2 ‐ Project Creation
- Launch UE (Unreal Engine) from the ‘Library’ tab in the Epic Games Launcher
- Select: Games-> Blank-> C++
- Name project and save to a location.
- Then click Create.
- This will create a new Unreal Engine project.
- This will take some time to create. Be patient. If after a couple minutes the project screen freezes or gives an error message, open it in Visual Studio by the link on the error message or using the file in the project’s file explorer (covered more in “File Navigation” section)
- Now find your project name on the right-side window, right click, and select ‘Rebuild.’
- This will rebuild your new project and fix the corrupted files. This can take some time to finish.
- Once it’s finished you can open your project either from the Epic Games Launcher or by opening the Unreal Engine application from in the project file.
- Xcode should automatically start and set up the project files. This should take awhile, perhaps 10-20 minutes. You can see what Xcode is working on in the top right-hand corner of the center screen.
- Once Xcode says "Ready" you can build the project by selecting Product -> Build.
- Once this is complete, Xcode should be linked to your project successfully. You can now close Xcode and the UE project. You will need to open and edit both of these in the future.
- You can open the UE project by double-clicking the .uproject file in the project folder.
- You can open the Xcode project by double-clicking the (Mac).xcworkspace file in the project folder.
- The first time your project opens it will have to compile shaders. This can take some time. Luckily, it only needs to do this once and subsequent openings will be much quicker.
- Depending on your computer’s graphics, you may be prompted to upgrade your graphic drivers during startup. You can upgrade if desired, otherwise, most of time it’s fine to select ‘No’.
- The left-hand side menu is where you can add assets to your project such as actors and pawns.
- The right-hand side menu is where you’ll find all your items that are apart of your sim. Clicking on an asset will bring up a details menu below.
- At the top is the blueprint menu where you can open or edit blueprints or change your Gamemode Blueprint
- Pressing CTRL and spacebar simmultaneously will bring up the Content Browser at the bottom of the screen. This gives you access to all your simulator files for easy access and adding by dragging assets in.
- The ‘Settings’ tab on the upper right side is where you’ll find the world and project settings.
Project Settings contains many setting options including ‘Input’. Input is where you define inputs from a device to use as your sim controls.
- You can interact with your sim by clicking on the display screen and using these button inputs:
- Left-click: Select object
- Hold Right-click: Pan
- Hold Right-click + (W,A,S, or D) to move around
- Hold Middle Mouse Button for small movements
- You can adjust your travel speed with the camera speed at the top right of the screen.
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You have access to all your files in the file explorer. The image shown should look similar to your project, but not identical as there are additional files present in the example.
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Double clicking on the blue, Unreal Engine Project will launch your project.
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Clicking on the .sln file will open Visual Studio.
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This is where you will be able to change your blueprints and classes in the C++ code. This is how we will implement physics and aerodynamic models, control systems, and aircraft specifications.
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You can see I have my Aircraft class opened. (My sim’s physics model)
- Going back to your file explorer, in your ‘Content’ folder is where you’ll find all your assets. This is essentially your Content Browser in Unreal Engine from before.
