Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5: Unleash the true power of Blueprints to create impressive games and applications in UE5, 3rd Edition

by Brenden Sewell, Marcos Romero

Length: 566 pages
Edition: 3
Language: English
Publisher: Packt Publishing
Publication Date: 2022-05-02
ISBN-10: 180181158X
ISBN-13: 9781801811583
Sales Rank: #260229 (See Top 100 Books)

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Print Book Look Inside

Explore the faster way to build games using UE5 Blueprints using this practical guide with key images printed in color

Key Features

Design a fully functional game in UE5 without writing a single line of code
Implement visual scripting to develop gameplay mechanics, UI, visual effects, VR, and artificial intelligence
Deploy your game on multiple platforms and share it with the world

Book Description

Unreal Engine’s Blueprint visual scripting system enables designers to script their games and programmers to create base elements that can be extended by designers. With this book, you’ll explore all the features of the Blueprint Editor, along with expert tips, shortcuts, and best practices.

The book guides you through using variables, macros, and functions, and helps you learn about object-oriented programming (OOP). You’ll discover the Gameplay Framework and advance to learning how Blueprint Communication allows one Blueprint to access information from another Blueprint. Later chapters focus on building a fully functional game step by step. You’ll start with a basic first-person shooter (FPS) template, and each chapter will build on the prototype to create an increasingly complex and robust game experience. You’ll then progress from creating basic shooting mechanics to more complex systems such as user interface elements and intelligent enemy behavior. The book demonstrates how to use arrays, maps, enums, and vector operations and introduces the elements needed for VR game development. In the final chapters, you’ll learn how to implement procedural generation and create a product configurator.

By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to build a fully functional game and have the skills required to develop an entertaining experience for your audience.

What you will learn

Understand programming concepts in Blueprints
Create prototypes and iterate new game mechanics rapidly
Build user interface elements and interactive menus
Use advanced Blueprint nodes to manage the complexity of a game
Explore all the features of the Blueprint editor, such as the Components tab, Viewport, and Event Graph
Get to grips with OOP concepts and explore the Gameplay Framework
Work with virtual reality development in UE Blueprint
Implement procedural generation and create a product configurator

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone interested in developing games or applications with UE5. Although basic knowledge of Windows OS is required, experience in programming or UE5 is not necessary.

Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5
Third Edition
Contributors
About the authors
About the reviewer
Preface
    Who this book is for
    What this book covers
    To get the most out of this book
    Download the example code files
    Download the color images
    Conventions used
    Get in touch
    Share Your Thoughts
Part 1: Blueprint Fundamentals
Chapter 1: Exploring the Blueprint Editor
    Installing Unreal Engine 
    Creating new projects and using templates
    Blueprints Visual Scripting
        Opening the Level Blueprint Editor
        Creating a Blueprint Class
    The Blueprint Class Editor interface
        The Toolbar panel
        The Components panel
        The My Blueprint panel
        The Details panel
        The Viewport panel
        The Event Graph panel
    Adding Components to a Blueprint
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 2: Programming  with Blueprints
    Storing values in variables
    Defining the behavior of a Blueprint with events and actions
        Events
        Actions
        The execution path
    Creating expressions with operators
        Arithmetic operators
        Relational operators
        Logical operators
    Organizing the script with macros and functions
        Creating macros
        Creating functions
        Step-by-step example
        Macros versus functions versus events
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 3: Object-Oriented Programming and the Gameplay Framework
    Getting familiar with OOP
        Classes
        Instances
        Inheritance
    Managing Actors
        Referencing Actors
        Spawning and destroying Actors
        Construction Script
    Exploring the other Gameplay Framework classes
        Pawn
        Character
        PlayerController
        Game Mode Base
        Game Instance
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 4: Understanding Blueprint Communication
    Direct Blueprint Communication
    Casting in Blueprints
    Level Blueprint Communication
    Event Dispatchers
    Binding Events
    Summary
    Quiz
Part 2: Developing a Game
Chapter 5: Object Interaction with Blueprints
    Creating the project and the first Level
    Adding objects to our Level
    Exploring Materials
        Creating Materials
        Material properties and nodes
        Adding substance to our Material
    Creating the target Blueprint
        Detecting a hit
        Swapping a Material
        Improving the Blueprint
    Adding movement
        Changing the Actor's Mobility and Collision settings
        Breaking down our goal
        Readying direction for calculations
        Getting relative speed using delta time
        Updating location
    Changing direction
        Testing moving targets
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 6: Enhancing Player Abilities
    Adding the running functionality
        Breaking down the character movement
        Customizing control inputs
        Adding a Sprint ability
    Animating a zoomed view
        Using a timeline to smooth transitions
    Increasing the projectile's speed
    Adding sound and particle effects
        Changing target states with branches
        Triggering sound effects, explosions, and destruction
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 7: Creating Screen UI Elements
    Creating simple UI meters with UMG
        Drawing shapes with Widget Blueprints
        Customizing the meter's appearance
        Creating ammo and targets eliminated counters
        Displaying the HUD
    Connecting UI values to player variables
        Creating bindings for health and stamina
        Making text bindings for the ammo and targets eliminated counters
    Tracking the ammo and targets eliminated 
        Reducing the ammo counter
        Increasing the targets eliminated counter
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 8: Creating Constraints and Gameplay Objectives
    Constraining player actions
        Draining and regenerating stamina
        Preventing firing actions when out of ammo
    Creating collectible objects
    Setting a gameplay win condition
        Displaying a target goal in the HUD
        Creating a win menu screen
        Displaying the WinMenu
        Triggering a win
    Summary
    Quiz
Part 3: Enhancing the Game
Chapter 9: Building Smart Enemies with Artificial Intelligence
    Setting up the enemy actor to navigate
        Importing from the Marketplace
        Expanding the play area
        Making the level traversable with a NavMesh asset
        Creating the AI assets
        Setting up the BP_EnemyCharacter Blueprint
    Creating navigation behavior
        Setting up patrol points
        Creating the Blackboard keys
        Creating the variables in BP_EnemyCharacter
        Updating the current patrol point key
        Overlapping a patrol point
        Running the Behavior Tree in the AI Controller
        Teaching our AI to walk with the Behavior Tree
        Selecting the patrol points in the BP_EnemyCharacter instance
    Making the AI chase the player
        Giving the enemy sight with PawnSensing
        Creating a Behavior Tree Task
        Adding conditions to the Behavior Tree
        Creating a chasing behavior
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 10: Upgrading the AI Enemies
    Creating an enemy attack
        Making an attack task
        Using the attack task in the Behavior Tree
        Updating the health meter
    Making enemies hear and investigate sounds
        Adding hearing to the Behavior Tree
        Setting up the investigating tasks
        Creating variables and a macro to update the blackboard
        Interpreting and storing the noise Event data
        Adding noise to the player's actions
    Making the enemies destructible
    Spawning more enemies during gameplay
        Creating the BP_EnemySpawner blueprint 
    Creating enemy wandering behavior
        Identifying a wander point with a custom task
        Adding wandering to the Behavior Tree
        Last adjustments and test
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 11: Game States and Applying the Finishing Touches
    Making danger real with player death
        Setting up a lose screen
        Showing the lose screen
    Creating round-based scaling with saved games
        Storing game information using the SaveGame class
        Saving game information
        Loading game information
        Increasing the TargetGoal
        Creating a transition screen to be shown between rounds
        Transitioning to a new round when the current round is won
    Pausing the game and resetting the save file
        Creating a pause menu
        Resuming the game
        Resetting the save file
        Triggering the pause menu
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 12: Building and Publishing
    Optimizing your graphics settings
    Setting up our game to be played by others
    Packaging the game into a build
    Build configurations and packaging settings
    Summary
    Quiz
Part 4: Advanced Blueprints
Chapter 13: Data Structures and Flow Control
    Exploring different types of containers
        Array
        Set
        Map
    Exploring other data structures
        Enumerations
        Structures
        Data tables
    Flow control nodes
        Switch nodes
        Flip Flop
        Sequence
        For Each Loop
        Do Once
        Do N
        Gate
        MultiGate
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 14: Math and Trace Nodes
    World and relative transforms
    Points and vectors
        Representation of a vector
        Vector operations
    Introduction to traces and trace functions
        Traces for objects
        Traces by channel
        Shape traces
        Debug lines
        Example of vectors and trace nodes
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 15: Blueprints Tips
    Blueprint Editor shortcuts
    Blueprint best practices
        Blueprint responsibilities
        Managing Blueprint complexities
    Using miscellaneous Blueprint nodes
        Select
        Teleport
        Format Text
        Math Expression
        Set View Target with Blend
        AttachActorToComponent
        Enable Input and Disable Input
        The Set Input Mode nodes
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 16: Introduction to VR Development
    Exploring the VR template
    The VRPawn Blueprint
    Teleportation
    Object grabbing
    Blueprint Communication using interfaces
    Interacting with the menu
    Summary
    Quiz 
Part 5: Extra Tools
Chapter 17: Animation Blueprints
    Animation overview
        Animation Editor
        Skeleton and Skeletal Mesh
        Animation Sequence
        Blend Space
    Creating Animation Blueprints
        EventGraph
        AnimGraph
    Exploring State Machines
    Importing the Animation Starter Pack
    Adding Animation States
        Modifying the Character Blueprint
        Modifying the Animation Blueprint
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 18: Creating Blueprint Libraries and Components
    Blueprint Macro and Function libraries
        A Blueprint Function Library example
        Creating the third function and testing
    Creating Actor Components
        Testing the Actor Component
    Creating Scene Components
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 19: Procedural Generation
    Procedural generation with the Construction Script
        Creating the script to add the instances on the level
    Creating Blueprint Splines
        A Spline Mesh component
    Editor Utility Blueprint
        Creating an Actor Action Utility
    Summary
    Quiz
Chapter 20: Creating a Product Configurator Using the Variant Manager 
    The Product Configurator template
    The Variant Manager panel and Variant Sets
    The BP_Configurator Blueprint
    UMG Widget Blueprints
    Summary
    Epilogue
    Quiz
Appendix
    Quiz answers
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