Learning Unreal C++

Hey there!

Actually, as I see it, there are two places to get started with UE C++: here and here (look for the C++ category)

Where did you start? In order to learn UE C++ I started with the Blueprints Basics actually and then watched the C++ video with blueprints. I did not stop with just Blueprints, I dived deeper into animations, materials, construction script and whatever core concept the UE may make use of. In my opinion, the first step to make when learning to use a library (or the engine in this case) is to read and understand all the relevant concepts that the library introduces and uses. You should always know what you write your code for. I spent quite a lot of time on this first step since the engine is quite elaborate. This also helps a lot to prevent bugs and errors that are caused by inappropriate use of the concepts provided and enhances greatly the proccess of designing and engineering software and algorithms. This page helped me out quite a lot with that goal. Just follow the layout of that page. I actually did not read beyond the framework yet, since I am still at the step below.

After having a “profound” understanding of the framework and concepts, I started learning about the C++ that was used to implement these. I referred to the documentation (and I must say: I love it! Even if unrefined, it already does a good job of providing deeper understanding). This is the main page you will want to refer to: Programming with C++ | Unreal Engine Documentation
I admit that I did not find out about that page by myself but was directed to it by fellow community members during twitch streams.

I follow(ed) the following path when reading the docs:

  1. Introduction to C++ Programming in UE4 | Unreal Engine Documentation
  2. Gameplay Architecture | Unreal Engine Documentation
  3. Unreal Architecture | Unreal Engine Documentation
  4. Whatever you wish. Since you should already have a solid foundation by now it should not matter.

All that should be left now should be advanced topics such as AI behaviour trees, localization, networking etc. But I plan to learn these engine features once I have gotten far enough to put them to use. Also: You will find a lot of tutorials and How-To’s when you explore the links I posted above. Even if you do not watch them immediately, I recommend you to keep track of them and to remember that there are tutorials to particular features and concepts. This will help you out a lot once you get started! Another thing to mention: There are many tutorials from users at the wiki as well. This might proove useful in some cases as well: A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements and Releases - Unreal Engine Forums or C++ Programming Tutorials | Unreal Engine Documentation or in general: A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements and Releases - Unreal Engine Forums

I am not done with my course yet as well, but since the engine is so big I chose a path with which I could get started quickly and dive deeper later. I would never skip the step of understanding the framework though!

I hope this proves useful to you :smiley: If not share your thoughts, it might improve my guideline as well.

PS: There is a Blueprint to C++ conversion tool in work and it seems to be almost ready. That will help a lot with learning UE C++ as well in my opinion, since you can always prototype your code with BP and see how the staff implements it in C++. See here: Trello