I’ve been working with idTech 4 / Doom 3 BFG engines for the past few years. I am an artist (or technical artist in a sense) and while I don’t know C++ per se, the engine has pretty clean and understandable C++ code that allowed me to do small additions / changes to the gameplay. The script language is similar to C++, but infinitely easier and that’s what I have been using primarily.
Now I am looking into migrating to UE4, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around Blueprint For example (looking into various threads on the forum and online), basic things like loops take so much effort make compare to doing it in script or code.
Are there any training materials that help understanding core concept of Blueprint and help switching from thinking in code to thinking in nodes/visual scripting ? Thanks.
I find it helps to think like an electrician; reading flowcharts is a lot like reading electrical diagrams, and if you think about execution paths in that way it’s more intuitive than trying to mentally parse the flowchart into syntax instructions.
But BP is just an alternate visual representation of C++ code (literally; I’m pretty sure every single BP node has a corresponding function call in UE4’s C++ API or whatever it’s called), if you don’t naturally struggle to “think in” code syntax you’d probably be better off just building your projects in code, as it comes out looking cleaner in the end and it’s slightly more performant.
BP is for people like me, who can think in terms of programming logic but are reduced to a gibbering mess when trying to wrap their head around code syntax, and find it easier to see things laid out with lines between them. Its original function, IIRC, was to help artists and other non-programmers to implement/prototype functionality on their own without needing to bug programmers to do it, and it sort of ballooned into this coding alternative for indie devs who don’t know how to write code very well.
Check out the UE4 Wiki (link above).
Aside from written tutorials and snippets, there is a link to video based tutorials., including an introduction to blueprints.
There are several examples you can download in the Unreal launcher that are good too.
For example (looking into various threads on the forum and online), basic things like loops take so much effort make compare to doing it in script or code.