[Request] Absolute Basic Tutorial

Hi,

I’m completely new to Unreal, although I do have a fair amount of experience in standard programming, including mobile. I also have some experience with game engines, Construct 2 for blueprinting style and Unity for coding style.

What I’m looking for though is a complete basics tutorial/guide/book suggestion for Unreal as I seem to be getting stuck on silly things not because I don’t understand the theory but because I just don’t get how Unreal does it.

For example, when loading a sample level, e.g. the FPS Blueprint Starter Project, I don’t understand how the Player Controller is defined to be a FPS (rather than Third-Person). In Unity you would drop the Player Controller and a Camera, which you would then attach to it, into the map, but Unreal seems to just have a Player Start placed in the map and I can seem to find how/where to define the Player Controller, or even modify it. This is just one example though. There are a host of other small things like this that I can’t seem to find the workflow/option location for.

I know there are a number of books/videos available for UDK but from what I understand UDK and Unreal Engine, especially 4, is quite different so I don’t want to go spend money on a book that wouldn’t be relevant.

I highly suggest reviewing the videos Epic has posted on their youtube channel, as well as dissecting the examples they’ve provided. Are you using any of the provided templates when you start a new project? For both the First Person, and the Third Person blueprint tutorial, you’ll find the camera setup in the MyCharacter blueprint, under components. This is one of the ways a camera can be set up.

Much of what is available for UDK applies to UE4, so don’t be discouraged, as the workflow is very similar.

I have reviewed all the videos and understand all the stuff they cover, and I’m attempting to dissect the Sample Projects but the biggest problem is just knowing where to look for stuff to dissect. I’ll have another look at the UDK stuff and keep working at dissecting the sample projects.

To really get a very basic introduction to programming in Unreal Engine, you might find the Programming Quick Start a useful resource.

For FPS, there is an FPS Tutorial that walks you from a blank project to creating a GameMode, Character, and projectile, all in C++.

Also, when looking at a Blueprint template, the Blueprints dropdown menu in the Level Editor toolbar should give you access to any basic Gameplay Framework Blueprints.

Hopefully these get you started in learning about the gameplay framework, and if you have more specific questions, I can try to point you towards any learning resources we have in those areas. :slight_smile:

Can this also be done purely with Blueprints without writing any C++? Are there tutorials like that for Blueprint?

Yes, this could also be done in Blueprints alone. :slight_smile: Right now, we don’t have a direct copy of the FPS C++ tutorial with Blueprints, but you might find this Flying Pawn Tutorial a useful resource. It walks you through setting up a flying Pawn and a GameMode Blueprint. If you used the concepts from this tutorial and the FPS tutorial, and took a look at the Blueprint First Person Template, you should have a good starting point for understanding GameModes, Characters, and projectiles in Blueprints. There are additional learning resources planned that should also help in this area, so keep an eye out! :slight_smile:

If I might suggest one thing and that is to not try to do things in the way of another engine, try to start with a fresh perspective. I know its difficult and your terminology wont be completely lost but it is a different engine and I see alot of engine X does it this way when the answer is quite simple if the train of thought was heading in the right direction, I liken it to a programmer who’s telling you where a bug in their own code is, they are usually so adamant about it and more often than not are wrong about the bugs location. Im certainly open to helping people so Id love to hear where your difficulties are to address some of those, if there are gaps in your terminology that are directly related to Unreal Engine :cool: