Book Image

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5 - Third Edition

By : Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell
5 (1)
Book Image

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5 - Third Edition

5 (1)
By: Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell

Overview of this book

Unreal Engine's Blueprint visual scripting system enables designers to script their games and programmers to create base elements that can be extended by designers. With this book, you'll explore all the features of the Blueprint Editor, along with expert tips, shortcuts, and best practices. The book guides you through using variables, macros, and functions, and helps you learn about object-oriented programming (OOP). You'll discover the Gameplay Framework and advance to learning how Blueprint Communication allows one Blueprint to access information from another Blueprint. Later chapters focus on building a fully functional game step by step. You'll start with a basic first-person shooter (FPS) template, and each chapter will build on the prototype to create an increasingly complex and robust game experience. You'll then progress from creating basic shooting mechanics to more complex systems such as user interface elements and intelligent enemy behavior. The book demonstrates how to use arrays, maps, enums, and vector operations and introduces the elements needed for VR game development. In the final chapters, you’ll learn how to implement procedural generation and create a product configurator. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to build a fully functional game and have the skills required to develop an entertaining experience for your audience.
Table of Contents (28 chapters)
1
Part 1: Blueprint Fundamentals
6
Part 2: Developing a Game
11
Part 3: Enhancing the Game
16
Part 4: Advanced Blueprints
21
Part 5: Extra Tools

Flow control nodes

There are some nodes that control the flow of the execution of a Blueprint. These nodes determine the execution path based on conditions. We've already seen the Branch node, which is a commonly used flow control node. Let's learn about the other main types of flow control nodes.

Switch nodes

A switch node determines the flow of execution based on the value of an input variable. There are different types of switch nodes. The next screenshot shows an example of the Switch on Int node:

Figure 13.51 – An example of the Switch on Int node

The Selection input parameter receives an integer value that determines the output pin that will be executed. If the input value has no pin, then the Default pin will execute. You can change the start index in the Details panel of Switch on Int. The output pins are added by using the Add pin + option.

Another type of switch is the Switch on String node, which is shown in the following...