- Unreal Engine 5 and UF2D -
Mouse / Keyboard Strokes
Welcome! Before we start everything, you need to see what I have been doing mostly with mouse and little with keyboard. All documentation and tutorials are filled with videos where you see things are happening as I click around, so let's talk about them first!
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Left Mouse Button Clicks are referred as [LMB] with red color and in videos an expanding Red Circle comes out of the Mouse.
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If a certain item such as a visual code (Blueprint) node or a link of it is moving around after I click on it, that means I am dragging it around by holding [LMB].
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If a Blueprint node link is removed, that means I clicked on the link with [LMB] while holding [ALT] keyboard button.
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If a Blueprint node link is being dragged to another link, that means I clicked on the link with [LMB] while holding [CTRL] keyboard button.
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If a Blueprint node is deleted after being selected via [LMB], that means I clicked [DEL] keyboard button.
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If a Blueprint node is selected after another one, that means I clicked on those nodes via [LMB] while holding [SHIFT] keyboard button.
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Right Mouse Button Clicks are referred as [RMB] with green color and in videos an expanding Green Circle comes out of the Mouse.
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If I am looking around the Scene or in a Blueprint Editing Viewport, that means I am dragging it around by holding [RMB].
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Middle Mouse Button Clicks are referred as [MMB] with blue color and in videos an expanding Blue Circle comes out of the Mouse.
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Scrolling with [MMB] up and down allows you to zoom in and out of the scene, especially in Blueprint Editing Viewport.
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Same scrolling can be done up and down the same way in Property Windows.
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If you see a Blueprint Node or Name etc got copy pasted, that means I used [CTRL-C + CTRL-V] keyboard combination.
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If you see some "Blueprint Belt Straightening" going on, that means I pressed [F] keyboard button which is a shortcut for me.
Since we will be in "Test Mode" most of the time, it is crucial for you to know what the controls are for both Player 1 and Player 2. And here they are!
Now that you know the controls and inputs to an extend, we can truly start!
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UF2D Controls
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- Player 2 -
What is Unreal Engine?
This Section will be a very simple one just to welcome you to the scene. So just relax and enjoy reading!
Now let's start, shall we? When you go to Unreal Engine's website, it says "The world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool". Of course it is true. But let me simplify it for you incase you are a beginner who never ever worked on making your dreams reality, yet.
Unreal Engine is a Theatre in a 3D Scene where many Actors come in, play their roles and go away depending on the script you have written for them. Let's have a look!
The first time you open the UF2D Project, this shall be what you see more or less;
Just to understand how this Theatre works, let's make an Actor and let it say something on screen. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. Feel free to NOT follow the steps below. Just focus on the logic behind it all. Watching is enough for now. :)
First, let's disable the UF2D Framework completely. If you check the World Outliner on top right of the screen, you will see two objects that are present in the map.
One of them is named "Framework Kickstarter." As the name suggest, it is the Blueprint (Visual Scripting) Actor that triggers Framework on once the "Play" button is pressed. Let's disable it. We will simply check it's "Details" tab and go to "System" section and toggle "Framework On" variable off. We will notice that once we press the "Play" button, everything is black as Unreal Engine just spawns its own systematical objects on the scene but nothing UF2D related.
Now let's create an Actor that will greet the Player when the game starts. We will start by creating an actor in Content folder. We are here to visually script, so what we need is a "Blueprint Actor". Then we will create a "Custom Event" in its "Event Graph" that prints a welcome message.
Our Actor is ready. Now let's arrange the time it will arrive and play its role. We want him to get into the scene right after the game starts. So let's get into Level Blueprint (Visual Scripting of Map itself) and tell it to call out our Greeting Blueprint and trigger the Custom Event named "Greetings."
We are greeted and we greatly appreciate it. Note that we didn't care if this Actor is visible or not as we didn't add anything visual for it to be seen. However, in "World Outliner" we can see that our Actor exists in the scene.
Our Actor has played its role but it still stays on the scene. Script need to be updated. Its play is over so it needs to leave. Let's tell it that it needs to "destroy" itself after 3 seconds. After we update its script, we will notice in "World Outliner" that he departs. His message stays on the screen due to being an external call and lasts 15 seconds.
Now you have a clear understand of how Unreal Engine works in a very basic manner. Of course there are many ways to do things and it all can get very complex and advanced but this doesn't make it all a rocket science. There is nothing to be afraid of.
However an important question needs to be answered. What is the role of Unreal Fighter 2D's in all this?
What is Unreal Fighter 2D?
If Unreal Engine is a Theatre, UF2D is a Company that presents you thousands of actors and sub-scripts that you can use to create your Fighting Game. All you need to is provide your own script and leave the rest.
Feel free to check the video below and see how World Outliner gets busier as time goes on;
PS: First load after Editor Startup causes fps spikes as it loads assets into memory as Editor can't async load. Not an issue in packaged games.
Of course spawning an Actor is not enough. It needs to be able to communicate with everything in the scene and be synced properly. For example when a Projectile need to be spawned, UF2D handles;
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Spawn Location, Rotation, Scale
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Belongs to which Team
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Characteristics such has self health, collision responses
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Behavior towards other Projectiles, Stage Objects or Fighters
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Can it be reflected? How to switch Teams?
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Can be called again? Should be stored in a Pooling System?
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Behavior towards screen and stage limits; In what range should it be removed?
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Can it spawn other Companions, Fighters, Projectiles?
This list can go on and on. UF2D is there for you to handle such things. Hopefully you will see that there is nothing to fear and next sections will be more in-depth about using Unreal and UF2D!
Preparing the Editor Interface
Before we head out for next sections, it's better to arrange our Interface. Basic Unreal Interface lacks a few things so let's add them!
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First, we will add the FPS/Memory counter. If it is your first time opening up Unreal Engine, you will not have it on top right corner.
Here is how to do it: From "Edit" Menu on top left corner, select "Editor Preferences". Search for word "Memory" and toggle "Show Frame Rate and Memory" as shown below;
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Let's also bring the "Output Log" window. It is important to see warnings, errors and what's happening after all! To get it, go to "Window" tab on top left corner, mouse over to "Output Log" and grab the bad boy as shown below;
PS: Don't worry about the placement now. We will take care of it very soon!
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Unreal Engine 5 is made so Content Browsers are semi hidden for some reason. Let's change that.
It is time to get at least two "Content Browsers" so we can work in folders 2x more, plus have copy paste easier! Also we better have those two on the left side of the screen. You will know why soon!
To get a new Content Browser, go to "Window" tab again and select "Content Browser" from there, as shown below;
PS: You can move all windows by grabbing them via their upper left name tags by holding LMB. Once they get to a certain location, they will have a snap indicator that you can release the button you are holding so it gets locked there.
Feel free to check next section, which is the Unreal Interface here. Thank you for your time and reading!