I started out using Godot about 6 months ago which was also my first time learning coding with GDScript and I got the hang of it and really liked but I eventually moved to Unreal Engine last week because I wanted more tools when it came to 3D games and ive used UE5 in the past for environment building but now I’m trying to learn game development.
I’m following a great course on udemy focused on Blueprints and while I understand the concepts, i struggle so much with the challenges and learning Blueprints and also being able to read my “code/blueprints”.
Coding felt way more natural to me and it stuck a lot easier than Blueprints did, but i am hesitant to learn C++ right now until I know my way around the engine a bit more. (I do plan on learning it eventually)
Just wondering if anyone else has struggled to learn Blueprints after coding? Not sure If i should just keep going, im still only like 20 hours deep into Blueprints and unreal engine so practically a baby in that sense but yeah its not really sticking as fast as coding in my experience.
This is going to vary significantly from person to person.
Also, prior experience level matters, does previous coding experience help or hinder? Will of course depend on various things such as the person (again) and (I suspect) how far down the programming rabbit hole(s) you have previously been.
I am not a ‘visual person’ at all, all logic, all the time. I couldn’t have imagined myself using a visual scripting system a year ago, but here I am, having taken to it like a fish to water.
It is just programming after all. In fact, I would argue it is more like programming than traditional programming languages. When I first saw it, I was like “Ok, I’m coding with an AST then, cool”.
Maybe not so clear if you don’t know what an AST is, but the point is that it is programming as you have always known it, it just looks a little different.
In either case I would recommend trying to push on, there are things that a just painful and slow to do in C++ that can be whipped up super quick and easy with Blueprint. You do not want to do everything in C++ even if you can, so you should be aiming to ultimately know both.
I think previous coding experience definitely helps me understand the concepts, I just struggle to read blueprints as code if that makes sense? Even a minor Blueprint setup, its just harder to read for me personally but maybe that comes with more experience, im definitely very very new to it. I just thought i’d be able to pick it up faster.
And yeah I definitely dont want to do everything in C++, my understanding is UE5 works best if you do Blueprints and C++ together where its needed.
There’s no real reason to use BP if you are more comfortable with code. There’s a few things you are forced to use some blueprints for, like some aspects of animations, but for the most part you don’t need them.
I personally despised BPs when I started learing UE, now I tolerate them xD
From my experience the BPs require you to be even more strict when it comes to logic encapsulation than C++. Not to mention node link management to stay away from spaghetti as far as possible.
Here are few example how in the project I’m working on we setup things:
Different graphs for different things:
Nodes are kept in distances that allow you to split them into funcitons just by looking at them:
And my personal favourite, 1 link can have max 2 connections before new redirection pin (not sure if that’s how they are called) should be added to the link:
Blueprints are actually very self explanatory therefore easy to understand, but you might struggle to write code with them since even though it has many shortcuts and built-in functions, it’s also kinda primitive in a way compared to coding languages. Just like how others said, I also think you should be prone to use blueprints in Unreal Engine since they’re incredibly practical, help you visualize your algorithms and don’t cause issues unlike C++, and use C++ for things you can’t do with blueprints. Even if there are certain scripts that you plan on writing using C++, it would save you a lot of time to implement the code using blueprints and make sure it works as expected. And even though Epic markets blueprints as an easy coding language that’s main intention is to encourage non-programmers to be able to write code, it’s really smart to make uses out of them!
I have 2 or 3 months Unity learning experience. I personally feel comfortable with both text coding and blueprint.
and I more like blueprint.
I remember the first time I learn BP,I felt it was so lazy,you connect a float to an integer,it automatically give you a converter node. it is really helpful to a beginner.
I feel there’s no much difference in blueprint and c#. and I almost auto pick up blueprint…but now I have forgot everything about c# and Unity because it’s been along time and I didn’t go much deep.
