Virtual Reality in Unreal Engine 4. Nathan Adara Program of Computer Graphics

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Gabriella Wilkinson
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1 Virtual Reality in Unreal Engine 4 Nathan Adara Program of Computer Graphics

2 Let s Kick This Off People s impressions of VR are important. See? People s first impressions of VR are important.

3 Your Blank Slate This is what you get. It s a place, with an environment map. No teleportation No interactions.

4 But First.. Install Unreal Engine 4 on your computers before coming to labs. Then open it. Seriously. Not just Epic Games Launcher. Unreal Engine 4.18 You can install the UE4.18 inside the Epic Games Launcher. Get Epic Games Launcher by Googling UE4 and signing up for a free account. You don t have to do anything else.

5 But First.. No hard disk space? Is your computer literally just a typewriter or a potato? We ve got you covered. Rhodes 504 (War Room) 8 Workstation desktops with UE4 installed.

6 Modern Game Engines - Background Computers work sequentially. If you were a computer Desk analogy. Many orders of magnitude faster. On the order of 1.0 x What about displaying stuff on a screen?

7 Modern Game Engines A Day in the Life Back to the desk, do Assignment 1 from this class. But it s easier, you got the exact instructions from Henry. Henry hands you individual papers Multiply these numbers. Take the sine of that. What a great guy. It still takes years.

8 Modern Game Engines A Day in the Life Let s turn on some pixels Poor Henry. At least you get some stimulation.

9 It s Beautiful

10 Modern Game Engines The Game Loop Render logic vs. game logic. Logic = Algorithm = stack of papers on the homunculus desk. Render logic What we just did in our example for 17 years. Takes a 3D scene we ve defined and turns it into a picture of some kind Game logic Sets up the 3D scene for render logic to render. Moves stuff around. Handles you, the player, interacting with stuff.

11 Modern Game Engines The Game Loop The Game Loop

12 Modern Game Engines Game Logic Usually, within game logic, a bunch of other things happen. 1. The engine looks at input from the player. 2. Every thing in the game world gets updated, with that in mind. 3. All things with physics on then simulate physics. 4. Character/other animations happen based on the updates + physics + input. (advanced) Example: Chrome s Dinosaur Game 1. Check the spacebar to see if user wants to jump or duck. 2. Move the entire world to the left, fly the pterodactyls, give dino-boy some upward thrust if player pressed spacebar. Make him small if you duck. Add to score. 3. Dino-boy is simulated. He flys upwards with gravity pulling it down. If it s on the ground, stop moving in Y-coord. 4. Step to next frame in cute animations when dino-boy is on the ground running, pterodactyls flying, etc.

13 Modern Game Engines Object-Oriented Sounds easy? Hopefully it doesn t because it isn t. Dynamic game world doesn t appear with magic definitions. Make grass or That s a bouncy ball Everything must be created and explicitly defined. Each blade of grass. Everything that makes a ball a ball, and makes it bouncy.

14 Modern Game Engines Object-Oriented Can be easy if you approach it correctly. Object-oriented programming: Compartmentalization of features and properties into blueprints, or classes. An object is an instance of a class with its own state. Real world example: Rabbits What s a rabbit? Rabbit class Rabbit object Objects have state, and as instances can differ from the class. Furry Furry Bald Scurries Scurries Scoots Spooks Scratches easily you Rabbit Instance Class Eats your lettuce Poops Poops often once often a day

15 (not) Modern Game Engines Asteroids Class: Asteroid Instances of asteroid differ by size. They respond to getting shot by exploding and creating smaller asteroids in their place.

16 Modern Game Engines Object-Oriented UE4 has an object-oriented structure. Everything compartmentalized into classes that you inherit new ones from. It s up to you to define them. It s up to you to make them interact. It s up to you to place them in your game. Render logic and simple physics are already there, along with things to help you out along the way.

17 Modern Game Engines O-O Inheritance Inheritance is a simple concept. A class inherits from another class: Gets all the things that make up that class New class = subclass; Old class = superclass or parent class Can add its own stuff on top of that Rabbit example Again. Animal Mammal Rabbit Canine Dog Wolf

Modern Game Engines Components/Objects Further, UE4 uses a Component-Object model of organization An object s class might have different component classes Can define instances behaviors, looks,

18 Modern Game Engines Components/Objects Further, UE4 uses a Component-Object model of organization An object s class might have different component classes Can define instances behaviors, looks, interactions, physics, etc. Can usually have multiple components Idea of Parent and Children Back to Rabbits Components might be inter-dependent Instance? Behavior Fur Scurries Eats Scratches Butt Claws Length Color Poops Propulsion? Scratch effect Sharpness

19 Modern Game Engines Killer Rabbit I didn t want to be a killer

20 Intro to UE4 Let s dive right in, and look at the Unreal Engine 4.

21 Intro to UE4 UI Tour & UI Demo

22 Intro to UE4 Blueprints UE4 Blueprints = Classes They live in the content browser. Can be made into objects, by spawning into viewport or during game. You can create Blueprints in the content browser. You can edit Blueprints by opening them. Blueprint Editor (UI Tour)

23 Intro to UE4 Actors and Components Actors: Spawned as an instance into level Has a world transform Hooks into game logic update hook, or Tick (More in lab) Can contain any Components Components: Can only exist in level as a child of an Actor Has a transform relative to parent Can be parented to another Component Can be singletons

24 Intro to UE4 Properties Class Default properties Object/Instance Instance properties Example: Scale Other properties that come with the object from its inherited class

25 Intro to UE4 Editor Scene Not WYSIWYG Car example

26 Questions? I ll see you in lab this week, where I ll explain much much more about this stuff. This lecture was recorded and will be available online, in a YouTube link I ll post on Piazza. There are many more resources online that will help you to understand UE4.

G54GAM Lab Session 1

G54GAM Lab Session 1 The aim of this session is to introduce the basic functionality of Game Maker and to create a very simple platform game (think Mario / Donkey Kong etc). This document will walk you