Sincere Advice needed for Unity user having trouble adapting

Development Platform & Builds
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Hello, I am currently using Unity along with Unreal, as I couldn’t resist the amazing price, and I can afford the 19$/month. I have been really trying my hardest to slowly have Unreal as my default tool, but I am getting pretty frustrated more and more everyday. I know I can ask questions here, and people are pretty good at responding. Sometimes I have so many questions that I feel stupid asking about simple tasks. So for example, one thing I find hard is finding the place to start when I have a problem. For example, I wanted to do something really simple, which was to click on an object and have it destroyed and show smoke. It took me hours and hours until I gave up and found a solution in a forum. Even though the Blueprint was showing a click response, nothing was happening. But the solution, seemed way to complicated for what I was trying to do, and a forum post lead me to this page: Content Examples Sample Project for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.2 Documentation entitled “Mouse Control Setup” . So according to the documentation I would have to :
1)Create a new PlayerController Class Blueprint that enables the mouse cursor
2)Create a new GameMode Class Blueprint that utilizes your new PlayerController Class.
3)Set the World Settings to use your new GameMode in the Default GameType.

So I was shocked it took this many steps. And basically my concern was, if I was designing a first person or 3rd person shooter, that I would have do all those steps within a project, which honestly I don’t think I am smart enough to do. Maybe I am over complicating things. I don’t want to compare engines and say one is better than another, but in Unity it takes a few basic lines of code or 2 FSM’s in playmaker. But I really want to use Unreal not only for its price, but because its such a gorgeous engine and the interface is intuitive, and other reasons. So was I wondering, is anyone else feeling this frustration like me? Can some users who started where I was give some tips on getting a greater understanding (not looking for obvious advice like watch the tutorials, because I have watched a ton). Any SINCERE advice from advance or intermediate users would be great. If you think I am wasting my time and should go back to unity just say it, don’t shy away, it won’t hurt my feelings! Thanks for reading this long rant, and I hope I have not wasted anybody’s time.

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Unreal is like Light side of the Force, soo you need keep the calm.

-For my the more valuable resource is the “Content examples” a 40 maps of little pills of knowledge. They are soo easy to see how work.
-Other easy way to look how unreal work is the new projects because are so tinny and you can easy look how work.

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Those are each separate steps but not in a time consuming way really. Creating a Game Mode takes seconds and once you create it all you need to do is pick your controller in the drop down. As you see Game mode BP just makes sure the right controller, HUD, etc. is used in the game. And step 3 shouldnt take you more than 3 mouse clicks to do. Once you get used to the interface and learn the basics it is so much fun really. I suggest watching all of the tutorials on Unreal Engine’s youtube channel if you havent already. Watch even the third person shooter tutorials even if you aren’t making a tps right now, just for the sake of knowledge.

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I am typing this on my phone so I apologize in advance for any mistakes. About a month ago I was in the same boat as you (years of Unity experience, jumping into UE4, but I’ve managed to clear that hurdle. There are good reasons why things are set uo the way they are. If you want to contact me over IM I could probably help you out.

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I’ve felt the same pain. I’ve developed and developed in several other environments and engines, but I’m new to Unreal. The first few weeks of learning how the engine “ticks” are really painful, because I’m a n00b again, stubbing my toe on all the dumb starter things. I’ve gone through this with a large number of engines at this point, though, so at least I know to expect it :slight_smile:

Or you can just modify the controller / gamemode you’re already using to add the appropriate mouse behavior.

Also, if you’re trying to do something for the first time – try looking in the forums / AnswerHub / samples before you start doing your own development. It may actually save time, until you get to the point that you already know how to do it!

Btw: My quick test for whether a game engine is even worth looking at: Export an animated, skinned character out of 3ds Max, and see it imported, rendered, and animated in the engine, without having to utter any swear words. Many engines (some quite well known) fail this test…

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Jacky I suppose what makes it more difficulty is the concept and what the consequences of applying something is. For example, when I see something that makes me create a game mode, I naturally think, is that going to change the mode of the whole game, or what will it do…So I know those steps are simple but if you’re for example in an FPS and you create a game mode, how does that affect other gamemodes, etcc…These type of things confuse me a bit. Am I missing something there? Thanks to all for the info so far!

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I’ve looked at the content examples, and when I open up the blueprints and see a dozen boxes and dozens and dozens of the white arrow connectors connecting the code, it makes it real hard to reverse engineer it. Any tips on how to go about doing that?

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you don’t focus in reverse enginner yet. Only to open all level, play, take a glance.

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I sincerely suggest the exact opposite. You’re definitely not wasting your time, but rather than going back to unity I suggest the exact opposite, spending more time in Unreal. I see it a lot especially with the different 3d packages, that someone can’t get something to work or understand how something is done in one software package versus another. But there honestly is no simple answer, it will just take practice, patience and perseverance.

I’ve gone from UT2k4 modding, to the Source Engine, to UE3/UDK, to Flash, to Unity, and now back to the Unreal engine. And no amount of “going from this to that” articles or cheat sheets has made switching to a new engine easier. It simply takes time and the will to 100% learn a new way of doing things, otherwise, if you keep saying “this would be so much easier in X engine” your brain will keep thinking about things in terms of that engine and you’ll just be making it harder for yourself to adjust.

Anyway, best of luck with your development! Wish you all the best.

P.S Apologies if you were looking for a more specific answer rather than just general advice, it’s just my opinion on the matter.

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Hi Malospam,

Like others here lending you support I would also like to do the same. It can be very frustrating at times when trying to learn something new but I promise you the more you keep at it the easier it will become. The engine is continually being updated (usually monthly and sometimes inbetween) to make things easier and more user friendly! I can tell you that I’ve never been good at C++ programming, but I can look at code and somewhat figure out what’s happening. With Blueprints it’s a visual version of using a coding language. I can use that much more easily than I could ever do at writing code. There are still things that I’m learning all the time with Blueprints. It’s a lot to take in at first but if you keep at it you’ll pick it up!

The biggest thing to take away from this community here with the Unreal Engine 4 is that we all care. I’m not going to say this doesn’t happen on other engine’s community threads but I’ve not personally been involved with a more helpful community than this one! Our Epic developers are here on the forum threads continually offering kind words and helpful tips to see you succeed! There are prominent members of this community who are helping users daily with their tips, tricks, and their own tutorials. To name a few Hourences, TeslaDev, Jacky, Fighter5347, Rama, and many many others.

Below are a list of resources that Epic and/or the community has setup to help you and others new to UE4 get the most out of the engine as quickly as possible.

The AnswerHub - Ask questions, report bugs, and offer support to those who have questions about game development or using the engine.

The Unreal Engine Wiki - A lot of information related to the engine generated by Epic and the collaboration of the community. Tutorials and all sorts of other information broken down.

**Unreal Engine YouTube Channel **- A host of great tutorial videos that are made by Epic and some from the community as well

Trello UE4 Roadmap - With Epic’s decision to be more transparent we are giving anyone the opportunity to check out our engine raodmap. These are features that are being added, looked into, and updated. This includes documentation and videos as well! You can create a free account and vote on the items that are most important to you. This does not mean they will be implemented or looked at more quickly but it does give us an idea of what is most important to the community.

Forum - “Feedback for Epic” - Feel free to voice any concerns or feature request here if you like. We do look at all the forums daily so it will not go unnoticed.

User Generated list of community tutorials - This is a fantastic resource! There are so many simple and easy to understand tutorials in here. I’m still trying to find time to watch them all! You shouldn’t have any trouble finding a tutorial in here to help you achieve something that’s common in here. You may need to ask specific questions to get something specific but this will at least give you some basics for the most parts! :slight_smile:

As erWilly suggested the ‘Content Examples’ is a great example to learn how something was done. I’ll be honest. There are some things in this that when I open the BP or Material my eyes will start to glaze over. After time with the engine and getting to know what some things do you’ll start to see the true power behind what’s been set up and understand it more easily. Most times, if you hover your mouse over a particular node it will give you an indication of what it’s use it supposed to do. In Blueprints, when you’re trying to figure out how something is working if you have the BP opened and are looking at the nodes, When you hit play/simulate you can see the blueprint in-action showing by following the nodes arrow paths being lit up! It’s very helpful to see if there is a hitch somewhere and if something is working the way you really wanted it to.

I hope this gives you a little more insight into the community and what we bring to the table for you here on the forums and all other areas of the Unreal Engine 4 community.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, we’re all more than happy to help! :slight_smile:

Tim

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Thanks for all the info guys. I knew where most of the tutorials were, but not the user made tutorials and these are helping alot!! I will keep trying to beat this thing, Im so glad you guys respond to newbies like me! Again , thanks to all.