Horrible C++ IDE Integration & Newcomer Support

General Feedback & Requests
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1

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

Before all you read this.
I don’t expect understanding, nor a response from a Team Member;
I appreciate all the effort made !

Overall use

I recently have joined Unreal Engine, hoping that I would be able to program C++ out of the box.
Sadly I was heavily disappointed, but I don’t wanna give up.

Before even writing a simple line of “Hello World”, I had various problems.
Using Visual Studio; Syntax Highlighting & Code Completion is completely broken, once I open this project.

Relaying on paid alternatives, e.g Jetbrains Rider (For Unreal Engine), is a shame.

It can’t be, that getting started feels highly unpleasant.
Due those reasons, it forces the use of Blueprints.

Learn Material

Getting Started: C++ Gameplay Programming References
Is broken, and the feedback site is “deactivated”.

The Online Courses
Are completely elongated; In fact, all learn resources are spread over several sites.
Which makes it hard, to find a connection.

Besides that, it DOES cover the setup of Visual Studio.
But it seems outdated, and it doesn’t have any troubleshoot or any FAQ.

Improving

There are several Community Resources, providing an alternative.
For example VSC, via VSCode/UE Intellisense
Which doesn’t help the Visual Studio Users.

Final Words

Once again; Thanks for your time.
But please understand, that I’m highly frustrated.
I wanna prevent that newcomers suffer the same.
I’m even willing to spent time, improving those given facts.

Personal Opinion

It can’t be that a well known Company fights with those problems; Relaying on Community made alternatives.

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Programing is continuous frustration, if you don’t like getting frustrated you should better try to be a designer or artist.

If you have no money problem you have this plugin,
https://www.wholetomato.com/visual-assist-ue4-unreal-engine
when I did some C ++ tutorials the truth is that there is a big difference.
It’s a shame that it doesn’t come standard with unreal :sob:

About having to use the blueprints I don’t see the problem, I have two games on Steam only with blueprints. :sunglasses:

Good look!

2 Likes
4

I didn’t expected such a kind reply !
At first I thought, I would cause a Discussion.

Replies

Understandable… it is such a shame, I love Unreal Engine.
But the bulky handling with C++ is horrible.
I really do hope, that they make somewhat a change.

Thank you ! But I don’t wanna spent money, if there’s (At least in theory) a free alternative.

I’m so happy to hear that :slight_smile: :muscle:
I learned C++, so I would wish to make use of the API.

My thoughts

I understand, that the Blueprint System is reliable and ready for production.
But I don’t want something forces on, Unreal C++ gets advertised as

Unreal C++ Is Awesome!

I believe so ? I mean, I haven’t got my hands on it in detail.
As I can’t even make the first steps. I’m stuck at step “zero”.

Thank you so much guys;
I genuinely hope, that they will improve at that part.

(Maybe with Unreal Engine VI ?)

5

Hello Tokyo,
I know where you are coming from and feel your frustration. Everyone coming from Unity feels it too.
I wish Epic would grant itself a Mega - Mega - Grant and hire more staff to help out with UE C++, Plugin creation.

They are structured differently from unity in that they offer support and handholding if you are a paid licensee or join Unreal Developer Network (paid).

This reasonable because the tradeoff for not having dedicated support is that you get to use the engine for free.

Here’s how i’m coping with C++ development :

1.Get the free preview version of Rider for UE

  1. Follow these youtubers for learning or understanding UE C++
    a. Mike Stevanovic - YouTube
    b. Unreal Engine Character Tutorial - Animate And Move A 3D Character In Unreal Engine 4 - YouTube
    c. Create A Small Adventure Game With Unreal Engine And C++ | Unreal Engine Tutorial - YouTube

Gamedev.tv courses on C++
Namely:

  1. Unreal 4.22 C++ Developer : Learn C++ and Make Video Games
  2. Unreal Multiplayer Master : Video Game Dev In C++
  3. Unreal VR Dev : Make VR Experiences with Unreal Engine in C++

Epics online Learning portal had a deal with them to give this to you for free but the links to this have disappeared.
Update 1-9-2021 : Try the below link to get them all for FREE !
https://learn.unrealengine.com/course/3750189
If the above link doesn’t work the courses are still pretty affordable and worth buying.

For plugin Creation :

  1. take the Free course from the UE learning portal
    Best Practices for Creating and Using Plugins - Unreal Engine

  2. This video on plugin development from UE Community
    UE4 Modules - YouTube

3.The Unreal community WIKI

Once again, you are not alone in your frustration. Work at it and hang in there buddy.

Cheers,
b

2 Likes
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I barely have used Unity, but indeed, It has programming out of the box :joy:

Thank you so much for the suggestions !
I already downloaded Rider, but it didn’t even start :thinking:

The Unreal community WIKI seems to serve good usage!

Thank you once again,
best regards.

1 Like
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Unity doesn’t “have programming out of the box”. Simply, Visual Studio comes with proper C# support.

Surprisingly, VS doesn’t support C++ well… It simply sucks as C++ IDE, Intellisense is a ■■■■, doesn’t handle large C++ codebases (so every 3D game engine!).
It was standard for every programmer to invest into VAX (Visual Assist) plugin, no way to work efficiently without that. Now we have even choice, Resharper C++ plugin beats VAX. And Rider (with Resharper included) is on the path to make quite VS obsolete for Unreal programmers.

Yeah, I added nice article on setting up tools for Unreal C++ programmer… This is something should be included in basic docs by Epic - explaining that vanilla Visual Studio sucks :wink:

3 Likes
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Hey! Thanks for your honest reply.

I figured. I took a glance at Visual Studio 2022 Preview.

Which ironically UE 5 added as supported.

Besides that, I’m starting to understand, that there’s no free alternative.

Best wishes

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Besides that, I’m starting to understand, that there’s no free alternative.

There is.
Use Godot.

But if commercialization & access to bleeding edge technology (which opens up other business possibilities ) is something that’s important for you, Invest in UE.

Cheers,
b

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Thank you, but no.
Aleady tried it, and the graphic base they provide doesn’t impress me.
And yes I know in Godot 4 is a 3D Update coming. But they’re missing basic things like a particlesystem.

Best regards