Unreal Engine 4.19 - Learning the Basics (Tutorial)

Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial for Beginners | Free UE4 Training
(Version contains every episode of his series in one video: 4 hr 26)

Following this tutorial, I am going to learn the basics of Unreal Engine. Once I have completed the series I expect that the engine will feel more familiar to me, with a range of basic skills to begin progressing my knowledge further and developing my own project(s). 

Navigation

The first key element I think is worth noting is the navigation within the viewport. The reason being that I will be spending a great deal of time in here, and getting to grips with the 3D navigation to view my game world from all angles is going to be essential. 

The red square indicates the viewport

The Episode 4 of the tutorial for beginners is dedicated to the navigation in the viewport. Below is an image displaying what the basic controls for navigation are.

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With the combination of mouse-clicks and keyboard, we can achieve further navigation options. With the below controls combined, we are able to move: forward, backward and side to side.

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There are a few combinations using the Alt key that are very useful, especially when working in a specific area within your game. For these to work, it requires an object in the viewport to be selected.

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This will allow us to orbit around the selected object in the viewport. While working in a specific area within a game, this will be extremely useful for getting a view on all angles.

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Using the scrolling with alt allows us to travel up and down, and side to side. In a game where we may have tall buildings, this type of tool will come in great use.

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Right-click and alt results in zooming in and out. Particularly useful for working on smaller, and detailed pieces in a game. 

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One last trick that was mentioned in this part of the tutorial I found to be extremely useful is the "F" key, whilst selected on an object in the viewpoint. By using this, we can focus the viewpoint on the selected area, setting us up in a perfect position to begin working.

 

Unreal Engine: Introduction and First Impressions

Over the past year of using Unity, it seems to have a huge reputation for being user-friendly, and has a wide target audience - especially beginners and hobbyists. During this time I have never used Unreal, and built up an expectation of it to be a complex game engine designed for the experienced, with little to no support. - unlike Unity.

The first options displayed when I opened Unreal. I selected 'First Person', which provided me with the base of a first-person shooter game.

Once I had loaded Unreal, in the first few seconds it seemed daunting due to all the alien tools and visuals, which can be expected with anything as large and complex as a game engine. 

Before I had time to build up any worries, I was prompted with an invitation to a tutorial. Unreal provided me with a step-by-step walk-through tutorial of the basics, which was very visually pleasing and simple to understand, with no prior knowledge required.

Furthermore, there seems to be a huge amount of help and support available, which is accessible through the help tab at the top of Unreal.

Immediately, I was able to start creating textured pillars and staircases. With little or no knowledge, anybody has the ability to start creating a building block for their game. As a beginner, I find this to be more friendly and enticing to explore what other possibilities there are with the Unreal engine -leading to further progression, especially for beginners.

With Unity, I did not find it very daunting at first glance. Mainly due to not being surprised with the vast amounts of tools and complex interface. However, it looks particularly dull and I immediately find myself asking the question 'Where do I begin?'

There was no immediate tutorial to introduce me to Unity, nor is there via the help menu. Whilst there is plenty of content available online for Unity, I feel like you have to hunt for what you are looking for.

Unreal provided me with a template for the type of game I wanted instantly, whilst Unity has not provided any type of building block. Creating the same game objects I did in Unreal with the textures seems to be much more complex in Unity. For someone with experience it probably is not an issue because they may be using their own textures and such, but for someone less experienced I find it to be a huge appeal to have the ability to jump in and build your world, then focus on the details later on.

In the help menu, there are several applicable options for beginners amongst the other options. Personally, I don't find them particularly clear or obvious as Unreal. They also seem to be external sources rather than built into the engine itself.

Overall, I find Unreal extremely superior visually. As someone with my level of experience, I feel far more welcome and excited to delve into the Unreal Engine oppose to Unity. I have never used Blueprint or C++ language, whereas C# I have, this is one of the personal appeals of using Unity. Despite this, I look forward to exploring Unreal further.