hello and welcome to Unreal Engine 4 I'm
Zach Parish with epic games and over the
next few minutes we're going to take a
look at some of the things you need to
know to use ue4 as well as some of the
ways in which we're working to help you
be successful with our tool
set the very first time you launch the
engine you're either going to see the
new project window if you don't have any
content downloaded or you may see the
projects tab open either way this is all
going to take place in the unreal
project browser now if it's the very
first time you've ever used the engine
you're probably going to want to open
one of the existing projects that you
can download from the marketplace which
I'll go ahead and click on here and
you'll notice that jumps to the
marketplace tab over in the launcher
currently in the marketplace there are a
variety of different offerings from epic
helping you see how to approach certain
types of projects and to show off
features a particular mention is the
content examples project which has a
variety of different levels each showing
off different features and techniques
with Unreal Engine 4 so definitely make
sure you check that out and I'll talk
about that a little bit more
later now once you make it back to the
project browser you can open up anything
you've downloaded or you can create your
own project now when you go to do this
you're going to see there's a variety of
different project types you can create
and you'll notice that they're listed
kind of like genres so we have a
firstperson game we've got a flying game
as you keep scrolling down you'll see
some things you might recognize like a
third person game and so on now I'm
going to talk more about uh what you're
actually seeing here but kind of at a
high level you'll notice that each of
these genres these templates which is
what we call them comes in two flavors
we have a code version and we have a
blueprint version now I'll focus on the
difference between those in a couple of
moments but at a super high level
blueprint is Unreal Engine 4's visual
scripting solution so that is how you're
going to create scripts in a visual ual
manner using a series of nodes and
connections if you're more of the
programmer type and you're comfortable
coding in C++ then you can create a
template using a code version so uh
whichever one you choose it's really
just going to depend on how you want to
go about creating your game if you're a
coder use the code version if you're
more of a visual person say an artist or
a level designer maybe you're just not
comfortable programming then definitely
choose the blueprint version of whatever
type you want
now as I mentioned earlier I wanted to
take just a moment and talk about the
difference between the code and
blueprint versions of each one of these
templates so the genre templates are
going to be super useful to you of
course as you decide on different types
of games you want to build but let's
show the difference between the
blueprint and code version so as I
mentioned blueprint is going to be the
visual scripting version of a template
while code is going to be the
straightforward C++ version let's show
this off though I'll start with
blueprint and let's name the project
we'll typ type out
blueprint TPP now notice there's a
checkbox here called include starter
content I am leaving that unchecked uh
this will create a or add into your
project I should say a series of meshes
and materials kind of some generic
building blocks to sort of help you get
your levels built a little more quickly
and help you see how things work but for
Speed we're not going to include that
I'll go ahead and click create
project and that'll open up this project
for us
and here we are now as soon as we get in
we can jump up to the top of the
interface and hit the play button and we
can start playing this game right inside
of the viewport so you'll see I've got a
little character I can move around with
the WD Keys I've got a camera that I can
move around with the mouse and he can
run and he can jump but what makes this
a blueprint example if I hit Escape is
if I go over into the blueprints folder
you'll see I have a character blueprint
and let's go ahead and double click on
that which will open it up in the
blueprint editor and here you can see
all of the nodes and connections which
are making this character's motion and
behavior possible this is blueprint this
is our visual scripting solution in
Unreal Engine 4 so specifically in this
case we're looking at the aspect of his
uh his visual script that makes him able
to move around so we have an event for
moving forward and back and we have an
event for moving right and left and in
each case we're grabbing the overall
rotation of the character we're applying
a little bit of math to it and we're
using that as the direction the
character is going to move in effect
this is making that motion based off of
the camera the important thing here is
that this was not done with actual code
this was done through nodes and
connections as you see here and we can
augment this we can create our own nodes
our own connections and make this
character do a variety of other things
without typing a single line of code now
let's show off the difference between
this and a code product I'm going to go
to file and we'll create a new
project and this time we'll scroll down
to third person once again but we're
going to choose the code version and
let's name this code TPP and I'll click
create project and now we're going to
get a window that pops up as soon as
this is done it's going to ask us if we
want to open this in visual studio 2013
as a note make sure you have vs 2013
installed before you do this uh you can
use the free Express version available
from Microsoft if you want but as a
reminder the express version does not
support plugins so we'll go ahead and
click yes and that will open up our
solution inside of Visual Studio the
first thing we're going to have to do is
build this so I'm just going to
rightclick right here in my solution
explore and choose build now the screen
is going to fade real quick to kind of
skip through the build
process okay so now our build is
complete as you can see it says one
succeeded and no failures so I'm going
to go ahead and just minimize visual
Studio at this point in fact actually
you know what on second thought let's
just go ahead and close it I'll bring it
back up and we'll just close it all out
together because I want to show you
something here in just a moment now we
need to open this up in the editor so
I'll go to file open project and now
you'll see I have code TTP up here I can
double click on this and we don't need
to save anything from our previous
project and the new version our code
version is now launched I can just as
before click play and we get the exact
same experience and that's important to
point out the blueprint version of each
template and the code version are going
to work exactly the same as far as the
player is concerned however the key
difference is that now I still have a
blueprints folder and we still see the
character blueprint but if I double
click it to open it up you will notice
that if I jump to the graph tab in the
upper right hand corner the graph is now
empty there are no nodes or connections
and that is because everything this
character is doing has been defined in
code now at the very top of the
blueprint window you'll see there's a
parent class which points to code TTP
character. that's of course theh file as
opposed to the CC uh CPP file I'll click
on that and notice that automatically
launches visual studio and takes us
right to that file so now we can start
editing the header file for this actual
character and this is going to be the
the comfortable environment for anybody
who's already used to working and C++
and of course if you're not make sure
you use that blueprint template that we
took a look at
earlier so if you really are just
getting started with the engine for the
first time we highly recommend you check
out our marketplace where we've got a
variety of different projects available
for you to download and each one of
these you can browse through check out
tear apart if you want to and learn how
a variety of different features and
techniques and approaches work work in
Unreal Engine 4 now I've already
downloaded several of these myself so
let's check out just a few of them to
give you kind of a highlevel overview of
what's
available the big project I'd like to
mention is the content examples project
this project contains a variety of
different maps that you can open up and
each one shows off a different technique
or a different engine feature along with
specific examples of how each thing
works so you can go step by step through
each one of the little stands see how
each thing is actually being done you
can open it up you can take apart its
blueprints you can even just copy paste
everything you see into your own levels
if you want to so definitely take a look
at content examples make sure you've at
least opened up each one of the maps and
played around a little bit with what you
find now this project is going to
continue to expand we are going to add
new things to it from time to time just
to help you learn about new features and
new ways to go about using the
engine we also have the blueprint
examples project this is a little
enclosed environment with several
different examples of how you can use
blueprints in your game ranging from
things like uh level design applications
such as the uh God Rays coming in or the
little fog volumes all the way to more
sophisticated things like a a butterfly
that actually has artificial
intelligence to a security camera that
knows when you get nearby and can set
off an alarm and lock the
door the mobile Temple example gives you
an environment that is completely mobile
ready and shows off a variety of mobile
rendering features now this can be
deployed to an Android or to an iOS
device and you can see how you can
create a compelling and beautiful
environment on your mobile devices using
Unreal Engine 4 the reflections demo
gives you a small environment where you
can go see how Reflections are set up in
ue4 and of course if you just uh hit
play you'll get a nice matina flyth
through that'll show you each one of
these features kind of in detail and
show you how beautiful Reflections can
really make your levels appear when
building your environments in ue4 the
shooter game is actually a miniature but
full-featured first-person shooter that
you can open up and run around and play
inside of the engine or you can launch
it separately as its own game complete
with Bots and weapons that you can use
so definitely check this one out now it
has a couple of different levels there's
a simple one and there's of course the
much more elegant high-rise map so so
definitely make sure you play through
this and see how it works the strategy
game is a simple tower defense game with
a single level that you can open up and
as soon as you start playing the game uh
you can see little enemies starting to
come down the path after you you can
click on little pieces of gold and then
set up Towers to try to defend your base
definitely a really cool example to open
up and dig through if you want to see
how to go about creating this type of
game on your own swing ninja is a game
that is kind of mobile Centric so very
sty ized environment where you can run
around and swing between Ledges and
collect coins in a very kind of
simplified and stylized
environment tappy chicken is our take on
a game that you might have actually seen
before uh so this is a game that was
created entirely with our blueprint
visual scripting system so be sure you
take at least a few moments not only to
play it because it is kind of fun but to
open up the blueprint that powers it and
kind of dig through it and see how it
works
now remember the marketplace is going to
receive a variety of updates not just
from epic games but as things continue
to expand you'll start to be able to see
content from other users even your own
content if you'd like to put it up here
so that you can start grabbing different
assets bring them into your games or see
how different things might work so
definitely keep an eye on the
marketplace for new releases as you
continue to use Unreal Engine 4
your Unreal Engine subscription is super
easy to manage on unrealengine.com and
of course you can cancel whenever you
need to and keep anything you've
downloaded up to that point but keep in
mind that while you're subscribed you
get access to new versions of the engine
along with any engine updates that we
release along the way you'll get full
access to the source code on GitHub of
course any new Marketplace content for
future versions of the engine so there
are a lot of ways that we are working
hard to help you succeed and maintaining
that subscription really helps keep you
on the bleeding edge with where Unreal
Engine 4 continues as it grows and
develops and keep in mind that we've got
a lot of resources to help you learn
more about the engine we have the forums
which are available at forums.
unrealengine.com we have the answerhub
which of course you can get to at
answers. unrealengine.com which is a
great place to ask questions for
anything you're having a hard time with
and folks from epic and folks from
around the community can jump in and
provide the answers that you need we
also have the Unreal Engine YouTube
channel with a lot of training videos be
sure to check out the playlist link here
and get a nice breakdown of all of the
different offerings that we have I
highly recommend you check out the
unreal editor t uh tutorials so the ue4
editor tutorials playlist which you can
open up and start going through a
rundown of the user interface how to
navigate the viewports and those
critical first few tasks that you need
when you first start using the Unreal
Engine and then finally we have the Epic
Wiki which has a variety of tutorials uh
various writeups on the showcases and uh
sample content that we're releasing and
you actually have the power to edit this
yourself if you want to contribute to
the community and add your own voice
into the global Unreal Engine forward
discussion so that's it that's a quick
rundown of some of the things that you
need to know thanks for watching and now
let's go make something unreal