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

Exploring the VR template

The Unreal Engine Editor has a Blueprint VR template that makes it easy to start experimenting with VR development. The VR template uses the OpenXR framework, which is an open standard for VR and augmented reality development. Because of OpenXR, the VR template works on multiple devices without any platform-specific modification.

The VR template is in the GAMES category. The following screenshot shows the creation of a project using the VR template:

Figure 16.1 – Selecting the VR template

The next screenshot shows the VR template map with a ball, weapons, and cubes that can be grabbed by the user:

Figure 16.2 – The VR template map

If there is a VR display device installed on your computer and set up for development, then you can launch the Level in VR by clicking on the dropdown of the Play button and selecting VR Preview. If you don't have a VR display device, you can launch the Level...