Game Development Intro to Unreal Engine Yingcai Xiao

Unreral Game Engine Engine (https://www.unrealengine.com) Open Source (complete source code) IDE (Blueprint, C++) Documentation Tutorials Examples Discussion Forums Educational Use (free)

Installation Register an account https://www.unrealengine.com/register Download the dashboard (1GB) https://www.unrealengine.com/dashboard Start the Dashboard, then go to Library, +Add Engine, Subscribe Download the engine (3GB) Dashboard, Library, Engines, Download. (Can be downloaded on multiple computers with one account.)

Basic Game Engine Components Rendering Collision detection AI Visibility Networking Scripting File system management

Supporting rendering/graphics engines Microsoft DirectX for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Windows RT OpenGL for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, iOS, Android, and Windows XP JavaScript/WebGL for HTML5 Web browsers

UE4 Shaders/GPU Android Blueprint visual scripting Tim Sweeney, Epic Games, Started in 2003 Released in 2014 Shaders/GPU Android Blueprint visual scripting Kismet in UE3 and UnrealScript in UE2/1

Basic interface (Unreal4)

Blue prints Visual scripting Nodes Events Functions Variables

Blue print types Level (each level can have one) Class (game objects) Prefabs Pawns (player charactors) HUD (heads-up display, status bar)

Blueprint Tutorial A third person game FBX (Autodesk 3D model files) https://wiki.unrealengine.com/File:ThirdPerson_FBX.zip Skeletons (animation joints/bones) Have to use the same skeleton or skeletons with the same hierarchy to share animation.

Import FBX (Built-in Unreal4) Create a “Character” directory in the Content Browser Drag HeroTPP from the unzipped FBX.zip to file pan. Import. Double click on the HeroTPP in the file pan. In the skeleton editing mode, select the Mesh tab.

Import Animation Create an “Animation” directory under “Character” directory in the Content Browser Drag all the animation files from the unzipped FBX.zip to the file pan. Select the HeroTPP skeleton in the import dialog. file pan. Import All. Ctrol+S often to save everthing.

Persona Animation editor in UE4 Filter animation files Click on the idle animation file. Persona will start. use skeleton tree to control each part of body

Persona - Mesh Mesh tab gives you more details on the mesh than the Skeleton tab. Mesh allow you to morph (change the shape of) a mesh.

Persona - Animation Click on the animation pane (next to Mesh) You can add notification to trigger a secondary animation. You can add a surve to change a property (variable), say, face color.

Input Edit->Project Setting->Engine->Input Action Mapping: key up/down operations Axis Mapping: continuous operations Axis +, Move Forward + to add key F – Scale 1.0 + to add key B – Scale -1.0 + to add key Up – Scale 1.0 + to add key Down – Scale -1.0 Export to be added into product .ini file.

Material Content Browser->Starer Content->Material Double click on it Go to Material Editor

Material Editor Right click in the material editor pan. Select a desired color. Create another parameter (scalar) and name it metallic. Change its value in “Details” to 0.2 “Save”

Use Materials Go to Content Browser Right click on Character_Parent Create Material Instance Name it Charactor_Inst Double click on it to edit the instance.

Use Material Go to Content Browser double click on HeroTPP Persona will be up. Drag the Character_inst from Content Browser to Mesh Details The color of the character will change after compilation.

Blend Space Construct more complicate animations: blend multiple animations. Graph of variables (e.g. speed, direction) Click on “Animation” folder in the Content Browser In the files pan, righ click Animation->Blend Space 1D Select the HeroTPP skeleton Name it Idle_walk_run

Blend Space In the asset browser of the Persona, selecton idle_walk_run. Change X Axis Paramters: Name: speed Range: 0, 368 Division: 4 Apply

Blend Space Drag the animations from Asset Browser of Persona to blend animations Idle to Speed 0 Walk to the middle Run to Speed 368