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I've tried to learn UE4 multiple times before and I can never get into it. I've been using Unity for several years and the workflow was much more intuitive to m

I've tried to learn UE4 multiple times before and I can never get into it. I've been using Unity for several years and the workflow was much more intuitive to me when I first picked it up. Visual scripting doesn't really work for me and the UE4 C++ scripts feel very cumbersome next to Unity's C# scripting (not just the language, but the amount of work needed to get the desired behavior). It's a shame because the tooling, rendering pipeline, and updates for UE4 are way ahead of Unity and I get envious every time I see these releases. Does anyone here use UE4 to develop small games? If so, what's your development workflow like for game logic?

kevingadd 9y ago
fwiw, there is a C# for UE4 integration out there: https://mono-ue.github.io/ https://mono-ue.github.io/ And I recall there being a JS one too but I don't have the URL handy.
- m1sta_ 9y ago
  Very interesting. Have you seen it used?
  - devsafrun 9y ago
    unreal-JS is by ncsoft (some billion-dollar company), so it should be pretty reliable! though you can't use unreal-JS for iOS apps (uses v8)
simooooo 9y ago
They are also working on python instead of c++
peterlk 9y ago
I had also tried to get into UE4 a couple times, and failed until I used found the following resources: https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/learn/v4/overview https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/learn/v4/overview - a bit slow, but there is tons of content https://www.udemy.com/unrealmultiplayer/learn/v4/overview https://www.udemy.com/unrealmultiplayer/learn/v4/overview - building an online game with Unreal turned out to be stupid hard for me, and this has paved the way https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnPBe1tJpXA0lccx_U1mww https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnPBe1tJpXA0lccx_U1mww - UnrealGaimedev is amazing. I have so much thanks for his videos With those, I have built some simple games. One of the things that I have found interesting is that the visual programming of UE4 can accomplish way more than I thought it was capable of. If you're getting started, I'd recommend not even touching C++ because the visual programming stuff is powerful enough for pretty much everything you would need in a hobby game.
- lfowles 9y ago
  Agreed on the visual programming system. I went into UE4 dev thinking I'd work mostly in C++, but now I'm basically only doing enough in C++ to get something exposed to blueprints so I can prototype faster.
- isopede 9y ago
  I have been getting into Unreal the last few months and had the opposite experience. I found the visual programming language frustrating to use and reason about. While I loved the discoverability of working with blueprints (it is easy to find new nodes), I found that actually working on game logic quickly devolved into an unmaintainable mess of literally, spaghetti code. It was great for prototyping, but horrible at actually building something maintainable and understandable. Reading other people's blueprint setup is even worse. I found the workflow even more frustrating. Blueprints are stored as uasset binaries, and as such make traditional version control impossible. Changing a single default parameter in a blueprint rewrites the entire file, and can not be diffed, merged, or reviewed, making git/p4 log nearly useless. I know there is a builtin diff/merge in the editor, but it's pretty limited and I would say it's quite a far cry from what "normal" developers are used to in other parts of the software world. I have since switched to using mostly C++, and only using blueprints for derived Actors to set up art (meshes, materials, etc). It's definitely slower to set up than using the blueprints. I'm not happy about being back in a place where segfaults can happen; the compile-play-crash-restart cycle is much longer than it should be. I'm not a huge fan of C++, warts and all. In return, however, I can actually read the code, grep it, review it, etc. Do "all the things" you're supposed to do as a good software engineer. I really don't know how the AAA game studios are managing real games with blueprints, I kind of doubt they are. At least as an experienced software developer but amateur game programmer, I found it much more comfortable to sit down with C++ and learn their API, than it was to perform game logic by dragging around 'foreach' boxes and doing arithmetic by crossing lines.
  - peterlk 9y ago
    I was also frustrated with the poor git support by blueprints. I ended up just writing long commit messages so that I could read about what I (thought) I had changed
mtinkerhess 9y ago
Learn blueprint scripting. It takes a little getting used to but it's essential to being productive in UE4. Once you get the hang of it it's basically another scripting language. You can get a long way without writing any C++, and because it's faster, less error-prone, and has great auto-complete it makes it a lot easier to learn UE4's APIs while working in BP than in C++. Besides that, read the docs and learn UE's concepts of actors, components, blueprints (prefabs), actor inheritance, pawns, and controllers. Then when you want to add some C++, make C++ base classes for your blueprint classes so you put some functionality in each. Epic has great docs, this one might be a good place to start if you have Unity experience: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/GettingStarted/FromUnity https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/GettingStarted/FromUnity
winslow 9y ago
I ran into the same issue and frustration you have in trying to learn UE4. I even started UECasts.com[1] to help bridge that gap for others. I made a lot of getting started resources and cheatsheets to help newcomers such as a C++ Cheat Sheet[2] and a Blueprint Cheat Sheet[3]. [1] https://www.uecasts.com https://www.uecasts.com [2] https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-c-plus-plus-cheat-sheet https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-c-plus-plus-chea... [3] https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-blueprint-cheat-sheet https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-blueprint-cheat-...
stonith 9y ago
I've been making an arpg as a solo project for ages (https://streamable.com/b9hae https://streamable.com/b9hae) and using the GameplayAbilities plugin that comes with the engine. I do the abilities (which tend to be heavy on delegates, so visual scripting is perfect for it), the UI, and the animation blueprints in BP, while everything else is cpp. I follow the model of creating all base classes in cpp, then having the final implementation as a data-only blueprint. This lets me rapidly change the values of things in BP in the editor when I'm fine tuning things, without having to deal with BP otherwise. So if I have a fireball spell for example, the fireball actor will have all its logic in cpp but the visuals, sounds, base damage, explosion radius etc. are all set in the editor in the bp, but the ability that lets me cast the fireball will be in pure bp.

kevingadd 9y ago

fwiw, there is a C# for UE4 integration out there: https://mono-ue.github.io/ https://mono-ue.github.io/ And I recall there being a JS one too but I don't have the URL handy.

m1sta_ 9y ago
Very interesting. Have you seen it used?
- devsafrun 9y ago
  unreal-JS is by ncsoft (some billion-dollar company), so it should be pretty reliable! though you can't use unreal-JS for iOS apps (uses v8)

simooooo 9y ago

They are also working on python instead of c++

peterlk 9y ago

I had also tried to get into UE4 a couple times, and failed until I used found the following resources: https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/learn/v4/overview https://www.udemy.com/unrealcourse/learn/v4/overview - a bit slow, but there is tons of content https://www.udemy.com/unrealmultiplayer/learn/v4/overview https://www.udemy.com/unrealmultiplayer/learn/v4/overview - building an online game with Unreal turned out to be stupid hard for me, and this has paved the way https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnPBe1tJpXA0lccx_U1mww https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRnPBe1tJpXA0lccx_U1mww - UnrealGaimedev is amazing. I have so much thanks for his videos With those, I have built some simple games. One of the things that I have found interesting is that the visual programming of UE4 can accomplish way more than I thought it was capable of. If you're getting started, I'd recommend not even touching C++ because the visual programming stuff is powerful enough for pretty much everything you would need in a hobby game.

lfowles 9y ago
Agreed on the visual programming system. I went into UE4 dev thinking I'd work mostly in C++, but now I'm basically only doing enough in C++ to get something exposed to blueprints so I can prototype faster.
isopede 9y ago
I have been getting into Unreal the last few months and had the opposite experience. I found the visual programming language frustrating to use and reason about. While I loved the discoverability of working with blueprints (it is easy to find new nodes), I found that actually working on game logic quickly devolved into an unmaintainable mess of literally, spaghetti code. It was great for prototyping, but horrible at actually building something maintainable and understandable. Reading other people's blueprint setup is even worse. I found the workflow even more frustrating. Blueprints are stored as uasset binaries, and as such make traditional version control impossible. Changing a single default parameter in a blueprint rewrites the entire file, and can not be diffed, merged, or reviewed, making git/p4 log nearly useless. I know there is a builtin diff/merge in the editor, but it's pretty limited and I would say it's quite a far cry from what "normal" developers are used to in other parts of the software world. I have since switched to using mostly C++, and only using blueprints for derived Actors to set up art (meshes, materials, etc). It's definitely slower to set up than using the blueprints. I'm not happy about being back in a place where segfaults can happen; the compile-play-crash-restart cycle is much longer than it should be. I'm not a huge fan of C++, warts and all. In return, however, I can actually read the code, grep it, review it, etc. Do "all the things" you're supposed to do as a good software engineer. I really don't know how the AAA game studios are managing real games with blueprints, I kind of doubt they are. At least as an experienced software developer but amateur game programmer, I found it much more comfortable to sit down with C++ and learn their API, than it was to perform game logic by dragging around 'foreach' boxes and doing arithmetic by crossing lines.
- peterlk 9y ago
  I was also frustrated with the poor git support by blueprints. I ended up just writing long commit messages so that I could read about what I (thought) I had changed

mtinkerhess 9y ago

Learn blueprint scripting. It takes a little getting used to but it's essential to being productive in UE4. Once you get the hang of it it's basically another scripting language. You can get a long way without writing any C++, and because it's faster, less error-prone, and has great auto-complete it makes it a lot easier to learn UE4's APIs while working in BP than in C++. Besides that, read the docs and learn UE's concepts of actors, components, blueprints (prefabs), actor inheritance, pawns, and controllers. Then when you want to add some C++, make C++ base classes for your blueprint classes so you put some functionality in each. Epic has great docs, this one might be a good place to start if you have Unity experience: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/GettingStarted/FromUnity https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/GettingStarted/FromUnity

winslow 9y ago

I ran into the same issue and frustration you have in trying to learn UE4. I even started UECasts.com[1] to help bridge that gap for others. I made a lot of getting started resources and cheatsheets to help newcomers such as a C++ Cheat Sheet[2] and a Blueprint Cheat Sheet[3]. [1] https://www.uecasts.com https://www.uecasts.com [2] https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-c-plus-plus-cheat-sheet https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-c-plus-plus-chea... [3] https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-blueprint-cheat-sheet https://uecasts.com/resources/unreal-engine-blueprint-cheat-...

stonith 9y ago

I've been making an arpg as a solo project for ages (https://streamable.com/b9hae https://streamable.com/b9hae) and using the GameplayAbilities plugin that comes with the engine. I do the abilities (which tend to be heavy on delegates, so visual scripting is perfect for it), the UI, and the animation blueprints in BP, while everything else is cpp. I follow the model of creating all base classes in cpp, then having the final implementation as a data-only blueprint. This lets me rapidly change the values of things in BP in the editor when I'm fine tuning things, without having to deal with BP otherwise. So if I have a fireball spell for example, the fireball actor will have all its logic in cpp but the visuals, sounds, base damage, explosion radius etc. are all set in the editor in the bp, but the ability that lets me cast the fireball will be in pure bp.