Before I commit to using unreal engine 4

Development Programming & Scripting
1

Greetings this is my my first ever question I have asked and it is one regarding if I am over my head in my expectations of what I can achieve in using Unreal engine4. If it is, then I may have to reconsider. Please be patient as it is a long question and I have to give a good description.

First a brief background. I have no experience in using a game engine, but I do have 3d application experience using blender to create, and render scenes, and good enough C++ knowledge and general skills to program and decipher code and have looked at some of the C++ code that UE4 uses. I have VS2015 and have been using VS for 15 months. I have spent several hours looking at how unreal is set up and works, and it seems to be what I am looking for as being well documented and mature, and I have yet to to delve more deeply into what is available and how to achieve things using blueprints and C++. I have C++ code that needs to be taken to the next step of integration with a GUI.

So to begin.

What I am going to try and do with Unreal engine is to not to create a game, but an application, and it all goes well, create a 3d GUI framework based on the unreal engine as I go along to use instead of creating my own 2d version. The existing 2d GUI frameworks available have proven to be, unsuitable, flawed or limited and do not meet my requirements. The application is going to be similar to blueprints in the way of using nodes to represent data elements in a hierarchical data base structure, but much simpler and of only 2-3 types. I plan to use 3d meshes to create the data base “nodes” and others to represent widgets as it they were widgets in a 2d GUI and application where interacting with these meshes initiates a C++ function, or if necessary an external application that can interact with UE4 to do things like load or export data.

What I wish to know is with my limited knowledge and experience at this stage of using UE4, is, can UE4 be integrated or linked with C++ coding that can be integrated with a database and performs application like functions where a 2d widget in a windows environment is substituted with a 3D widget in UE4? Things like loading, saving, modifying, creating, deleting etc of data? Do things like displaying and interacting with lists exist? If a function like viewing a PDF file cannot be performed in UE4 (as I suspect but is not in my needs) can UE4 issue a command to execute an external application? And to have the UE4 run in a windowed, not a full screen environment I suspect should be easy?

Am I over my head in my expectations in this regard of what UE4 can do?

I need to know so I don’t waste more than the 3 weeks I already have trying to find a suitable 2D GUI. I was going to experiment with creating my app in UE4 anyway after finishing a 2D GUI version. But since I have now resorted to creating the GUI from scratch, why not do it in UE4 as a 3D GUI first, as this app will be best used in a 3D environment anyway.

Sorry for the long question.

2

Hello Dominio and welcome to UE4!

The simplistic answers to your questions…

Maybe, Yes, and No… Hows that for a simple honest answer! lol

Maybe - because the questions you have asked, are general and wide ranging in nature, yet looking for a specific answer. And no I’m not denigrating your questions, it’s just that they are, what they are.

Yes - Because, you will have access to the engine source code, hence and bend it anyway you wish, and/or at least understand as much or as little as you wish about the engine.

No - Because, if one thinks or desires that what your considering is going to be done by slapping together a blueprint, and a few thousand lines of C++ code, I think the disappointment factor will be very high.

The UE4 engine is very powerful, this cannot and should not be denied, yet, this power comes at a cost. Which is the learning curve for the engine itself. When I say engine, I mean exactly that (i.e. i’m not talking about Matinee, or UMG, or Slate, or Blueprints, etc). I"m talking about the actual engine, how it deals with data internally, how are “objects” actually represented in the “game” (yes, I know you don’t wish to make a game, but a app, but remember to the engine, it’s neither a game nor a app, it’s just code and data)

The engine can be frustrating as all get out at times, as well as the build enviroment. Yet with all this negative sounding things I have said, It’s rewarding as well, eh such is life.

So can you build what you wish using UE4, I have absolutely no doubt that you can, and I mean no doubt at all. The question really comes back to you more than anything, is how deep are you willing go down the rabbit hole? Will you take the blue or the red pill? lmao

One of the first things you will wish to do, is to make sure in your code, that you draw a very sharp line, of, This is my code, and that is engine code, and move all your external references into your code, and probably set them up as plugins as well. This helps to keep the line drawn. Then spend some time, looking at the API documentation, to see how the important classes are hooked together (AActor, USceneComponent, UPrimiteComponent, Level, etc). Then get a good feel for blueprints, which are a fantastic way of quickly exploring the api of UE4, and very good for logic, yet you don’t really want to push them for data manipulation (sure if an array has 10 elements at that’s it, no issue, but if that array has 5000 elements, umm well your going to want any broad manipulation of that array done with one call into some C++ code).

Be sure to make yourself a very quick and dirty prototype of what you wish your end product to be. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of course, just the main features you are after. This can give you an overall “taste” of using UE4, and able to ask the user community very specific questions when you run into the proverbial brick wall. This way, when you are ready to start creating the actual product, you will have a feel where the potholes are.

Good Luck, and hope you have a wonderful day!

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