Book Image

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine - Second Edition

By : Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell
Book Image

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine - Second Edition

By: Marcos Romero, Brenden Sewell

Overview of this book

Blueprints is the visual scripting system in Unreal Engine that enables programmers to create baseline systems and can be extended by designers. This book helps you explore all the features of the Blueprint Editor and guides you through using Variables, Macros, and Functions. You’ll also learn about object-oriented programming (OOP) and discover the Gameplay Framework. In addition to this, you’ll learn how Blueprint Communication allows one Blueprint to access information from another Blueprint. Later chapters will focus on building a fully functional game using a step-by-step approach. 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 skills you will develop using Blueprints can also be employed in other gaming genres. In the concluding chapters, the book demonstrates how to use arrays, maps, enums, and vector operations. Finally, you’ll learn how to build a basic VR game. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to build a fully functional game and will have the skills required to develop an entertaining experience for your audience.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Blueprint Fundamentals
6
Section 2: Developing a Game
11
Section 3: Enhancing the Game
16
Section 4: Advanced Blueprints

Exploring the Gameplay Framework classes

One of the first steps of creating a new Blueprint is choosing the parent class that will be used as a template. The following screenshot shows the panel that is displayed for choosing the parent class. The classes that are displayed on the buttons are known as Common Classes and are part of the Gameplay Framework. To use another class as the parent class, expand the All Classes category and search for your desired class:

The following diagram shows the hierarchy of Common Classes. In Unreal Engine, there is a base class called Object. Classes inherit the characteristics of the class above it, which is their parent class. Based on the inheritance concept of OOP, we can state that an instance of the Character class is a Pawn class, and is also an Actor class:

By analyzing this hierarchy, we can see that the Actor Component and Scene Component...