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