I tried a hybrid approach where I implement low level stuff on CPP and high level on Blueprints. However, Blueprints are really not stable. For one they break if you make any refactoring in CPP code while other CPP code gets automatically refactored. Second, even for simple stuff CPP code seems to be better organized than blueprints. Third you can get various problems with blueprints when making version upgrades but CPP is almost always flawless. I once spend 2 days fixing a blueprint related problem that occurred on version upgrade, and fix was appearantly "renaming variable to something, compiling it and renaming it back to its original name" So yeah, now I'm just slapping CPP at everything I can wtih minimal blueprint interactions. Not because i'm "real programmer that does everything on CPP" but because I had much more stable experience working with CPP than blueprints. I still setup paths and references by extending classes via blueprint. I just try to keep blueprint "code" to minimal. I wish there was a way to "code" blueprints. Blueprints are in background just code organized in graphical manner, It shouldn't be too difficult to expose underlying code in a nice manner in text form for us to write blueprint scripts. I really like the concept of having high level scripting language and low level C++ for performance but I don't think blueprints - from programming perspective - work that well. Stuff that I can code in 20 lines of CPP end up taking massive visual area and turn into spaghetti with blueprints. Yes my lack of visual organization has role to play on that as well but still. I really wish we had Python instead of blueprint

@AlexForsythe

3 жыл бұрын

This is a well-thought-out, reasonable comment. I held pretty much this exact opinion earlier in my career, and I still agree with a lot of your points today, so my response is "here's some additional food for thought" rather than "go to hell you're wrong." First, just to get the obligatory cranky-old-man, you-don't-know-how-bad-we-had-it talk out of my system: Blueprints have come a long way since their initial launch, and they're remarkably stable these days. Don't believe me? Go back to Unreal 4.1 and try working with Blueprint interop! Back then, the editor crashed if you looked at it sideways! You don't know how bad we had it! ...OK, sorry about that. On to some real points. Anyone who's ever made C++ changes only to have the editor crash when loading a Blueprint can understand what you're talking about re: Blueprints feeling unstable. If you're one of those people, and you only take one thing away from this comment, make it this: Core Redirects. docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/ProgrammingWithCPP/Assets/CoreRedirects/index.html If you refactor something in C++ that has downstream dependencies in Blueprints, then you just slap a line or two into the [CoreRedirects] section of DefaultEngine.ini to record the old and new paths/names for the classes/properties/functions/etc. that you've renamed or moved. The Engine takes care of the rest: all references (including references from Blueprints to native types) go through this automatic translation process and will be seamlessly fixed up. That's a very simple, straightforward fix that applies to the majority of cases where you need to preserve Blueprint compatibility in response to C++ changes. If you find working in C++ to be fun and carefree and light-as-a-feather, only to be crushed by the sudden thought of "oh god, but what's going to break in Blueprints if I make this change," then you need CoreRedirects in your life. There *are* other cases besides simple renaming/moving, where you might have to do something slightly more involved, like deprecating old properties and patching their values into new properties on PostLoad, or, in rare cases, attaching a debugger to figure out why something's crashing on load. These are costs of a workflow that supports Blueprints. These are also important skills to have. You just have to weigh those costs honestly, and you have to appreciate and learn those skills. After that, the decisions are yours to make. I've seen people who are weirdly, counterproductively resistant to Blueprints because they got frustrated with these sorts of issues and just decided "I know C++; I don't need to bother with Blueprints ever again." I nearly fell into that trap earlier in my career. The problem with that line of thinking is that it stops you from learning *why* those issues are happening and learning *how* to anticipate and avoid them, and it biases what should be an objective decisionmaking process. You're not doing anything wrong by choosing to use C++ for most things, as long as you're not insisting on using C++ for things that it's objectively ill-suited for (direct asset references, scripted sequences, etc.), and as long as you're not hamstringing Blueprint-savvy people on your team by yanking tools out of their hands. The workflow you're describing (i.e. a thin layer of Blueprints on top of mostly C++, where Blueprints handle asset references and visual details but have minimal gameplay-relevant logic) sounds pretty much like the workflow that traditionally-organized gamedev studios tend to use. There are plenty of good reasons why that's a common approach. Based on your comment, it sounds like your reasoning isn't "Blueprints are terrible," it's just "I have weighed the costs and this is the workflow that makes the most sense for what I'm doing." More power to you - my only advice is to make sure you're keeping an open mind and reevaluating based on your continually evolving understanding of how things work *now*, not based purely on past experiences.

@Navhkrin

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexForsythe I truly appreciate the information and thanks for the answer! Going into the future, I will keep your valuable advices in mind and I agree that I shouldn't just ditch blueprints because I had bad experience with them but instead try to learn and understand root of these issues so that I can become a better engineer.

@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist

3 жыл бұрын

​@@SomeKindOfMattias As of C++17/20, how much easier is it to write higher-level expressive code in C++?

@SomeKindOfMattias

3 жыл бұрын

​@@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist I'm far from an expert in C++, coming from C# fairly recently. That being said, you can use things like templates, but not expose to blueprints (I think they're working on better template support). Subsystems are great for abstraction out aspects of a system. Gameplay Tags are awesome for a host of things. n general though it's more about knowing a and implementing design patterns, and that doesn't requite much from the actual language

@majormalfunction0071

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexForsythe I'd have to back up OP here. Extending Blueprints in C++ seems really interesting, and is something I plan to support in my own engine. Well, something like it, not Unreal's Blueprints, but a visual scripting compiler that you can hack at in C. Something for UI specifically. It would be nice to have a more powerful scripting language to handle asset references and gameplay code like you mention. The only problem I've heard of wrt Blueprints is performance at scale. Doing *everything* in Blueprints has a performance cost, but most may not see it AFAIK.

This is like watching the Bob Ross of unreal engine.

@lawendt

3 жыл бұрын

second that

@-abs-

3 жыл бұрын

Everything about this video is a masterpiece! The voice, the video animations, and obviously this immense knowledge about Unreal Engine. Thank you.

@gabek5760

3 жыл бұрын

Couldn't have put it any better... Well besides for him not saying, 'Happy lil rockets' or whatever

@necrago

2 жыл бұрын

@@-abs- it feels like Bruce Wayne is giving you a lesson on business.

@khronos142

2 жыл бұрын

nailed it

The quality of this video is exceptional, the pacing is incredible, the information is invaluable, and your explanations and included examples are extremely helpful. I am so glad I found this video, and I still can't believe that this quality of video is available for free. Thanks for making this.

I pray you're at LEAST the head of engineering at your company. So few people have the capacity to delivery complex topics this coherently.

You make the best content by an extremely large margin, and this includes the official UE4 stuff imo :D

I'm really glad you humored the "real programmer" because I never saw the real value of blueprints until this video.

@gamescreator5040

3 жыл бұрын

totally agree

@chancylvania

3 жыл бұрын

Have you tried using c++ with UI vs the UMG editor?

@morderus0033

3 жыл бұрын

@@chancylvania UI with UMG seems waaaay bad-optimized, but I don't care too much about the overall performance impact. In fact, I prefer to use both C++ and BP when I'm working with UI.

@chancylvania

3 жыл бұрын

@@morderus0033 why does it seem badly optimized? I’m talking about the widget UI bp object you can create. Maybe the UMG editor is something different

@morderus0033

3 жыл бұрын

@@chancylvania maybe I am not the best programmer, neither have the best practices, but doing a Main Menu using only blueprints causes the game to crash or just bug, if I try to do something more complex

I was under the assumption that all functionality was better in c++. I’m glad you explained use cases of blueprints that are more than FX. This was amazing.

@izvarzone

2 жыл бұрын

I would prefer C++ a lot more if not super long compile times. Until I buy better CPU at least even then still blueprints would be faster to compile. But lot of node spaghetti can be fixed with C++ too. So best is use both.

This video is so high quality, I've never seen such a high quality video before explaining UE topics. Please guys, give him at least one month of patreon support! I'll be doing it now too. (edit it's actually per release of video, not per month)

This is amazing

I learned more from this 45 minute video than Ive learned from hours of other tutorials. thank you

If 5% of youtube would be structured like this, gaming industry would be so much better, specially for indie dev teams.👍

At exactly :29 into this video I saw a Cursor duplicate and someone started writing two functions at once and knew I had stumbled onto something special here. How does this have so few views?! This is the single best unreal video I've seen (and yes I'm including their official videos in that comparison). The production quality, pacing, everything is A+ top tier. For the love of God I hope you keep making these--this channel deserves way more credit than it's getting currently.

Best Unreal Engine teacher! Can’t explain how good this videos are. Best mix of “How’s made” tv show and game development 😆

This video is incredible! It answers a vast array of questions about game development in UE4, all in a compact packaging. The voice of the narrator is pleasant, the animations are extremely good and fit the content perfectly and the subjects that are covered are exactly what I was looking for. Look no further! All the answers to your questions as a beginner game developer in Unreal are here!

As a beginner in Unreal Engine . I needed this today . Vielen Dank !

Uhhh. This is the best unreal engine video on the internet. You are amazing, dude.

I came here to learn about the differences and benefits, specific to unreal. I ended up learning things that change the way I think and create as a programmer in general. Thanks!

Your content is unbelievably unique. There is quite literally nothing like it. Nor the quality you produce. You're the Bob Ross of unreal engine. Losing you is the day we all lose a part of unreal engine.

This video is so well written that even though I have no experience in game development and Unreal, I left the video with a general superficial understanding of game architecture, C++ and Unreal in less than an hour, even if that wasn't the focus of the video. Literally one of the best educational videos I've ever watched on KZread, in general.

Another advantage of C++ vs Blueprints: game debuggability outside of Editor. This is a major one for me, importance of this grows with the scale of the project and the number of supported platforms. You won't be able to debug blueprints directly anywhere outside of Editor.

Best dang UE channel on KZread. Thank you for everything you do!

i have been waiting for years for something like this. Bravo

I really appreciate the effort into the video editing quality as well as the structure of the content. Please continue creating more content, you're doing great work!

This entire playlist is pure gold, thank you!

Exceptionally good video! I'm so glad to see someone talking about a game engine who has both comprehension of software engineering concepts and the ability to explain them in a relatable manner. I'd certainly love to see more content with this tone.

One of the best videos on Unreal I have ever watched, extremely well done

This video was so freaking good. Thanks for taking the time to make this!

Good grief this is one of the most beautiful explanations of anything ever. Such great helpful visual aids. You've taken a topic that is a really tricky one for beginner/intermediate unreal users to understand and spelled it out in elegant simplicity. Thank you so much. Please do more tutorials. I hope you can monetize in some way. Would love to support you creating content like this!

That's the kind of explanation I have been looking for years! Thank you!

This channel is a gold mine. 10/10. I hope you continue to create content for the community. It's not easy to find decent tutorials like this on the internet

By far one of the best explanations I've seen. I'd love to see a production quality build along series. It's rare to see these types of videos with proper code architecture using modules etc.

This was easily the most informative video that I've ever watched. Not only did you explain blueprints and cpp well (where I literally don't do game design and only web apps with JS), but you introduced and explained game development philosophies that I've inferred or heard about, but in a way I can tangibly understand how to apply to my projects. You have provided me with invaluable information that I literally could never even get a glimpse of with Unity because of their tutorials. I am very excited to start playing with Unreal and this only helped. Thank you.

Awesome video as always! Very detailed and in-depth. This is the quality that only few people achieve with their tutorials. Keep up good work! :)

OMG, this is the best visual lecture on c++& UE4 I ever seen in my life. A truly masterpiece. linking your explanation with visual animation of "what it mean and how it work" make your point more clear than reading thousand & watching 100 hours of udemy ,I'm god damn serious. YOU ARE THE BEST . I can't wait for future uploads

This is exactly what I was looking for, I am new to unreal and got some basic clarification about Blueprint VS C++ but now it's all clear! great work thank you!

This is the single most valuable UE video on youtube. Thank you.

Stunningly professional and valuable explanation.

Quick, clear and awesome video

All the reference material included in this is amazing...thanks for all the effort.

One of the best coding explanation video ive seen in a long time, good job!

Incredible video Alex, thanks for creating and sharing this!

Thank you, amazing breakdown. Had me glued for every second of the video!

Incredible video! Well played!

Been at this for a long time and this is genuinely the clearest and most informative video i've seen pertaining to coding in Unreal

Thank you for adding subtitles.

This may be the highest quality educational video I have ever seen on KZread. It is extremely well researched, edited, and illustrated. This is not your typical KZread fare. Thank you.

Hello Alex, I am a Unity dev' learning Unreal and I wanted to let you know that you did a wonderful job teaching how C++ and Blueprints should/can be used in a project. I thank you very much for sharing your knowledge on this, and doing it in the cleanest and most understandable way I could imagine ! Have a great day and thank you again !

This is exactly the kind of videos I want to watch! Finally!

This was beautifully illustrated. Thanks!

High quality, informative, entertaining video. 10/10

This is the most informative, educational video I have ever experienced on KZread, by FAR. Thank you for your time and work put into this content. I have learned a TON!

This may be the nicest looking engine tutorial I've ever seen. SUPER high quality.

The best video that I've seen so far about the c++/blueprint topic, thank you so much, I learned really a lot!

You should really do more videos with topics like this. One of the best KZread channels for learning Unreal here. Really appreciated!

This is such a well-researched, well-organized video that covers everything I wanted to know (and more) coming from Unity. Thank you for all the hard work you clearly put into this.

Just had to leave a comment about how well this video is edited and presented. Incredible visuals, flow, visibility, explanation....This must have taken days to edit. Thank you so much!

Absolutely amazing video!

This is one of the best technical videos I’ve ever seen

Best explanation I've come across, thank you 😊

Honestly this is one of the most informative and best videos I have ever seen about Unreal Engine.

Best video ending the debate on C++ vs Blueprints I have ever seen, thanks for all the effort put in this video.

UNBELIEVABLE. Just an incredible master class on what a masterclass should look like.

That's the most amazing video I have ever seen on this topic. Really professional and well put together. It felt like stealing by watching this for free. Thank you so much!

Thank you for creating this video 🙏

This video is amazing. Thanks a lot for this explicit demonstration! Bravo

Underrated, this is one of the best general game design videos I’ve ever watched and teaches fundamentals that are never normally taught but are extremely important.

I can't believe this video exists. Never in my life have I found a more clear, concise, well laid out and enjoyable explanation than in this video. Thank you Alex!

Your videos have been extremely helpful to me. Thank you for spending the time to create such high quality content!

I wish I would have seen this video years ago. I learned more with this one video than I did in the last year of tutorials. Thanks

Amazing explanation, excellent editing, thanks so much for making this available for free.

Man, you nailed this breakdown/comparison perfectly! I was a little hazy on the details up until now, but your video really cleared things for me, so thank you!

Thanks for making these videos, it's like an unexpected gift during a long and hard road.

A very articulate video about a topic difficult to summarize, with production quality off the charts. Good job :)

This is probably the most useful video on Unreal that I've seen since I first started learning a year ago.

As everyone else has said: phenomenal work. You’ve done an outstanding job explaining a variety of topics. Thank you very much for your work!

Incredible content! Very clear & concise - keep it up!

Fantastic video, very detailed!

crazy good production quality and extremely informative

Absolutely fantastic video, clear concise and well relayed information. Thank you and keep it up!

This is insane quality, wow! Great Job, thanks for sharing this valuable information for free!

This video was super useful for me!! I'm a hobbyist who's learning C++ after already understanding blueprints, this video actually gives me a great base of understanding for what each is used for and where to start. The direct comparisons were especially helpful. Subbed.

I'm half way in and I already wish I could like this twice. I wish I had a teacher like you years sooner. I'm a software developer dipping my toe into games and your explanations of low level code execution and architecture are just perfect - and the animations seal the deal. Impressive stuff!

Excellent video. Honestly, the best educational content that I have ever seen for Unreal Engine 4; bar none.

That was really fantastic! These playlist is a hidden treasure.

Excellent explanation! Thank you so much.

I got my first AAA job back then thanks to you and your MOBU tutorials. Now history repeats with Unreal engine. Thank you a lot!

I am forever grateful for sharing these videos about the architecture of a video game and about how UE works in general. Every time I decided to start a project, I had exactly these questions: - How can I make sure that my code is clean, maintainable and scalable? - When should I use blueprints? - What design patterns are commonly used in a video game? - How do I organize my project? - How do I refactor a Blueprint to C++? - How do large companies handle huge and complex projects? All that and more has been explained in your videos, facing all the problems and with examples. I believe that any programmer has his mentor, for me, it's you. I'm speechless, thank you...

Love what you're doing! Unreal c++ was in need of this kind of content!

By far the best explanation video for C++ and BP. Thank you.

This is the most informative and best presented game Dev channel on KZread. Thank you!

Good video that allows you to understand different perspectives on when to use Blueprints and when to use C++ (or both)

Amazing work, thank you!

I must say that's a very professionally made video. Well structured, well narrated, cool motion graphics. And it's very useful for me.

I never subscribe to any channel, I just subscribed to this channel very well done I needed this years ago, Thank you!

Exceptionally well done. Thank you

One of the best videos Ive ever seen on youtube

Wonderful explanation!

Wow, so much substance. Thank you sir!

Phenomenal tutorial.

Alex, I am just starting my journey into Unreal, and I am so grateful for this specific video. Trying to wrap my head around not only learning a new language, a new FRAMEWORK with that language (Unreal C++), and then also trying to figure out how to split between C++ and BP in my project... it was pretty overwhelming and I almost gave up a few times after some unproductive nights. This video (and lots of answered questions on the forums) help me get me past my hump. I've rewatched this multiple times and found something that I had missed the first time and had a better understanding of it. I don't have anything new to add to the conversation, just a massive THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge. :)