Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials
By Satheesh Pv
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About this ebook
About This Book
- Get to grips with the user interface of Unreal Engine 4 and find out more about its various robust features
- Create dream video games with the help of the different tools Unreal Engine 4 offers
- Create video-games and fully utilize the power of Unreal Engine 4 to bring games to life through this step-by-step guide
Who This Book Is For
If you have a basic understanding of working on a 3D environment and you are interested in video game development, then this book is for you. A solid knowledge of C++ will come in handy.
What You Will Learn
- Download both the binary and source version of Unreal Engine 4 and get familiar with the UI
- Get to know more about the Material Editor and how it works
- Add a post process to the scene and alter it to get a unique look for your scene
- Acquaint yourself with the unique and exclusive feature of Unreal Engine 4—Blueprints
- Find out more about Static and Dynamic lighting and the difference between various lights
- Use Matinee to create cut scenes
- Create a health bar for the player with the use of Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG)
- Get familiar with Cascade Particle Editor
In Detail
Unreal Engine 4 is a complete suite of game development tools that gives you power to develop your game and seamlessly deploy it to iOS and Android devices. It can be used for the development of simple 2D games or even stunning high-end visuals. Unreal Engine features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by many game developers today.
This book will introduce you to the most popular game development tool called Unreal Engine 4 with hands-on instructions for building stunning video games. You will begin by creating a new project or prototype by learning the essentials of Unreal Engine by getting familiar with the UI and Content Browser. Next, we'll import a sample asset from Autodesk 3ds max and learn more about Material Editor. After that we will learn more about Post Process. From there we will continue to learn more about Blueprints, Lights, UMG, C++ and more.
Style and approach
This step-by-step guide will help you gain practical knowledge about Unreal Engine through detailed descriptions of all the tools offered by Unreal Engine.
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Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials - Satheesh Pv
Table of Contents
Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgements
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
eBooks, discount offers, and more
Why subscribe?
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Downloading the color images of this book
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Introduction to Unreal Engine 4
Unreal Engine 4 download
Downloading the launcher version
Downloading the GitHub version
Forking Unreal Engine repository
Compiling Unreal Engine
Getting familiar with Unreal Engine
The viewport toolbar
Modes
Content Browser
Content Browser view options
World outliner
Details panel
Navigating the Viewport
BSP
Creating BSP
Default starting level, splash screen, and game icon
Summary
2. Importing Assets
Creating asset in a DCC application
Creating collision meshes
Custom collision shapes
Unreal Engine 4 collision generator
Simple shapes
K-DOP shapes
Auto convex collision
Materials
LOD
Exporting and importing
Exporting
Importing
Context menu
Drag and drop
Content Browser import
Automatic import
Configuring automatic import
Result
Summary
3. Materials
Material user interface
Toolbar
Live preview
Live nodes
Live update
Preview panel
Details panel
Graph panel
Palette panel
Common material expressions
Constant
Constant2Vector
Constant3Vector
Texture coordinate (TexCoord)
Multiply
Add
Divide
Subtract
Texture sample (Texture2D)
Component mask
Linear interpolate (lerp)
Power
PixelDepth
Desaturation
Time
Fresnel
Material types
Material instances
Material Instance Constant
Material Instance Constant example
Material functions
Material function example
Layered Material
Creating layered Material using make material attributes
Method 1:
Method 2:
Summary
4. Post Process
Adding Post Process
LUT
Post Process Materials
Creating a Post Process Material
Summary
5. Lights
Lighting basics
Placing lights
Various lights
Common light settings
Light mobility
Lightmass Global Illumination
Preparing your assets for precomputed lighting
Building a scene with Lightmass
Tweaking Lightmass settings
Summary
6. Blueprints
Different Blueprint types
Getting familiar with the Blueprint user interface
Components tab
What are components?
Adding a component
Transforming the component
Adding events for components
My Blueprints tab
Creation buttons
Searching in my Blueprint
Categorizing in My Blueprint
Toolbar
Graph editor
Details panel
Blueprint graph types
Function graph
Creating functions
Graph settings
Editing functions
Macro graph
Interface graph
Blueprint node references
Node colors
Variables
Math expression
Creating our first Blueprint class
Creating a new Blueprint
Spinning static mesh
Destroying our Blueprint Actor after some seconds
Spawning our Blueprint class in Level Blueprint
Summary
7. Matinee
Creating a new Matinee
Matinee window
Manipulating an object
Cutscene camera
Director group
Summary
8. Unreal Motion Graphics
Setting up a project
Creating the HUD Widget
Creating the health bar
Assigning our HUD to Character
Creating floating health bars
Summary
9. Particles
Cascade particle editor
Toolbar
Viewport
Navigation
Details
Emitter
Emitter types
Curve editor
Creating a simple particle system
Creating a simple material
Adding gravity
Applying the color over life module
Adding collision module
Playing particle in Blueprints
Summary
10. Introduction to Unreal C++
Setting up Visual Studio 2015
Workflow improvements
Creating a C++ project
The character class
Adding the health system
Creating a health variable
Taking damage
Health regeneration
C++ to Blueprint
Summary
11. Packaging Project
Recap
Packaging the project
Quick packaging
Packaging the release version
Summary
References
Index
Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials
Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: February 2016
Production reference: 1220216
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78439-196-6
www.packtpub.com
Cover image by Satheesh PV (<mindfreak2040@gmail.com>)
Credits
Author
Satheesh PV
Reviewer
Omer Shapira
Commissioning Editor
Edward Bowkett
Acquisition Editor
Kevin Colaco
Content Development Editor
Deepti Thore
Technical Editor
Deepti Tuscano
Copy Editor
Merilyn Pereira
Project Coordinator
Dinesh Rathe
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Graphics
Jason Monterio
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Satheesh PV is a game programmer living in Mumbai, India. He was selected by Epic Games as one of the closed beta testers for Unreal Engine 4 before its public release. He started his career as a game developer in 2012 by making a first person multiplayer game with his brother and close friend using Unreal Development Kit. He also created Unreal X-Editor, which was an IDE developed for UnrealScript, the native scripting language of Unreal Engine 3. He is also a moderator at Unreal Engine forums as well as a spotlight member and engine contributor.
Acknowledgements
I am using this opportunity to thank God for giving me talent and a wonderful family, who are my real inspiration. I am grateful to them for their aspiring guidance and continuous support while writing this book. I am thankful to Epic Games for giving out such an amazing Engine to the world for free! You guys are the best!
I express my warm thanks to my fiancée Gale Fernandes; without her amazing support and constructive criticism, this book possibly would not have happened.
I would also like to thank my brother Rakesh PV for introducing me to the world of games and game technologies. It is through him I learned everything related to games and I am proud to say that he is my first mentor.
I wish to extend my deep thanks and gratitude to my good friends Alexander Paschall (Epic Games) and Chance Ivey (Epic Games) and also to my best friend Reni Dev, with whom I created my first game.
I also wish to thank my dear friend and C++ mentor, Nathan Iyer (Rama) for his great support. With his amazing articles and examples on C++, he has taught many (including me) in the Unreal Community. He was kind enough to review my C++ chapter, point out mistakes and gave honest feedbacks including spending his valuable time to remove some technical discrepancies. Thank you so much Rama! You can visit his website at: http://ue4code.com/
Finally, I would like to thank Vasundhara Devi and Lucy Fernandes for giving me all those joyous moments that put a smile on my face. Thank you moms! I love you.
About the Reviewer
Omer Shapira is an artist, software developer, and virtual reality researcher. He has worked on Game Engine projects for Nike, Google, Microsoft, Disney, Universal Pictures, and Samsung. His projects and collaborations have been exhibited at Sundance Festival, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired, Adage, and Eyebeam, and have won awards from Tribeca Film Festival, Ars Electronica, the Art Directors Club, and The Webbys.
Omer is currently head of virtual reality and game engines at Fake Love, an experiential design studio. Previously, he worked as a developer at Framestore, The NYU Media Research Lab, and the MIT Media Lab, and as a filmmaker and VFX artist for Channel 10. Omer studied mathematics at Tel Aviv University and human-computer interaction at New York University.
Omer's four-dimensional video game, Horizon (written in Unreal Engine), will be released in 2017.
You can find him at omershapira.com.
I'd like to thank the people who contributed the most to my ability to write game engines: Ken Perlin, Casey Muratori, Jonathan Blow, Fred Ford, and Paul Reiche III.
I'd like to thank Surya Mattu and Jenn Schiffer for being good parents, and my cat, Nitzu.
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Preface
The purpose of Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials is to teach people interested in using Unreal Engine how to create video games. You will learn what Unreal Engine is and how to download and use it. From there, we will go through the collection of tools available in Unreal Engine 4 including Materials, Blueprints, Matinee, UMG, C++, and more.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to Unreal Engine 4, is where we begin our journey on Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials. In this chapter, the reader will learn how and where to download Unreal Engine as well as the difference between the source version and launcher version. After the Engine's installation (or compilation, if it was the source version) we will get comfortable with the user interface of Unreal Engine. We will also learn about the basics of Content Browser, BSP, and how to change the splash screen and the icons for your game.
Chapter 2, Importing Assets, teaches how to import your custom FBX assets into Unreal Engine once we get the Engine up and running. You will learn about collisions, materials, and the level of detail.
Chapter 3, Materials, teaches you about the Material editor and some common nodes used to create shaders for your assets. After learning the basics of Material, we will create an example material function that can change the intensity of a normal map.
Chapter 4, Post Process, continues to post-processing after teaching you about materials. In this chapter, you will learn how to override the default post process settings. After that, we will learn how to add our own post process volume and learn a simple but very powerful feature called LUT. After that, we will create a special material that can be used with post process, and this material will have the ability to highlight user-defined objects in the world.
Chapter 5, Lights, gets us halfway through our Unreal Engine 4 Game Development Essentials journey, and this chapter will introduce you to the lighting system. We start of by covering the basics, such as placing lights and going through the common settings. You will then learn more about the Lightmass Global Illumination system, including how to properly prepare a UV channel for your asset to be used with Lightmass. By the end of this chapter, you will learn how to build your scene with Lightmass as well as Lightmass settings.
Chapter 6, Blueprints, teaches you what Blueprints are and about the various types of Blueprints that are available in the Engine. Blueprints are Unreal Engine's number one tool that allows artists and designers to quickly prototype their game (or even make one!). You will also learn about the different graph types, such as event graph, function graph, macro graph, and so on, and how to spawn a Blueprint dynamically at runtime.
Chapter 7, Matinee, looks at the cinematic side of Unreal Engine 4 and the tool associated with it, called Matinee. You will learn what Matinee is, how to create one, and get familiar with the UI. After the basics, we will learn how to manipulate objects in Matinee as well as create a very basic cutscene, which we will trigger using Blueprints.
Chapter 8, Unreal Motion Graphics, teaches you to create a basic HUD that shows the health of the player. Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) is the UI authoring tool in Unreal Engine. UMG is