Book Image

Unreal Engine: Game Development from A to Z

By : Nitish Misra, John P. Doran, Joanna Lee
Book Image

Unreal Engine: Game Development from A to Z

By: Nitish Misra, John P. Doran, Joanna Lee

Overview of this book

Unreal Engine technology powers hundreds of games. This Learning Path will help you create great 2D and 3D games that are distributed across multiple platforms. The first module, Learning Unreal Engine Game Development, starts with small, simple game ideas and playable projects. It starts by showing you the basics in the context of an individual game level. Then, you'll learn how to add details such as actors, animation, effects, and so on to the game. This module aims to equip you with the confidence and skills to design and build your own games using Unreal Engine 4. By the end of this module, you will be able to put into practise your own content.After getting familiar with Unreal Engine’s core concepts, it’s time that you dive into the field of game development. In this second module, Unreal Engine Game Development Cookbook we show you how to solve development problems using Unreal Engine, which you can work through as you build your own unique project. Every recipe provides step-by-step instructions, with explanations of how these features work, and alternative approaches and research materials so you can learn even more. You will start by building out levels for your game, followed by recipes to help you create environments, place meshes, and implement your characters. By the end of this module, you will see how to create a health bar and main menu, and then get your game ready to be deployed and published.The final step is to create your very own game that will keep mobile users hooked. This is what you'll be learning in our third module, Learning Unreal Engine Android Game Development,Once you get the hang of things, you will start developing our game, wherein you will graduate from movement and character control to AI and spawning. Once you've created your application, you will learn how to port and publish your game to the Google Play Store. With this course, you will be inspired to come up with your own great ideas for your future game development projects.

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Small book image
Unreal Engine: Game Development from A to Z
Nitish Misra | John P. Doran | Joanna Lee
Aug, 2016 | 13 hours 57 minutes
No titles found
Table of Contents (6 chapters)
Preface
Preface
What this learning path covers
What you need for this learning path
Who this learning path is for
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
1. Module 1
1. Module 1
1. An Overview of Unreal Engine
2. Creating Your First Level
3. Game Objects – More and Move
4. Material and Light
5. Animation and AI
6. A Particle System and Sound
7. Terrain and Cinematics
2
2. Module 2
2. Module 2
1. Getting Acquainted with the UE4 Interface
2. Level Design – Building Out Levels or Greyboxing
3. Creating Quality Interior Environments
4. Building the Great Outdoors – Exterior Environments
5. Lights, Camera, Action – Cinematics
6. Lighting and Shadows
7. Art Pipeline – Working with Materials
8. Blueprint Scripting – Level Effects
9. C++ Programming – Gameplay
10. User Interface
11. Publishing and Deployment
3
3. Module 3
3. Module 3
1. Getting Started with Unreal 4
2. Launching Unreal Engine 4
3. Building the Game – First Steps
4. Using Actors, Classes, and Volumes
5. Scripting with Blueprints
6. Using Unreal Matinee
7. Finishing, Packaging, and Publishing the Game
A. What Next?
4
A. Bibliography
A. Bibliography
5
Index
Index

Chapter 6. Lighting and Shadows

In this chapter, we'll cover the following recipes:

  • Lighting overview – learning the types of lights
  • Adding moveable lights – flashlight, part 1
  • Creating a Day/Night cycle

Introduction

Lighting is one of the most important elements then creating environments. It can communicate the theme, create atmosphere, and give a certain tone to each place that you use it for. However, if done poorly, it can make levels look amateurish. In this chapter, we will look at how to bring life to our game worlds.

Lighting overview – learning the types of lights

Having defined why lighting is so important, let's start creating each of the types and talking about what they do. In this recipe, we will see each of the different kinds of lights available in the engine. We will also discuss how they are different and when and why to use each one.

Getting ready

Before we start working within the Unreal Editor, we will need to have a project to work...

Previous Section
End of Section 7
Next Section