I was going to post this question in epic games website but my account is not activated yet, anyways , I want to apologize if this subject was asked before, but I couldn’t find anything on google usually they give only their opinion.
I wanted to ask about a book called:
Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with UnrealScript: Beginner’s Guide
I’ve seen the reviews but I’m lost , some of them say " if you know programming then you’re wasting your time " , some of them say " this book helped me to start on my project! "
So what I’m asking here is what is the author expecting of me , is she expecting me to only learn this language and then go find some other tutorials to know how to actually program and create projects ? or she’s expecting me to know how to apply this and create projects ?
I actually used c++ before for about 6 months and I’ve been using java for a while now to program for android , so I’m not really sure.
Please give me your thoughts if you have read this book already.
First off–UDK (Unreal Development Kit) is not UE4 (Unreal Engine 4). In UE4 there is no Unrealscript, instead there’s Blueprints which is a node-based system. In UE4 you can also use C++.
If you’re interested in using UDK, Unrealscript is necessary, but if you’re already experienced in programming then you might be able to understand Unrealscript easily without the book.
for now I’m using UDK , downloaded it and installed it , but maybe when the time comes I might get UE4 , but aren’t they the same ? in someway at least ? I think UE4 only has more things , or am I getting the wrong idea here ?
Don’t waste money buying a book. Spend $19 on a UE4 sub and dive in. You can learn more just from the tutorials floating around these forums than you could from just about any book.
Anyway, if you are just getting into game design start with the latest and best tool.
I used this one: ://www.amazon/UDK-Game-Development-Alan-Thorn/dp/1435460189/
It got me building something interactive immediately. However, the toolbars and menus change slightly between the different versions of UDK, and the screenshots are little more than plain grey areas on the page. I had to look on YouTube occasionally, to find out where the buttons were now placed.
It got me started, in a way I that enjoyed, which is the main thing.
Please bear in mind I recommend this, not because it is the best UDK book I’ve read, but because it was the only UDK book I’ve read, and it worked great for me.
Having said al that, I would recommend you pay for one month’s subscription to UE4, and download and keep that. Not only is it cheaper than most UDK books, but you will be able to access loads of free tutorials about how to use it. The support (both from the devs and the community) for UE4 is amazing.
EDIT: Sigh, ninja’ed by Zeustiak. But he speaks the truth.
I’ve learnt pretty much everything I know about programming from books , I don’t know but I find them pretty easy to follow if the author was good.
Buying UE4 now I think it’d be a waste of money , because college is coming and I’d only be able to use it on the weekends , unlike buying a book , I can just grab it with me to my college and read it on my free time. So if I bought UE4 I’ll only use it 8 times a month , doesn’t seems like it’s a good idea.
I’ll try to check this book’s review hopefully it’s worth , I honestly wish if someone has read the book that I’ve posted and then said to me " it’ll get you started on building your own game " because the reviews of the book are all high 90% rated it 5 stars.
as I said in my last reply , buying UE4 now is not a good idea.
I don’t see why you’d bother learning UDK and UnrealScript, if you later plan to move over to Unreal Engine 4. It no longer uses the same setup. Blueprints are now the go-to method of prototyping for many. As such, unless you truly plan to utilize UDK, I’d wager there’s really no value in learning UnrealScript at this time. It seems more-so that this ‘is not a good idea’.
I would suggest, instead, holding off on buying any books for UDK. Instead, simply learn from the huge amount of tutorials that already exist for Unreal Engine 4 - for free. There’s a whole plethora of them here on the forums, Youtube and the Wiki. This would be far more relevant for you, if you plan on using UE4 in the future. Quite honestly, there’s just not many reasons to use the older tech. It’s kind of out-dated, at this point, what with Unreal Engine 4’s pricing structure.
You’ve tried to justify not subscribing to UE4’s $20 subscription, which would grant you access to everything: the engine, the source code, all of the available marketplace content and so forth. Yet, are willing to spend $40+ on a book for UDK? That just doesn’t compute, fella. That subscription provides access to a massive amount of content. If you want resources to learn? Then…it’s all there.
And sure, there’s fantastic reviews on the book you’ve mentioned. But, each of those reviews were written and published between one and two years ago - before the release of Unreal Engine 4. As such, people have moved on. No recent review has been published, because people aren’t really using it.
Furthermore, you don’t have to continue the subscription after the first month. You can simply sign up for the first month, cancel and still keep everything. For nothing more than $20? That’s a bargain. Even if you’re only able to use it ‘during weekends’ or ‘8 times a month’, what you’ll be learning will be way more valuable and relevant to the industry.
Wow , Could I really keep it after subscription ? they’re good guys indeed , so I only subscribe and after one month then won’t close it ? there’s no steps to follow ? I honestly like to support people if they worked so hard to bring something good , but in my case , since I won’t use it all the time and I can’t just stop it and use it whenever I like , like some programs when you get 30 days subscription it won’t actually count down everyday , instead they count down everytime you use it.
UDK and UE4 have SOME in common, but they are very and very different engines.
Blueprint and Unreal script are completely different systems. If you will learn UnrealScript it will only confuse you after when you will work with c++ and Blueprint.
If I were I - I would drop UDK idea completely and just learn modern C++ for gamedev, Blueprint books from Kitatus, UE4 documentation and if possible - download some video tutorials from Epic about UE4 and on weekends just practice everything you learned.
If you are not aware - if you pay once for engine - you can use and redownload this version even after first month without any additional payments and restrictions. You buy current version of the engine, so to say
Thank you for posting this thread. I believe that, no matter which path you decide to take, both are going to have benefits in the long run. A book on UDK will allow you to just pick it up and bring it with you wherever you go, unless you are using a laptop to run UE4. You have the freedom of not having to be constrained to a chair or seat with a book. UDK will help you in the long when you decide to move into UE4 later on down the road, if you do. There is a lot of good material in UDK that will stick with you through your Unreal journey. UE4 is, honestly, a separate beast in itself. As said before, there is no UnrealScript in UE4, so that may cause wasted time if you work with that to much in UDK. With all of the Wiki Tutorials, Forum tutorials, Documentation, and YouTube videos on UE4, I believe that they are more valuable in the long run then any book(s) can be, that is my opinion though. As DanielBennifer has previously stated, you have the option of paying for the first months subscription, canceling your subscription, and you will still be able to UE4, just without any updates of the Engine. Hands on is the approach I used to learn UE4.
Ultimately the choice can only be made by one person, so do as you feel will be the best option for you. I hope this helps with your decision a little bit. Have a great day and always be sure to have fun!
To be honest , if I knew about UE4 being free when I cancel my subscription I wouldn’t have bothered downloading UDK , Now everything is clear , I will get UE4 ^^
I agree as others have posted you should probably spend time learning UE4 instead UDK mostly because it is the latest tool out, and the support of the community and development team for UE4 is great as well. Plenty of online documentation is available to look through for UE4 in addition to many different tutorial videos showing off cool things you can do in UE4.
As for the book you posted on UDK, I have read it (bought the kindle version) and I believe it is a great book for being able to get started with making your own projects. It pretty much walks someone with minimal coding experience through how to create their own game via UnrealScript, and even features a few areas on how to use Kismet together with UnrealScript. That being said, the book’s focus is 90% on using UnrealScript to control the flow of the game as well as other aspects like the AI. Overall, it provides you with the basic knowledge you need to get started with creating your own games in UDK.
After reading the book you will have created something similar to this: ?v=NTO4gNiD78I
Building off of what I learned from the book, I continued applying what I learned from the book to make this: ?v=iNbs6bj54rQ
As stated earlier, I still think jumping into learning UE4 would be better since it has more support for the coding side of things through VS2013, as well as improvements on many aspects of the UDK editor.
But he speaks the truth. 
, so I only subscribe and after one month then won’t close it ? there’s no steps to follow ? I honestly like to support people if they worked so hard to bring something good , but in my case , since I won’t use it all the time and I can’t just stop it and use it whenever I like , like some programs when you get 30 days subscription it won’t actually count down everyday , instead they count down everytime you use it.