Some Advice to Start Using Unreal

Hello Everyone.

i just thinking to start learn Unreal and c++ i’m able to use Unity and i have an advanced c# skill, so i’m asking, witch is the best way to start with UE4 and C++?

is starting and editing BluePrint script a good way to start?

i’m Sorry for my English because i’m not native…

thank’s you in advance for your help

I was a long time Unreal 2 and 3 developer, moved out of games for several years, and then got into some non-game related Unity projects, and now I’m back on Unreal, after 7 long years. :slight_smile:

I found this document to be invaluable, after having picked up Unity for about a year: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/…rted/FromUnity

Then, as a person who is primarily a programmer: Programming with C++ | Unreal Engine Documentation

Though you’ll also need to learn about Blueprints, as well, because they are a very powerful tool, that even if you do just about everything in code, you’ll still need to operate with blueprints to some basic degree from time to time. (they are, at the minimum, an equivalent to Unity’s Prefabs, but considerably more powerful if you want them to be. I mostly use them as a prefab, presently, because almost everything I’m doing is C++ level)

As far as learning C++, if you have good knowledge of another C-like language, like C#, as you say, it shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to kick off, but you will have to do some study on C++ itself, if you’ve never used a language that makes heavy use of pointers and other bits that aren’t in or aren’t commonly used in C#.

As far coding is concerned you can do everything in blueprints, but they won’t perform to the maximum where it is needed, so basically you need to learn what is like doing code with blueprints in the first place, because the whole tech is helpful to glue everything up together faster than you would do directly in C++. Once you have figured what you have available with blueprints, start looking at the plugins which are made in C++. There is plenty of FREE plugins available, so you will catch how they are done, how they are exposed with blueprints, and then I think you are ready to start coding directly into C++. Download all the Epic project free content, even there is a complete game made in C++ which can run also in mobile, study them as a start, modify them enhancing functionality and you are good to go. This road I have explained is the easy way and I doubt there is a faster approach too.

I will also recommend few UE4 with C++ at Udemy.com, Tom Looman (former Epic) has a great course which has all you need to start and with great examples mixing AI, animation, FX, multiplayer, and the course is so cheap (last time I saw was around $30) and you will get your hands dirty so fast, that would be a shame not taking it.

The documentation eblade mentioned above will be the source you will want to dig while doing your day-by-day gamedev, but the source code from plugins and projects are the way to go imho.

If you have any questions, you can not only ask this forum but the unrealslackers discord. There’s a board for everything you can ask about UE4 (and to showcase your stuff), and it’s very active.