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

Chapter 7: Creating Screen UI Elements

At the core of any gaming experience is the method game designers use to communicate the goals and rules of the game to the player. One method of doing this, which is common across all forms of games, is using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to display and broadcast important information to the player. In this chapter, we will set up a GUI that will track the player's health and stamina, and we will set up counters that display the targets eliminated and the ammo of the player. You will learn how to set up a basic User Interface (UI) using Unreal's GUI Editor and how to use Blueprints to tie that interface to gameplay values. We will create UI elements using the Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) UI Designer.

In the process, we will cover the following topics:

  • Creating simple UI meters with the UMG
  • Connecting UI values to player variables
  • Tracking the ammo and eliminated targets

By the end of the chapter, you will...