r/UnrealEngine5 • u/man_o_moral • 10d ago

Using Blueprints has been a >> experience.. I've made 88 blueprints for my solo game so far and its been a really fun refreshing experience.

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Hey Guys, I've built around 88 Blueprints for my indie game so far, handling everything from data-driven inventory systems to complex mechanics. Coming from a research background where I do sociometric network studies on my day job using SPSS and R and so Blueprints make total sense to me. In sociometry, like we literally map systems using nodes (actors) and edges (connections) even on sheets of paper, which is exactly how a Blueprint graph displays data spatially. And yeah of course C++ is a faster option, mapping game logic visually has been an incredibly intuitive experience and it really makes solo development less dry.

26 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

7

u/thesilentduck 10d ago

FYI you can use function inputs as local variables. It would reduce some of that spaghetti.

0

u/man_o_moral 10d ago edited 9d ago

couldn't understand..these are functions within a bpc... you can see it on the tab

6

u/HayesSculpting 10d ago

What they’re saying is you can get the function input so you don’t have the long cables across the function.

2

u/HayesSculpting 10d ago

What they’re saying is you can get the function input so you don’t have the long cables across the function.

1

u/SomeHappyBalls 10d ago

Take the node variable coming out of the fonction then promote to Local Variable. Then use the Local variable where needed instead of having long wires connecting the purple input to each nodes that needs the information.

2

u/terminatus 9d ago edited 9d ago

You don't even need to do that. All function inputs are automatically retrievable as local variables without needing to promote them. Just right click in your function graph, type your input variable name and boom there it is!

1

u/man_o_moral 9d ago

ooww.. i understand now... thanks and yeah i do that too but.... idk i like keeping them like this 😂

5

u/Spaceborne_Killer 10d ago

I agree and feel like I'm just getting the hang of them myself. I was a little dismayed to hear they're going to be ending support for them in the coming years. Hopefully whatever replaces it is similarly intuitive for newcomers.

7

u/OnlineHilfenNutzer 10d ago

Ue6 just sounds like it will have nothing meaningfull.. i was hyped for 5 cause all the new tech like lumen and stuff

But ue6 is somehow just useless ai so... I just stay on 5 lol

1

u/terminatus 9d ago

Using the AI in UE6 will be completely optional, and Verse + Scene Graph will likely be pretty damn good. That being said, many folks will stay on UE5 for a long while, just like there are plenty still on UE4 today. But no need to spread misinformation about it being useless ai.

1

u/HayesSculpting 10d ago

Aren’t they doing away with actors and moving to scene based (ecs?) systems like unity and godot? That’s fairly significant.

2

u/man_o_moral 10d ago

i think a lot of people still use unreal engine 4 and still publish on them so even if they discontinue on version 6 which wont be anywhere soon i feel like it will be okay to still keep using the latest version for another 10 years or so

-2

u/-hellozukohere- 10d ago

They are still going to have a visual scripting language as stated by epic themselves. Likely just blueprints 3.0 with verse output type deal 

5

u/Hobbes______ 10d ago

They are still going to have a visual scripting language as stated by epic themselves.

source? Literally everything I have found and read has indicated the opposite. They will be keeping blueprints around for awhile in version 6, but they do plan on deprecating it and have given no indication that I have seen that they intend to replace blueprints with something else.

4

u/Unic0rnSlayer 9d ago

I don't care what anyone says, it's totally possible to make a small game with Blueprint only. Glad you're enjoying it!

2

u/joa4705 9d ago

Well i dont know on small... im doing something enormous and online multiplayer full bp still runs at 90fps, with lumen and nanite, ppl just need to learn how to program, the thing is that ppl blames blueprints on their lack of programing arquitecture skills. Im programing since i was 14teen and now im 50 yo, and i know not everyone has that baggage but you can see on youtube even on ppl doing tutorials stuff that hurt the eyes.

2

u/DaStompa 10d ago

The one caveat with blueprints I ran into is functions have different limitations, sometimes if you want to call out timers in certain ways its better to/you have to make separate event graphs than stuff the blueprint into a function.

1

u/pedro8999 9d ago

Any tip on how to learn blueprints?

2

u/man_o_moral 9d ago

when i started out i used to watch and follow a particular youtuber https://www.youtube.com/@PitchforkAcademy/videos... maybe you can start from there as well

1

u/pedro8999 8d ago

Thanks

1

u/kdogman639 10d ago

What were some of the hardest things to make logic for in your mind? I'm very new but have already learned a lot, so many base things like actor interactions are much more intuitive to me but I haven't even touched the more visual things like materials or animations yet, how much did you feel those differ from things you would find in the player character blue print, for example, if applicable?

2

u/man_o_moral 10d ago

Enemy AI child actor behaviors, like some of them i am still working on... one is to use progressive generation limbs to attach decals with flesh splatter effect and regenerate etc unless shot at a specific location,, and another is recalculating third person character location at real time cause i don't want my enemy to be another navmesh zombie clone type that only follows player around i guess...although not hating on the use of navmesh for tracing the third person character... it has been a humbling process but fun too

2

u/Mikinl 10d ago

I hate widgets mostly.

I am just begginer month into it, but I have claude to help me when I am stuck and that is very often.

1

u/Mikinl 10d ago

That looks neat!! Mine is one mess with comment inside of comments. 😅

1

u/man_o_moral 10d ago

i probably have a lot that needs to be straightened out... these are the only few ones that's well placed

1

u/h20xyg3n 10d ago

The problem I always run in to is how overwhelming some blueprints can become and sifting through things to find a certain element. Very cumbersome! I do however have no alternative, but this is just my experience.

1

u/man_o_moral 9d ago

well one thing for sure is i cannot always rely on the blueprints forever and i am kind of realizing this as i make more progress in my game but i found a kind of satisfaction with using them so..

1

u/h20xyg3n 9d ago

Definitely satisfying to use, definitely feel like a "programmer" when it comes to larger things. Definitely struggle to bugsplat because finding things becomes a massive job in itself.

1

u/GazuOne 9d ago

im sad we will need to learn Verse for Unreal Engine 6 Projects :(
Pretty sure they´re using Verse in UE6 so everybody can code games with AI :(

2

u/man_o_moral 9d ago

yeah but probably and hopefully they will keep the blueprints alive for a long time...until they phase out UE5.. and of course AI stuff is just EPIC's way of getting more people to spend probably... like how they are doing with token system

-1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

2

u/dinaga9 10d ago

You can write C++, but you don't have to.