Book Image

Unreal Engine 5 Game Development with C++ Scripting

By : ZHENYU GEORGE LI
Book Image

Unreal Engine 5 Game Development with C++ Scripting

By: ZHENYU GEORGE LI

Overview of this book

Unreal Engine is one of the most popular and accessible game engines in the industry, creating multiple job opportunities. Owing to C++ scripting's high performance, advanced algorithms, and engineering maintenance, it has become the industry standard for developing commercial games. However, C++ scripting can be overwhelming for anyone without a programming background. Unreal Engine 5 Game Development with C++ Scripting will help you master C++ and get a head start on your game development journey. You’ll start by creating an Unreal Engine C++ project from the shooter template and then move on to building the C++ project and the C++ code inside the Visual Studio editor. You’ll be introduced to the fundamental C++ syntax and essential object-oriented programming concepts. For a holistic understanding of game development, you’ll also uncover various aspects of the game, including character creation, player input and character control, gameplay, collision detection, UI, networking, and packaging a completed multiplayer game. By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to create professional, high-quality games using Unreal Engine 5 with C++, and will have built a solid foundation for more advanced C++ programming and game development technologies.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1 – Getting Started with Unreal C++ Scripting
6
Part 2 – C++ Scripting for Unreal Engine
12
Part 3: Making a Complete Multiplayer Game

Editing code in VS

The VS IDE has ample powerful editing features and tools that can help developers effectively create and edit their code. Almost all the tools can be found on the main menu system. Here, we'll only introduce the commonly used editing tools and the shortcut keys that can help you to get started. It is recommended to utilize and practice the following shortcuts and keys in your later exercises.

Controlling the caret (input cursor)

The caret is often represented as a blinking vertical line when editing in VS. It indicates the current input point and determines where new text will be entered.

Knowing how to use the keys for caret navigation is an essential editing skill, so let’s find out a bit more about this:

  • Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys: Move the caret up, down, left, or right, respectively
  • Home, End: Move the caret to the beginning or the end of a code line, respectively
  • Ctrl + Home, Ctrl + End: Move the caret to the beginning...