Unreal engine game development cookbook : over 40 recipes to accelerate the process of learning game design and solving development problems using Unreal Engine / John P. Doran.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doran, John P., author.

Series:

Quick answers to common problems.

Quick answers to common problems

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games--Programming.

Video games.

UnrealScript (Computer program language).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (326 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham : Packt Publishing, 2015.

Summary:

Over 40 recipes to accelerate the process of learning game design and solving development problems using Unreal Engine About This Book Explore the quickest way to tackle common challenges faced in Unreal Engine Create your own content, levels, light scenes, and materials, and work with Blueprints and C++ scripting An intermediate, fast-paced Unreal Engine guide with targeted recipes to design games within its framework Who This Book Is For This book is for those who are relatively experienced with Unreal Engine 4 and have knowledge of its fundamentals. Working knowledge of C++ is required. What You Will Learn Discover editor functionalities for an in-depth insight into game design Develop environments using terrain for outdoor areas and a workflow for interiors as well using brushes Design various kinds of materials with unique features, such as mirrors and glows Explore the various ways that lighting can be used in the engine Build various level effects using Blueprints, Unreal's visual scripting system Set up a development environment and develop custom functionality with C++ for your games Create healthbars and main menus with animations using Slate, Unreal's UI solution, through the UMG Editor Package and create an installer to get your project out into the world In Detail Unreal Engine is powerful tool with rich functionalities to create games. It equips you with the skills to easily build mobile and desktop games from scratch without worrying about which platform they will run on. You can focus on the individual complexities of game development such as animation and rendering. This book takes you on a journey to jumpstart your game design efforts. You will learn various aspects of the Unreal engine commonly encountered with practical examples of how it can be used, with numerous references for further study. You will start by getting acquainted with Unreal Engine 4 and building out levels for your game. This will be followed by recipes to help you create environments, place meshes, and implement your characters. You will then learn to work with lights, camera, and shadows to include special effects in your game. Moving on, you'll learn Blueprint scripting and C++ programming to enable you to achieve trigger effects and add simple functionalities. By the end of the book, you will see how to create a healthbar and main menu, and then get your game ready to be deployed and published. Style and approach This book offers detailed, easy-to-follow recipes that will help you master a wide range of Unreal Engine 4's features. Every recipe provides step-by-step instructions, with explanations of how these features work, and alternative approaches and research materials so you can learn even more.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the UE4 Interface

Introduction

Installing UE4 and folder structure

UI overview

Navigating the viewport

The Content Browser overview

Importing your own content

Chapter 2: Level Design - Building Out Levels or Greyboxing

Building a room

Building out a level

Applying materials to geometry brushes

Converting brushes to static meshes or volumes

Chapter 3: Creating Quality Interior Environments

Placing static meshes

Placing a particle system

Using Groups

Meshing an example map

Adding life to static meshes

Chapter 4: Building the Great Outdoors - Exterior Environments

Creating a landscape

Building an exterior level using the Sculpt mode

Creating rivers with the Flatten tool

Placing trees and rocks using the Foliage tool

Streaming levels

Chapter 5: Lights, Camera, Action - Cinematics

An introduction to Matinee

Creating an opening cutscene

Playing a Matinee via Blueprints

Preventing a player from moving via cinematic mode

Chapter 6: Lighting and Shadows

Lighting overview - learning the types of lights

Adding moveable lights - flashlight part 1

Creating a Day/Night cycle

Chapter 7: Art Pipeline - Working with Materials

Creating a custom material

Creating a mirror material

Using Textures and normal maps with Materials

Creating glowing materials with static emissive lighting

Seeing through walls

Chapter 8: Blueprint Scripting - Level Effects

Building a flickering light

Converting from Level to Class Blueprints

Using Trigger Volumes - opening a door using Matinee.

Adding to an existing Blueprint - flashlight part 2

Creating a Health/Damage system, part 1 - taking damage

Chapter 9: C++ Programming - Gameplay

Setting up your development environment

Displaying text during runtime

Networking 101 - creating collectables with networking

Save or load games and keyboard input with C++

Creating custom blueprint nodes

Chapter 10: User Interface

Create a Health/Damage System, part 2 - Creating a healthbar

Dynamic enemy healthbars

Creating a main menu

Animating a menu

Chapter 11: Publishing and Deployment

Packaging your project

Creating an installer for Windows

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed January 4, 2016).

ISBN:

9781784395971

1784395978