Unreal Engine 4.21 Preview

[ZacD]

To add, RTX/Ray Tracing is important for 3 reasons, its a tech demo that draws interest to the engine, for archviz/movie work, and it speeds up baked lighting immensely (and would work really well with Virtual Texturing and support for Lightmaps). At least 25% of games using somewhat realistic lighting rely on baked lighting.

[pselener]

Sad not to see any RTX/DXR in this version. We're eagerly awaiting for this feature.

[n00854180t]

Also interested in info about Virtual Texturing. Is it in 4.21 preview? How do we use it?

[datee]

Too bad since Fortnite, development of the engine hit a wall, very little development or features, most boring update ever, so many features/improvements to add, 4.21 is prolly the smallest update. Like a proper programming language outside of the C++ hell... oh well.

Well in fact.. Other c#-like options besides c++ are possible. I use Haxe with the plugin https://github.com/proletariatgames/unreal.hx for most of my UE4 coding. It's pretty great!

[KingVario]

It is very much needed for professional archviz and other professional uses. I'm happy to see that Epic can see the big picture and not think about games only.

Well im glad they have new domains to expand to, but they shouldnt forget about making games, and making the tools easier/faster/more reliable to use.

Well in fact.. Other c#-like options besides c++ are possible. I use Haxe with the plugin https://github.com/proletariatgames/unreal.hx for most of my UE4 coding. It's pretty great!

Haxe looks more complex to install than programming in C++ directly. Typically anything related to C++ takes a week to figure out how to setup, while in C# you just drag the script in your project and use the class in other scripts, these are things that should have been automated a decade ago.

[DarkS474]

Well im glad they have new domains to expand to, but they shouldnt forget about making games, and making the tools easier/faster/more reliable to use.


Haxe looks more complex to install than programming in C++ directly. Typically anything related to C++ takes a week to figure out how to setup, while in C# you just drag the script in your project and use the class in other scripts, these are things that should have been automated a decade ago.

If only Epic Games would allow to access all APIs C++ and BluePrint thru Python everything would be easier. Allowing to program everything using Python would allow creating very complex BluePrint algorithms in a very short time, which is almost impossible to do graphically, along with allowing scripts to do a lot more. And accessing C++ thru Python at the same time as BluePrint would allow to mix coding styles as needed.

[Shadowriver]

Eye texture sampling in niagara, this is something that was really missing

If only Epic Games would allow to access all APIs C++ and BluePrint thru Python everything would be easier. Allowing to program everything using Python would allow creating very complex BluePrint algorithms in a very short time, which is almost impossible to do graphically, along with allowing scripts to do a lot more. And accessing C++ thru Python at the same time as BluePrint would allow to mix coding styles as needed.

Accessing all APIs impossible the way UE4 is organized (or else you got your own UHT solution as that Haxe thing seems ot have;p), but anything that is binded to Blueprint can be easily accessible in python or other scripting language (any language that object oriented programming and support classes). There was scripting plugin project but it kind of desolved in to void of forgotness because surprisingly there was not much interes in it.

And C++ is not that hard as people make it to, simply people now days are too used to higher languages but imo you only chain yourself locking there mind in to them and Unity users aspecially got there head locked on C#, you will always need C++ to do anything beyond what you can do in blueprint and UE4 in general because engine it self is programmed in C++

[lotodore]

• Improved IPv6 Support. Support for IPv4 and IPv6 has been merged into a single socket subsystem, where previously support for each protocol was isolated to a specific subsystem.

This is great news! Can I finally enter an IPv6 address in the OpenLevel BP node?
Does not seem to work in UE 4.21 preview 1...

[TriNityGER]

If only Epic Games would allow to access all APIs C++ and BluePrint thru Python everything would be easier. Allowing to program everything using Python would allow creating very complex BluePrint algorithms in a very short time, which is almost impossible to do graphically, along with allowing scripts to do a lot more. And accessing C++ thru Python at the same time as BluePrint would allow to mix coding styles as needed.

They already stated in the Python thread that there won't be python support for the whole API!

[DarkS474]

They already stated in the Python thread that there won't be python support for the whole API!

In a thread an Epic Games employee actually replied me that runtime support of BluePrint thru Python is not planned yet but he didn't tell that in-editor full APIs access won't ever be available.

[DarkS474]

And C++ is not that hard as people make it to, simply people now days are too used to higher languages but imo you only chain yourself locking there mind in to them and Unity users aspecially got there head locked on C#, you will always need C++ to do anything beyond what you can do in blueprint and UE4 in general because engine it self is programmed in C++

I can program C/C++ and assembly the problem is that Epic Games public available documents for C++ APIs are not complete and updated. If Epic Games had updated complete documents like Apple does with its iOS, macOS programming in Objective-C and Swift there wouldn't have been any problem programming everything in C++ without using BluePrint unless forced to by Epic Games itself lacking C++ access to do the job. Now if full documents are available only to big software houses paying for the expensive custom license to the engine I don't know but it would be obvious with what they pay for although those very expensive licenses include 24/7 technical support and full help with coding anything to get the job done with the engine. So full updated documents could be very useful to poor indie developers paying only the 5% royalties to use the engine.
At the very least it would be anyway absolutely useful the ability to code anything BluePrint using Python scripts.

[Mellnik]

Eye texture sampling in niagara, this is something that was really missing



Accessing all APIs impossible the way UE4 is organized (or else you got your own UHT solution as that Haxe thing seems ot have;p), but anything that is binded to Blueprint can be easily accessible in python or other scripting language (any language that object oriented programming and support classes). There was scripting plugin project but it kind of desolved in to void of forgotness because surprisingly there was not much interes in it.

And C++ is not that hard as people make it to, simply people now days are too used to higher languages but imo you only chain yourself locking there mind in to them and Unity users aspecially got there head locked on C#, you will always need C++ to do anything beyond what you can do in blueprint and UE4 in general because engine it self is programmed in C++

C++ access is awesome. Epic made a great decision here and it's one reason why I am using UE. The only thing that they should take more care of is making sure hot-reloading works more reliable. Seen many bugs that slow down iteration dramatically like crashes due to failed Blueprint re-instancing or Blueprints loosing their UPROPERTY values.

[Shadowriver]

I can program C/C++ and assembly the problem is that Epic Games public available documents for C++ APIs are not complete and updated. If Epic Games had updated complete documents like Apple does with its iOS, macOS programming in Objective-C and Swift there wouldn't have been any problem programming everything in C++ without using BluePrint unless forced to by Epic Games itself lacking C++ access to do the job. Now if full documents are available only to big software houses paying for the expensive custom license to the engine I don't know but it would be obvious with what they pay for although those very expensive licenses include 24/7 technical support and full help with coding anything to get the job done with the engine. So full update documents could be very useful to poor indie developers paying only the 5% royalties to use the engine.
At the very least it would be anyway absolutely useful the ability to code anything BluePrint using Python scripts.

I do agree API reference degraded over time, it was a lot better at beginning, aspecially offline documentation which was superior in searching.

[0xAFBF]

I can program C/C++ and assembly the problem is that Epic Games public available documents for C++ APIs are not complete and updated. If Epic Games had updated complete documents like Apple does with its iOS, macOS programming in Objective-C and Swift

I remember a time when swift and obj-c docs were really REALLY baaad because Apple was still figuring out how to port a lot of documentation for swift.

You don't need to document every single function of the engine, that's why the full source code is available, in the end, most of it is documented, and checking the source code gives you a better understanding of everything if you need to. Browsing the code for me has always been much better than just seeing what a function expects.

And I think the docs cover most of the aspects that non-technical people would need to know about just fine.

I see python just as a convenience, they may not do it as it would be introducing another VM parallel to the Blueprint VM, and for targeting consoles, it is just a waste of resources.
If you want to do text scripting, there are also alternatives like http://skookumscript.com/ , I've never used skookumscript, but the syntax is pretty much what you would expect and need for a game scripting language, as it was designed specifically for games.

[kurylo3d]

not going to lie.. other then the virtual texturing... this is kind of a lame update.. was hoping for the rtx lightmap baking.. lets hope 4.22 comes out before thanksgiving...