Unreal Engine
Installation
- UE5: https://www.unrealengine.com
- ASP.NET Core Runtime 3.1.32
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/3.1 https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-desktop-3.1.32-windows-x64-installer
- Visual Studio 2022: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
- Workloads / Desktop development with C++ (was suggested by Visual Studio when I loaded a UE5 project)
- Workloads / .NET desktop development (was suggested by Visual Studio when I loaded a UE5 project)
- Workloads / Game Development with C++
- don't unselect anything
- Windows 10 SDK (1.0.20*)
- Unreal Engine Test Adapter
- Unreal Engine uproject support
- Individual components / .NET 6.0 Runtime (Long Term Support) (was suggested by Visual Studio when I loaded a UE5 project)
- Individual components / .NET Framework 4.8.1 SDK (or higher)
- Individual components / .NET Framework 4.6.2 targeting pack (was suggested by Visual Studio when I loaded a UE5 project)
- Individual components / MSVC 143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (v14.36-17.6 or newer?) (was suggested by Visual Studio when I loaded a UE5 project)
- After you install VS 2022, look in the VS Installer at the "Update" button. Enabled? Use it.
- Unreal Engine Visual Studio Integration Tool plugin: https://aka.ms/vsituemarketplace
- naming convention checker: ".editorconfig" parallel to your .uproject file.
Content: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/vc-ue-extensions/main/Source/.editorconfig - HLS configuration file: "shadertoolsconfig.json" parallel to your .uproject file.
Content: automatically created, defaults to:
{
"hlsl.preprocessorDefinitions": {
},
" hlsl.additionalIncludeDirectories": [
],
"hlsl.virtualDirectoryMappings": {
}
}
Links
Unreal Engine
Blender
- Export Options (so that the object is not lying on the side after Export/Import):
- Forward: Y Forward
- Up: Z up
- Changing the object's origin to its bottom:
- Switch to Edit Mode if needed (Tab). With vertex selection on, choose the center vertex in the bottom. Press Shift+S and choose Cursor to Selected. The 3D cursor will move to the selected vertex. Deselect all and switch to Object Mode (Tab).
- In Tools choose Set Origin and then Origin to 3D Cursor.
- Make sure the object's coordinates are set to 0,0,0. Now the object should be placed properly on the XY plane.
C++
Variable names
If you want to use real variable names but have nice names in the UE editor too, then use meta/DisplayName
UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly, Category = Camera, Meta = (DisplayName = "First Person Camera Component") )
UCameraComponent* m_pFirstPersonCameraComponent;
owner / client /server
The instance that spawned the class is always ROLE_Authority. If an Actor is spawned on the client, the client is the authority. -- OmaManfred
OmaManfred::
And concerning the owner stuff: When you spawn an instance of a class on the server FOR Client A, you have to set him as the owner. FActorSpawnParameters params; params.Owner = PlayerAPlayerController; SpawnActor<Class>(Class:StaticClass(),params); Then on Client B you can say IsOwner(PlayerBPlayerController), which should return false.
Logging
The following is just a copy/paste/change from the UE4 wiki and was really done from different persons, I am just using the work of different people here. Put it in a Log.h and include it into your <your_project>.h file after the #include "Engine.h". Because <your_project>.h is in every of your files, you will now be able to use these macros in every .cpp file.
#pragma once #include "Log.h" #include "Engine.h"
// macros
// - LOG_LINE
// - LOG -> output log
// -- LOG("text");
// -- LOG("text %s %f %d", "text", 1.2, 5);
// - PRINT -> screen
// -- PRINT("text");
// -- PRINT("text %s %f %d", "text", 1.2, 5);
#if _MSC_VER
#define FUNC_NAME TEXT(__FUNCTION__)
#else // FIXME - GCC?
#define FUNC_NAME TEXT(__func__)
#endif
#define LOG_LINE UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("%s, file: %s, line %d"), FUNC_NAME, *FString(__FILE__), __LINE__);
//#define LOG_NULL(s, p) UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("pointer %s %s"),s, (p?TEXT("ok"):TEXT("null") ) );
#define PRINT(format, ...) \
{ \
const FString sFunc = FString::Printf(TEXT("%s"), FUNC_NAME); \
const FString sText = FString::Printf(TEXT(format), ##__VA_ARGS__); \
const FString sMsg = FString::Printf(TEXT("%s() : %s"), *sFunc, *sText); \
if (GEngine) GEngine->AddOnScreenDebugMessage(-1, 5, FColor::White, sMsg); \
}
#define LOG(format, ...) \
{ \
const FString sMsg = FString::Printf(TEXT(format), ##__VA_ARGS__); \
UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("%s() : %s"), FUNC_NAME, *sMsg);\
}
Am I client or server ?
To answer questions 1 and 2: you can use AActor::GetNetMode()
which returns whether you are a listen server, dedicated server or network client.
if (GetNetMode() == ENetMode::NM_ListenServer)
{
}
The ENetMode values are:
NM_Standalone = 0
NM_DedicatedServer = 1
NM_ListenServer = 2
NM_Client = 3 // is only when you are actually connected to a server
The ordering of the ENetMode values allows you to check multiple things at once:
GetNetMode() <= 2 means you are the server or standalone, so you have 'global authority'.
UMG with C++ base class
- create a normal UMG widget
- create a C++ class with base class UserWidget (UUserWidget)
- build the project
- set the parent class of the UMG widget to your C++ class
- in <Project>.Build.cs add "UMG", "SLATE", "SLATECORE":
PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { "Core", "CoreUObject", "Engine", "InputCore", "UMG" });
PrivateDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { });
// Uncomment if you are using Slate UI
PrivateDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { "Slate", "SlateCore" });
- put into <Project>.h
#include "Runtime/UMG/Public/UMG.h" #include "Runtime/UMG/Public/UMGStyle.h" #include "Runtime/UMG/Public/Slate/SObjectWidget.h" #include "Runtime/UMG/Public/IUMGModule.h" #include "Runtime/UMG/Public/Blueprint/UserWidget.h"
SLATE
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Slate_Introduction_%E2%80%92_Basic_Menu_Part_1
The "canvas" in UMG is "SConstraintCanvas" in Slate.
Multiplayer / Sessions
Do not search for "multiplayer", search for "sessions". Good tutorial: https://wiki.unrealengine.com/How_To_Use_Sessions_In_C%2B%2B
String conversions
from: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Programming/UnrealArchitecture/StringHandling/FString
FString TestHUDString = FString(TEXT("This is my test FString."));
FName TestHUDName = FName(*TestHUDString);
FText TestHUDText = FText::FromString(TestHUDString);
Misc
Source control
Don't use Mercurial (or git) for game development. That would be just plain stupid.
Use Subversion or something like that.
The minimum you have to put under source control:
/Config /Content /Source Project.uproject
Depending on your project:
/.editorconfig /shadertoolsconfig.json
For ignores, have a look at ignoring files with svn.
Developer Folder
If you have the developer folder(s) enabled "Content / View Options / Show Developers Content" then make sure to not reference it from outside when cooking a project.
Other Licenses (examples)
not allowed
- GNU General Public License (GPL),
- Lesser GPL (LGPL) (unless you are merely dynamically linking a shared library), or
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Code or content under the following licenses, for example, are allowed
- BSD License,
- MIT License,
- Microsoft Public License, or
- Apache License.
Other
Escape key stops simulation in editor
If you want to change this behavior, open "Edit/Editor Preferences" and search for "stop". Then change under "Play World/Stop" the shortcut "Escape" to whatever you want, for example shift-Escape.
Black Screens or flickering/invisible new action popup
Details/Text/Line-Break
If you are shown a text in the Details tab, chances are you can use shift-return to create a line break.
