So, I have a fair grasp these days of building out environments, and I have went through the tutorial on creating a main menu.
The thing is, I am unsure at this point, as to what the structure of a game might be…
Like, what do I need to build, so that I can run my game, see the main menu… then when I click “Start new game” I see my cut scene, and then I would be on my first level after that?
I realize this may be a dumb question, but I haven’t seen a video on that yet…
To set your main menu as the first level in the game, go to Maps & Modes in the Project Settings and put it as the Game Default Map.
Cutscenes are tricky. Prepared scenes, such as videos, can be imported into the engine. But if you’re talking about making in-game scenes you’re probably going to need to understand Matinee or Sequencer. There are tutorials on both of those, although they might not help you with everything. If this is your first time working with either of those you should play around a little. Make some tests and get a handle on what sort of tools you’ll end up using.
What I am really trying to find out, is how I structure everything - Lets say I have a scene built in sequencer, and I have a menu scene…
Do I give the menu a level of its own?
Then what about the intro scene that would follow? Is that a level of its own?
Then I would actually be at the playable area after that, which is set on the same map as the cut scene, but is that yet again another leve
I think that’s entirely up to you. For me, the first cutscene in the game rolls right into gameplay, so it occurs in the same level. The Sequence I have starts right up, and when it’s done the player is given control.
I’m going to put my main menu in a different level, but I don’t see why you have to if you don’t want to.
In my current game, the Main Menu is it’s own level. Our CutScenes are 2D video’s which we imported and added to UMG. They play at the beginning of certain levels, but they are not levels themselves, just UMG widgets that cover the full screen.
I use the GameInstance class to manage which level to open next, and a Data Table Object so the level progression can be edited easily.
Ok - thanks - and I know we have to include the Unreal branding in our games, can I get that animation premade on the site somewhere?
Check out the following link. Logos are on the right-hand side, and you will want to read (and follow) the guidelines.
**** - I was hoping this wouldn’t be one of the provided resource here - I remember trying to play the animated logo some time ago and giving up to move on to actual development, simply because getting that thing to play was an absolute nightmare - The forum and answer hub is laden with people who can’t get it to play also.
Sorry! I haven’t tried it quite yet, but it was about the only thing I could find. If there’s a trick to it, could please post back here?
Good luck! 
Yeah, I think the trick might be to switch to unity! haha!
I will be trying this later, unfortunately, the media player stuff in unreal is terrible - and there is a bunch of documentation on each control, but I have yet to see a tutorial (maybe I just can’t find it?) which actually goes through getting a video to play. I mean, you can use sequencer to make something - but for my intro videos, they are obviously made outside of unreal, and are Mp4 files - Getting them to play is a nightmare!
Set it to play in the project settings as a startup movie. That’s all there is to it.
HAHA! Nah, I’ll still stick with UE4. Others have seemed to be able to figure it out, so why not us right?
Well, that seems simple enough. Thanks for the info! I don’t have access to my dev stuff right now, but I’ll give it a shot later this week.
When I do that, save it, and hit play - nothing actually happens, I just get taken to my first level instantly…
Well when you “do that, save it and hit play” you still start the current level loaded in your editor viewport … not the game itself.
Coming from the caffeine addicted island of Java i always do imagine components such as levels, widges, blueprints as … objects. But you have to chain these within level blueprints just like plain old C.
Wait!!! I got it, the mp4 conversion of my intro file was 30 fps. Which unreal can’t handle! I set it at 25, and it works.
UE4 seems extremely sensitive to video encoding. I’ve found similar thing with getting video to play in UMG with the Media Player. Have had to experiment with different settings.