Starting Point



Introduction

This is a blog post documenting the development of an FPS game made within the Unreal Engine 4 engine. This is the starting point where I mainly state the general impressions I have had with the engine so far and comparing it to Unity.

First Impressions

Unreal Engine 4 is an interesting engine to use just coming off getting used to the Unity engine with the fact that there is options for the user to have an easier time coding their game via blueprints or actually just code their game using C++.

I have actually used Unreal Engine 4 a few years back before now but only messing around with templates. The first impressions I have are from messing around with the engine more in depth than I have before.

Image of the interface using the FPS template


My first impressions on using the engine is mainly surprising because of the fact that the engine already gives you a lot of stuff to work with outside of coding and with the options of using blueprints or C++ makes it seem a bit more accessible to people depending on how much knowledge they have in coding. The templates the engine gives you as well can also be a good starting point on making a certain type of game since there is many template options to choose from for many game genres.

Image of the Blueprint interface in UE4


Comparison to Unity

Comparing this engine to the other engine I have experience with Unity it has some small similarities but at the same time there is a difference between the two engines. The similarities between the engines are the fact you have access to a lot of simple basic shapes you can edit heavily with Unreal Engine 4 allowing you to further edit the mesh of shapes to be something completely different.

The other difference is the UI is very different from each other with Unreal Engine allowing easy access to different types of shapes, cameras and lighting. It also allows you to switch the modes to edit geometry, make landscapes/place foliage and finally paint. You also have access to the browser to have access to all your made assets along with easy access to features like building the game, testing the level and even being able to open blueprints easily.

Image of the Unity Interface

The Unity UI is more simple with all the shapes and lighting being put into the toolbar but with easy access to all your prefabs and assets in the asset bar along with the inspector allowing easy access to change some values.


Next blog post will be about the introduction of the game idea and further UE4 learning



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