Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

By : Rachel Cordone

4 (6)

Buy this Book

Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Quick Start Guide

4 (6)

By: Rachel Cordone

Buy this Book

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.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

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Free Chapter

Introduction to Unreal Engine 4

Downloading the UE

The Unreal editor

Editor preferences

Installing and using plugins

Adding marketplace items to your project

Summary

Programming Using Blueprints

The Blueprint window

Time for action

Summary

Adding C++ to a Blueprint Project

Technical requirements

Creating C++ classes in UE4

Using C++ variables in Blueprint

Using C++ functions in Blueprint

Using events in C++

Summary

Creating HUDs and Menus Using UMG

The Widget Blueprint window

Setting up an interactive menu

Widget set nodes

Variable binding

Adding widgets to other widgets

Summary

Animation Blueprints

Creating the attachment

Animation retargeting

Adding a weapon Equip control

Summary

AI with Behavior Tree and Blackboard

Creating a simple AI

Behavior Trees

Creating a Behavior Tree task

Summary

Multiplayer Games

The client–server model

Replication

Summary

Optimization, Testing, and Packaging

Optimization

The Profiler

Blueprint Nativization

Debugging in UE4

Packing a project

Summary

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Packing a project

This is it. It's time to package our game for distribution. Luckily, Unreal Engine does most of the work for us. The only thing we need to take care of is making sure we have our settings all sorted out for the build.

Let's take a look at the settings we need to adjust. Head into Edit | Project Settings and look at the sections under the Project category. There are five that we are interested in:

Description: In this section, we set properties such as the Project Name and Company Name. There are also properties for Licensing and a Privacy Policy if desired.
Maps & Modes: The two main properties that concern us here are the Default Modes and the Game Default Map. The Game Default Map is what will be loaded when the game starts, so this should be set to a main menu map or something similar.
Movies: Any company logo startup movies can be added here...