Cheat sheet on Blueprint Functions and Events

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
1

Hi,

First off all I would like to let you know that I’m totally new to the Unreal Engine. I’m a C++ developer for more than 20 years now (mostly application development) and I like to dive into game development for some new adventures. :slight_smile: I noticed that discussions about the programming part mostly is based on Blueprints. So I need to figure out how this works. There are some great tutorials and discussions about Blueprints. Still I’m having the same problems over and over again. Sometimes it is hard to find actions in the EventGraph and Construction Script. I’m using the latest Unreal Engine 4.10.4 on Windows 10.

For example: When conversion is used in a Blueprint, it is hard to see what kind of function or event is used. I understand that the input and output color tells me what the purpose of the function or event could be, but sometimes it is hard to find the right action. In some cases I can’t even find an action at all and the tutorial becomes useless to me. This results in wasting time. :frowning:

Example of a ToFloat(byte). Without working experience it is hard to see what it is about.

ConversionToFloatByte.PNG

Another example. In the image below there is something called ‘Get World Location at Distance Along Spline’. I can’t find this action. What can be the problem? Is this my failure, or maybe different translations in Unreal Engine versions? (I am familiar with the Context Sensitive checkbox in the Blueprint action overview)

GetWorldLocationAtDistanceAlongSpline.png
GetWorldLocationAtDistanceAlongSpline.png710×510 83.8 KB

So here is my question. Is there something like a cheat sheet to recognize functions and events? Or maybe can you advice me how to handle this matter?

Thank you in advance for your response and help. :slight_smile:

2

A lot of nodes to do with splines have been renamed in recent versions actually, they no longer have seperate nodes for Local and World coordinates, so you would just drag off from a spline and type “get rotation at distance” etc. in the context menu, leaving out the word “world”, and you should find it.

If you’re having trouble finding nodes, sometimes it might help to turn off “Context Sensitive” in the right click menu, or just be aware that with it on, you will be limited to seeing nodes that “make sense” depending on what you dragged off (even if you type in the name specifically). For example, maybe you are looking for some node but don’t realize it needs the Player Controller as a target, if you right click on the graph and type in the name, it won’t show up, but if you drag off from a Get Player Controller node first and type it, it will show up. Context and experience helps with finding the right nodes really.

3

Thank you for your response and explanation. It seems to be an adventure of trial and error to figure out the differences between versions and Blueprints. :wink:

I suppose there is no cheat sheet or overview available of all Blueprint nodes. This will be a long journey. :slight_smile:

4

There’s also this, if you think it would help Unreal Engine Blueprint API Reference | Unreal Engine Documentation

5

Thank you again. I’m the type of person who likes to study first before taking action. I’ll look into the API. :slight_smile: