The reason i say this is because whenever i use UE4 i really do not understand most of the vocabulary such as vectors and didn’t completely understand what Zak did for the rotations in the tutorial using the break rot action.
So I’ve been thinking. Would i benefit from learning about Computer Graphics first and then use UE4? I’ve programmed in C# before so i know my programming concepts which help me with blueprints.
It can never hurt to learn something about computer graphics, but I personally would directly stay/start with the UE4, because over the time you will know what everything means/everything does. The best way is to be a active in this forum, because then you get to know those vocabularies in a short periode of time
e.g
break rot action -> breaks the rotation into x,y,z so that you can control the axises individually
What an underwhelming answer… the fact that there was no video to couple this confuses me…
I expected more,
I’m just kidding! Stay cool, man!
Anyway back to the actually question.
Personally, I got into this by just well… getting into it.
Honestly, the terminology isn’t to far off from a basic math class so if there is ever anything you are stuck on just think back to the 10th grade (that wasn’t a joke).
You want to know an even easier way though?
Before I started to use an engine fully, I decided to model first.
I’d spend hours a day in 3ds creating static meshes.
While I watched tutorials and found stuff out on my own, I realized I had it down pat and moved to the engine.
When I got into UDK (at the time) I just knew what to do naturally.
What I’m trying to say is 3DS is a bit more mathematical using a bit more terminology.
Since I knew all the 3DS had to offer, going into UDK gave me no surprises.
I went in already knowing what polys, a tris, and vectors were because I had spent months working with them.
On top of all this, before 3DS , I had worked on modding games, most of the engines used these words so I had a base knowledge going into ( expanded and explained it).
Look at it this way, if you use then you are doing something that connects with UE4 so that way you don’t need to say “man… I wish I was doing some game development stuff right now…”
By the way, this long suggestion just brought on another.
It’s a bit off topic, but goes with the suggestion.
I advice you or anyone starting game development to try every aspect at least once.
I spent hours in , I had the process on how to create the M16 model memorized. I knew how and what each button click did… but there was one problem… I can’t for the life of me model.
I know HOW to model and I enjoy nice models, but I CANT model.
There is no lie that deep down I am and will always be a game/level designer, it’s just where my passion goes, but I really wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t tried most of the positions out.
Who knows maybe you were meant to be a programmer/scripter/visual scripter.
Would be a good idea to make tutorials about such topics
Just a short side note. On this channel you can find pretty good videos about game dev/design topics: ://www.youtube/user/ExtraCreditz Probably you will find a video that couples the answer to the question
Ah i see. Thank you for the answer it was very informative since i was very confused about what the purpose of that was.
@Jason Frankly that’s what i was going to do except i use Maya instead of . But i do know what vectors are mathematically and i think i mis-phrased what i said though so my bad. In UE4 BluePrints i really don’t see what the rotation does in the game or why its used that way. I don’t understand why you then add the forward vectors and right vectors from yaw and the add move- i am just very clueless as to what’s going on. Its not Epic’s fault at all, i really think i need to use and understand how 3D Graphics work properly.
Best way to learn is by getting your hands dirty, at least for me.
By the way if I can just ask you something off topic: Why do you prefer Maya?
It’s not a bad thing, but a lot of people use it and I could just never get into it. It always seemed unnecessarily cluttered.
I don’t know maybe it’s just me.
Good Luck.
Feel free to ask me anything if something else comes to mind.
@Jason Forrester It was more of a personal preference really and to be honest i find 3DS a lot more cluttered. I just found Maya simpler to use and it also has the UE4 ART tools (Props to the dude who made them, it saves a loooot of time and increases prototyping. An amazing toolset).
And yeah i am a hands dirty type of learner but i also just like to know what i am doing and why i am doing it.
Learning how to create your own art can be very helpful in learning the pipeline and understanding how everything comes together. I would strongly recommend learning graphics. But I also would suggest not postponing your ue4 education. If you have enough spare time for both.
Certain maths & physical regarding computer graphics are important to know like vector maths, since movement & directing is critical part of a game, that you want certain controls.
If you wanted the IA to point his weapon directly at you, its vector maths, if you wanted him to move towards you, its vector maths, strifing left & right, you nede to know how to get the perpenducular vector. All vector maths.
But things like depth perception (like how small to draw an object base on distance away), are good to know, but not 100% critical for many games.
You find out what is critical along the way, I think.
In Blueprint, as well as C++, there are already build in functions to do many of the vector maths, like sum of vectors, normalise a vector, dot product of a vector, I believe also vector from 2 actors (from Actor A to actor B), and many more etc
Its good to revise a little, but what is more important than knowing how to do the maths (which UE4 have provided most of the fomula), is know when to apply them.