Unreal Engine from Zero to Proficiency (Foundations): Unreal Engine from Zero to Proficiency, #1

By Patrick Felicia

Get started with Unreal Engine and game programming fast without the headaches

Unreal Engine is a great software to create video games; however, it includes so many options and features that getting started can feel overwhelming.
Without my book, most people spend too long trying to learn how to use Unreal Engine the hard way. This book is the only one that will get you to learn Unreal Engine fast without wasting so much time. This book is the first book in the series "Unreal Engine from Zero to Proficiency" where you will learn to code fast and be able to create your own video games with Unreal Engine in no time.

 

What you will learn
After completing this book, you will be able to:

• Know and master the features that you need to create 3D environments for your games.
• Quickly create (and navigate through) realistic 3D indoors and outdoors environments.
• Create a 3D Maze with lights, walls, and textures.
• Use Unreal Engine's built-in editor to create a house.
• Create an island with trees, sandy beaches, mountains, and water.
• Include and control a car.
• Export your games.

Who this book is for
This book is for:

• Hobbyists who need a book that gets them started with Unreal Engine and game development easily.
• Parents looking for a book that introduces their children to game programming painlessly.
• Teachers looking for a complete and clear resource on programming through the creation of games.
• Aspiring indie game developers.

How this book is different
This is the only book that you need to get started with Unreal Engine fast and enjoy the journey without frustration. This book includes six chapters that painlessly guide you through the necessary skills to master Unreal Engine's interface, use its core features, and create and navigate through realistic 3D environments. It assumes no prior knowledge on your part and ensures that you have all the information and explanations that you need every step of the way.

 

What this book offers
This book includes all the features that you need to get started with Unreal Engine and game development:

• Learn without the headaches: This book assumes that you can't be expected to learn everything at once; this is why you will build all your skills incrementally.
• Make your dream of creating your own games come true: This book ensures that you stay motivated by giving you the right amount of information and challenge in each chapter; we all know that it's hard to keep motivated when learning a new skill, so this book always contextualizes the knowledge with an example (so that you feel it's relevant), and also makes sure that you get to challenge yourself, if you need to, with optional challenges present at the end of each chapter.
• Progress and feel confident in your skills: You will have the opportunity to learn and use Unreal Engine at your own pace and to become comfortable with its interface. This is because every single new concept introduced will be explained in great detail so that you never feel lost. All the concepts are introduced progressively so that you don't feel overwhelmed.
• Create your own games and feel awesome: With this book, you will build your own 3D environments and you will spend more time creating than reading, to ensure that you can apply the concepts covered in each section. All chapters include step-by-step instructions with examples that you can use straight away.

If you want to get started with Unreal Engine today, then buy this book now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrick Felicia
• Release date: Apr 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201526153

Patrick Felicia

Patrick Felicia is a lecturer and researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He obtained his MSc in Multimedia Technology in 2003 and PhD in Computer Science in 2009 from University College Cork, Ireland. He has published several books and articles on the use of video games for educational purposes, including the Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches (published by IGI), and Digital Games in Schools: a Handbook for Teachers, published by European Schoolnet. Patrick is also the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), and the Conference Director of the Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning, a popular conference on games and learning organized throughout Ireland.

Book preview

Unreal Engine From Zero To Proficiency  (Foundations)

First Edition

––––––––

A step-by-step guide to creating your first 3D game environments.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Unreal Engine from Zero to Proficiency (Foundations)

Chapter 1: The Benefits of Using Unreal Engine

Chapter 2: Installing Unreal Engine and Becoming Familiar with the Interface

Chapter 3: Creating and Exporting your First Scene

Chapter 4: Transforming Built-in Objects to Create an Indoor Scene

Chapter 5: Creating an Outdoor Scene with Unreal Engine’s Built-in Terrain Generator

Chapter 6: Creating a house with the built-in editor

Chapter 7: Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 8: Thank you

Also By Patrick Felicia

About the Author

Patrick Felicia

Unreal Engine From Zero to Proficiency

(Foundations)

Copyright © 2022 Patrick Felicia

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher (Patrick Felicia), except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either expressed or implied. Neither the author nor its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

First published: April 2022.

Published by Patrick Felicia

Credits

Author: Patrick Felicia

About the Author

Patrick Felicia is a lecturer and researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He obtained his MSc in Multimedia Technology in 2003 and Ph.D in Computer Science in 2009 from University College Cork, Ireland. He has published several books and articles on the use of video games for educational purposes, including the Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches (published by IGI), and Digital Games in Schools: a Handbook for Teachers, published by European Schoolnet. Patrick is also the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), and the Conference Director of the Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning, a popular conference on games and learning organized throughout Ireland.

Support and Resources for this Book

To complete the activities presented in this book you need to download the startup pack on the companion website (if you are already a subscriber, you just need to enter the member area - http://learntocreategames.com/member-area/); it consists of free resources that you will need to complete your projects. To download these resources, please do the following:

Open the page http://www.learntocreategames.com/books.

Click on your book (Unreal Engine From Zero to Proficiency (Foundations))

Graphical user interface, application, website Description automatically generated

On the new page, please click the link that says "Please Here Click to Download Your Resource Pack".

Graphical user interface, text, application, email Description automatically generated

This book is dedicated to Mathis

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Benefits of Using Unreal Engine

What is a game engine and should you use one?

Advantages of using Unreal Engine

Level roundup

Chapter 2: Installing Unreal Engine and Becoming Familiar with the Interface

Downloading the Epic Game Launcher

Understanding and becoming familiar with the interface

The main 3D viewport

Discovering and navigating through the scene

The world outliner

The content browser

The Details tab

The modes panel

Level roundup

Chapter 3: Creating and Exporting your First Scene

Creating a new project and a new scene

Adding and combining simple built-in objects to your scene

Adding colors and textures

Creating a simple staircase

Saving the scene

Exporting our scene

Level roundup

Chapter 4: Transforming Built-in Objects to Create an Indoor Scene

The plan

Creating a level and importing necessary assets

Changing the texture of the ground (removing the image template)

Adding a ceiling to the maze

Adding light to the scene

Level roundup

Chapter 5: Creating an Outdoor Scene with Unreal Engine’s Built-in Terrain Generator

The plan

The island outline

Importing necessary assets

Creating the outline of the island

Adding water

Painting the island with realistic textures

Adding a lake and a mountain

Adding rocks for more realism

Adding a car to the 3D environment

Level roundup

Chapter 6: Creating a house with the built-in editor

Creating the ground

Level roundup

Chapter 7: Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 8: Thank you

Preface

This book will show you how you can very quickly get started with Unreal Engine and create 3D environments.

Unreal Engine is a powerful game engine that offers a wide range of features for you to create your video games easily.

This book series entitled Unreal Engine From Zero to Proficiency allows you to play around with Unreal Engine’s core features, and essentially those that will make it possible to create interesting 3D games rapidly.

After reading this book series, you should find it easier to use Unreal Engine and its core functionalities, including programming in C++ and blueprints.

This book series assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and it will get you started with Unreal Engine so that you quickly master all the wonderful features that this software provides by going through an easy learning curve.

By completing each chapter, and by following step-by-step instructions, you will progressively improve your skills, become more proficient in Unreal Engine, and create features that will improve your productivity and gameplay.

Throughout this book series, you will create a game that includes environments where the player needs to find his/her way out of the levels, escalators, traps, and other challenges, avoid or eliminate enemies using weapons (i.e., guns or grenades), and drive a car or pilot an aircraft.

You will learn how to create customized menus and simple user interfaces, and animate and give artificial intelligence to Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that will be able to follow the player character using pathfinding.

Finally, you will also get to export your game at the different stages of the books, so that you can share it with friends and obtain some feedback as well.

Content Covered by this Book

Chapter 1, The Benefits of Using Unreal Engine, provides general information on game engines and explains why you should use such software, and how, by using Unreal Engine more specifically, you can create games seamlessly.

Chapter 2 (Installing Unreal Engine and Becoming Familiar with the Interface), takes you through the very first steps of installing Unreal Engine and becoming familiar with the interface. It will also show you the different shortcuts necessary to navigate through levels and projects in Unreal Engine.

Chapter 3 (Creating and Exporting your First Scene), gets you to create and export your first scene by combining built-in objects. You will learn how to manage objects, apply textures and colors, and transform objects to create a simple scene.

Chapter 4 (Transforming Built-in Objects to Create an Indoor Scene), explains how you can create an indoor scene (i.e., a maze) with built-in shapes. You will also work with and manage lights in your scene to set the atmosphere and navigate through the scene with a Third-Person Controller.

Chapter 5 (Creating an outdoor Scene with Unreal Engine's Built-in Terrain Generator), explains how you can create an outdoor scene with water, hills, sandy beaches, and trees using Unreal Engine’s built-in assets and other free assets. You will also be able to add and control a car.

Chapter 6 (Creating a house with the built-in editor), explains how to create a simple 3D model of a village using ProBuilder, a free component for Unreal Engine.

Chapter (Frequently Asked Questions), explains how you can create a 2D scene for a side-scroller, with an animated character along with 2D sprites.

Chapter 8 summarizes the topics covered in this book and also provides useful information if you would like to progress further with this book series.

What you Need to Use this Book

To complete the project presented in this book, you only need Unreal 4 (or a more recent version) and to also ensure that your computer and its operating system comply with Unreal Engine’s requirements. Unreal Engine can be downloaded from the official website (https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download), and before downloading, you can check that your computer fulfills the