Has anybody done UE4 dev on lower-end computers? I want to make games that can run on laptops with decent integrated graphics (Iris Pro). Does UE4 allow you to turn down all the fancy effects in order to do this at 60fps?
You can scale down the quality settings so it can run on just about anything. But I've found the editor itself--if you're not just going to work completely from Visual Studio--needs a fairly hefty computer.
I don't have any experience with Unity to compare, though.
Last time I tried it on MacBook Pro with integrated graphics, which was 6 months ago, there was no way to turn down enough settings in the editor to make it run acceptably. On Macs with a graphics cards it ran with lag.
Haven't found a list of games made with UE4 to try out the final output, but the simplest demos here open but run at 0.2 fps on Integrated Graphics https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?t=11538
OK, I tried the latest version of UT4 in BootCamp on my Macbook w/750M graphics, and it ran pretty well at 60fps with a scattering of High/Med/Low settings at 1680x1050. I'd say that's pretty good for such an early product!
Are there games in the wild built with UE for mobile?
I know there are quite a few Unity games out there in the market. I had ruled out Unreal and kinda settled on using Unity for my tinkering with games, because of the pricing differences...but now that Unity is so much more expensive at $1500+$1500 for each platform you want to support (if you don't want a Unity splash screen and the limits of the free version), and Unreal being effectively free forever for me (since I sincerely doubt any of my tinkering will result in a game that makes $3000+ a quarter, ever), I'm leaning toward giving Unreal more of my attention. But, I primarily want to develop for mobile, so having an effective mobile deployment process with the engine is kinda mandatory.
The XCom games on PC/iOS use UE4. The Zen Garden (Metal rendering) demo presented at the Apple keynote also used UE. Theres quite a few more but thats the only ones I remember off the top of my head ATM.
For 3D games on mobile, UE should perform pretty well. If you're doing 2D games, other engines may be more efficient (although UE does have a 2D mode).
I don't have any experience with Unity to compare, though.