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Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

By : Rachel Cordone

4 (6)

Buy this Book

Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

4 (6)

By: Rachel Cordone

Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Unreal Engine is a popular game engine used by developers for building high-end 2D and 3D games. This book is a practical guide designed to help you get started with Unreal Engine 4 and confidently develop interactive games. You’ll begin with a quick introduction to the Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) ecosystem. Next, you’ll learn how to create Blueprints and C++ code to define your game's functionality. As you progress, you’ll cover the core systems of UE4 such as Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG), Animation Blueprints, and behaviour trees to further build on your game development knowledge. The concluding chapters will then help you learn how to use replication to create multiplayer games. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with UE4 and have developed the skills you need to use the framework for developing and deploying robust and intuitive games.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

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Free Chapter

Introduction to Unreal Engine 4

Downloading the UE

The Unreal editor

Editor preferences

Installing and using plugins

Adding marketplace items to your project

Summary

Programming Using Blueprints

The Blueprint window

Time for action

Summary

Adding C++ to a Blueprint Project

Technical requirements

Creating C++ classes in UE4

Using C++ variables in Blueprint

Using C++ functions in Blueprint

Using events in C++

Summary

Creating HUDs and Menus Using UMG

The Widget Blueprint window

Setting up an interactive menu

Widget set nodes

Variable binding

Adding widgets to other widgets

Summary

Animation Blueprints

Creating the attachment

Animation retargeting

Adding a weapon Equip control

Summary

AI with Behavior Tree and Blackboard

Creating a simple AI

Behavior Trees

Creating a Behavior Tree task

Summary

Multiplayer Games

The client–server model

Replication

Summary

Optimization, Testing, and Packaging

Optimization

The Profiler

Blueprint Nativization

Debugging in UE4

Packing a project

Summary

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Creating a Behavior Tree task

Tasks are created as separate Blueprint assets, and, by default, will be created in the same folder as the Behavior Tree. The easiest way to create them is directly from the Behavior Tree, so let's do that now:

At the top of our EnemyBehavior window, click on the New Task button. This will create the asset and open it up for us.
The names given to new tasks by default are not useful, so let's go into the ThirdPersonBP\Blueprints folder and find the Task. (The icon will be a hollow circle, and its name will start with BTTask_BlueprintBase_New.) Rename it BT_GetRandomLocation.

Back in the task's Blueprint, instead of using an Event, such as BeginPlay, Tasks have their own set of events:

The most common one is Receive Execute AI, which is called each time the Behavior Tree branches onto this task. This event has Owner Controller and...

Tech Concepts

Programming languages

Tech Tools