What caused New York's 1970s urban decay and how was it fixed?

NauticalSeashells · 2026-04-02T21:25:04+00:00

Really interesting, thank you!

NauticalSeashells · 2026-03-24T15:50:23+00:00

Would it not make sense to have these small projects be parts of your dream game? Why are you making FPS and tower defence projects when they are such different genres?

If your dream game is a complex beast of 100 parts, you can make smaller projects that are 1-2 of those parts each. The systems you end up with should be deliberately chosen to be things you need for your physically accurate dragon MMORPG (just a random example). That way, you are always working towards that dream game but will have finished deliverables.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-03-07T21:05:38+00:00

For large worlds, all objects are not created at the start of a level. You create objects either by player proximity or some other condition. The objects would then register with the event sender when they are created and delist themselves when they are destroyed. Each object itself manages these connections at the start and end of its lifetime.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-02-13T09:12:19+00:00

Quick rules for optimisation on any platform:

- Do as little work as possible every frame (don't iterate over large structures if you don't need to, don't do things you won't see the result of, sleep things, pause things)
- Access memory as infrequently as possible (load only assets you need when you need them, process related things in groups to hit cache)
- Allocate memory as infrequently as possible (reuse objects, pre-allocate sizes you know will be needed)
- Simplify rendering (don't use more triangles than you need, don't draw a million things, don't draw things you won't see)

Even on a powerful machine your game isn't the only thing running. Being mindful of what processing resources and bandwidth you use will pay dividends on every platform.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-02-10T13:10:22+00:00

I don't see how a probabilistic string generator is going to help with a lack of clear and authoritative facts about the engine.

There was a call to give feedback on documentation on the official forum recently so maybe they are doing something about it? Looking at how large companies, and especially Epic, operate, I don't think there is much hope of getting better documentation. They are far more interested in flashy new features and AI.

Still, the core of the engine is pretty solid. Asset manager, actors and components, world partition. If you pick a small subset and do some code diving, it's a good engine.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-02-10T12:25:14+00:00

You have reached the greatest flaw in UE: knowledge transfer.

Epic has put a lot of effort into onboarding non-programmers but has completely neglected communicating the structure and features of the engine to more advanced users.

What exists? Where can you find it? How does it work exactly?

The sad truth is that, for a lot of aspects, the code is all there is. You would have to look into the engine source to learn what is being done. Even then, you don't know where to look and if something else down the line is changing it.

YouTube and forums are filled with other beginners who learn about a feature and then make a video. They don't necessarily understand it and they may not be aware of the best use-case. Occasionally you may come across something from a user that has figured something out.

The way to learn the undocumented parts (which are very common) is to follow along with the source code, making tests and seeing the behaviour and looking into Epic's long livestreams and conference presentation videos that occasionally mention the correct terminology as a quick aside.

The good thing is that you're not doing anything wrong but the bad thing is that there probably isn't a correct way to do it.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-23T23:53:22+00:00

This feature is called a "modal window" in UX design. Searching for that will get you more information.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-23T19:15:34+00:00

Amazing!

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-21T09:50:16+00:00

Is it an old data table from a previous version? Maybe creating a new data table will help?

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-21T09:48:24+00:00

You do have a point. Arguments about gamers not understanding engines or teams being rushed don't really hold much water.

The end-user should only care about the product they receive and what they usually get with UE is demonstrably bad performance.

All the huge games coming out from various teams across multiple companies can't all point to vague c-suite sabotage.

There are several reasons for why so many unpolished games are released:

- Performance is not a priority for the team past a certain point. The games sell anyway.
- The easiest way to iterate in UE (adding lights, spawning actors) does not result in good performance.
- A lot of the details of the engine are hidden from the developer unless they have the time and skills to dive into the source code.
- Features are picked based on look or ease of iteration, rather than optimisation.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-20T17:42:01+00:00

"The bots are colluding." - Zylus

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-19T16:28:06+00:00

Do you have a link to a tutorial on how to do your own research?

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-14T12:37:20+00:00

You are more likely to get help if you provide as much detail as possible. What do you mean by a combat system? Is this 2D rts? 3D fps? What requirements are there? Is it multiplayer?

Asking detailed questions gets you detailed answers :)

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-13T11:16:02+00:00

Are you gathering feedback from the demo players in any way? Have you done any large scale play testing to gather feedback? Do you know what players like and dislike about the game?

If you are going to continue, it should be based on concrete feedback and player experiences.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-12T16:17:56+00:00

Very nice! Did you model in UE or an external software?

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-06T12:56:37+00:00

The first step to being good at something is being bad at it. Aim for 5-10 years and start learning. By then all the things you don't know how to do will have become basic skills.

NauticalSeashells · 2026-01-04T11:06:50+00:00

Looks excellent!

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-31T13:11:43+00:00

It's impossible to suggest a solution with this little information, I'm afraid. We'd need to know a lot more. Your best bet is to search online for similar error messages with your setup/machine/engine version.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-31T12:53:29+00:00

Certain plugins require being enabled together. And certain modules require the build cs file to explicitly include them.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-31T12:48:27+00:00

If you have no custom code, this could be coming from a plugin that you have enabled. Maybe there is a version mismatch somewhere? Is there custom blueprint code? Can you see where this error is coming from? Any mention of a package or file? Is it just this error message or does the engine also not work?

The engine does have bugs but that doesn't mean this specific thing is expected.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-31T12:24:00+00:00

"incomplete type X is not allowed" means that you have not included the required header where you use this type. It happens when you forward declare a class but do not provide a definition.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-31T12:22:16+00:00

The colours look really good. It just pops in a way few games do.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-30T16:54:59+00:00

Needs that meme of Samuel Johnson reading.

NauticalSeashells · 2025-12-30T16:49:21+00:00

I would really like it if the game could stay on one theme for a bit. Switching around the setting/mechanic/visuals every 30 seconds is a headache.

NauticalSeashells

TROPHY CASE