Introductions to Unreal Engine

The past two weeks consisted of a basic introduction to Unreal Engine and the concept of Visual Scripting. I have to admit, even though I am a designer, my initial response is that I would prefer coding than using Unreal's Blueprints. What can be done in one single line of code takes up 5 or more nodes. However like everything it is merely something new to learn.

So what is Blueprints? Blueprints is Unreal's system for visual scripting and is composed of a simple visual layout where the user can literally drag and drop various nodes, create variables etc and link them up together. The sorcery in the system itself handles all of the hard coding in the background, making it a

simpler alternative to non-programmers. It also allows programmers to create their own custom additions that they can insert into Unreal for the designers to use without breaking and destroying everything. It is important to note that the system that Unreal uses is called 'Blueprints' and that a visual script is called a 'Blueprint.'

Common types of Blueprints used are Level and Class Blueprints. A Level Blueprint will act as an event graph for that entire level and each level created will have it's own Level Blueprint. The events that occur in a Level Blueprint are level specific. A Class Blueprint is basically a created asset that can be dragged and dropped inside various levels. It could be something like a lamp that is used regularly during the game that the player can interact with.

There are three tabs that can be accessed in a Class Blueprint. The 'Viewport' shows a 3D environment where the user can drag and drop assets into the editor and add things such as trigger volumes etc that will be interactive and part of the Blueprint node system. The 'Construction Script' allows the user to add features that are able to be edited in each instance of the object. For example, if there is a light of three sides of a building, you can add a function in this tab so each light can be it's own colour. The final tab is the 'Event Graph.' Here is where the user drags and creates various nodes which make the object/class actually do something. This is where the user determines what keys must be pressed and what will happen. It is the 'scripting part' of the editor in short.

So what is the difference between Blueprints and other languages such as C# and C++? As mentioned earlier Blueprints is Visual Scripting. This means that no lines of code are actually written. It is designed to be easier to use and is suited better for artists and other creatives who work visually. C# is a programming language derived from the C/C++ languages. Unlike C++, C# holds your hand a bit more and is a bit more easier to code in where as C++ adds more layers of freedom to what the user can do. Certain things cannot be done in C# that can be in C++.

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