I am considering to cancel my Sub for now and Re-Sub after 1/2 years

Development Cinematics & Media
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1

I’ve been with UE4 for a couple of months and I’ve been trying to learn mainly BluePrints which are quite easier than traditional programming but I’ve become very overwhelmed.

Even though its been months i still don’t know what i am doing in BP. I am starting to think that it may have been a mistake to become an early adopter because there are many things left undiscovered and there are a lot of things that need fixing. I also think that i am more of a linear learner, I like to learn things that are set in a very straightforward way like in linear action games where you go through Level 1 -> Level 2 -> Level 3 and etc.

I like to learn things in a very structured and organized way. I like documentations and guides which split categories into Beginner - Intermediate - Advanced because it gives me a good understanding of where the information is aimed at and at who and how i can proceed.

I am not blaming Epic because UE4, out of all the big 3 (Cry Engine, Unity, Torque) is the best Engine i have seen and i stand by that statement.

I think the problem i have really is that most of the learning content is kind of unstructured and doesn’t kind of aim at who should be trying or attempting to learn said material. I understand there’s the Getting started guide but after that, when you go into the manual it doesn’t kind of have a structure at who its aimed for. It just expects you to go in and expect to know what you’re doing.

I also tried setting myself small goals and experimenting with BP for a couple of months, i mostly failed (failure is good by the way). When i usually fail its a good opportunity to find out where i went wrong and why happen.

I’ve failed multiple times in BP and no matter how long and patient i was, i couldn’t figure out why it went wrong, I lurked on the forums for hours, searched the answerhub, searched the documentation, scoured through content examples and etc. I really couldn’t find the problem or why i failed. Was it me? Was it the documentation? I think that there’s a lack of direction when learning UE4 and the way its been designed for people to learn is by having a documentation with different topics where you have to find out what works and how, which don’t get me wrong i think its a viable learning method but not everyone has a lot of free time to learn UE4.

I really struggle learning with the method that the documentation and tutorials have been set out because i don’t where i go after i read a certain bit of documentation. Its not a linear method so when i read about something and i try it out i have to figure out where i go next which is difficult because the documentation/tutorials aren’t spread out in a linear and organized manner.

If it were linear, i could simply focus on one area of learning something without having to worry about where to go next because i know the next part in the learning sequence. The reason i am considering to Re-Sub after 1-2 years is because i think that there will be more content and i think UE4 would have improved a lot more.

Other than that though, despite not really learning to use UE4. I still think its the best of all the 3D engines I’ve seen so i will recommend to people who want to get into game development.

2

We are well aware of these types of problems and have several ideas of how to improve in area. One thing in particular is what we call Learning Tracks which will lead you through documentation pages for a specific topic and skill level in a linear manner. So, we might have a beginner, intermediate, and advanced Level Design tracks (though they may not be called that exactly). When you finish one track, it will attempt to suggest a suitable next track for you as well.

We are also hoping to start having a set of related pages for every documentation page where it makes sense. That way, when you get to the end of a page, you will have suggestions of where to go next.

We really want to have skill level tags for everything so you not only know whether a topic is really suitable for you but also can find topis according to your current skill level.

There is a lot of work going on to solve these problems. I apologize for the frustration you have encountered so far, but I assure you we are trying to make the learning experience better with every release.

3

Another suggestion would be project based learning for beginners particularly?

Taking a simple game project via Video Tutes from start to finish with included content. Paid for would not be a problem …

4

Hi aidanodr!

Have you seen the video tutorials that start from a blank or template project and have you add game features? There’s one for Blueprints and one that focuses more on C++.

We also havewritten quick start guides that start off with a blank or template project, and walk you through adding features like lighting, a UMG HUD, and AI. We’re always looking for how to improve “start from scratch”-style documentation, including how best to include cool assets for you to work with, so any feedback you can give about the written or video tutorials and how they do or don’t work for you is appreciated. :slight_smile: What kind of topics are you looking to learn more about?

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Some step by step tutorial on how to make a complete game would be a great learning ressource.

Quick starts are awesome.

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Hi Lauren,

As said PLUS 1:

In my case I am more drawn to project based video tutorials as a way of learning. The closest idea is at CGCOOKIE:

://cgcookie/blender/cgc-courses/piero/

But then thats just me, all folk are different :smiley:

As i mentioned - paying for something like would not be a problem. I am differentiating from a video tutorial set explaining a or features Vs A video course taking a simple project from start to finish WITH CONTENT and deals with the features in “real world” along the way.

7

Thank you for your post . I do think the learning tracks idea is very a good idea and is something i was about to suggest in the feedback area and i understand that Epic is working at their utmost hardest by creating an AAA game engine which is simple to learn. But as i mentioned earlier i think i may likely cancel my sub temporarily while i test out the UE4 engine and give feedback on what i find.

But i have to say, you guys have the best support i have seen for beginners so i really want to thank you for that.

8

Agreed, & cover the basic of common things

  1. Menus
  2. load levels
  3. save & load
  4. pick up/drop
  5. Basic rig/animation
  6. Basic IA
  7. Intersection with environment
  8. Inventory
  9. Package a game.
    etc
9

The engine is young, we understand there is quite a bit of learning, tutorials to make UE4 more accessable & people can get up to speed, & spend more time in design then battling blueprint or rendering.

I am happy with the job the guys have done so far. Just keep up the good work. There was never a day I regretted picking UE4 over other alternatives.

10

?v=vBADl-gbITQ
?v=VpFk5w1dr6k (unfortunately just in german)
2. It’s shown in the tutorials above -> console command
3. ?v=_l0CbUjxVOw
4. What exactly do you meant with that? e.g You could just use an attach to and detach node -> that’s how I drop and attach my weapons
5. Just search for … rigging or … animating tutorial (… = your 3d program) :wink:
Here you learn pretty much about the use of anims in the UE4
6.
(really basic)
?v=VAAHKNoIg0w&list=PLV0qBSMhzPz4-x3bYt2q01c2PjXmUl1eX (advanced)
7. What do you exactly mean? :smiley:
8. ?v=ZEgINhsM0Rw
9. You can easily do that with the package button under the “file” tab :slight_smile:

Or ask in the forum, then people will probably also create tutorials about special topics :slight_smile: Of course those tutorials are separate ones, but you can still learn everything from them :wink:

@ Death_Skull_DX
When you dont know how something works or when you need some more information about something or just some suggestions dont hesitate to open a thread in the forum. We are always here to answer your questions :slight_smile:

11

Exactly, thing about Unity is it’s been going for so long with little changes to how it actually works and has a massive user base. So anything you can think of has been covered, most issues have a fix and there are guides covering pretty much all aspects of game creation.

Because UE4 is new and a lot of people are still learning (especially people like us who used Unity for quite a few years), Epic are still fixing and creating etc. it’s going to take time.

Unity’s API documentation is concise and IMO better, they have a mass of easy to follow API coding tutorials etc. On the other hand they seriously lack demos to reverse engineer which for me is a major thing. It’ll take time, but at least Epic are willing to evolve which is the key factor or it’d end up the way of CE.

12

Just pointing out in case you have not heard already, canceling your subscription will not make UE4 stop working on your PC. You will no longer receive updates to new versions after your sub runs out, but you can still use the version you have downloaded for as long as you want without any issues. :slight_smile:

13

Just to clarify, I am not speaking for myself, but in general. But thanks for the link. I am pretty active in asking question here & posting threads, & people have been helpful. . Haha.

Anyway, what I am saying is that it would be nice to have a tutorial package that cover the main cole of making a game, in a sequential manner (like in a course, with proper chapters & progressive). So at the end of the learning, you already have a basic working game, where you can then build from, or have a foundation to make a complete game. After that, they can zoom in to learn more about individual areas. I think is the best way to learn for many people.

Of course I know you can find individual topics (which you can do after learning the basic) , but it just a better for many people for these completeness. Also a problem following a specific area for beginner is that alot of time, the author assume certain knowledge in other area which the reader may not. It can be demoralizing when you want to learn A, but find out you have to know B, the reading about B, you find out you need to know C. Soon, it become hard to follow.

When you have a chapter style, its usually easier to follow, since the author know exactly what you have or have not learn before the toipc chapter.

14

Considering its barely 6 months old, the resource for UE4 have been quite plentiful. When UE4 become more mature, resources will grow much more. There is however benefit of being early adapters, & I do not regret being one. The 19€ is not too bad, & I rather pay for , then for an MMO, or Skysport, Xbox live or PSN. Since I started I have little time for games & TV anyway.

In any case, there is no pressure when you to cancel the subscription & learn at your own pace, then return in future when the engine & resources are more mature. One can use time to make game asserts & design.

15

That’s what could be done for the platformer demo game, like some video overview covering the level making off, and some step by step explanations for the important parts like Blueprints game logic and animations, collisions set up, lights set up.

16

I have similar learning issues. I have to admit that blueprints probably just aren’t made for me. I like scripting with a good library and a well structured documentation. That’s something I can easily understand and work with very quickly. While blueprints may be nice for artists and/or small behavior changes and C++ is required for AAA games anyway, the lack of an easy and quick official scripting language really annoys me.

To me, using blueprints feels like coding Z80 Assembler with a mouse - so actually it doesn’t feel easy at all, nor does it feel any comfortable. There are so many small building blocks to connect even for basic tasks. It actually feels painful when I’m used to do in a single line of Lua code what requires 10 blueprints or more. Learning one line of code is just so much easier than connecting the matching 10 blueprints - especially with a bit of any previous coding experience.

But probably that’s just me and my twisted scripting brain.

Currently I’m bouncing between learning blueprints and C++ and both feels very difficult to me, but that’s not entirely because of any issues with the documentation.

And not a day goes by without thinking I would kill for a Sublime Text/LUA workflow! :wink: Sadly it doesn’t look like there will be any official scripting language anytime soon. (I know of the unofficial scripting support, but even that seems to have a low priority and got postponed just recently, and I don’t feel too well making professional games with anything unofficial anyway)

17

why is C++ required for AAA games?

18

You really need to dive into the assets they give you for free. The content examples, the other games and demos. There are a plethora of youtube videos from epic themselves and plenty of community members. I am a programmer but have been building a game in blueprints since the beginning. I learned a lot from the methods above to the point where I have a playable demo with multiplayer.

19

From a perspective of a programmer, diving into blueprint is actual far easier than someone that is not a programmer, as the logic is similar, just presented in visual form.

What I am saying is that we have to look into someone that may not be a programmer or a technical person. For an experience programmer, to convert an idea someone have, into a logic form that a computer can read, & then write in the correct programming syntax, is a snap of a fingertips, but it may not hold true for someone without a technical background.

Different people have different capability in learning, base on their experience, background. The ability to be able to just see codes & nodes & know what the designer try to do, is a skill that doesn’t just come, (you are able to pick up tango fast not because its easy, but because you already know hip hop.), you can do it, as you can apply the same technical knowledge from programming or other engineering background.

People who have these skills can continue to get info from examples, or turtorial, or self discovery.

At the same time, there should also be an avenue for people who are newbie in game development, 3D modeling and programming in general, to learn in a more systematic way. In time, they will be proficient enough to be able to extract infrom from codes / networks, & learn via just documents. Its nice that there is a more guided, structural learning available.

I am a technical person, been a development engineer for automotive for 8 years, & self taught myself programming back in college & 3D modeling/animation on my own (my artwork even made it to international magazine gallery section so I can’t be complete bad), even then, some of the examplea are not always easy to follow for me, so I can imagine how hard it is for someone who came from a non technical background or have no experience in any software/game development.

20

I have a technical background and it took me some time to adapt to the way the blueprints workflow works, you know, the way the execution order works mostly.

What would be really useful would be some really quick tutorials in the shape of: " is in C++, is how it’s done in BP". But yeah, those are aimed at programmers that are learning BP, not brand new people, or artists.