This is a very uneducated question so please don’t come down to hard on me if it is foolish. I am new to UE4 and am having a great deal of difficulty with blueprint. I am of the school of thought that practice makes perfect. However I am so new I don’t know how to practice. I tried following along to some you tube videos, but the interface was different which confused me. Anyways It seems like maybe there is a diagram out there that has a list of commands that essentially says when you do this then this, this happens. I know it would be nearly impossible to cover all blueprints, but at least I can look at what I’m doing compared to a working blueprint to try and find my way in the dark. Am I dreaming? Thanks and I’m hoping I’m not wasting forum space.
What I am doing now is downloading older versions so I can follow the tutorials. May not be the quickest way to learn because I will have to get reacquainted with the newer versions. However forward progress is forward progress.
I will try explain how I started with UE4. I started 1 month ago so I know how you feel.
The first thing that I noticed, just like you, was the different versions. But don’t scary. Really not many things are differents and mostly times they are even in better locations.
So my very first step was following these videos: A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements - Epic Developer Community Forums it is for 2D series, but was very good to learn basic blueprint and know how to move with the program. Even with my poor English, I managed to follow the videos without problems.
Other videos/posts help me alot like UE4 Combat Arena Blueprint Tutorials - Programming & Scripting - Epic Developer Community Forums or this could help you alot too [Tutorial] CoD: Zombies Blueprint Tutorial Series - Programming & Scripting - Epic Developer Community Forums
And ofc official tutorials here A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements - Epic Developer Community Forums and the wiki here Unreal Engine 5.1 Documentation | Unreal Engine 5.1 Documentation
Don’t forget youtube.
Well, that was my way. I guess that you should think how to do something and look information about it.
In my very little experience I must admit that the harder thing to learn was how to reference between blueprints/things. Sometimes I spent hours trying find the object that need to be connected to the “cast to”, and mostly times the solution is find a tutorial where author show exactly that.
But I managed to understood after those hours and ahours… it in most cases atleast.
Per example if you want manipulate a widget called “MyHealthBar”, you must do the next:
create a widget with that asset -> create a variable type “MyHealthBar” and set it (lets call it “MyBarVariable”)
And now you have a correct referencee.
MyBarVariable linked to “Cast To MyHealthBar” and then you can get variables from “MyHealthBar”, call fuctions, or whatever.
I did two “resume images”. Maybe this will not help you so much, but in my case this help me alot saving time.
I know that this isn’t exactly what you was asking for, but like I said, I felt like you when started with UE4.
As for a reference guide to the different blueprint nodes, the Wiki is your best bet as far as I know. It covers almost all of the nodes and even provides examples on a lot of them. I wouldn’t read it from top to bottom, although you could, but it is good to have it for a reference for when you want to know more.
Another place I like to go is the written tutorials, as you follow them at your own pace. There are some really nice ones that explain why they are using that node, for example with Kitatus’ book tutorials and Making a Shooter Game. They may or may not contain information that I deem useful for the project I am working on, but gaining that knowledge allows you to build upon what you have previously learned and maybe you will find another way to do something that you had not thought of before. Those are just two of many that I have used as starting points for understanding why you would use a node. Not just stick this node here and connect it to that one there.
You guys are saints! I will be sitting at my work station in about an hour and a half and I will give everything you have shared with me a go. Thank you.