Unity to Unreal Engine Overview | Unreal Engine 5.4 Documentation

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If you are moving from Unity to Unreal Engine (UE), it can be challenging to translate familiar features that you rely on from one engine to the other. While both engines have similar functionality in many areas, UE's ecosystem and the way it is organized differ from Unity in many ways.

This guide provides a walkthrough of essential Unity editor features and concepts and their Unreal Engine equivalents. The sections below review the following topics:

Managing projects and installations.
Navigating Unreal Editor.
Managing level files.
Translating Unity GameObject terms and operations into Unreal Engine's Actor framework.

Version Information

At the time of writing, the version of Unreal Engine and Unity engine used for screenshots and terminology are as follows:

Unreal Engine 5.4.3
Unity 6 (6000.0.2f1)

Unity Hub / Epic Games Launcher

The Epic Games Launcher is Epic Games's equivalent to the Unity Hub application, which manages engine installations. It is also the portal and launcher for the Epic Games Store, Epic's gaming marketplace. To access Unreal Engine, follow these steps:

Click the Unreal Engine tab on the left side of the launcher. A new series of tabs appears at the top of the screen.
Click the Library tab to manage Unreal Engine installations and projects. Both projects you have created and packages you have downloaded appear in this window.

Alternatively, if you want an offline installation, you can download the source code for Unreal Engine from GitHub.

See Installing Unreal Engine for more detailed setup information.

Unity Editor / Unreal Editor

Unreal Editor is the application for editing UE levels and assets.

The screenshot below shows the Unity editor and Unreal Editor side by side. Different areas are color-coded to indicate common functionality. Each block is labeled to show the equivalent Unreal Engine terminology.

An image showing the Unity editor (left) and the UE editor (right) side-by-side, with color-coded and numbered regions to show which UI elements perform similar functions.

Index	Unity	Unreal	Description
1	Toolbar	Main Menu	Main menu with major drop-down menus, including File, Edit, Window, and Help.
2	Play/Pause/Step Controls	Play-In-Editor Controls	Controls for running play sessions in the editor.
3	Hierarchy	Outliner	List of objects in your game world.
4	Scene View/Game view	Viewport	Displays the game world.
5	Inspector	Details Panel	Displays editable parameters for selected objects.
6	Project Panel	Content Browser	Browser for exploring your project's assets, including levels, textures, materials, animations, sounds, and more.
7	Console	Output Log	Console that displays logs and provides a place to input commands.

Unreal Editor's layout is fully customizable. You can drag and drop tabs, dock them into the main window, change the color scheme, and more. See:

Customizing Unreal Engine for more information about editor customization.
Unreal Editor Interface for more information about navigating and using the editor.

Tool Menus

The Main Menu bar in Unreal Editor provides different options compared with the toolbar in Unity's level editor. The following table provides a comparison of each editor's options and tips on where to find equivalent functionality where they don't match.

Unity	Unreal	Description
File	File	Used for opening and saving levels and projects. Unity places the Build Options menu here, whereas Unreal Engine provides a separate menu for build management.
Edit	Edit	Provides basic editing operations, like copy/paste, as well as options to open editor and project settings. Unity's Edit menu also has play mode controls, graphics settings, and selection management tools, whereas Unreal Engine breaks these out into separate menus. See the Select menu below for information about selection management. Unreal Engine's scalability settings are accessible through the Settings dropdown menu in the level editor's toolbar.
Assets	-	Tools for creating and managing assets in your project. In Unreal Engine, this functionality is in the Content Browser.
GameObject	Actor	Tools for creating and managing in-game objects. Unity's menu is for creating new GameObjects, while Unreal Engine's is a context-sensitive menu for performing operations on a selected actor. In Unreal Engine, you can place actors either by clicking and dragging them from the Content Browser or by using the Place Actors panel.
Component	Component	Menu for creating and managing components on a selected GameObject. There is also a Component dropdown in Unreal Engine which appears when you select an actor's components. However, this menu is intended for editing components, not creating them. For equivalent functionality, select an actor and use the component controls in the Details panel, or open an actor's Blueprint and manage its components in the Viewport tab, under the Components panel. Alternatively, if you want to edit code, see the options in the Tools menu.
Services	Online Subsystems	Menu for accessing Unity's cloud services in the Package Manager. Unreal Engine's equivalent to the Package Manager is the Plugins window, which is located in the Edit menu, and many Online Subsystems are available as plugins.
-	Tools	Provides access to various different toolsets and menus, including debuggers, shortcuts to creating C++ code in your IDE, Revision Control options, and more.
-	Build	Provides options for running builds of different features of your game, including lighting, geometry, and landscapes.
-	Select	Tools for selection management in the level editor. Unity places these in the Edit menu. Includes options to select different types of objects and geometry.
Window	Window	Shortcuts for opening commonly-used menus and panels. Also includes panel layout options.
Help	Help	Support and troubleshooting links, including links to community resources and documentation.

Scene View / Viewport

The screenshot below shows the Unity Scene View side-by-side with Unreal Editor's level editor viewport. Different areas are color-coded to indicate common functionality. Each block is labeled to show the equivalent Unreal Engine terminology.

An image showing Unity's Scene View and UE's Viewport Panel side by side. The UI elements are color-coded and numbered to show which buttons and dropdowns have similar functionality.

Index	Description
1	Transform gizmo controls.
2	Local/World space controls.
3	Grid and snapping controls.
4	Lighting/shading controls.
5	Perspective/Orthographic controls
6	Object channel visibility controls.
7	Camera settings.

Project Panel / Content Browser

The Content Browser is Unreal Engine's equivalent to Unity's Project panel. You can browse and create new game assets here, as well as click and drag them into your Viewport.

An image showing UE's Content Browser. The Character/Mannequins/Meshes folder is open, and the Content Browser displays assets for Manny and Quinn, the UE mannequins.

See the Content Browser documentation for more information about the Content Browser and its features.

Inspector / Details Panel

The Details panel is Unreal Engine's equivalent to Unity's Inspector. Whenever you select an object in the world or edit a Blueprint, the inspector shows information about selected objects.

A screenshot of the UE Details Panel. An instance of BP_TopDown Character is selected, and the Details Panel shows its settings.

The Details panel is searchable and has many filtering options for narrowing down what parameters you want to see, and also exposes an actor's components.

For more information, see:

Unreal Editor Interface for more information about Unreal Editor's panels and tabs, including the Details Panel.
Details Panel Customizations for information about how to customize the Details panel for specific Actors and properties.

Project Settings

Click Edit > Project Settings to open the Project Settings window. This window contains configuration options for your project and many core UE systems, including Input, Physics, Asset Management, and Packaging options, as well as options for individual platforms and any plugins you enable.

Plugins

Click Edit > Plugins to open the Plugins menu, where you can enable and disable many plugin packages for your project, including experimental and beta features.

If a plugin appears in the Plugins menu, it is compatible with your current version of UE by default.

Scenes / Levels

Level files are Unreal Engine's equivalent to Unity's Scene files. Much like Unity scenes, you can load and unload these either synchronously or asynchronously. While you can hard-switch to a map using the Open Map function, Unreal Engine's World Partition system can automatically stream levels based on the player's location.

Scene Templates / World Settings

Whereas Unity uses Scene Templates to set up common objects or frameworks between multiple scenes, Unreal Engine's levels have built-in World Settings, which provide a place to override its game mode and change its settings. You can use game framework classes like AGameMode, UGameInstance, and AGameState to create additional logic that is unique to your game's world.

Picking Your Default Level

Unity chooses its default scene based on which scene is listed first in its Build Settings. In Unreal Engine, you choose a default map in the Project Settings window under Projects > Maps & Modes.

The project settings window opened to the Maps and Modes section. Default maps are listed on the right.

GameObjects / Actors

Actors are Unreal Engine's equivalent to GameObjects. Whereas Unity uses a composition-based framework for building GameObjects, Unreal Engine uses a combination of composition and object-oriented approaches.

Prefabs / Blueprint and C++ Classes

In Unreal Engine, instead of creating actors in the world and then saving them as prefabs, you create a new actor class in C++ or Blueprint, then add instances of it to your world. When you create a new actor, you can choose to base it on another actor and inherit all of its components and code.

If you prefer Unity's workflow to editing GameObjects and prefabs, you can still place an empty actor in the world, then add components to it.

An image displaying the workflow for adding components to a Blueprint Actor in the game world. The +Add dropdown displays a list of components to add. The user selects Point Light, and as a result, the Point Light component appears on the object in the world.

After that, you can click the Edit Blueprint button to convert the object to a new Blueprint class.

Placing and Browsing Actors

To browse UE's library of pre-made and commonly-used actors, use the Place Actors panel. You can use the search bar or the category filters to find triggers, lights, primitives, cinematic elements, and more. Click and drag actors from this list into your Viewport to add them to your world.

You can also use the Actor > Place Actors dropdown in the main menu to place commonly-used Actors. This menu is also available if you right-click in your Viewport. You can also use the Content Browser to browse for and place actors.

Components

Actor components and Scene components are Unreal Engine's equivalent to Unity's components.

Scene components have a relative transform and appear in the actor's component hierarchy in both the Blueprint editor and the level editor's Details panel. Examples of scene components include meshes, audio sources, cameras, particle systems, lights, or anything else that benefits from having a physical presence in the game world.
Actor components only have code. They do not have a transform or a physical representation in the game world. Examples of actor components include movement components or components for handling AI, such as the AI Sensing component, the AI Blackboard, or the AI Behavior Tree. Many of these can interact with the world, but they don't need a local transform of their own to do it, instead relying on their parent actor to determine world location.

The following screenshot shows the Top-Down Character from the Top-Down game template. Scene components are parented under the actor and include the actor's mesh, camera, and collision. The Character Movement component is an actor component with no transform, so it appears in a separate list.

A screenshot of the components for the Top Down Character in the Blueprint Editor. The component list shows all of its components.

Adding Components

Add components to an actor in the game world by clicking the + Add button in the Details Panel.

An image showing the workflow for adding a component to an instance of an Actor in the game world. The user clicks the +Add button next to the component list in the Details Panel, then chooses Point Light. As a result, the Point Light component is added to the Actor's component list.

Add components directly to a Blueprint class by clicking the + Add button in the Blueprint editor's Components panel.

An image showing where to add components in the Blueprint editor. The +Add dropdown in the Viewport shows an extensive list of components.

In C++, add components with the UObject::CreateDefaultSubObject function. If the component should be attached to the actor by default, add it in the actor's constructor function.

Parenting GameObjects / Sub-Objects in Unreal Engine

In Unity, to create complex objects with multiple parts that have relative transforms, you need to attach GameObjects as children to another GameObject.

In Unreal Engine, you add sub-objects by adding scene components to your actor. Scene components fulfill most jobs that child GameObjects do in Unity, such as providing colliders, particle effects, audio sources, or adjustable lights.

A screenshot showing the Top-Down Character in the Viewport, and its Details on the right hand side of the screen. The Component list displays all of its components, and the Viewport shows how they are attached to the character.

You can also use the child actor component to attach an entire actor to another, or you can use the Attach to Actor function in your code to do it at runtime.

Gameplay Framework

Unreal Engine's Gameplay Framework is a collection of classes that provides you with a modular foundation to build your gameplay experience on. You can pick and choose which elements are right for your game knowing that these classes are designed to work with and complement one another.

Building and Packaging Your Project

Unreal Engine's Platforms dropdown serves a similar purpose as Unity's Build Settings menu.

To create a packaged build of your project, click the Platforms dropdown, highlight the platform you want to package for, then click Package Project. This will build, cook, and package all the content in your project. The Quick Launch options will package and deploy your build to a specific device in a single step.

An image showing the Platforms dropdown in Unreal Editor. The Android sub-menu is open, and the button for packaging a project is highlighted.

Alternatively, you can use the Project Launcher to launch preconfigured builds, or you can use the Unreal Automation Tool (UAT) script to run headless command line builds.