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Whats the most optimised game engine?

There is a ton of engines out there, but some are known for being extremely optimised for CPU workloads, while others are know for the opposite.

There are smaller engines that punch above their weight, and others that fail with a ton of resources.

Begs the question, why are some still just not optimised for mutlicore and multithreaded workloads when these chips have been around for a while now.

My vote for best optimised engines go to - Idtech, Forzatech, IW7, Insomniacs as well as most of Sony's inhouse engines.

My vote for poor performance - Unreal Engine, Asobos engine (great graphics but not great performance) Northlight.
 
I don't think we can quantify game engines like that. People called AC Unity poorly optimized while it was one of the most performant games of the last generation when given the right hardware.

Most PC gamers only had dual/quad cores back then not to mention fairly shitty GPUs by modern standards. But run the game on a modern PC and it can shoot past 200fps while looking better than almost any other modern game. And it could take advantage of 8 core PCs which was unheard of back in 2014.

Does that make it well optimized or poorly? Or was it just poorly optimized for 2014 hardware? I don't think we can call something 'poorly optimized' without including 'for what?' as a qualifier.
 
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.kkrieger has to be right
fits on a floppy disk 16 times over
looks incredible

But for real? id's engine
smooth and scalable
Running Doom Eternal in a decent form on switch was shocking
 
Xbox's Forzatech should be used for other styles of games. It runs racing game native 4k 60 fps on console with no effort so their is huge potential there IMO
 
Source 1 & 2 engine, do we even have to list the games?

Not only giving us the best games probably ever made since 2004, but it's also been used as a basis for so many other games, even Titanfall 2 was based on source and then modified.

More importantly, i'm sorry if you didn't experience this yourself yet, i hope you do soon, but Half Life Alyx is beyond anything i've played graphically. I don't care if 2d doesn't give it justice, but in VR it's beyond anything i've ever witnessed, way more jaw dropping than say Metro Exodus EE or whatever super visually impressive thing you can think of.


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I don't think we can quantify game engines like that. People called AC Unity poorly optimized while it was one of the most performant games of the last generation when given the right hardware.

Most PC gamers only had dual/quad cores back then not to mention fairly shitty GPUs by modern standards. But run the game on a modern PC and it can shoot past 200fps while looking better than almost any other modern game. And it could take advantage of 8 core PCs which was unheard of back in 2014.

Does that make it well optimized or poorly? Or was it just poorly optimized for 2014 hardware? I don't think we can call something 'poorly optimized' without including 'for what?' as a qualifier.
Not just this, but the reason why Unity looks so good is even more due to individual art choices

Like I could easily say Unreal Engine 4 here because games across all genres, art styles, capabilities, etc. and games can run feature complete on everything from a high PC to a Switch.
 
id Tech 7 for Doom Eternal
In terms of pure optimisation? Yeah, it's id Tech - and it's not even close.

Doom Eternal on Steam Deck at a locked 60FPS with ultra nightmare graphics is really something to behold. id have always been tech masters, blazing the trail for everyone else to follow, but the sheer efficiency of their engine is scary.
 
Source 1 & 2 engine, do we even have to list the games?

Not only giving us the best games probably ever made since 2004, but it's also been used as a basis for so many other games, even Titanfall 2 was based on source and then modified.

More importantly, i'm sorry if you didn't experience this yourself yet, i hope you do soon, but Half Life Alyx is beyond anything i've played graphically. I don't care if 2d doesn't give it justice, but in VR it's beyond anything i've ever witnessed, way more jaw dropping than say Metro Exodus EE or whatever super visually impressive thing you can think of.


eye-tracking.gif

world.gif

08495a3fd2e50df8747bcb9ad013931f168addd4.gifv


ebd09ce02b4b9b7c3d59eb442ee6afe22f20d291.gif

Source is also amazing at running on less-than-cutting edge machines when needed.

I remember playing both Portal and later Portal 2 on laptops that were weak for their time, and in both cases the games scaled down wonderfully on lower settings. Then at the high end, if you get to see Alyx running on a great system, it's mindblowing.
 
There is a ton of engines out there, but some are known for being extremely optimised for CPU workloads, while others are know for the opposite.
There are smaller engines that punch above their weight, and others that fail with a ton of resources.
Begs the question, why are some still just not optimised for mutlicore and multithreaded workloads when these chips have been around for a while now.
My vote for best optimised engines go to - Idtech, Forzatech, IW7, Insomniacs as well as most of Sony's inhouse engines.
My vote for poor performance - Unreal Engine, Asobos engine (great graphics but not great performance) Northlight.
This is a very reductive way of looking at game engines really.

Any engine can be "optimized" or "unoptimized" depending on the devs actually using it.
Most games still use a Master Thread with generated Worker Threads handling other tasks, but even that has diminishing returns, which is why you pretty much never see the 7950X absolutely stomping the 7600X when both CPUs are similarly binned.
Thats just the most effective way to guarentee the game will atleast work well across many setups.


You list Insomniacs Engine, but are we just gonna ignore Spider-Man Remastered/Miles with RT maxed is basically impossible to get a perfect experiences because the right CPU/GPU combo doesnt actually exist? And it could be generations before we get a CPU with IPC high enough to actually gives the experience we should expect.


You put Unreal Engine in the poor performance section but im going to guess we are just going to act like all the Gears titles dont exists right?
Or everything from Arc System Works since they moved to Unreal.

Northlight? Mate Northlight was using a real time GI solution to look that good and you are shocked the game is heavy on the GPU.
Are you guys expecting some magic bullet shit where activating GPU intensive features WONT have a cost?
Pretty much any game that has a real time GI solution, screen-space or otherwise will have impeccable lighting, but that shit aint free. Turn a few settings down and Control runs brilliantly.
Special shoutout to Quantum Break for still looking stunning years later even without RT....they honestly thought that would run on a VCR Xbox One?


You mention Plagues Tale Requiem but that engine will run ~60 on a 2 core/2 thread system.
Most games will simply fail if you even try to boot on something like that.....including Insomniacs Engine.
Its also one of few games that at lower core counts actually utilizes Hyperthreading/SMT for tangible performance gains.
This is one of few engines that will have you saying "Long live the 4 core".
Basically every other engine might generate worker threads but effectively needs them to run on a completely new core.
Why have Hyperthreading/SMT technology which is now in every CPU, if you aint gonna use it.....this shit has existed forever.
A-Plague-Tale-Requiem-CPU-benchmarks.png




But ill bite with the premise of the thread:

  1. Unity - Ive seen it produce amazing visuals on hardware it has no right to be running on at all.
  2. Source - Runs on a potatoes.
  3. Fox Engine - I could do 1440p max settings in MGSV with a GTX570 paired with a 2500K.
  4. idTech - 4K60 Mein Leben on a GTX 1070.
  5. ForzaTech - Basically any engine that could do 4K60 on VCR Xbox One deserves praise.
  6. RE Engine - Specially shoutout to MT Framework for being just as performant.
 
Re engine
Just look at how it runs on the steam deck

Unreal engine… shit award
 
Not sure, but Fox Engine was probably the most impressed i been with a engine. MGS5 running at 60fps on a base PS4 was some dark magic shit.

Also RAGE, the proprietary engine rockstar uses. RDR2 on last gen consoles was another showcase of some dark magic shit.
 
Optimized?

Tricky to answer, if by optimized you simply just mean efficiency (fps), then anvilnext engine, id engine, source, and RE engine are the best.

But if you are talking about features in addition to efficiency, scalability and flexibility, then it would probably be something like the Unreal engine.
 
In terms of pure optimisation? Yeah, it's id Tech - and it's not even close.

Doom Eternal on Steam Deck at a locked 60FPS with ultra nightmare graphics is really something to behold. id have always been tech masters, blazing the trail for everyone else to follow, but the sheer efficiency of their engine is scary.
100% Those guys KNOW technology!
 
Its Glacier 2. What Hitman does technically gameplay wize and at full scale not seen by any other engine is unmatched. Where talking buildings where every room is fully explorable and also decked out with objects and characters with ai all being simmed at once all at 60fps on consoles makes it the clear winner...but makes sense since just like Remedy IO are a bunch of demosceners who know there way around code intimately.
 
Its Glacier 2. What Hitman does technically gameplay wize and at full scale not seen by any other engine is unmatched. Where talking buildings where every room is fully explorable and also decked out with objects and characters with ai all being simmed at once all at 60fps on consoles makes it the clear winner...but makes sense since just like Remedy IO are a bunch of demosceners who know there way around code intimately.

Underrated post. Also the devs know not to treat gamers as idiots like most unreal engine devs. Mirrors reflect properly without the need of RT, and most of the games planar and screen space reflections make most unreal RT reflections look like baby dog poop. The amount of details each level has is insane and I was shocked every time I realized I could just enter that building. I think the india level was the most impressive and lets not even get started on the npc numbers and how varied they are.
 
Came thinking about RE Engine, since seeing Monster Hunter Rise run on the Switch almost seemed like sorcery.

But I have to go with id Tech 7.
 
Considering what its outputting i have always been very impressed with Snowdrop and The Division games. Idtech for Doom is very good. RE Engine is nice and hopefully MHW2 uses it.
 
Underrated post. Also the devs know not to treat gamers as idiots like most unreal engine devs. Mirrors reflect properly without the need of RT, and most of the games planar and screen space reflections make most unreal RT reflections look like baby dog poop. The amount of details each level has is insane and I was shocked every time I realized I could just enter that building. I think the india level was the most impressive and lets not even get started on the npc numbers and how varied they are.
The India level mind boggling def most impressive. The intro alone gives me goosbumps. Miami aint no slouch either.
 
RE engine is great, but it's rather ugly in some senses. It's hard to put a finger on it, but all it's games share it.

ID is probably the best for performance. It's incredible. Void engine is similar, but it's performance isn't there. I think arkane is really good at doing cool stuff with it though. (Preys starting room, dishonored's time travel manor)

Decima is really nice, but the physics are wonky or exaggerated.

Creation engine is soulful as fuck, and Bethesda should never stop using it. It's got character, it shouldn't be used for anything but Bethesda games.

Unreal engine 4+5 are fantastic in the hands of epic and the coalition. What has been done performance wise with fortnite is incredible. Graphically, gears 5 looked and ran incredibly. MK11 uses a modified version of unreal engine 3, and that game looked great.

Forzatech is top notch, and I personally think it's the best engine for any game that wants to be fast and run flawlessly. Fable is using it, so it will be interesting to see how that engine handles a totally different world of rendering.

Whatever engine monolithsoft used has been impressive. Xenoblade x looked and ran very well for the Wii U. It's like magic how their games of such scale and model density can run on the switch.
 
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Mine is Criterion's RenderWare engine...hands down the best engine for consoles and had all my favourite games!
 
Most optimised? No idea, and that's a weird metric, since it kind of requires to have a rather bad starting point we customers never see. Essence Engine, whatever SupremeCom uses, Bubblebath (Dreams), Source 2, Cryengine (FC, Crysis on PC, C2&3 on console), Foxengine (sorta looked like Source 3 to me) and probably Rage Engine at the top, impressed me the most for what they offered and squeezed out of partially ancient hw.

But basically all engines from the big ones Unreal, Unity, Snowdrop, Anvil, Frostbite, idTech, IW, Dunia, Ego, Lithtech and probably more have possibly no huge difference in optimisation and it's more about how easy their editors are and how easy it can be modified to look very different.
 
Not really how game engines work. The engine is just a set of tools. A game that runs good and is well optimized doesn't make the engine more or less optimized on itself.

For instance, plenty of games using Id tech (which is seen a the most optimized engine) that still chugs along when dumping everything on one a single thread because the game-logic is complex/heavily dependent on other things like determistic dependencies, or just planner out badly for multi-treading on the CPU. Evil Within for example, uses Id tech but used it terribly. Frostbite is another great example.

Optimization is dependent on the game itself and how developers use the engine to get there, not inherent to the engine itself.
 
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