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

Installing Unreal Engine

To use Unreal Engine, you must first install the Epic Games Launcher:

  1. Access the website at https://www.unrealengine.com.
  2. Register and download the Epic Games Launcher.
  3. Install and start the launcher.
  4. Click the Unreal Engine tab on the left-hand side.
  5. Click on the Library tab that appears at the top of the screen.
  6. Click the + button next to ENGINE VERSIONS to add a version of Unreal Engine to the launcher. You can use the newest version available.
  7. Click the Install button. The launcher will start downloading the files needed for installation and may take a long time to complete.
  8. Click the Launch button to start an already installed version. It is possible to have multiple versions of Unreal Engine installed on the same machine – you simply set one of them as the current version. The Launch button at the top right of the launcher will start the current version.
Figure 1.1 – Launching Unreal Engine

Figure 1.1 – Launching Unreal Engine

The Blueprint Visual Scripting system is already a well established and stable technology. This book uses version 5.0.0, but the examples created in this book should work without problems in later versions.