I totally agree with the thread starter. Unreal engine community is non existent.
You could come up with a problem and ask it in the forums, discord, reddit and nobody will reply.
I have come across problems which have been asked earlier in this forum a long time back and dont have even a single reply.
This is disheartening and gives me a mild panic attack, this problem could not be solved for such a long time , how am I going to solve it working alone.
Whatever people say about us being lazy, the fact is the unreal community experience is very different from unity experience for me.
In unity most of my problems have already been asked and solved. Unity’s community is mind mindbogglingly huge.
But I have to say Unreal Engine is a much better and complete and more professionally made engine which is why I am working with it.
But indie devs and solo developers should remember : WITH UNREAL ENGINE YOU ARE GOING ALONE if you stray from the normal path
So i’m not alone to have this feeling, and the reason you invoke [USER=“3613672”]Ming Ning[/USER], @asdzxcv seem legit and logic.
Some people here said it will change with UE5. Let’s have some hope, and see.
I personaly think UE, and epic, have all to win to help indie as unity did.
I agree with OP too. Community is a big vacuum. It was a shock to me at first but now I just avoid relying on the unreliable. Like a bad friend you eventually stop communicating. A real disappointing shame that I’m sure Epic regret bit what can they do?
Some good points. Sometimes multibillion dollar things are born out of a couple of folks in a garage too. But regardless of how, why, when, best just to move on and self teach through experimentation. Earning that knowledge for yourself makes success sweeter if that is your goal as an artist/developer/filmmaker/etc.
I see lots of questions answered, but it doesn’t mean I know they’re the correct answer, or the best. I’ve posted and had no answer, more than once or twice. The problem with the so-called ‘logic’ or whatever that it’s already been answered is the different versions have changes that change what the solution or answer is going to be later…even for simple things. It can also make a new user disparaged if they’re unsure where/how to search for it, and when encountering lots of those problems to search for answers to…spending hours guiding themselves around a disorganized set of two message boards that prioritize more complex or ‘experience-based’ problems over others. This is partly a direct result of low-quality documentation. It’s other things too, though…difficult to control flow of information and ease of access in a forum setting, multiple causes of the same problem (such as meshes turning black, and ‘noise’), experienced users who are quick to criticize or deflect attention from new users in a forum, and probably more.
The OP is correct that a huge number of questions / problems / errors are posted that do not get answered. It would help if there were a sub-forum for each major topic forum that contained a list of the most commonly asked questions with the answers, solutions, and workarounds for those. And perhaps a checklist of things to search for that is connected to the various common questions, issues, and errors encountered. Yet some of the common problems are not always requiring the same answers and solutions, or workarounds / fixes. Newer users or not, lately I’ve seen what appear to be issues that had previously received answers, unbeknownst to the new poster, and the issue is not fixed by the popularly suggested tips and typical solution. One example I think of is the ‘blobby’ or ‘weird’ shadow reference in posts. One suggestion is the ‘blobby’ shadow is caused by insufficient mesh distance field resolution / size, while another claim is its due to bad mesh structure, and yet another potential cause is related to using a Light Propagation Volume. When a beginner in an advanced and settings-driven program, the problem encountered appears to have far more potential causes (especially unknowns) than the same problem when experienced and knowledgeable.
But then someone else runs into your meticulously crafted solution 4 years later and gives you the thumbs up, and it makes your day, and life is good again!
I’m always trolling the forums looking to answer a few questions, or share information in general, and there are the usual suspects that do the same.
If it helps here are just some reasons why I don’t answer a question.
Question lacks context.
Everything in games development is about and based on context so what would be the best answer to a question really depends on a full understanding of the issue in hand. Lets take this for example.
I know exactly what you’re talking about trust me!!! I started off just like you a ton of questions with no answers!!! A lot I really love gaming and sometimes honestly that just fueled me to work harder and do better!!! Whatever you do give it your all!!!
-Honestly felt the same way I had way more questions but I deleted most of them. Now I made it to my goal. My first post mentions me seeking questions and a lot of them with no answers. https://forums.unrealengine.com/comm…ta-playstation
Apple is worth a lot more but it didn’t drop support for small indie developers on the App Store, they have up-to-date documentation for all the APIs and tons of examples. There is no reason why Epic Games shouldn’t do the same for both rich software houses customers and poor small indie developers, they surely can afford hiring a few employees to do the same documentation wise and provide fixes to UE versions quicker to everyone just like Apple fixes XCode and SDK APIs.
I see they set aside a lot of money for dev grants. With that business model I’d imagine you’d like to optimize a lot of things in your work environment. I had to go to a advanced level to under the SDK/API Unitiy is very inviting for beginners I’d say. But overall dedicate yourself you’ll get through it. Supposedly UE4 is better then unity overall…I personally like C++
I personally find it hard to help people because they never get back to me. It’s like helping out a black hole. I’ve posted over 80 quality answers on the AnswerHub, and only about 30% of people ever acknowledge my answer. If people want help, maybe they should be nicer to the ones who help them.
Besides that, the AnswerHub is requiring all of my posts need moderation. For no reason. The moderation delay varies between 2 days to 8 days. It’s ridiculous, because people will tune out if the answer is even a day late. Also, I’ll be the first to post an answer, then someone publishes their answer which gets accepted, then my answer gets released 5 days later, making me look like a fool.
So, for the UE4 Community to be better, the AnswerHub needs some fixing with the moderation, and the people asking questions need to be both patient and grateful for the help they get.
The moderation kicks in if you’re very low karma (not sure if that’s still a thing since bots post blatant online casino links) or you accidently say but with 2 ts.
Once moderated (still happens to me with 2.4k answers - 40% accept rate), your post may get to appear but it may also never to be seen again… I’m talking valid, detailed answers. Just 2 weeks ago or so I posted a long one with around 10 UE4 documentation links - moderated and never seen again I assume, the excessive linking was the culprit, my bad I guess.
I would like to think it’s due to automation running in Aggressive Pruning Mode or something. A human touch would be nice at times.
Currently half the AH and Forum posts revolve around UE5 - while the flood is more than understandable, good luck having your UE4 stuff answered; not enough stamina to just filter that. Something like this happening was mentioned too many times before.
I personally don’t think the community is bad; the way it’s handled could be better, for sure. I feel there’s little to no management of the AH and Forums.
All employees reach into a bag of marbles and the unlucky one gets to be on Forums Duty the following day to clean up our repetitive mess, gather the critical bits that need to be addressed and forward it to the tech-savvy individual with the pertinent know-how.
Ideally, this would be a cosy job rather than an ad-hoc punishment for having a disruptive Bradford factor.
I can only imagine how such a rapidly growing company gets lost in red tape and admin - it’s almost organic and natural. Perhaps it’s time to appoint Assistants To The Community Manager.
A Trust Level system that automatically grants extra privileges on this very forum is already in place - perhaps it could be leveraged in lieu of dedicated forums sweepers.
Yeah, I’m not doing anything odd in my AH posts, and I’ve been on moderation since day 1. I’m sitting at 426 karma, and it doesn’t look like the situation will change any time soon.
I am on as many forums as softwares I use and I have understood this:
each one has developed its own culture. Others are helpful to newcomers, others not. The best one so far is Mcneel’s (Rhino 3D) forum.
Unreal Engine’s forum on the other hand is one of the worst. Few people, not very polite, and not at all helpful with newcomers.
I have posted two questions in the last 20 days and not even an answer. Not even a comment on how I could ask the question better.
I assume, the excessive linking was the culprit, my bad I guess.
