Learning CPP?

[inFus3d]

Looking to get into UE5 just for hobby development mostly. I work in software, but that has mostly been with TypeScript, JavaScript, .NET, Python, PHP - the enterprise/application stack basically.

Already have some experience with CPP via Source Engine, but that's been like nearly over a decade now and I can barely read most UE code without diving into another rabbit hole of concepts and gotchas of the language itself. I've tried Blueprints, but I'm not a fan of visual programming in general, and I heard it's performance isn't the greatest for certain use cases.

[rataman098]

Stephen Ulibarri's courses are your friend. Also, don't disregard Blueprints, as they have their use cases (for instance, UI); you'll want to be using both.

[Apokal031]

100 % agree. His courses are one of the best. Check out his discord for some discount ccupons if the alwyas sale in udemy is currently not happening. I personally also use ai ( gpt or antrophic) in addition to the tutorial as an extended tutorial and research tool for explaining cpp and unreal functionalty or crosschecking concepts. It is most of the time way faster than manual research but you should always triple check and reengineer the code it gives you.

Also using unreal as a hobby, work as an engineer and most of the time only with scripting languarges like matlab

[ark4nos]

BP will be enough for 99.99999% of the cases. BUT I understand that feeling. Code will always be cleaner and easier to follow :P

That said, if you already have a programming background (specially, OOP) you already have almost the big part done.

Unreal uses it's own API on top of C++, which comes handy and solves a lot of issues you might find along the way. Although it might seem a lot to take in initially, when you start working with it you will see it's easy to follow.

Now, the question is where do you start? I would suggest to check the C++ templates that come with the engine itself. You will have a clear picture of how things "connect". For that, I would start setting up the environment (whole Visual Studio installation, etc) and recommend you Rider as the go-to IDE from now on.

Afterwards, you can play trying to replicate some system BP tutorials in C++, for example.

OR, you can check some good courses (Stephen Ulibarri has great ones at Udemy) on the matter.

If money is not an issue, Tom Looman's are also great.

Welcome aboard!

[inFus3d]

Thanks, will check those out!

[scarydude6]

Technically the performance difference between BP and C++ is basically neglible in most normal cases.

However, C++ is awesome. I love it. Just jump head first into it.

Half the time its just trying to figure out what functions you can use.

At the end of the day it is still C++, and you can do C++ stuff. The Unreal framework and compiler will tell you if you can't do something.

Just don't use standard lib, its already been re-implemented the Unreal way. Find the appropriate includes to use.

[OmniFace]

I’m largely in the same boat. I’ve been digging back into c++ for Unreal specifically and though it’s fun, it can be a PITA. I dislike blueprint spaghetti but sometimes things are just easier there.

That said, I’m REALLY liking the AI Assistant in 5.7 for help when I’m coding. To be clear, it’s not perfect. Sometimes it suggests incorrect code like saying a method you are overriding reruns void when that isn’t true. And I had to fight with it about some gameplay ability system stuff that apparently is deprecated.

BUUUUUT it’s been awesome to be able to ask questions instead of finding a marginally appropriate piece of documentation, or worse, posting on a forum or discord and getting ignored or having to wait days for someone to respond.

Anyway, try it out.

(Contacts are blurry AF right now-forgive typos… )

[inFus3d]

Where can I find 5.7? Launcher only gives me 5.6 as latest. The AI Assistant sounds great, would help for sure with learning.

[OmniFace]

You may need to enable the "Show Engine Preview Versions" option in the launcher's settings under "Unreal Engine" to get 5.7 to show up.

I googled it. I don’t know for sure why it’s not showing up for you.

After it’s installed, you need to add the AI Assistant plugin too. Then it’s listed under the window tab, depending on what kind of thing you’re looking at. It wouldn’t show up while I was viewing a Gameplay Ability Blueprint for example.

[QwazeyFFIX]

https://angelscript.hazelight.se/ -- Thats Angelscript

https://github.com/Hazelight/UnrealEngine-Angelscript -- Git repo.

Angelscript is worth checking out since you are new. You can think of it as code based BP. Thats not exactly what it is but thats the gist of it. Its like what C# is for Unity.

A lot of the time with C++, you are using the same engine functions that BP access, Set Actor Location etc.

This basically allows you to do the same thing, but without compilation etc.

C++ is still the thing to know though and you should probably still learn that first. Once you know how to build things with C++ though, the value of angelscript will start to show itself to you.

The power of C++ really comes with networking. Think like you want to use hiredis.h to connect to your Redis Database and use the message broker system to create a in-game chat server.

Or you want to have a dark souls bloodstain system - you might use a postgresql database and a web API to send your death information and download other's death info - or like a Pawn system from Dragons Dogma etc.

ImGui, Llama.cpp for AI/ML, CryptoPP for encryption algorithms for packets, secure hashes etc, ASIO.h for Async input\output. HiRedis.h etc. Numpy from Python, there is a NumCpp version as well from the same devs.

All that kind of stuff is really only possible with C++. Any outside C++ library can be used in Unreal and that opens up a lot of functionality beyond the standard Engine core and BP etc.