Hello Guys,
How are you all, Hope you guys are doing good.
Before i start the review some verbose stuff, i would not recommend you to skip
For people those who don’t believe in purchasing books, below is a community page, i only use this when i am out of money.
The below content is for people those who like to improve themselves!!
Table of contents
Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games Unreal Engine 4 Game Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4 Introduction to C++ and Graphics
There is no substitute for hard work (Thomas Edison)
Production Pipeline Fundamentals for Film and Games :-
This Book is for people those who have interest in understanding industry workflow, anyone can start the book be it a beginner or a veteran, It makes point that you don’t feel lost or incapable of reading further. Even though the book is slightly old, it still makes relevant points, I mean it. The book is really thick and a comprehensive manual . It emphasizes on every department of the industry and person’s role managing the department, and yes there are even images in the books(lol). The book includes names of the industry veterans that explain each chapter or a paragraph, which makes it very useful, in case you want to search on internet. The book does a wonderful job of giving keywords and introducing topics which will help the upcoming TD’s and TA’s(check the book for difference) become eligible for the job. There are separate chapters for the VFX/Feature and Game dept to understand workflow in both the fields with diagrammatic representations. For someone who aspires to be a creator, go through this book, I can guarantee you it will be worth your while. My recommendation start a project and simultaneously read the book. You’ll be a force to be reckoned with. All the best.
Unreal Engine 4 Game Development in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself :-
Okay Hands down the best book to learn unreal in 24hrs!!! Yes this is my review. Okay I’ll elaborate, I spoke about this book in my previous post https://digdeeperts.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/unrealengine4-finally-started/ , i was starting out with unreal and posted immediately how? Learning from this book!!
This book has capability to turn you into an unreal wizard, I swear. But as the book is slightly old there is one chapter which is obsolete, please check the link.https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Sequencer/HowTo/MatineeConversionTool/index.html . None the less the book has Table of contents which gives instructions to even open a browser and download the engine, even an extreme newbie can start with this book literally, check it out. The book has tonnes of images for reference so that you don’t get lost in the unreal ui(honestly the ui is overwhelming). But just to be clear this is for starting with unreal and less about C++ and Blueprints. For example: If you have created a model and want to use unreal you can on a superficial level, like calling your animations, creating physics/fx, very basic shaders and rendering. Again this is a very comprehensive introductory book, don’t expect virtual production. Alot of departments are covered in the book, which makes it very useful. My recommendation read this book along with a specific topic that you like to explore indepth eg: shaders with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQG0SWv5lbw (courtesy Ben Cloward) and C++ with Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4, You’ll learn ui and as well the indepth concept win win. I dare you to finish it in 24hrs. All the best.
Learning C++ by Creating Games with UE4 :-
When you speak about games, Unreal, shaders etc., We have to speak about C++. So here it is. This book is one of my favourite book for C++ because unlike C++ books which are raw, overwhelming and thick has hell. This book is blessing in disguise, because over here author speaks mostly in reference to Unreal which makes the experience very exciting and fun. The book does become heavy after chapter 6, and author knows about that, he never forgets to encourage the reader(bonus). I would recommend to read Sams 24hrs book with this book after chapter 7, because the author dives deep into unreal engine, and uses the prior C++ preparations to create work. The book is superb for C++ beginners as well. This book is not a comprehensive guide for computer graphics or shader creation just a heads up, this is more about how C++ interacts with unreal. Give it a try. for chap 7 i would even recommend you to watch some videos on game mode as the book is a tad bit old in terms of unreal version(option names changes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtx4gv6OpLo , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gA7q5GD7Q
chap8-npc – https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/500218/view.html?sort=oldest
chap8-drawtext – https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/cant-get-drawtext-to-render-to-the-screen/11044/3
Introduction to C++ and Graphics :-
This book is not a very forgiving book. If you have not started the above books and are not familiar with math, please be patient, pick up terms, read the previous academic books or search on internet about the topics or else you’ll lose motivation to study. And on top of that there are a lot of errors in the book, that is unfortunate. But if you have done the above books you’ll be able to figure out and move on. The book gives a brief history on C++ and computer graphics which is cool but really advance. In the further chapters the book even shows you how to create a geometry using math(but need to be really patient), Matlab, and some small graphic modules. This is an introduction to math in graphics. Give it a try. (update: Few of the topics are outdated eg: 7th and 8th)
Thank you Guys, Be safe.
Dig_Deeper 