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It seems that there are a handful of people here using Unreal Engine so I thought it would be a good idea to start up a thread for it. 

 

So if you're a beginner and have questions, ask them here! Or if you're a bit more experienced and have cool tips/tricks/cheat codes that might be helpful, share them here too!

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Is anyone else experimenting with the behavior tree system? It seems very powerful, but the complete lack of documentation is making things difficult.

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Is anyone else experimenting with the behavior tree system? It seems very powerful, but the complete lack of documentation is making things difficult.

Yeah, I've decided to pass on using it for that reason. One of the downsides to the rapid pace of engine updates being pushed out is that the documentation for newer features is pretty slow. I've been following the progress of and attempting to learn how to use the new UMG UI system, but without docs it's hard to get a grasp of how everything works.

 

 Are you looking into using the behaviour tree stuff for a project you're working on, or are you just getting familiar with new stuff?

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I'm working on a first person adventure game that looks like this, which ya'll have probably seen around here somewhere. Right now I'm working on a funding application for it. If I don't get it I miiiiiight be fucked.

 

 

magenta.png

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Yeah, I've decided to pass on using it for that reason. One of the downsides to the rapid pace of engine updates being pushed out is that the documentation for newer features is pretty slow. I've been following the progress of and attempting to learn how to use the new UMG UI system, but without docs it's hard to get a grasp of how everything works.

 

 Are you looking into using the behaviour tree stuff for a project you're working on, or are you just getting familiar with new stuff?

 

On the other hand it doesn't make sense to write documentation that will be outdated in a month. Is UMG vastly superior to the old system? I haven't tried it at all.

 

I'm just trying to figure out the basics. At the moment I only have vision, hearing and basic movement.

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I'm working on a first person adventure game that looks like this, which ya'll have probably seen around here somewhere. Right now I'm working on a funding application for it. If I don't get it I miiiiiight be fucked.

 

 

magenta.png

 

I really like the contrast between the modern lighting and the late 90's texture resolution and low-poly models. I imagine that Deus Ex would look like that if someone remade it in UE4 without replacing the assets.

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On the other hand it doesn't make sense to write documentation that will be outdated in a month. Is UMG vastly superior to the old system? I haven't tried it at all.

 

I'm just trying to figure out the basics. At the moment I only have vision, hearing and basic movement.

UMG is a lot more powerful and is (although rough at the moment) quite a lot nicer to use than the old system. A few days ago they published a draft documentation for the 4.4 version:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?25533-UMG-Documentation-for-4-4-Preview&highlight=umg

 
 

I'm working on a first person adventure game that looks like this, which ya'll have probably seen around here somewhere. Right now I'm working on a funding application for it. If I don't get it I miiiiiight be fucked.

That artwork looks real nice. I love low poly stuff. How long have you been working on this?

 

 

I guess I should also share what I'm working on. I'm making a local multiplayer arcade game, and so far it looks like this:

 

lu7z2rm.jpg?1

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Thanks ya'll. I've been toying around with it very intermittently for probably like a year, but I'm stepping it up a bit now and going for a funding application. Hopefully have a cool video together in the next week or so.

Your thing looks super cool, tell me moar

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Thanks ya'll. I've been toying around with it very intermittently for probably like a year, but I'm stepping it up a bit now and going for a funding application. Hopefully have a cool video together in the next week or so.

Your thing looks super cool, tell me moar

 

I shall look forward to that video! I've been checking out the updates on your blog and it's quite interesting to see the engine being used in such a different way to how I've been using it. Looking at some of the things you've built it's fun to try and figure out how it may have been implemented based on my own limited knowledge of how the tools work. Are you working on it solo or with a group?

 
My game is called Laser Bash, and it's a local multiplayer party game for 2-4 players. It's something I've been working on for a few months now, in spare evenings and weekends.
Over the past few years I've gained an appreciation of local multiplayer games (such as Nidhogg, Samurai Gunn etc); and through playing a bunch of them and being somewhat interested (albeit inexperienced) in gamedev, I decided to try making my own. The setup is basically four players moving around and shooting each other in a top down arena (imagine the layout of something like Bomberman), but there's a (hopefully) interesting shooting mechanic involved which influences the way you play.
The game is still in a fairly early state at the moment; I've not had quite as much time to work on it as I'd like. Development has been fun so far though. Since I started this project I've pretty much stopped actually playing games since I now get enough entertainment out of making this one.

 

In general news, I should mention that this is happening today: https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?27034-Twitch-4-4-and-UMG-Preview-Part-1&p=112603

This week's livestream is going to be covering the new UMG tool that's coming in 4.4. I've been chomping at the bit for more information on this, so consider me hyped.

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Are solid colors the new pixel art? I experimented with foliage this morning, with mixed results. Need to figure out a way to have the grass face the player.

 

YEjXLsD.jpg

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If you're using the foliage tool, you prooooobably can't have the grass camera-facing without delving into c++. But you could pretty easily make a blueprint that places camera-facing grass everywhere. That looks real nice, by the way.

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Are solid colors the new pixel art? I experimented with foliage this morning, with mixed results. Need to figure out a way to have the grass face the player.

Well there's no retro appeal for the style, and it's not particularly trendy in the way pixel art is (to my knowledge), so I wouldn't think so. The only thing in common is that both styles lack the detail of photorealism, but I suppose you could say that about a lot of styles.

I did once find a tutorial for player facing grass, I'll see if I can find it if you're still looking for a solution. As Lacabra said, it's not too difficult to setup using Blueprint, so that could be an option.

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It's frustrating, I can make a billboard blueprint in 30 seconds but you can't use blueprints with the foliage brush. I might have to make my own brush using a construction script as you suggested. Thanks! It's just a few free samples from the SpeedTree site with some very basic flat shaded materials.

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Well there's no retro appeal for the style, and it's not particularly trendy in the way pixel art is (to my knowledge), so I wouldn't think so. The only thing in common is that both styles lack the detail of photorealism, but I suppose you could say that about a lot of styles.

I did once find a tutorial for player facing grass, I'll see if I can find it if you're still looking for a solution. As Lacabra said, it's not too difficult to setup using Blueprint, so that could be an option.

 

True, I was more talking about it as a trend among developers with limited resources. Eidolon and Unturned come to mind.

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I just ported one of my old InFlux levels to UE4 for kicks. Spoilers for InFlux I guess!

Whoa nice!

What kind of work was involved in porting it, and how long did it take? InFlux was made in UE3 right? So did that make things easier?

Seriously though, that lighting. :D

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I have one of the worst questions. An OPINION question!

 

I thought there was a free version of UE4, like there was for UE3. THERE IS NOT. It is 20 bucks a month or GET OUT.

 

My question: is it worth it to pay 20 bucks one time and have access to everything that exists Right Now with the sole purpose of messing around with various ideas? Or is UE4 still in an early enough state that getting the engine now would be entirely different from getting the engine in a few months, and I'd have to pay another 20 to update for the latest sweet New Features?

 

I know this is sort of a loaded question. Mostly I want to try it out, but also I expect I'll like it and want to do something tangible, and if I do... I don't have the money to be paying 20 bucks a month.

 

I also feel like there has to be a trial version SOMEWHERE but I couldn't find one!

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It's worth it right now. It is an excellent excellent set of tools. Just keep an eye on what they're updating and drop the next $20 if it's something you need would be my suggestion.

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Whoa nice!

What kind of work was involved in porting it, and how long did it take? InFlux was made in UE3 right? So did that make things easier?

Seriously though, that lighting. :D

It was basically a lot of exporting and importing meshes and textures and re-creating materials, and I have a basic tool that converts map data (just meshes and lights) from UE3 to 4. Not too hard, just time consuming.

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It's worth it right now. It is an excellent excellent set of tools. Just keep an eye on what they're updating and drop the next $20 if it's something you need would be my suggestion.

That's what I was hoping to hear. Thank you! I will definitely check it out very soon.

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I have one of the worst questions. An OPINION question!

 

I thought there was a free version of UE4, like there was for UE3. THERE IS NOT. It is 20 bucks a month or GET OUT.

 

My question: is it worth it to pay 20 bucks one time and have access to everything that exists Right Now with the sole purpose of messing around with various ideas? Or is UE4 still in an early enough state that getting the engine now would be entirely different from getting the engine in a few months, and I'd have to pay another 20 to update for the latest sweet New Features?

 

I know this is sort of a loaded question. Mostly I want to try it out, but also I expect I'll like it and want to do something tangible, and if I do... I don't have the money to be paying 20 bucks a month.

 

I also feel like there has to be a trial version SOMEWHERE but I couldn't find one!

 

I would also say it's well worth it. I subscribed to my first month for similar reasons to you; I just wanted to try it and see how it compared to Unity3d. I was pretty happy with it from the get go; the tools are really nice to use and it's pretty quick to learn how things work.

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That's what I was hoping to hear. Thank you! I will definitely check it out very soon.

If/when you decide to try it out and have any beginner questions, share them here and I'll do my best to help out.

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Beware! I just managed to kill the graphics options screen I had been working on for an hour by making the fatal mistake of trying to add a FOV slider, apparently sliders crash the editor and make UMG files unopenable. Serves me right for not doing backups while using an experimental feature in a preview build of the editor.

.

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