Short story…
Few weeks ago I decided to start learning Unreal Engine 4.
I have a dream to create an open world game set in Eastern Europe in 90s. As a kid I learnt with CryEngine 1 (Far Cry, 2004) and with Game Maker. CryEngine is currently quite outdated and it only supported Far Cry modding, so I had to work with Game Maker.
You can make 3d games in Game Maker but the 3d option only exists because it’s cool to say that the engine technically supports it, actually it’s not much supported. No 3d level editor, very limited lights, poor support for 3d modelling, no skeletal animations (you must load every phase as a separated model) and even though I didn’t know, how to use shaders, I doubt they could be actually used in a 3d game. After several weeks of setting up terrain to work properly, I’ve finally decided to stop being Don Quijote and learn something 3d friendly. Since I still connect Unity with those crappy horror games from 2012, the choice was simple.
In the past weeks, the learning proccess with UE was sometimes confusing, sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating, sometimes something else…
Currently, as a training, I’m creating some architecture assets, which could be potentially used in the game I hope I’ll create in a future. I’ve assembled some walls with a borrowed texture into a shape of a room and…
…look at the screenshot, it’s beautiful!
It’s not photorealistic, it doesn’t have detailed props, it doesn’t have polished textures… I bet you’ve seen much better screenshots made in UE4. However, for me, who was until now working with an engine which is almost 2 decades old, and with an engine, which theoretically (but only theoretically) could make 3d games (and actually is quite expensive, especially if you want to make mobile games), it is something amazingly beautiful. Even though my learning with Unreal is still in the beginning, I know I’ve chosen the right engine.
If Unreal Engine turned into an everyday bread for you, remember how amazing this engine is. Amazing graphics, modern features, no need to setup such elementar things like terrain, physics, collisions or car gear box, support for a wide variety of devices and much more…for free.
That is amazing.
