They want to remove Blueprint in UE6

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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I built an AI Agent that is small enough to run on the local machine and it has become a Unreal C++ & Blueprint / Verse Specialist. All it does is Unreal coding. It is small enough to run on a basic RTX 5060 card. It is just 7 billion parameters and takes around 8GB of VRAM, nowhere near the 100 billion parameters AIs that ppl are using with subscriptions.

Hey… I do NOT pay tokens subscriptions to anyone, however I cannot share because Epic has introduced a clause to engine EULA that forbids AI agents to be trained on engine source code. If Epic ever changes route, I will gladly share the model (if it ever happens).

But… perhaps Epic is building their own LLM, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Then you will have to subscribe to their ai token fees :wink:

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The failure of your argument is that not everyone that works on a game is a programmer. I assure you I don’t feel like doing code reviews on Verse PRs done by an artist.

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I did. I’d still prefer it to Verse. Many successful games have been made exclusively in BP and lots more with a mix of BP so that artists/level designers can have tools for world building.

Golf It! is BP. Kine is BP. Bright Memory Infinite is BP. Tall Poppy is BP, Tower Princess is BP. The First Tree, Choo Choo Charles, Kena: Bridge of Spirits. Sea of Thieves used a lot of BP apparently although not exclusively, with some C++ (same for Valorant, same for Gears 5).

So…this idea that because BP has limitations means it has no value is just wrong and uninformed. All high level languages trade some efficiency for ease-of-use.

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Good riddance. I’m looking forward to it.

I get that people use Blueprints to get into programming but Holy Christ is it a garbage way to build and maintain code.

I worked at a triple A studio that had every programmers with 10+ years experience in the field work in hybrid C++ Blueprint on an upcoming title and not one of them said that.

And when you consider entire games can be built from this feature alone I don’t think it warrants your “good riddance” jester take TBFH.

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Cool. Epic obviously thinks otherwise. I work in BPs and c++ all day. Been coding for 31 years. I stand by my jester take

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I’m a programmer and I never liked Blueprints as a scripting tool, but I would never, ever, remove it from the engine. I work in the AAA industry and Blueprints are a fundamental tool for tech artists and designers.

You can’t just replace them with Verse. Verse is a full programming language, you need to be a programmer to use Verse. I would love to use Verse in the future, but I’d love it because I’m programmer, Verse is not just accessible to a tech artist or a designer, unless they spend literally years and they learn how to code.

Also Verse would never be as quick as Blueprints to prototype, you can’t beat visual scripting, and even if I don’t use Blueprints for production, it’s an awesome tool to test quickly ideas, and create prototypes.

I can’t believe Epic really thinks removing Blueprints is a good idea. I really hope they will revert their decision, and let developers use both Verse and Blueprints.

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So I guess for my part I will stay in UE5. Better to have 2% more GPU consume than learning 5 more years a new language or using KI in my code

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Currently planning to skip UE6 entirely, because in 10 years from now everything will be vastly different if AI progresses as quickly as it did over the last 3 years.

Like, realistically speaking:

  • UE6 wont be “ready” until 2030 anyway, judging by when UE5 became stable enough and the features started to become more optimized.

  • I expect the big studios etc. to hit Epics fingers for the removal of Blueprint, because they all have their designers do stuff with it, which is why most engines have a similar system, even in-house engines.

  • UE 5.7 is rather stable for me (unlike 5.8 -.-), so this is “the sweetspot” for me for years to come.

  • if I really have to, meh, I will somehow manage to figure out Verse in 2030+ (when its more mature and the onboarding/tutorials are better than now, but I might poke it for “learning purpose” every now and then in UE6.)

  • The stuff I make has almost no overlap with the Fortnite Players, so why put any effort into it to begin with.

EDIT: Was bored and did a quick dive into Verse in UEFN - its actually extremely easy if you are good at blueprint, even if you cant program yet, BUT: the tutorials are outdated, even on youtube, but ChatGPT got you covered.

Furthermore: Verse wont complain about { } being there (in functions), but it doesnt need them since all of this is done through indentation.

Interesting approach, definitely. (but without prior knowledge about Blueprint, or as beginner, things will be a lot harder than they are for me, due to “the engine knowledge” not being there.)

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I though we got rid of that with FORTRAN! :rofl:

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I don’t think it’s a failure. I think you are actually proving my point :slight_smile:

With verse, at least you’d have some streamlined, convenient way of reviewing those PRs. It sounds to me like in case of Blueprints, you don’t review at all and just pray :slight_smile:

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is it money, epic? do you want money? is it so hard to continue the magnificent support you’ve given us without more money?

do you want to charge us a subscription for blueprints? for support of the current system?

of all the corporations pulling up the ladders, i thought Epic had our backs a little longer. I thought that of all of them, Epic would be reasonable about not subscribing to infinite growth mentality.

is the ONLY solution for the future that you can think of to demand that everybody serves Fortnite? is it not profitable enough already? what do companies NEED from us so that we can avoid having ALL our nice things taken away?

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Almost every game you’ve listed as entirely or almost entirely BP is small scale, low complexity game, maybe with exception of Bright Memory Infinite, which is FPS shooter, which aligns well with UE gameplay framework, which can do lots of the heavy lifting.

No one said BP has no value. I have not written than. What I am saying is that in near future, Verse will have more value than BP, and the value of maintaining BP alongside Verse in future UE versiosn is probably not high enough to justify the cost of doing so.

Of course that if you make up a strawman argument of me claiming BP has no value, that’s easy to argue against. But if you are honest, and do not argue against something I never said, arguing about what I actually said becomes a lot more difficult. If I thought BP has no value, why would I use it to make the entire vertical slice of my game using almost exclusively BP?

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Lets not forget Expedition 33 is mostly blueprint, from the Devs words themselves.

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It’s definitely a big shift for Blueprint users, but it’s too early to assume Blueprints are going away.

Epic usually evolves tools gradually, so SceneGraph + Verse is more likely a long-term direction rather than an immediate replacement. A visual layer for Verse (like Blueprints) would actually be the most practical bridge, so there’s a good chance something like that will exist or evolve over time.

For now, I’d treat it as an upgrade path rather than a forced switch.

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Blueprints are one of the main reasons many developers chose Unreal Engine. They allow artists, designers, hobbyists, indie developers, and small teams to create games without needing to become full-time programmers.

While Verse can be a great addition to Unreal Engine, many of us believe it should complement Blueprints, not replace them. Developers should have the freedom to choose the workflow that works best for their projects.

If you agree that Blueprints should remain a fully supported part of Unreal Engine, please consider signing and sharing this petition:

Every signature helps show Epic Games how important Blueprints are to the Unreal Engine community.

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For the love of god. BP is the only reason I finally got into game dev just a couple months ago after a lifetime of hesitation.

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keep learning it, because it gives you the understanding “how things work”, which helps a lot when going to verse.

Its not like we will have usable UE6 before 2029/2030 anyway, if UE5s intial launch is anything to go by.

Example why learning BP now is not a waste of time, especially since we dont have Verse in UE5 anyway:

Unbenannt
Unbenannt1670×587 100 KB

No guarantee that this is 100% correct, but I assume that “no errors” = correct. (but I think I forgot to push the variables into the function, did only briefly look at it yesterday.)

Instead of putting stuff “before” the print string, you now put it “inside” - not that hard to understand :stuck_out_tongue:

PS: the () after the OnBegin would be where you “push” variables into your function (if you have function exclusive variables, similar to BP, I think.), it would then look like this:

“OnBegin({String1}, {String2}) : void=”

but I didnt experiment with it yet, so dont take that seriously - point is: learn blueprint! (at worst, you will run into a few errors trying to “translate” it like I did here, but thats easy to learn.)

==============
That said, I still dont like BP being removed, even if its just as learning ressource and “stepping stone” for complete beginners to learn verse - this visual representation (like above) can help a lot, I think.

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I only ever use AI to create reference images, to brainstorm ideas, and they don’t ever appear the same way on a model. If an addon or major software update pushes AI, I either try to avoid using those features, or just don’t pay to upgrade.

I am getting sick and tired of being told “this is better and cheaper for you”, when “you” really means the huge businesses, not the Indies or Solo developers…

How many times do we need to say it: we DON’T want AI slop in our projects.

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Rarely use forums but signed in to voice my opposition to the complete removal of BP or some other Verse based visual scripting from UE6. I have released one Indiecade winning game in Unity in C#, and will soon be releasing a second one made in Unreal. The ease and power of BP for someone not trained as a programmer was a major reason for switching.

I am also a tenured professor teaching game design in a flagship school in the Northeast US, and I recently taught an entire course on Unreal BP. It convinced many students to switch from Unity on their senior projects, and demonstrated how quickly it lets talented creators adapt to the engine.

An Unreal which abandoned visual scripting entirely, especially with the hopes of replacing it with shoddy AI tools, would be one I would seriously consider abandoning, both as a creator and a teacher.

Please reconsider and allow the flourishing BPs have allowed to continue.

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I’ve enjoyed using Unreal for almost three years now and I love using Blueprint. To me it seems to be a curious decision to sell indie developers on the benefits of Unreal Engine and then make this move. I truly wonder how relevant merging UEFN into UE and allowing us “to ship directly in Fortnite” is to indie developers. It’s concerning how much Fortnite was positioned in this announcement.

“…ship directly in Fortnite, or ship to your own ecosystem, and optionally, make it compatible with ours. You’ll have an easy path from one to another.”

Is this a concern for many developers? How many developers who use UE are even doing anything with Fortnite? I’m not sure I’ve ever see a dev in the indie space who wanted to integrate their “ecosystem” into Fortnite. To me, it’s not simply a matter of it being unneeded, but it’s telling me that I’m not really the right developer for this engine.

Moving on;

“We’re moving the gameplay programming model to Verse, which transactionalizes C++, for increased accessibility of development and so that we can build persistent, large-scale, live experiences with thousands of contributors.”

Making persistent, large-scale, live service games is not the reason I learned Unreal Engine. Again, I feel like it’s another tell that maybe this engine isn’t for indies or small teams. I don’t expect that these studios provide any meaningful revenue to Epic but it is disheartening to see.

I think we are all grateful for Fortnite being a living example of UE5 working at scale and I’m sure it makes plenty of sense in a variety of dimensions I can’t imagine to more tightly integrate it into future versions of Unreal. But it certainly does read as a move to benefit Epic Games themselves more than a certain cohort of developers who use it.

More;

“Studios shipping on UE5 today should expect a manageable, and clear path forward when UE6 is ready for them. To allow for this, Actors and Blueprints will be in early versions of UE6. Eventually, these will be deprecated when the new framework is sufficiently mature, and you’ll have conversion tools to move projects from one framework to the other.”

I’m sure I have less programming and engine design knowledge than most of you here but this seems like a huge change. I could see if Unreal 6 used the new framework from the jump, but the conversion scares me. I’m glad to hear that at some point we can expect a clear path forward but it leaves me with some questions.

-If Blueprint is removed, can we expect other graph based editors will stay?

-Will we be given sufficient notice so we can onboard ourselves with Verse?

-Do you expect that Blueprint users will hue to Verse at or near the same fluency in a reasonable amount of time?

-Do we expect some systems will not convert properly?

-What about third-party plug-in?

-How will assets purchased on Fab play into this?

Further;

“Our goal is to give the games industry a whole new way to grow our ecosystems with cross-promotion, portable player value, and to really lean into all of the positive-sum dynamics that Metcalfe’s Law predicts for connecting experiences and social graphs together.”

The oddly clinical framing aside, I think a significant portion of Unreal developers are not interested in opportunities for cross-promotion and portable player value.

Epic Games, you have created an extraordinary engine that is capable of being used to create meaningful, memorable and (yes, I’m saying it) unreal experiences across a variety of mediums. Please don’t put off more solo developers or small teams from taking advantage of these tools by posturing Unreal Engine as a Fortnite-adjacent system meant for large scale, persistent worlds. Consider what some of us are saying here in this thread.

All of this said, Unreal Engine 5 isn’t going anywhere. Blueprint is still usable. The community is still as helpful and resourceful as ever. And I think a lot of people are not unwilling to make changes or learn new tools and workflows if the benefits are clear (as Epic seems to believe). It’s important to be adaptable and not be married to a tool or workflow.

I don’t think this is as apocalyptic as some of the more hyperbolic takes seem to indicate. I just hope Epic doesn’t forget the solo and small developers that use Unreal to bring our visions to life. :slightly_smiling_face:

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