know. It's free and it's made to do one thing and one thing alone. Very beginner friendly.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

I propose the engine used to make Rollercoastertycoon. It seems to be the most efficient of all the ones proposed so far.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Depends on the game.

Snowdrop probably sucks for making a sim racer. Making a 2D platformer on Northlight won’t be easy either.

If you talk about the most versatile then you end up with Unreal & Unity.

 

[Loomy]

I think it’s fair to divide them between open world engines and engines built for more linear games.

Is it though? Also, not how this works.

• Dragon's Dogma 2 (Open world) is being made using the RE Engine. Same RE used for. Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Resident Evil
• Horizon is built on Decima. So is Until Dawn. So were the Killzone games
• Octopath is made is Unreal. So is Gears. So is Kingdom Hearts & FF7 Remake
• Most of EAs games (NHL, NBA, Need For Speed, PvZ, SW: Squadrons, Dragon Age, and of course Battlefield) are made in Frostbite

 

[GHound]

RPG Maker 2003.

 

[FoxMcChief]

That RE engine seems pretty great

 

[Tarnpanzer]

idTech

 

[GigaBowser]

thing they used for TOTK berst phsysic optermized on weak hardware no glitches deeper than oceons my friends

 

[Yoboman]

The one from my favourite game

 

[rofif]

Decima
From soft engine. What it allows for in Elden ring is crazy

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Decima

Insane what they’re doing with an open world

 

[M.W.]

Tetris

 

[Kumomeme]

it is depend on the developers.

 

[Majormaxxx]

idTech

idTech 3 in particular. Jedi Outcast was sublime.

 

[Dice]

Depends on the game you want to make. RE engine is pretty awesome for action games, highly efficient and scalable, but would it make racing games like the Codemasters engine? Highly unlikely. Every engine is best suited to different sorts of things.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Good picks so far.

Northlight (Alan Wale 2)
REDengine (Cyberpunk 2077)
Forza Tech (Forza Horizon 5)

 

[mrmustard]

Always was and always will be: Build Engine

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[nowhat]

Tempest Engine (Last of Us II) is also greatly optimized for the PS5.

Tempest is the name of the audio tech in PS5. I don't think there's a name for the ND engine, beyond "Naughty Dog engine" at least.

 

[Shut0wen]

You got good mentions OP. I would add the Northlight engine which was recently illustrated in Alan Wake II. Frostbite can also be very good if in the right hands.
Rage Engine (Red Dead II) is incredible too, especially with Euphoria. Tempest Engine (Last of Us II) is also greatly optimized for the PS5.

I think all of those can showcase some of the best stuff in a video game and at this point it all comes down to preferences.

Northlight looks pretty but everything else is ass, lip sync issues (present is everyone of there games since alan wake), terrible mo cap, engine cant even open doors right

 

[cireza]

Team Ninja's "whatever you call it" engine. Dead or Alive 6 looks absolutely stunning and fights loaded in 3 seconds on Xbox One.

Metroid Prime Remastered also looks fantastic.

Sonic 3D games also use a very well made engine (Unleashed, Generations, Forces).

Great engines, optimized, not wasting resources with useless shit.

 

[Zathalus]

I'd say Star Engine. I don't think anything else can do what it does.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Best is a really bad qualifier.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Ill go with Valve's Source.
Seeing those physics in Counter Strike Source for the first time was Mario 64-like.
The source games held up for years too.

 

[Mephisto40]

Most iconic would probably be the Doom engine used in the original games

It's surprising how easy it is to make your own FPS game with a couple of editing tools

 

[Beer Baelly]

Forza engine

 

[Black_Stride]

More people who dont know how engines work talking about engines, when what they are answering is what are their favorite games/developers/graphics something else but they arent actually talking about best engines.

Cuz the "best" game engine depends on the use case.
ForzaTech is probably leagues better for Forza Horizon 5 than Decima would be out the box.





Ive only used Unity, Unreal 3, 4 and 5, CryEngine 3 and 5, Godot in passing, and Source(2).

• Unity is probably the easiest to jump into and have a working game relatively quickly, if you actually use HDRP properly its also a stunning engine.
• CryEngine 3 for its time was amazing for rendering, but everything else was one step too many to do simple things
• CryEngine V is actually a step forward but its still not quite there for me.
• Godot has a ways to go but its on the right path for sure.
• I only used Unreal Engine 3 in its UDK form and i was a baby so I cant properly comment on how good or bad it was.
• Unreal Engine 4 introduced Blueprint which made the engine so much more of a pleasure to work with, and all the freely available extensions make it an excellent choice these days, just that bloat.
• Unreal Engine 5 shortens iteration time so much I cant help but be impressed, so much so im basically exclusively tinkering in that engine now, even more so than with my offline renderers. DataSmith is basically a oneclick solution. Its become my go to 3D Sketch machine.....and it keeps getting better with each iteration.

If ReX actually ends up being Indie licensable, I cant wait to get my hands on it and give it a go, the things coming out of RE Engine are already impressive if ReX is even better and we get to tinker with it.....count me in.
I do wonder if theyve got their documentation on point, one the reason CryEngine 3 was quite rowdy to work with was that as an indie there wasnt much support or documentation, you had to license the engine before you even got any real help.


As for the best engine.....probably Soft Engine:

At first I thought this post was premature.......but nope the thread proved it.......again.

 

[nemiroff]

OP, I'm not a game developer so I don't know which toolkit makes the development flow better.

 

[TrebleShot]

decima

 

[Guilty_AI]

GZDoom

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Forza engine

Come back Aloy, all is forgiven.

 

[Damigos]

I want to say Unreal, but in reality i think its not

 

[Denton]

I am partial to RED Engine (RIP) and RAGE engine (RDR2). Just amazing looking games that run great and are 100% stable (on my PC at least), with zero stutter.

Although RDR2 could load faster, its 30 seconds is embarassing next to 5 seconds of Cyberpunk.

 

[winjer]

On the perspective of a PC gamer, RE Engine is a strong contender for the best. Very well optimized and great graphics.
Northlight is also good, but it's used on very few games.

Probably the worst is UE4. The amount of games with severe issues of stuttering from shader compilation and asset streaming, is enormous.
And then there are performance issues from it using only one or two main threads.
A devs might have a different view, as they value ease of workflow. But for PC gamers, UE4 was a disaster.

 

[SF Kosmo]

What makes a good engine?

Unreal is obviously unmatched when it comes to tools and versatility. And with the available content libraries we have seen 1 man projects that look like AAA games.

Red Engine has the most advanced rendering, I think, and it pushes and utilizes the hardware really well. Excellent threading etc. But also a lot of jank.

I dunno, it's a weird question to ask people who don't make games and haven't used multiple engines.

 

[Black_Stride]

Unreal is obviously unmatched when it comes to tools and versatility. And with the available content libraries we have seen 1 man projects that look like AAA games.

Did you mean to say Unity here.
Cuz Unity beyond their mismanagement of licensing has been levels and levels beyond Unreal when it comes to available extensions and support is well above Unreal.
UE is catching up but Unity is still well ahead.

 

[Dexero]

I love the Scorpion Engine. It’s a retro game making engine dedicated to the Amiga and the Megadrive/Genesis.

It has allowed the creation of many new prety impressive games since its creation a few years ago.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Genesis 3D

 

[willothedog]

Shoot'em up construction kit

 

[GymWolf]

Good devs are what make an engine shine.

And before you say that some engines have inherent flaws like ue4 and its shader compile stutter you should also know that some games in ue4 have exactly zero stutter whatsoever like atomic heart, so once again, devs are what matter the most.

 

[nkarafo]

RE engine is good but the reflections are weird and have annoying artifacts.

 

[midnightAI]

I think it’s fair to divide them between open world engines and engines built for more linear games.

In case of linear games, I’d say that the best one is the RE Engine, the games look beautiful and run so well even on old hardware. After that I’d say the COD engine and ID (or whatever Doom runs on).

For open world games, I’d say the CD Projekt Red engine and even Bethesda (with all the jank but you can’t deny the interactivity is unparalleled).

Overall, I’d say the RE engine is the best engine on the market right now, kudos to Capcom.

And RIP Fox Engine, the true GOAT

Dunno, I haven't used them all to develop on