I’m fairly new to all of this. I’ve spent the last few months giving my spare time to going through UE tutorials on , and Googling stuff to fill in any questions I run into. I’m savvy enough that I’ve been able to fill in gaps between the tutorials and the updates to UE’s interface. But I am basically a noob.
So my question is, how helpful is this forum community to noobs? I don’t mean “rude” or “pretentious” or anything attitude-wise. I mean, in terms of technicality and accessibility, would this forum be too much for a noob to absorb? Like, I built a class BP for a safe, open/close on a button press. I put down 4 safes, and I want something cool to happen when all 4 are opened. I have NO IDEA how to do this. Do I use an EventTick node that’s constantly checking if all 4 are on? Do I need to make changes to the class? Do I need a special variable built for the class so that something else can keep track of it and blah blah blah blah…
The question is fairly noobish. And most of my questions would be. I’m just wondering if this is the right place to be or if I should just wait to be more proficient before I hop in?
lol i joke, well, at some point we were all noobs. heck even the developers of the engine itself … noobs back in the day, amiright!?
Its fairly helpful, as long as you did your homework and you dont post a question while the forums are loaded with the same questions and answers. Really, i havent even seen ppl get on ppl for that … much. Very noob friendly, welcome to UE4 !
There’s hardly any question that goes unanswered. It’s not always a great answer but folks are generally eager to chip in, no matter how basic/complex the issue is. The worst case scenario is that *someone *just links you a tutorial without answering the question, ehm. ;p. But in all seriousness, it’s a great tut series! Besides I’m not sure if you’re really asking for help or just giving us an example. The question is valid and definitely suitable for the forums.
How much help you’re going to get depends a lot on the way you ask the question. Be specific, one thing at a time, explain what your final expectations are, mention things you’ve already tried, attach an image with the pertinent setup if possible.
I’ve seen links to this website before. Gonna be completely honest, the website itself doesn’t seem very intuitive. It’s a bad sign towards how effective the actual tutorials would be. I mean no offense by this, it just seems like it’s not really meant for beginners.
I’ve gone through enough that I understand pretty much all of the UI. I understand that a lot of the examples in the tutorials are way simpler versions than actual game applications. I’m proficient enough that a lot of things just seem intuitive now, and are going to turn into me doing a lot of Googling, and hopefully a little forum lurking. Like, I want my main menu to include an image of the player’s character so they can click it and customize it in a 3D environment. As far as I can tell, the best way to do that is create a small level with the character, a UI, and a locked camera angle. And I’d have to make my main character clickable, which would then trigger the camera to move to a different angle, rotate the character slightly, and pull up a different UI. Some of these things I can do independently, but doing it together would be a lofty task. And other things are too complicated for a simple Google search (like locking the camera).
I hope these things are worth the effort after all is said and done.
I suspected as much from the original post. I did that a lot and while I could keep doing it, I’d rather find something a bit more intuitive. Also, I’m actually looking to build a simple 3rd person game, so already working with an FPS-based tutorial, I know I’m going to be doing some of my own deduction. Most of it is similar, of course (like the UE tutorial on UMG health bars is on an FPS game, but it’s the same process for 3rd Person games. Just had to figure out a few UI things that had changed).
As for activity, I mean, this thread is getting responses, so that’s always good. lol I will definitely be coming here when a tutorial or Google search don’t work out!
I would say that the forums CAN be quite noob friendly provided you do a few things (in my experience):
Ask specific questions - I see a lot of questions like “Can someone tell me how to create a game like X.” Or “How do I create an RPG XP system tied to a saving system?” Most people want to see that the person actually tried to so something before rushing to ask for help. Others (like myself) may know the answer but dont have time to type a 5 paragraph answer to address the very generic question. Or, it could be that the answer is “it depends.” So, try to be as specific as possible in what you need.
Show your work - Tied to the top comment. Try to show your BP / C++ code and if you can capture a quick video of the issue - even better. From a vague description its hard to determine what the actual problem is.
I always try to help people in the forums and I see a lot of other regular posters doing the same - just dont take it personal if you get no answer :). Sometimes, people just dont know the answer. If this happens, try the Answer Hub and Slack channel to see if you get lucky (different devs hang out at different places)