Using Data Tables in Unreal Engine 4

So in my quest to learn as much as I can about Unreal Engine to make a game over the summer, I have just completed another tutorial series from Digital Tutors. This time around the tutorial didn't focus much on making blueprints, instead it focused on how to use data tables and C++ code in Unreal Engine.

The screenshot above is of some C++ code to make a function and a data structure that could be used inside Unreal Engine.

The screenshot above is a blue print that uses the code that we made, along with an enumeration to change a display mesh and item information using the data table. This node network would first find what kind of item it should be through the enumeration and then display the correct mesh for the the object in the editor.

This series was much shorted than the last once I took, but I really liked it because it gives me a look at other things that the engine can do. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Unreal Engine Input Action Network

So it took me longer than I wanted, but I am finally finished with the tutorial series I started on Digital Tutors to lean Blue Prints. I still don't fully understand how most of the stuff works, but I did learn how to make a simple maze game.

The tutorial basically walked me through on how to set up picks ups, simple animations, and a few other things that made the maze level work. Here is one of the new networks I made since last time:

The network on top basically checks for when the player left clicks to see if the ray that gets sent out interacted with anything in the world. And if the player has reached the end and interacts with the item at the end, it will reload the level and reset all the picks up.

This tutorial was really fun and I hope to keep working on Unreal Engine and take more tutorials since I really am committed to making my game this summer. It may not be a completely finished game, but it will happen.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Learning Unreal Engine

So I have decided that I will make a game this summer on my own. I really liked working on my Python game for my CS 1410 class, it reminded me that I hadn't actually worked on a game for almost 2 years.

I have decided that I want to make a top down shooter, but in 3d and not in Python. I downloaded Unreal Engine 4 a while ago, but never even opened it since I don't know anything about it. After doing some research, I will be doing my small game in the Unreal Engine. The problem is that I don't know anything about it... That is where Digital Tutors comes in!

I have used Digital Tutors in the past to learn ZBrush, but so this time I will be taking a few of their courses to learn Unreal. The problem is that I am still fairly new to coding, and I don't think I can do C++ yet. Which is why I was so happy when I found out that Unreal can use something called Visual Scripting which is a lot like how Substance Designer works, but it allows you to "code" in your game functions without knowing coding. I haven't looked to much into it, but I'm guessing that you are probably limited on what you can do as opposed to actually coding everything by hand and getting stuff working exactly how you want it.

So I have now started to take Digital Tutors' class in creating Blue Prints in Unreal Engine. Blue Prints is what they are calling their visual scripting feature, and its not that hard to understand. I haven't done too much on it yet, but I have finished the first 6 or 7 lessons and I have started to create a simple dungeon crawler game using Unreal. I have to say that I am really excited to finish this tutorial and maybe taking a few more before I jump in and starting making my game. Here is a screenshot of the node networks I have made so far:

I will continue to work on the tutorial and post something when I'm done. In the meantime, thanks for reading!

Final Project for Python Class

So today we presented our final project for our Python class. Since I was the lead in the group, I had to make sure that our game was as finished as possible. I don't know if I explained what our game was going to be before, so I will do it now:

Our game is called Commando, and essentially its about a soldier that is stuck behind enemy lines and has to survive. Armed with only a gun, he has to kill enemy soldiers and find supplies to survive until he is able to find the extraction point.

The player is the light green soldier and he has to kill the soldiers in dark green. Every time he kills an enemy soldier, the player gets 10 points added to their score. For every crate of supplies the player opens, the player gets a bonus 5 points.

The extraction point is a helicopter that you are able to boar as soon as you find it. Or if you want to get a higher score, you can explore and kill more enemies and collect more crates.

I would put the code on this entry, but there is just too much of it to just paste in the blog entry. So if anyone is actually curious and wants to see the code, you can do so in GitHub right here.

Anyways, I'm going to sleep now. Thanks for reading!