Playing around with the coding in Unreal Engine

So it was the end of the term last week and we got to officially play with Unreal. After a bit of faffing, I got it downloaded.

I managed to “Create an Event” that was a swinging lamp that had a rotating frequency at a multiple of the PC’s internal clock. (It sounds very complicated but it wasn’t).

First impressions are:

  • The user interface feels a bit foggy(!) I am not a fan of the blue-y grey background and I find the icons ugly and low resolution. Maybe this is because Maya is so sharp in comparison. Also it feels a bit squashed on my screen and I will need to get to terms with the weird panning.
  • It is intense going – playing with the node types in the Event graph and peeking at the Blueprints possibility- is exciting but I also feel there is a long road ahead. That my Summer will be more indoors than on the beach 🙂
This is the Event Graph for the swinging lampshade

But this is merely procrastination at getting stuck in. Unreal is the way forward so I am excited.

My research project has two strands – one is the weather system and the other is blending audio to the weather system (i.e. so the sound of gust of wind will create a gust of wind on the screen).

Two of last years’ class came into our classtime to give some advice on how to broach the project and pace ourselves over the summer. Among the time management advice, they also very kindly shared their favourite tutorials for learning Unreal; which are the following:

Unreal’s Engine’s own YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBobmJyzsJ6Ll7UbfhI4iwQ

Matthew Palaje’s YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqPKRjVm36xmxu1OiegTWWg

For the Weather Systems in particular I found a tutorial from
CodeLikeMevery useful:

And this one(same YouTuber Channel)

Anyways, this is a catch-up post. This week is finishing the first draft of the Production bible. Getting to grips again with Photoshop and speed-learning Illustrator are on the cards for me….