C++ in Unreal Learning Journey

Week Overview Project Update #5: Unreal Applications The end of the semester approaches! As all of my courses are now in final project/exam mode, I've had significantly less time to work on this project. As a result, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to, but I'll have a lot more time than normal this week as classes are no longer in session.

Week Overview Project Update #4: Short Holiday Update As this week was a break for RIT, I headed home and spent time with my family which means I only had a short amount of time to work on this project. I finished off the Object-Oriented Design map, and I'm ready to start on the Unreal Applications map next week.

Week Overview Project Update #3: Objects & Orienting This week was primarily focused on the Object-Oriented Design map. I split the map into three rooms: Object-Oriented Programming Principles, Object-Oriented Design Strategies, and Object-Oriented Programming in C++. This map is by far the smallest as the majority of this study was focused on C++ and I have a pretty solid base knowledge of OOP, but I still wanted to go over the principles of the paradigm as well as some interesting bits of knowledge from the semester.

Week Overview Project Update #2: Done With The Basics Now that last week's work setting up all of the templates, blueprints, and layouts that I need is done, I'm able to start rapidly producing modules for my maps. I'm happy with how it's turning out, and while I've needed to reword a few modules multiple times to get them feeling and reading the way I want them to be, I think I've got a good workflow down.

Week Overview Project Update #1: Foundations It begins! The final project for this independent study has started. To reiterate from previous posts, the project is aimed at demonstrating what I've learned over the course of the study and will do so by implementing a custom version of the Unreal Content Examples maps from Epic Games.

Learned This Week Overview Wow, week 10! This semester has absolutely blown by, and while I feel I've learned a lot, there's certainly more out there for me to explore. However, I've come to the end of my structured learning for this study. While I'll keep learning and looking around for further resources to help me along my journey, no further course materials will be discussed in the next blog posts for this semester.

Learned This Week Overview We're in the home stretch of learning now! I finished up the Balancing Blueprint & C++ course this week which just leaves the rest of the GameDev.tv course to finish up before I begin my final project for my independent study.

Learned This Week Overview This week was primarily focused on the benefits of C++ over blueprint and the performance differential between the two. We had fall break this week (yay!) so the information covered in the lessons this week was less than normal.

Learned This Week Overview A lot of this week's learning centered around physics handles and physics simulations, as well as how those simulations can be accessed, triggered, and manipulated by C++. As I continue to learn more and more, it seems like the most complex thing I've come across is how to get a hold of a pointer or reference to an actor or component in C++.

Learned This Week Overview This week saw the beginning of one course and the end of another. I got to learn about some interesting parallels between the Unreal C++ code and the blueprint side of things by looking at metadata, structs, and binding user input. Because I'm familiar and comfortable with blueprint scripting, it's neat to learn about the code behind it - for instance, why the Development Only warning appears on the Print String and Print Text nodes.

Learned This Week Overview While this week was primarily focused on reading documentation from the Epic Games Unreal docs which repeated information I already learned, it was helpful to read through it to provide additional cementing in my noggin.

Learned This Week Overview Finishing up the C++: Advanced Topics LinkedIn Learning course, this week was centered around more complex facets of C++ along with some of the Unreal foundational concepts. Smart Pointers seem like a great investment to make within projects in order to help avoid memory leaks, and Move Semantics are a very neat alternative to the traditional copy method for data manipulation.

Learned This Week Overview Learning about classes in class! C++ is a language with extensive support for object-oriented programming, and classes are extremely flexible within it. Overloading, overriding, and multiple inheritance, oh my! Although unfortunately some features like constructor overloading aren't usable with Unreal, learning how C++ can utilize principles of OOP to a great extent was very helpful for me, and I expect it to be as I move into learning more with Unreal and C++.

Learned This Week Overview It's week 2, and I've focused this week on Object-Oriented Programming and how it applies to C++ (classes, objects, inheritance, etc). Finishing up the C++ Essential Training LinkedIn course, I learned helpful information about classes and templates in C++, as well as how to use constructors, destructors, and overloading to achieve a lot of usability and flexibility for classes.

Introduction/Purpose of This Blog About Me Nice to meet you! My name is Aidan Grant, and I'm studying (or, depending on when you're reading this, have finished my studies in) 3D Digital Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I'm taking on an independent study focusing on the integration of C++ and the Unreal Engine.