Using UE4

Unreal Engine Website

Why Unreal Engine 4?

I've decided to use UE4 as the engine to render my assets & scenes in because of the following reasons.

• UE4 is one of the newer game engines released earlier this year, making it one of the most up-to-date game engines to be using.
• It will be beneficial for me to learn and understand how to use the tools within this engine, giving me valuable experience and opening up possibility when looking for jobs in the industry.
• Its a real time render so I will be showcasing the end result of the assets and scenes as it would be represented in the actual game.
• Its good practice to be showcasing your models and environments from real-time renders as it shows the viewer the actual quality of the image rather than added details that would not be present in the actual finish produce.

Whats Changed?

With the latest release of Unreal Engine (4), there have been several changes to some important factors within the engine. Most of these changes have been done to simplify the user interface and the usability of the engine to new and experienced users alike.

1uu = 1cm

• UE3 unit scale was 1uu = 2cm, this made using there grid system easier but caused issues when scaling assets and creating assets off the grid system. Using a 1:1 ratio and creating the grid to use this ratio will make planning and the implementation of assets into the engine much faster and easier.
• Using centimeters will give designers and artists a much more accurate way to create there scene's and give them a lot more control on how it is built. The example of ft to cm is very accurate and will be used as a guide to scaling, so I will use a rounded up version of the centimeters when using UE4.

Collision Naming : UCX_

• This is the exact same naming convention used for UE3 when importing a custom collision mesh into the engine.

Interface

• The user interface of UE4 is vastly different from is previous version. They've gone to great lengths to simplify and organize the engine to be much more user friendly. The navigation of the engine world space is similar to 3D modelling software which makes it much easier to use when switching between programs.

Tutorials

There's a vast amount of information on the Unreal Engine 4 which was released at the same time as the engine. This information was released by Unreal to serve as the main information hub for all things UE4, this includes their YouTube channel, Wiki & Answer Hub which covers everything from the very basic's of the engine to the most advanced systems and operations.

• Lightmaps & Rendering -
• There is documentation on the Wiki that goes over lighting options and techniques in UE4 and I'll be referring back to this information once I've started to think about putting my assets into the engine.
• Materials - 
•  The Unreal YouTube channel has a collection of tutorials going over material editing and creation which goes over the basic's and more advance techniques used in the industry.

Summary

References 

Epic. (2014). Unreal Engine Tutorials. Available: https://www.youtube.com/user/UnrealDevelopmentKit. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.

 

Epic. (2014). Unreal Engine 4 Documentation. Available: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.