Unreal Engine 4 for the development of their abilities
Good day, Habr!
In this article I would like to talk with you about the recently released Unreal Engine 4, which is currently gaining increasing popularity among game developers. And although the article on UE4, but it is not at all about the game, although it is associated with it.
')
I would like to draw your attention to the other side of the Unreal Engine 4, which will undoubtedly be useful to those who are going to choose their own path in life and be trained in development. It's about the educational abilities of this engine.
I would like to divide the article into two main parts: Programming with logic and Design with creativity. But before I say a few words about yourself, what would you understand why this particular engine and what prompted me to this article.
So let's get started.
My name is Alexander and I am now 20 full years old. All life is still ahead and it's time to decide on your future. About three years ago, I began to get involved in 3D modeling and, to this day, in my opinion, I have achieved good results. Since childhood, I loved to play all sorts of computer games and, like many, wanted to do something like that. Therefore, my specialty is mainly focused on real-time modeling.
However, this was not enough for me to create full-fledged games, since I did not know programming languages, although mate. thinking was good. I tried to learn PHP, C ++, Lua, RubyOnRails, JS. But the maximum that was enough for me was Jquery, and he managed to forget a week after the course. All this was pretty disappointing, but I did not give up, continuing in the meantime to improve my abilities in 3-dimensional graphics.
Less than a year ago, UE4 came out and I, as a fan of the Unreal Tournament and the Unreal Engine itself, was very happy. Ran to learn. Here I would like to take you to the following points, which will tell you what UE4 can give, besides the games themselves.
As some know, in the engine you can write game logic in C ++, as well as using a visual programming system - Blueprint. For those who do not know, it looks like this:
Sorting algorithm (insertion method) at the price of items in the inventory
Just about this system I would like to talk with you. We will call it "Bluprint."
Blueprints are a visual scripting language that allows you to write game logic without the use of programming languages. No matter how complex or simple it may seem, it remains quite a powerful tool on which you can create almost anything, from a simple character or opening a door to procedural level generation.
When I first saw it, I was very glad that I was able to repeat the attempt to learn programming on this system. And indeed everything went much better than with textual languages. I started with simple things. Variables, simple functions, that where to connect and stuff like that. Then (it was the summer of the 14th year), I still didn’t understand very well how to organize work properly, how to build algorithms correctly and optimized. But gradually I began to learn in this system.
After some time I began to make simple toys. Began to understand the classes, in communications between individual objects, the world and global classes. It was then that I noticed that I was becoming a real programmer - after compiling the Blueprints and starting with the check, everything worked as it should. There was a lot of happiness.
After some time, I began to delve into more complex things and understand that I can write everything better and more optimized. Thus, I rewrote my inventory system (part of which is in the screenshot) at least three times in order to achieve the best work. And now I continue to improve, as the system is freely available. At the moment, Bluprint understood very well and can do almost anything (within reasonable limits, of course).
As a result, this system taught me not only to work with it, but also very well made it clear that you need to build the logic correctly, optimized and deliberately, and how to do it. I also very well developed the logic in the field of building algorithms.
Thus, novice igrodels, programmers, or simply people who are interested in doing something of their own, can easily learn not only how to work with Blueprints, but also learn many new things, not to mention the development of logic.
Let's take a look at another example - Materials:
Here the work is done in the same way, but there are no logical sequences, only mathematics.
With the help of mathematical operators and textures, you build the material that will later be superimposed on an object in your scene. From the very beginning, it may not be clear, and why this is all needed at all, however, oddly enough, this system turns out to be very useful for creating the necessary or even generated materials.
Let's take a simple example: a material can have color and smoothness; You have a texture, which depicts the various made your subject, and it is all beautiful and pleasing to the eye. But putting a simple texture on the model, you understand that something is missing here. For sure! This part should be smooth and reflect the world around, but this one should be done opposite matte without any reflections. Here you can use mathematics to generate a black and white map from your texture, where white means the matte part, and black means smooth.
After studying the materials and the principle of their work, you can achieve good success in algebra. And not only in it, but again in the logic itself, since all the formulas need to be invented by oneself.
Here is an example of the material that generates color, metal made, smoothness in the right places and even relief. All this from one texture:
Of course, the texture is not ordinary, but special, but the point is that after studying the system and a little experience, you will learn how to build the most incredible things.
Summing up a part of logic and programming, I would like to say that with the help of even these two tools, any person can develop logical thinking and sooner or later learn how to build such systems, about whose work he did not have the slightest idea. Well, even to write his own game is not difficult for him, and with this experience you can safely go to learn more powerful programming languages, or at least have an idea about the future in this field.
Have you ever wanted to build your house, walk around in it? Make your movie? Or just create a beautiful or dark scene that would throw out the accumulated emotions? If so, then Unreal Engine 4 can also help you with something.
Here are some impressive clips that demonstrate graphic capabilities:
As well as in the field of architecture visualization:
Of course, this was not without beautiful 3D models, animation and everything else. However, I wanted to notice the feature of graphics that this engine can produce in real time.
The Unreal Engine 4 itself provides some set, thanks to which you can create something of your own, without resorting to third-party software (not counting textures). I do not want to go into details that you yourself can study if you are interested, but still worth mentioning.
Inside the editor there is a tool called BSP, thanks to which you can design a scene. Although the tool is intended for design, not for the final result, but with the help of it you can make a simple model and even convert it so that it can be subjected to physics. You can make a house, a fence and the like. Anything for which there is enough patience, as the tool is not the most convenient to use yet.
It also provides tools for creating landscapes, with the help of which it is possible to make a rather beautiful landscape and populate it with the very same models, as well as with vegetation and some additional details. Adding a little post processing, which, by the way, is not so difficult to work with, you can get a wonderful picture of the natural scene. It already depends on your imagination.
For those familiar with 3D modeling, there will be even more features in UE4. Simplicity in importing (through the FBX format), ease of installation, overlaying materials, and creating them is also not so difficult, if you look at it, working with light, baking, and much more.
I myself also create 3D models and noticed that all the time I want to check how the model will look inside the engine. And, I confess, the quality is not inferior to modern renders.
The user The_Distiller from the official forum
Of course, it is worth considering that rendering takes place in real time, and not everything is always as realistic as it could be, but the advantage here is that you can freely move the camera to view from any angle.
Of course, here you can come up with many more benefits. For example, visualization of the architecture in real time on the example of video, which was higher. Removal of beautiful 3D clips without hours of rendering. There is even support for VR glasses, so you can make a virtual tour. And imagine if this tour will be on that realistic apartment? In short, for creative people here, too, there is a place.
Despite the fact that the Unreal Engine 4 is the engine for creating computer games, it can be used for a variety of purposes. In this article I wanted to expose him from the side of education and as a personal assistant in the development of my mental abilities. I do not want to judge my text, but I tried to paint as clearly as possible for people of any age and profession and, I hope, in the future, the engine will help very many, including the younger generation.
Of course, you should not consider UE4 as a set of “make everything good” buttons. The tool is very powerful with impressive functionality, so to study everything at once, too, will not work. However, if you manage to put yourself an incentive and have enough patience, then everything will work out for you!
I myself have been studying UE4 for no more than 7 months and have succeeded in many areas within the editor, even opened my own community. However, many more things have not been studied, so in the future there may be additional articles from me. If this article you like, of course.
In this article I would like to talk with you about the recently released Unreal Engine 4, which is currently gaining increasing popularity among game developers. And although the article on UE4, but it is not at all about the game, although it is associated with it.
')
I would like to draw your attention to the other side of the Unreal Engine 4, which will undoubtedly be useful to those who are going to choose their own path in life and be trained in development. It's about the educational abilities of this engine.
I would like to divide the article into two main parts: Programming with logic and Design with creativity. But before I say a few words about yourself, what would you understand why this particular engine and what prompted me to this article.
So let's get started.
About myself
My name is Alexander and I am now 20 full years old. All life is still ahead and it's time to decide on your future. About three years ago, I began to get involved in 3D modeling and, to this day, in my opinion, I have achieved good results. Since childhood, I loved to play all sorts of computer games and, like many, wanted to do something like that. Therefore, my specialty is mainly focused on real-time modeling.
However, this was not enough for me to create full-fledged games, since I did not know programming languages, although mate. thinking was good. I tried to learn PHP, C ++, Lua, RubyOnRails, JS. But the maximum that was enough for me was Jquery, and he managed to forget a week after the course. All this was pretty disappointing, but I did not give up, continuing in the meantime to improve my abilities in 3-dimensional graphics.
Less than a year ago, UE4 came out and I, as a fan of the Unreal Tournament and the Unreal Engine itself, was very happy. Ran to learn. Here I would like to take you to the following points, which will tell you what UE4 can give, besides the games themselves.
Programming and Logic
As some know, in the engine you can write game logic in C ++, as well as using a visual programming system - Blueprint. For those who do not know, it looks like this:
Sorting algorithm (insertion method) at the price of items in the inventory
Just about this system I would like to talk with you. We will call it "Bluprint."
Blueprints are a visual scripting language that allows you to write game logic without the use of programming languages. No matter how complex or simple it may seem, it remains quite a powerful tool on which you can create almost anything, from a simple character or opening a door to procedural level generation.
When I first saw it, I was very glad that I was able to repeat the attempt to learn programming on this system. And indeed everything went much better than with textual languages. I started with simple things. Variables, simple functions, that where to connect and stuff like that. Then (it was the summer of the 14th year), I still didn’t understand very well how to organize work properly, how to build algorithms correctly and optimized. But gradually I began to learn in this system.
After some time I began to make simple toys. Began to understand the classes, in communications between individual objects, the world and global classes. It was then that I noticed that I was becoming a real programmer - after compiling the Blueprints and starting with the check, everything worked as it should. There was a lot of happiness.
After some time, I began to delve into more complex things and understand that I can write everything better and more optimized. Thus, I rewrote my inventory system (part of which is in the screenshot) at least three times in order to achieve the best work. And now I continue to improve, as the system is freely available. At the moment, Bluprint understood very well and can do almost anything (within reasonable limits, of course).
As a result, this system taught me not only to work with it, but also very well made it clear that you need to build the logic correctly, optimized and deliberately, and how to do it. I also very well developed the logic in the field of building algorithms.
Thus, novice igrodels, programmers, or simply people who are interested in doing something of their own, can easily learn not only how to work with Blueprints, but also learn many new things, not to mention the development of logic.
Let's take a look at another example - Materials:
Here the work is done in the same way, but there are no logical sequences, only mathematics.
With the help of mathematical operators and textures, you build the material that will later be superimposed on an object in your scene. From the very beginning, it may not be clear, and why this is all needed at all, however, oddly enough, this system turns out to be very useful for creating the necessary or even generated materials.
Let's take a simple example: a material can have color and smoothness; You have a texture, which depicts the various made your subject, and it is all beautiful and pleasing to the eye. But putting a simple texture on the model, you understand that something is missing here. For sure! This part should be smooth and reflect the world around, but this one should be done opposite matte without any reflections. Here you can use mathematics to generate a black and white map from your texture, where white means the matte part, and black means smooth.
After studying the materials and the principle of their work, you can achieve good success in algebra. And not only in it, but again in the logic itself, since all the formulas need to be invented by oneself.
Here is an example of the material that generates color, metal made, smoothness in the right places and even relief. All this from one texture:
Of course, the texture is not ordinary, but special, but the point is that after studying the system and a little experience, you will learn how to build the most incredible things.
Summing up a part of logic and programming, I would like to say that with the help of even these two tools, any person can develop logical thinking and sooner or later learn how to build such systems, about whose work he did not have the slightest idea. Well, even to write his own game is not difficult for him, and with this experience you can safely go to learn more powerful programming languages, or at least have an idea about the future in this field.
Design and creativity
Have you ever wanted to build your house, walk around in it? Make your movie? Or just create a beautiful or dark scene that would throw out the accumulated emotions? If so, then Unreal Engine 4 can also help you with something.
Here are some impressive clips that demonstrate graphic capabilities:
As well as in the field of architecture visualization:
Of course, this was not without beautiful 3D models, animation and everything else. However, I wanted to notice the feature of graphics that this engine can produce in real time.
The Unreal Engine 4 itself provides some set, thanks to which you can create something of your own, without resorting to third-party software (not counting textures). I do not want to go into details that you yourself can study if you are interested, but still worth mentioning.
Inside the editor there is a tool called BSP, thanks to which you can design a scene. Although the tool is intended for design, not for the final result, but with the help of it you can make a simple model and even convert it so that it can be subjected to physics. You can make a house, a fence and the like. Anything for which there is enough patience, as the tool is not the most convenient to use yet.
It also provides tools for creating landscapes, with the help of which it is possible to make a rather beautiful landscape and populate it with the very same models, as well as with vegetation and some additional details. Adding a little post processing, which, by the way, is not so difficult to work with, you can get a wonderful picture of the natural scene. It already depends on your imagination.
For those familiar with 3D modeling, there will be even more features in UE4. Simplicity in importing (through the FBX format), ease of installation, overlaying materials, and creating them is also not so difficult, if you look at it, working with light, baking, and much more.
I myself also create 3D models and noticed that all the time I want to check how the model will look inside the engine. And, I confess, the quality is not inferior to modern renders.
The user The_Distiller from the official forum
Of course, it is worth considering that rendering takes place in real time, and not everything is always as realistic as it could be, but the advantage here is that you can freely move the camera to view from any angle.
Of course, here you can come up with many more benefits. For example, visualization of the architecture in real time on the example of video, which was higher. Removal of beautiful 3D clips without hours of rendering. There is even support for VR glasses, so you can make a virtual tour. And imagine if this tour will be on that realistic apartment? In short, for creative people here, too, there is a place.
Summing up
Despite the fact that the Unreal Engine 4 is the engine for creating computer games, it can be used for a variety of purposes. In this article I wanted to expose him from the side of education and as a personal assistant in the development of my mental abilities. I do not want to judge my text, but I tried to paint as clearly as possible for people of any age and profession and, I hope, in the future, the engine will help very many, including the younger generation.
Of course, you should not consider UE4 as a set of “make everything good” buttons. The tool is very powerful with impressive functionality, so to study everything at once, too, will not work. However, if you manage to put yourself an incentive and have enough patience, then everything will work out for you!
I myself have been studying UE4 for no more than 7 months and have succeeded in many areas within the editor, even opened my own community. However, many more things have not been studied, so in the future there may be additional articles from me. If this article you like, of course.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/249965/
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