Book Image

Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

By : Rachel Cordone
Book Image

Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

By: Rachel Cordone

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.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Adding C++ to a Blueprint Project

Sometimes, try as you might, adding C++ to your Blueprint project will be unavoidable. Maybe you have a complex function that needs to run every frame and it's impacting your game's performance. Maybe you've encountered a rare case where some of the engine's functionality isn't exposed to Blueprint, such as creating a key bind menu. Or perhaps you're working on a non-game project that needs to hook into some exterior systems.

Or maybe you just prefer to work in C++. Even in this case, there may still be times when you need to interact with the Blueprint system, so knowing how these systems interact will help with your game's development.

Back in Chapter 1, Introduction to Unreal Engine 4, we talked about the ability to add C++ to an existing Blueprint project and vice versa. In this chapter, we will go over that...