Getting into C++ with Unreal Engine - Part1 - Setting up

NOTE:

Anyone who cant find 'Universal Windows Platform Development' in the visual studio installer,
looks like MS renamed it and changed the icon.
Its now called 'Windows Application Development'

A couple of things were pointed out by Ari Arnbjörnsson, they are important considerations: at 14:46 I put a note on screen which basically implies you can use a TSharedPtr *instead* of UPROPERTY to keep an object from garbage collection, which is not really what I intended to say (although it says exactly that!), and is plainly WRONG ;-)

The second point is related to memory management, object lifetimes, and garbage collection, and relates to changes since UE5.0.
I have pinned Ari's comment, please check it out if you want to know more. And hopefully I will talk more about these things in a future video.

This video is the first part in a short series aimed at giving people who want to use C++ with the Unreal Engine a helping hand.
In this part, I go over installing the software you will need, setting up your development machine to allow you to work with C++ in unreal, and then I discuss the most common classes and features you may encounter while working on your projects.
I cover some basic things about how C++ projects work, to help people from a Blueprint background.
And I talk about some of the pitfalls that people who already have C++ experience might encounter, so that you can avoid them.

Links

Chapters
00:00 - Start
01:01 - Hardware Specs
01:45 - Epic Launcher
02:55 - IDE
04:35 - Rider
05:14 - Shill for the win!
05:45 - Project Structure
07:17 - If you already know C++
09:56 - C++ Standard Libraries
12:53 - C++ Macros
15:49 - Assets
17:58 - Split C++/BP Classes
21:01 - Code Modules
22:30 - Plugins
24:24 - Unreal Classes
26:10 - Common Unreal Classes
27:49 - GameMode
29:36 - GameMode Default Classes
34:23 - Summary

[arihunfjord]

Great tutorial, very comprehensive, clear and full of facts! Good work!
There are two things I'd like to correct though, you might want to fix and reupload:

09:35 - BeginPlay should generally be matched with EndPlay. World Partition keeps distant level cells around until garbage collection is triggered, meaning that level cells can be "revived" if the player goes close to them again before GC runs. That means actors can have their BeginPlay/EndPlay called multiple times before Destroy is called.
14:46 - TSharedPtr is only for FStructs, not UObject classes! It it will delete objects when its counter reaches zero. You should never delete UObjects in UE as only the GC should do it. Since it will delete UObjects without Unreal being notified, it will lead to hard-to-debug crashes when Unreal's GC also tries to delete them. Consider instead using Weak or Soft pointers.

[giver_up_top]

As a veteran C++ game dev that's new to Unreal, this video is gold. Thank you!

[spaaaaace]

This video is in the Goldilocks Zone of explanation. Not too advanced, and not too shallow. Having just started learning UE5 and C++ at the same time, it's all so overwhelming, but this helped a lot.

The humour is a more-than-welcome addition.

[SSnwx]

My god this series is pure gold. Thanks a lot for making these videos, they're really helping me out get into unreal

[MuhammadHassan-xvoo]

This is such a great resource, you actually simplified all of it so well. Subscribed!

[C.Sanjana]

This is best C++ Introduction, I finally got time to learn. Thanks!! I will keep up with the series

[doodle_]

As a hobbyist developer this tutorial has been insanely helpful to getting the core information that I need. Thank you!

[MidnightGameDev]

I just want to thank you for all the work you've put into these tutorials. Keep up the good work and all the best for you!

[slydeezthaname]

love this series. this is the first thing t0 get me up and running (coming from the unity engine). thanks!

[ChrixB]

Such a good overview of very complex and abstract concepts related to C++ and Unreal Engine workflow, thanks for doing it so well!

[k.engine]

I'm a beginner, so this video made it easier to understand UE's C++, as I learned about naming conventions and the roles each of.

[Tetribution]

Man, this is an amazing introduction! I've been looking for something a bit more comprehensive (but not so comprehensive that I get overwhelmed with terms I don't even know what means) and this is the perfect middle ground - You have an amazing style to introduce new things! Thank you!

[feralz_vox]

Hi! Your way of teaching is extremely good. The way you talk about how C++ and Blueprint combined work in Unreal Engine is exactly what I was looking for for a long time now.
As a NodeJS developer, I was wondering if I could ever find any exhaustive UE5 C++ starting point and here I am.
Thank you very much for your big efforts. Thumbs up!

[TheOneWithComments]

WOW that was dense. Thank you very much this series will be very helpful.

[steve_rico]

As someone who is looking to learn more about UE5 and C++'s role this series is gold.
Hope Dave likes his pink socks!

[mrSleepyguy]

Really great stuff! Thank you for taking the time to make this video

[veiledmelancholia]

I am so grateful I've found this series. Thank you so much.

[nairolfri]

I'm absolutely blasted by this video, it's exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the help ! I really appreciate it !

[dimokol]

Golden video/series! Thanks so much for making this it was exactly what I was looking for very helpful!!

[stef]

Confirming Quadri Production's comment: Really great content and exactly what I was looking for... Thank's a lot!