Unreal Engine Blueprints
"Blueprints" is Visual Scripting Language in Unreal Engine, giving you the opportunity to make games without writing a single line of code.
For beginners
What is it ?
- Visual Scripting Language Blueprints is a programming language without writing single line of code, that's why it's called VISUAL scripting language. Let's break it down a little bit more.
Classic way of programming is when a developer is writing text code in a code editor such as Visual Studio Code, using programming languages such as C++, C#, Python, JavaScript etc, to create an App, Game and more.
​
Let's face it, not everybody has the patience to learn how to code from scratch, especially when the person is self-taught from YouTube, Udemy or other online resources that are self paced.
​
In order to learn how to code and be good at it, takes A LOT of work, time and dedication. Even when you dedicate huge amount of hours learning how to code, it will still take you around
2 - 3 years to become a Junior Dev.
​
Fortunately, Unreal Engine has Blueprints Scripting Language to replace all from the above, in other words - people who can't code or don't want to code, they can use the Blueprints to create games from scratch.
​
With Blueprints is very easy to start and you can quickly understand how to move things around, making your character jump, shoot or other mechanics, with a very little effort. This is because the Blueprint nodes are displayed with text, so it's easier to understand what that node ( code ) is doing.
​
Let's compare programming with Blueprints VS classic text code programming:
- If it take you around 2-3 years to become a Junior Dev with classic text coding you might be able to create a small game, whereas with Blueprints you will be able to create more complicated games within 2-3 years timeframe.
Please note that this is just an estimate because every person is different than the other, one is more talented than the other, and one is more hard working than the other, so keep that in mind.
​
Summary:
- If you are not a coder, or beginner coder and struggling with coding but you still want to bring your imagination to life and create amazing games to play with your friends, or even make money from it, get rid of the text coding and try Blueprints instead - it's the ideal option to start with.
​
This is a brief summary for the beginners to have a rough picture of what Blueprints are, and what a classic programming text code is.
​
​
- As everything in life, there is pros and cons for everything, so for Blueprints too -
​
​
​
For advanced users...
- There are Blueprints that are good to be used only for prototyping ( e.g. quickly test an idea out, a mechanics etc ), and then you should delete that Blueprint and replace it with a different one.
​
Why should we replace the prototyping Blueprints and what to use instead ?
-
There are many Blueprints that are performance heavy that can make your system glitchy, buggy or even crash.
-
We must use the proper Blueprints to prevent this from happening, Blueprints that will do the same functionality and it won't crash your system.
​​
So WHY 90% of the YouTube tutorials are taught with these "bad" Blueprints then ?
- With all due respect to all the Online teachers out there, but ...
​
WE HAVE to mention this:
The Blueprints that they are using is just to make their tutorials quick and easy, without mentioning how bad many Blueprints nodes are, and why you should never use.
​
​
Let's have a look at the examples and explanations below, and why you must know this.
Blueprint Node: "CAST TO"
This Blueprint node is the most commonly used node, even though it kills the performance of your game. The reason that this node is used so often, is mostly because of 2 reasons:
1. The developer wants things to be done quick and easy, without paying attention to the performance of their game.
2. The developer doesn't know how bad this Blueprint can be.
​
Why is this Blueprint so bad?
- When you use this node, it loads up EVERYTHING that you are casting to. According to the photo, when you are Casting to the Character, or "CastToThirdPersonCharacter" for example, it will load up EVERYTHING that this Character contains, such as: Textures, Particle FX, Niagara FX, Sound, and literally everything else.
​
Epic Games staff Zak Perrish is explaining more in depth here: Watch video ( 29:00 ).
Now just imagine your Character is around 5GB, 10GB or more in size?
Every time when you simply call this node, even if you don't connect any nodes to it, it will load the WHOLE 5GB or 10GB that your Character has. This is if you call the node ones, but what if you call this node 5, 10, 15 times during your programming cycle?
If you publish your game with these nodes, don't expect great results !
​
Summary:
- Every time when you can - AVOID this node, and use alternative way to achieve what you need.
​
Contact us if you want to discuss and see the alternative and the best solution for this node.
Blueprint Node: "Event Tick"
The Event Tick node is the node that you should NOT touch it and avoid it at any cost !
The legendary Epic Games staff Zak Parrish says:
" I try to tell artists and people who are not skilled scripters to never use Tick. Just don't look at it, don't touch it, pretend it's not there, and even if you think you need it and if you're sure you need it - STILL DON'T USE IT !"
​
Watch his video here ( 31:00 ).
​
Why is this Blueprint so bad?
- It's because the Event Tick is ticking every second based on your machine's Frames Per Second ( FPS ).
For example, if you have a great PC / Laptop configuration and you can run your game on 120fps, when you connect a node to the Event Tick that node will run continuously for 120 times per second !
​
Now Imagine you have a node that is "heavy" on your RAM memory for example, and you connect that node to the Event Tick, and you play your game for 60 minutes ?
​
Let's calculate and see the outcome:
- You play your game for 60 minutes
- That's equal to 3600 seconds
- Event Tick is ticking 120 times per second
- 3600 seconds x 120 = 432.000 ticks in 60mins !
Quite a number isn't it ?
​
Summary:
- Avoid using Event Tick node at any cost !
Use alternative nodes instead. If you need help with this node feel free to discuss with our team.
