{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T19:03:55Z","timestamp":1782846235049,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"ECMS","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Game engines have become foundational platforms not only for video game development but also for Virtual Reality (VR) applications in fields such as medicine, architecture, and training. The growing dependence on a single engine throughout a project's life cycle introduces the risk of vendor lock-in, a condition in which switching to an alternative platform becomes prohibitively costly. While partial solutions exist at the hardware level\u2014notably the OpenXR standard\u2014no systematic cross-engine evaluation of VR development effort and portability strategies has been established. This work presents a structured comparison of three widely adopted game engines\u2014Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot\u2014through the implementation of the same VR scene in each platform. A metric called Number of Clicks (NoC) is introduced to quantify implementation effort across engines. The evaluation combines NoC measurements with qualitative analysis of architectural differences, engine-specific XR toolkits, and asset handling. In addition, practical guidelines are derived for structuring VR projects and assets so as to mitigate engine dependency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.7148\/2026-0755","type":"proceedings-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T18:08:43Z","timestamp":1782842923000},"page":"755-761","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Vendor lock-in in vr game engines: a structured comparison of unity, unreal engine, and godot"],"prefix":"10.7148","author":[{"given":"Marco Domenico","family":"Buttiglione","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesco","family":"Colabene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Gribaudo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4144","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]]},"event":{"name":"40th ECMS International Conference on Modelling and Simulation"},"container-title":["ECMS 2026 Proceedings edited by Filippo Sanfilippo, Florenc Demrozi, Fabio Sgarbossa, Mohammad Poursina"],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T18:08:48Z","timestamp":1782842928000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.scs-europe.net\/dlib\/2026\/ecms2026acceptedpapers\/0755_3dmod_ecms2026_0112.pdf"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7148\/2026-0755","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]]}}}