Best products from r/unrealengine

Edit: Originally posted as a reply in the comment section of the gamedev subreddit.

Disclaimer: I am no expert with unreal, i simply did some reading for the engine and watched some videos to see how things are working and to decide if i should be sticking with this engine. I post this comment in high hopes that anything i write here might help you.

You should spend some time in unreal's documentation manual and read the Blueprint section. Basically, the manual is a great source and also has some links to videos about how some stuff works.

Different surfaces for the player to walk on

You create assets (surfaces) on your 3d software and import them to the engine and then use them in the level editor OR you use the boxes (or any shape basically) given by the engine (adjust their height/width/etc) and create the surfaces you want by combining them (placing basic shapes in the right order to create more complex shapes, buildings, etc). If i recall correctly, they (unreal editor's shapes) come collision-ready.

A very basic building that the player can enter

Same as above. You either create a building in a 3d software and import it or use 4 walls using unreal's editor. In order to enter it (if you want to make it so that entering a building loads a different location which would work as the inside of the building) you would have to put some kind of "trigger event on collision/player overlap" (look up the exact naming) blueprint (google is your best friend, as well as the manual) that would take you to the other area.

Switches for the player to interact with

Same as above: level blueprints that will have trigger boxes in certain locations inside your level that you want to be interact-able. The video i posted above has something similar with a moving door inside the level i think, check it out. It might be from an outdated version but most of the things should work the same (learning the logic comes first, you can find the exact naming from the manual/google/forums).

adding sounds for footsteps and music

I think this is done with the animation blueprints or animation menu. You add the sound/effect you want on the frame of the animation you want to use it and it plays itself (the sound/effect) every time the animation passes through that frame.

I have basically 0 experience with coding, should I learn coding at this stage, or will that confuse me even more?

Well, I think you would have an easier time with something like gamemaker studio but its not free (there is a free version but AFAIK its heavy limited). Unreal is a industry-focused engine and has it's quirks; also, it uses C++ which isnt considered the easier language to learn/use. BUT, in version 4.12 (latest) they have released an experimental "blueprints-to-C++" baker which is only gonna get better with each newer version. What does this have to do with you? You could learn the blueprints system (which is considered easier than learning to code in c++, especially for artists since it uses a more visual approach) and then, when the baker is finalised, use it to bake your blueprints to C++.
Why would you want to bake blueprints to C++? Well, its estimated by the unreal team that blueprints are around 20 times slower than coding your game in C++. So if you want a heavy mechanical game (with a lot of calculations etc), or a mobile game with a lot of features you can understand that making the whole game in blueprints would make the game slow. BUT, since you are a beginner you can easily make games by ONLY using the blueprints. Anyway, if you want to learn how to code (it's NOT that hard, really) i would suggest Alex Allain's excellent Jumping into C++

Should I use an Earlier version of Unreal so I know it will work, or use the most recent?

I would advice against that. Use the latest which is bug-free and simply learn the small differences for blueprint/naming between the version you use and the version the videos are using. If you learn the logic behind what they are doing with blueprints (which isnt hard if you pay a bit of attention and read the blueprint section of the manual) it will be easy to implement the same in the latest, feature-complete version. Take a look at unreal engine's youtube channel. They have a ton of blueprint videos. You can replicate a few of them to get a bit of taste of how blueprints work.

Take all of the above with a grain of salt. Like i said, i am not an expert in unreal engine so i might be wrong about some things (i dont think i am wrong about the topics discussed but still, i have to leave a disclaimer in case i am :P )
Hope it helps, have fun!

Most of the time, overclocking is as simple as moving a slider in a windows program.

With monitors there's a few important stats to look at.

• Resolution - Most common is 1080p, but 1440p and 4k are starting to become mainstream.
  
  
• Size - diagonal physical size of the monitor. You want to maintain a decent size to resolution ratio. 4k monitor at 24" and stuff may be too small. 1080p at 32" and stuff won't look as crisp.
  
  
• Panel Type
  
  
  • TN - Are the cheapest panels, have the worst viewing angles and colors, but the fastest refresh rate.
    
    
  • IPS - Best colors, best viewing angles
    
    
  • VA - Good black levels, good colors, good viewing angles, good middle ground between TN and IPS
    
    
• Refresh Rate - A measure of how many frames it can show every second. Makes everything feel more responsive and smoother.
  
  
• Ultrawide, curved, swiveling stand, height adjusting stand, speakers, USB Ports,
  
  What monitor you get depends on your budget, but a 1440p IPS monitor is what will likely hit your needs.
  
  
• $100 option 1080p with a nice stand
  
  
• $250 option 1440p IPS with good stand
  
  
• $500 option 1440p@144Hz Curved HDR Freesync with great stand and premium build quality.
  
  You don't need freesync or g-sync. Here's linus explaining why freesync and g-sync exist.

I have the first edition and yes, it worth a read, keep in mind that it explain how game engines works and not how to make a game engine.

After reading it you will not be a master with UE4 but you will undertstand why UE4 do things in a certain way.

Another book you have to read (and is mentioned in your link) is the Game Programming Patterns book, i have the physical copy and it is awesome, read it after the GoF Design Patterns book, is a masterpiece combo.

EDIT:

Also two sites i want to suggest:

Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming, is a great tutorial about OpenGL basics.

The Book of Shaders, great to learn how shaders works.

Just basic VR is extremely easy to do, and since you're just making a simple environment, we'll have to know more about what you want to do in that environment.

Interactions in VR

This was a helpful tutorial for me though, I can't remember how basic it begins, but if it's not basic enough I know they have others that start from the very beginning that they reference.




VR Cookbook

If you aren't opposed to purchasing a textbook, this is a great option that I used extensively to help get myself started. Handles the basics as well as step by step guides on how he sets up his interactions. His system is very broad to apply to a wide range of interactions, so my suggestion to you would be to read through it first, then toy with the setup to see what parts of his system you want to use, then implement and modify them to fit your demands. Very thorough though, highly recommend.

I highly suggest giving the Dell 34" 1440P Ultrawide a shot. I've been using for around half a year now and I've been loving it. It's worked amazingly well for UE4, Maya...well... pretty much everything. You can find it on amazon for $750 atm. I also suggest keeping your 27". You can't have too many monitors when it comes to production.

Here's a small example of the space.

It's also a great monitor to game on.

Buy a quality C++ book suitable for your level (also pay specific attention to the C++ standard the book uses, you'd want one updated for C++11 standard) and painstakingly read the whole thing, all the while highlighting everything you think is of some importance. You'll really appreciate those highlights later on when you use the book as a reference. And there's just something about the act of highlighting that seems to increase memory retention. Also, it's a good idea to actually type out examples yourself, rather than cut&pasting from the supplemental resources. Much like highlighting, typing out the examples seemed to help me with retention. My book recommendation: http://www.amazon.com/Primer-5th-Edition-Stanley-Lippman/dp/0321714113/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1407455199&sr=8-7&keywords=C%2B%2B. I used the 3rd edition to learn C++, and found it to be an excellent learning book. The authors have an enjoyable writing style and the examples are clear, concise, and thought-provoking. I think it's a good match for you too, given you have light experience in other C-like languages.

One pertinent point I should mention. As far as I know, UE4 does not use the C++ Standard Template Library (STL). This should significantly ease your learning curve. STL is a massive component of the C++ standard and claims hundreds of pages in C++ books. Frankly I hate it anyway, the STL is clunky to say the least and can often be a portability nightmare (likely reason for Epic avoiding it entirely with the number of platforms UE4 supports). C++ without the STL is much like C but with a few, easily digestable additions. Here's a bit of info from the wiki on UE4's alternatives to the C++ STL: https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/ue4-libraries-you-should-know-about

1. Its ok to not completely understand things. Try grab a working understanding of how things are put together loosely. Look at the epic game examples but do not despair if you cannot understand the shootergame demo.... the code in that game has many many layers. I started UE4 with a reasonable level of proficiency in C++, I imagine it would be quite hard to learn C++ and UE4s use of macros and templates at the same time.
   
   
2. Theres some good tutorial series out there. I personally liked posts from this guy. Link
   
   
3. Shameless plug for a mate :D
   
   
4. Lots of assets around. Shouldn't be hard to find some. Anything Epic released to the public is free to use.

I grabbed one of these (up from a GTX9500): https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GeForce-RTX-2060-VENTUS/dp/B07MC23VS4

Seems like it's a nice bang/buck, comes with DDR6 and Turing.

Managed to get mine on sale ~80bucks off; look around.

Also, the best single thing you can do to improve performance nowadays (SSD's seem standard) is to max out RAM on the MOBO and disable the paging file. Assuming your RAM-space is large enough not to fall over, Windows will never need to cache to disk.

I highly recommend the Content Examples project as it gives you a broad tour of what the engine can do: https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/202293/how-do-i-download-content-examples.html

For multiplayer, there's a reasonable tutorial you can work from: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/Showcases/BlueprintMultiplayer/

I also used this book to get started. It was a good reference material to supplement my learning elsewhere.

Good luck!

If you like curious adventures set in faraway places. Get the book!

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07YJPXSN4

Kindle version will be FREE on 24th and 25th Oct! (PDT)

This course is a good stating point and if you want something to supplement the C++ side of things a little more, i recommend this book (I am a big Tony Gaddis fan). It covers all the basics and the programming challenges work well with the information that gets presented to you prior. Since you already know java, some of the core programming fundamental chapters will be more of a refresher for you but you will also get to learn how C++ handles these things, the syntax and what not. A new copy is pretty pricey but i am sure there are a few used copies floating around that you could get for much cheaper.

Yeah I completely agree. I was going to use the recommended Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine book to make the First Person Shooter they go over, but was looking to do more than just that as that book is not very large and wouldn't take up the whole semester. Wasn't sure if other people had different recommendations to better approach learning a certain portion of UE4 as you mentioned.

C++ is a complicated, technical language. I'd recommend hitting the books for it. Learning C++ properly will teach you a lot about almost any language.

Accelerated C++ is the place to start if you don't know how any of the syntax works (pointers, const, templates, etc). Read a bit of it and write some C++.

When you've written some files and feel comfortable in C++'s syntax, read Effective C++. It will teach you good practice with many points from it transferring over to other languages.

Sorry, no, Goal Oriented Action Programming is the name of an AI strategy, like Finite State Machines. There is a wonderful AI book called Programming Game AI by Example if you're interested into delving into all the possible mechanics. There's plenty of free online resources too. Read up on both types of AI and I bet you have an AHA! moment. Other people have thought about these problems for a long time.

Read C++ Primer by Stanley Lippman. It's the #1 recommendation of the official C++ FAQ and is consistently recommended as the first book on C++ to read. It's also listed as the first recommendation in the StackOverflow C++ thread under the Introductory section.

It will not teach you Unreal Engine 4, but it will teach you C++ correctly. You can then use your solid C++ fundamentals to mod Unreal Engine with confidence.

If you want a cheaper option, I've been using a pair of these Acer 24" 1080p monitors (though mine have HDMI inputs). Probably similar to what you use at work. They're perfectly fine.

If you intent on learning C++ I advice against using Unreal to do so. First of you should get a more basic understanding of the language and programming in general.

As a game programming student I work together with designers. What I have noticed is that the blueprints these designers create are filled with mistakes and bugs. Simply because they don't understand the concept of programming, in any language that is.

Besides that you are only really ever forced to use C++ in Unreal for things that can seem rather more complicated, instantly being thrown in the deep.

I advice you start with the very basics (https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-C-Through-Game-Programming/dp/1305109910 read this if you want to understand the very basics). From there you should start exploring in smaller C++ projects to learn how to properly use functions and all the other benefits C++ brings with. This, in turn will help you make more robust blueprints making your code more readable, adaptable and less prone to bugs.

I could recommend you a youtube tutorial that teaches you how to make a very simple game from scratch using C++

https://www.amazon.com/One-Hour-Sams-Teach-Yourself/dp/0789757745 - Learn C++ in an hour a day

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also the Udemy courses are surprisingly very helpful. you can pick the classes that you think you would need the most, or just go general with intro to BP/C++/Unreal or whichever

Depends honestly.. brand new beginner ? YouTube and some udemy classes are best . I know I bought this for up-to-date VR stuff Unreal Engine VR Cookbook: Developing Virtual Reality with UE4 (Game Design) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134649176/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ka7jzbK1RKRVG

Hello /u/watcheroftimes,
It really depends on how much protection you want to do go with. If you want to make sure it is backed up no matter what; compute fries, virus, home or office is broken into. Then I would consider getting source control.

If you don't mind paying for a source control then I would consider SVN or Perforce. If you do not want to pay I would just use a git repository; however you will need to pay to keep the repo private, other wise it will be exposed to the public.

Otherwise, You can get a SSD or HDD or book drive and plug that into your machine and just mirror the drive to your current directory with your project.

Hope this helps,
--d0x

I assume that would work, but that's a big assumption. The guide you linked should work, but you can stop after step 6. You don't need the workgroup.

I would definitely test it before trying to use it live. If it doesn't work, you can get a cheap switch, plug them both in with normal Ethernet, configure static IPs, and it should work fine.

I'm in the same boat and I recently bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Visual-Scripting-Unreal-Engine/dp/1785286013

The Kindle version was only $15, so it was hard to say no. I'm only about 20% of the way through, but so far I'd recommend it.

Yeah... that's not how you want to do it if you want actual functional AI that behave independently.

Look up Autonomous Agents - Steering Behavior, online.

Here is something to get you started
http://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-6-autonomous-agents/

You would want the ""Follow" and "Arrival" steering behaviors specifically. The arrival behavior is what you described as the AI "slowing down".

If you can get your hands on Programming AI by Example from the library, school, or otherwise it's phenomanal resource that teaches how to program Steering behaviors for beginning AI developers.