Is Unreal Engine an API?

anonymous_user_0e2ec1fb · August 14, 2015, 5:43am

I believe that Unreal Engine is an API based from C++.

I had a pretty experience programmer told me that it is a language and I have seen documentation that collaborated that statement. He also said it was a scripting language, but I always thought that a scripting language was something such as
HTML, Javascript, PHP, and pretty much anything else that doesn’t have to get compiled to run.

Thanks

jonimake · August 14, 2015, 8:20am

It’s a framework for building games.

BramV2 · August 14, 2015, 9:38am

Unreal Engine has an API. An (optional) part of the engine is programming in C++, and then you use the API from UE. I’m not sure in how far you could call it a scripting language. On the one hand, you program within this larger framework, so you could say that’s scripting, but technically I’m not sure, the C++ code is not interpreted (I think…), so it kind of depends on how you define ‘scripting’… but yeah the best way to describe UE is an engine, that’s why it’s called that way…

anonymous_user_7d05e42b1 · August 14, 2015, 1:32pm

You could call blueprints a scripting language, so it HAS an API and it also HAS a scripting language, but it IS neither an API nor a scripting language, but an engine. There is actually good reason why it is called Unreal Engine and not Unreal API or Unreal scripting language - that is simply because it IS an engine.

anonymous_user_0e2ec1fb · August 14, 2015, 2:36pm

Thanks everyone for the replies!!

I mistyped and should had typed UnrealScript. That is what I’m trying to learn right now and it looks like C++ with an API called UnrealScript. It doesn’t come off to me as its own language and definitely not a scripting language(doesn’t need to be compiled). I was curious and wanted to make sure that I really knew what a scripting language is (HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript, and etc). I would like to take advantage of the programming side of things too since that is my interest.

Thanks for the responses.

anonymous_user_7d05e42b1 · August 14, 2015, 2:55pm

UnrealScript is the name of the script language that Unreal Engine 3 has used.

Shadowriver · August 20, 2015, 12:00am

UE4 as well as any other engine is just fundament for the game, your code practically extends engine it self

anonymous_user_0dc1700e · August 20, 2015, 6:27pm

Best answer.

What is a framework?

Why do we need a framework?