I always watched videos about how to do stuff like “how to make ego shooter” or “how to make an inventory” or “how to pick up items and store them”
stuff like that. And I have also watched some basic videos of UE4 company how to set things up in your level.
But I often have lots of questions that are not answered in the videos like how do variables, structures etc. work. I mean now I think I know, but I use to have lots of questions. Especially when I see videos where they use a lot of nodes and blue prints, which are interacting. And these bp’s are full of variables, at the end of the day I dont know what does what anymore, I completely lose track. I cannot understand why he makes another variable, where this variable gets its information, why he has to make more references etc etc. Why do a blueprints (widget) needs to be created but all others not. Why do I have to use a clear variables node in widgets sometimes. The tutors say otherwise it will be create over and over, but why?. It was just a big mess for me. With lots of thinking I figured some stuff out. But it took me hours. And I think I could have learned much faster if there was just someone who would have explained me why the things are they are.
Just today someone told me to first learn the basics before I watch his videos (I asked a lot of questions).
So then I asked myself where do I learn the basics.
Watching “how to’s” just leave a lot of unanswered questions in my mind. I feel I understand what they try to do, but I dont understand the mechanics of the engine.
How did u learn blueprint scripting?
@franktech lol no that is too complicated. @Radiance. Thanks again,. I think I have watched about 25 basic tutorials of Epic games about how to put objects into your level, open a door, set up a light. maybe it wasn’t enough. I see the list includes about 300 videos. Might try that out. I have to be very very very disciplined though if I go through all these videos.
is c++ chronological explained somewhere?
Because that was my biggest issue with the bp tutorials online.
There are like 300 vids from epic games, but it’s like a lexicon, not a guide, they dont guide u through. And so I didnt even bother much with these massive videos , bc too boring to watch a whole video to see what every single node etc. is
I started out with creating a project in a game genre that I was passionate about playing myself. I started by looking up tutorials step by step, finishing the tutorial so it works, then examining the blueprints. Then moving on to the next part of my game, finding a tutorial on it, examining the code, then linking the 2 tutorials together with the knowledge that I acquired.
i.e. I started by looking for a tutorial “Ue4 basic AI” so i found tutorials on making enemies follow me around, with line of sight etc.
then I looked for a tutorial “UE4 health and damage” and made it so the player character has health. And I now understood a basic way of how to deal/take damage. I also gave the enemies some health this way by looking at the code how I did it and then coming up with my own solution for enemy’s health.
then I looked for a tutorial “UE4 melee attacking”. So I implemented basic attacks, which substracted health from the enemy.
then I looked for a tutorial “UE4 AI attacking”. So i made the monsters attack me
then “UE4 UMG HUD basics” to make a interface for health bars
then “UE4 death and respawn tutorial”
then “ue4 experience and leveling system tutorial”
etc etc…
After a time doing this you will understand blueprints better and better and after 2-3 months doing these basic tutorials you can understand blueprints so good that you can create your own stuff.
So my advice is to just start a project your passionate about and take it step by step, looking up the tutorials you need for the next step in your project. No need to find documentation or step by step explanations of blueprints, just start a project and look up the tutorials you need.
I’m 1 year later now since I started learning blueprints this way, and I’ve got a very solid project going by now.
check the action RPG toolkit and the Emberheart game threads in my signature
I do this already like 6 months. The AI tutorials was hard for me to understand.
I dont start any project, since I dont fully understand all. I dont know why u do that, I won’t do that, it seems stupid to me. What if u later find out ur way wasnt good, and u need to redo everything. I want to start till I know everything and when everything is memorized a bit better.
I already watched all kinds of tutorials, always leaving lots of questions in my mind. Lots of frustration. Spending hours watching a single video over and over, not getting the information that makes it understandable.
I then come out with assumption “ok I guess this does that, and this gets the information that way, etc.” I have to assume how things might work, and then slowly get a better understanding. Feels like I need a super logical mind to figure stuff out, but other people learn so easily? like wtf I dont understand how little kids start making games and have understood everything with these tutorials that barely explain the mechanics of Ue4
I can promise you, every project you make will at some point have to be rewritten because you learned a new better way to do things. Me and my friend made a program in Delphi which we sold to a gym, tens of thousands lines of code, we redid the project from scratch copy+pasting some parts at least ten times.
Besides, I doubt you will learn what every single node does in a short time. Create a small game, the first level of Super Mario Bros or something. Divide and conquer, break the code down into small pieces and get help where needed.
Best way to learn is to simply jump in the deep end of the pool and start.
I think if you really want to have things explained step by step you are in for a problem. There’s no such information around other than tutorials.
The only thing you can do is pay someone to tutor you. Or if you can find someone to do it for free, even better.
If you are really starting from scratch, with no programming experience at all, it might help to start learning general programming first. There’s more step by step information to be found about software development and programming in general. It will help you to learn understand things like for loops, structs, typecasting etc… and when to use them, all the basics.
I would highly recommend Udemy courses (wait till they go on sale though). Some of them are very long and detailed and should give you a much better idea of the engine works.
