Unreal Engine 4: The Complete Beginner's Course

Unreal Engine 4: The Complete Beginner's Course

by David Nixon
Released June 2018
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789537086

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Video description

What do blockbuster games like Gears of War, Mass Effect, Borderlands, and BioShock have in common? Of course, they are hugely popular with an excellent reception from critics and gamers alike. However, a common aspect of these games, which also is a secret behind their tremendous success, is the cutting-edge Unreal Engine. It is using this engine that you'll begin your game development journey.

You start by learning how to get Unreal Engine 4 up and running and understanding the basic concepts of game development. With the basics mastered, you will learn the skills you need to craft beautiful environments to stage your games in. Later, learning how to script logic for your games will help you define game rules and behaviors, keep track of data such as health and inventory, and create playable characters. Using the UMG Editor, you will learn how to create user interfaces, so you can add menus, load screens, and HUDs to your game. And finally, you will learn how audio works within the Engine so that you can add music, dialogue, and sound effects to your game.

Completing this course will give you the skills necessary to translate your ideas into playable games; games that use environments and logic crafted by you, powered by the cutting-edge Unreal Engine 4.

What You Will Learn

  • Learn how to get Unreal Engine 4 up and running on your system
  • Discover how to craft beautiful environments so that you can stage your games in them
  • Learn how to script logic for your games so that you can define game rules and behaviors
  • Learn how to create a playable character and create inputs to control that character
  • Understand and implement the key concepts of action games: collisions and damage
  • Discover how to use the UMG Editor to create user interfaces
  • Learn how to add menus, load screens, and HUDs to your game using the UMG Editor
  • Learn how to add music, dialogue, and sound effects to your game
  • Learn how to package and export the demo game you create in this course so that it can be played outside the Editor

Audience

This video game development course is for absolute beginners who are interested in making games and learning how to design a game from scratch using UE4. No prior programming experience is needed to learn from this course. Every lecture in this course is compatible with version 4.24 of the Unreal Engine.

System Requirements:

Recommended: Desktop PC with Windows 7 (or later) 64-bit or a Mac with Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later

Recommended: 8 GB RAM

Recommended: Quad-core Intel or AMD processor

Recommended: DirectX 11 compatible video card

Note: Unreal Engine 4 will run on desktops and laptops with specifications below these, but performance may be impacted.

About The Author

David Nixon: David Nixon is a professional software developer with a degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University. He is a lifelong video game aficionado who started with the Atari 2600 and never looked back. He enjoys music, reading, and sports in his spare time.

Table of contents

  1. Chapter 1 : Getting Started
    1. Introduction
    2. Registration and Installation
    3. Projects
    4. Levels
    5. Actors
  2. Chapter 2 : The Level Editor
    1. Level Editor Overview
    2. Place Mode
    3. Viewport I - Navigating Within the Viewport
    4. Viewport II - Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Actors Within the Viewport
    5. Viewport III - Snapping
    6. Viewport IV - Different Ways to View Your Level
    7. Content Browser I - Overview and Finding Content
    8. Content Browser II - Adding, Importing, and Saving
    9. Content Browser III - The View Options Menu
    10. Content Browser IV - Content Browser Windows
    11. Details Panel I - Details Panel Interface
    12. Details Panel II - The Transform Category
    13. World Outliner
  3. Chapter 3 : Actors
    1. Static Meshes
    2. Brushes
    3. Materials
    4. Lights
    5. Atmospheric Fog
    6. Player Start
    7. Components
    8. Volumes
    9. Tutorial 1 - Creating the Sky
    10. Tutorial 2 - Creating the Playing Area
    11. Tutorial 3 - Building the Inner Structures of the Level
  4. Chapter 4 : Blueprints
    1. Introduction to Blueprints
    2. Variables
    3. Arrays
    4. Functions
    5. Flow Control
    6. Accessing Actors within Blueprints
    7. Blueprint Classes
    8. Timelines
    9. Tutorial 4 - Building the Elevator Platform
    10. Tutorial 5 - Creating the Enemies
    11. Tutorial 6 - Creating a Rotating Door
  5. Chapter 5 : Players and Input
    1. Game Modes
    2. Pawns
    3. Characters
    4. Controllers
    5. Input Mapping
    6. Setting Up Basic Character Movement
    7. Tutorial 7 - Creating a Playable Character
  6. Chapter 6 : Collisions
    1. Collisions I - Collisions Overview
    2. Collisions II - Causing Damage Due to Collisions
    3. Collisions III - Projectile Collisions
    4. Tutorial 8 - Adding a Damage System to the Game
    5. Tutorial 9 - Creating the Orb Item
  7. Chapter 7 : User Interfaces
    1. UMG Overview
    2. Root Widget
    3. Canvas Panel
    4. Common Widget Properties
    5. Visual Designer
    6. Text Widget
    7. Button Widget
    8. Border Widget Image Widget
    9. Progress Bar Widget
    10. Check Box Widget
    11. Horizontal Box and Vertical Box
    12. Grid Panel Uniform Grid Panel
    13. Scale Box and Size Box
    14. Tutorial 10 - Creating the HUD
    15. Tutorial 11 - Damage Tint and Collect Item Tint
    16. Tutorial 12 - Restrict Door Opening and Creating a Pause Menu
    17. Tutorial 13 - Game Over and Win Screen Menus
  8. Chapter 8 : Audio
    1. Audio I - Audio Overview and Sound Waves
    2. Audio II - Sound Cues
    3. Audio III - Attenuation
    4. Audio IV - Importing and Converting Audio
    5. Tutorial 14 - Adding Audio to the Game
  9. Chapter 9 : Additional Topics
    1. Downloading Content from the Epic Games Launcher
    2. Importing 3D Objects from the Internet
    3. Packaging
    4. Tutorial 15 - Packaging the Game

Product information

  • Title: Unreal Engine 4: The Complete Beginner's Course
  • Author(s): David Nixon
  • Release date: June 2018
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789537086