Spent some time on a comment to help someone out who was having trouble starting out in Unreal, but it might as well be a post, so here it is:
Unreal is really good, but it doesn’t teach itself well, which frustrates me a lot. Once you’re across it it’s wildly empowering, but getting across it is way harder than it needs to be, so you’re not alone here at all.
The most important thing is just to be in a community of helpful folks who know it well already or are also learning it. The Unreal forums is mostly not that place. I run a discord which is a good one, there’s a link in my bio. There’s also a longtime Unity user Alex Rose who made a discord for Unity users jumping ship to Unreal, which I’m in too and those people are helpful to each other: https://twitter.com/AlexRoseGames/status/1542871322136662016?s=20&t=yf642ZAODq-8SDjQcHUtMQ
I don’t do well with video tutorials either mostly, but I did make the vid below, which isn’t a tutorial but a rapid-fire 20-minute list of stuff people often don’t find out on their own. It’s not supposed to teach you this stuff as much as give you a feel for the sorts of things that are there and not surfaced. I also used to tutor folks on this stuff for money, which I recommend if you can find someone good.
It’s frustrating initially, but the learning curve on most things is one steep initial cliff (find out what this even is) and then an immediate dropoff (oh, this is easy).
There’s an official docs page for transitioning from Unity also: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/unreal-engine-for-unity-developers/
Other general tips:
-never assume you have to roll your own anything (character movement basics, standing on moving platforms, decals, databases, camera systems, AI systems, pathfinding, profiling tools, localisation systems, dynamic music, networking, state machines, projectiles, damage, vehicles, anything). Sometimes you do but always check
-95% of UE4 docs/tutorials also apply to UE5. They moved some stuff around in the UI but most stuff is the same
-You should work primarily in Blueprint, not C++. This applies equally (at least initially, until you’re someone who Knows Unreal) to everyone. Some people will fight me on this but they’re all wrong
-C++ in unreal is a different beast than C++ in other places; if it shits you in other places it’s still worth a try here
-Read the entire Gameplay Framework doc, it’s important, there is no project where the Gameplay Framework isn’t the right way to work
-Opening and docking the Class Viewer panel (Tools->Class Viewer) will help you passively observe the way the engine is structured. In UE1 and 2 this was docked at all times, they never shoulda hidden it away
-Download the Content Examples example project through the Epic launcher, it’s pretty exhaustive
-You can theme the UE5 editor in Editor Settings, which is good if the default dark theme in UE5 is too dark for you
Hope this helps!
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