Quick Start Guide – Getting Started | Unreal Engine 5

In part one of this tutorial series, I will show you how to quickly get started using UE5 by learning the basics.

Downloading and Installing

The first step to using UE5 is downloading the engine

First, go to unrealengine.com and under Products, go to Unreal Engine 5

Click on the Download Now button

Make sure you check the license and FAQ

You need to first download the Launcher and install it

You will need to make an Epic Games Account if you don’t already have one

Once the Launcher is installed, you can click on the Install Engine button in the upper-right of the Launcher

Epic Games Launcher

The Epic Games Launcher  is a hub for everything you do with Epic Games

The News section offers information about Epic Games and Unreal Engine

The Samples section offers free sample projects that can be used within Unreal Engine

                                                           

The Marketplace tab is where you can purchase and download add-ons, projects, and assets

In case you do not know, Epic Games offers free Marketplace assets each month

Twinmotion is a visualization tool that you can also download from the Epic Games Launcher

We won’t be using this software right now but I do have plans for future tutorials

The Library tab is where your Engine Versions, Projects, and Vault live

You can launch Unreal Engine from the desktop icon but I recommend doing so from the Launcher so you are made aware of any updates to the Engine or your add-ons

Starting a Project

To start a new Unreal Engine project, click on the Launch button in the upper-right of the Launcher

If you have multiple versions installed, you can either click Launch on the individual icons or use the dropdown menu of the Launch button

Once Unreal Engine is launched, you will see the Unreal Project Browser

Here you can access Recent Projects

You can also access templates for Games, Film/Video and Live Events, Architecture, Automotive Product Design and Manufacturing, and Simulations

For this tutorial, we will be using a Games template

Under the Games option, choose the Blank template

Select your Project Location (this will be a large file so make sure you have enough space)

Give your Project a name (no spaces or dashes are allowed but you can use an underscore)

If you are going to be doing any coding, you can choose to use either Blueprint (which is a visual coding language) or C++

We will just leave this on Blueprint for this tutorial

Choose a Target Platform – Desktop or Mobile

In this case, we will leave it as Desktop

The Quality Preset can be either Maximum or scalable

For this tutorial, we can leave it as Maximum

We do want some Starter Content for this tutorial

You can enable Raytracing if you wish

When you have everything set up, click on Create

You are now in Unreal Engine and ready to work

If any of you are coming from UE4, you will notice some differences in the default UI

At the bottom left of the window, you will see your Content Drawer, which can be accessed either by clicking on the icon or using CTRL + SPACEBAR

For me, I like to pin the Content Drawer just to make life a bit easier

With the Content Drawer open, all the way on the right you will see an option to Dock in Layout

The Content Drawer then becomes the Content Browser – you can still resize it as needed

Navigation

If you click on the Icon in right corner (grid), you have the ability to see all four views

This can come in handy to quickly change your view

To select a view, in our case, the Perspective View, click on the box icon in the upper-right corner

You also have the option of changing the view with the dropdown menu in the upper-left

For anyone who is used to using the WASD keys for gaming, you have that option to move around in UE5

Hold down the RMB and use W to move forward, A to move to the left, S to move backward, and D to move to the right

Combining the RMB and the E-key, you can move up

The RMB and the Q-key move your actors down

If you are not a gamer or just not comfortable using these hotkeys, there is another option

You can hold down the LMB and move the mouse forward and backward to move back-and-forth in the level

Using the LMB and moving the mouse side-to-side will rotate around the level

Holding down the MMB and moving the mouse, allows you to freely pan

Scrolling the MMB will allow you to zoom in-and-out

Alternatively, you can hold down ALT RMB and move the mouse to zoom

Holding down the RMB allows you to freely pivot around the camera

Using ALT LMB, allows you to pivot around a selection

If you left-click to select an Actor, and then click on the F-key, you can frame the selected Actor

Transformation

There are four basic Transformation Gizmos in UE5 – Select, Move, Rotate, and Scale

Double-click on the Starter Content folder to open it

Then double-click on the Props folder to open it

This is where your Starter Content lives

Select the Chair by using your LMB and drag it into the Level

*Note: Any object that can be placed within a Level in UE5 is considered an “Actor” – this can be seen in the Outliner where the Chair is a “Static Mesh Actor”

The arrow icon is the Selection Tool

Left-clicking on an Actor will select it

The hotkey for Selection, is Q

Next is the Move Tool – the hotkey is W

We can move the Actor along any of the three Axes by using the arrows of the Gizmo – red for the X-Axis, green for the Y-Axis, and blue for the Z-axis

If you select the center of the Move Tool, you can freely move the Actor in any direction

If you select the blue plane, notice how the Y-Axis and Z-Axis arrows both highlight

This means that you can move the Actor along both the Y- and Z-Axis

If you select the green plane (between the green and red arrows), you can move the Actor along both the X- and Y-Axis

If you select the red plane (between the red and blue arrows), you can move the Actor along both the X- and Z-Axis

A hotkey that will save you a lot of frustration is the END key

If you move the Chair up along the Z-Axis so it is hovering in space, you can then use the END key to snap the Actor back to the ground

The E-key is the hotkey for the Rotate Tool

Just like the Move Tool, you can rotate the Actor around individual Axes

CTRL Z is the undo key

The R-key is the hotkey for the Scale Tool

Once again, you can Scale along an individual axis just like the other Tools

If you select the center of the Scale Tool, you can scale the Actor proportionally

If you select the intersecting lines between the different Axes, you can Scale the Actor along two of the three Axes at once

Next to these Tools, you will see an icon of a globe – this toggles between World Space and Local Space

If you choose the Rotate Tool (E), and rotate the Chair, notice that it rotates according to World Space – that is, according to the World Axes

If you click on the icon and change to Local Space, notice that the Rotate Tool Gizmo changed

This means that you are now rotating in Local Space – that is, rotating according to the Chair’s Local Axes

Click on the icon to go back to World Space

Notice that when you use the Move Gizmo to move the Chair, it is stuttering – this is due to snapping

Snapping to the Grid is automatically turned on by default

You can turn it off by clicking on the Snapping Tool icon

You can also change the Position Grid Snap Value to a larger or smaller Value

UI

On the right-side of the Level Viewport is the Outliner

Anyone who has used Blender will be familiar with an Outliner

This is the area where you can see all of the Content currently within the Level

You can select and deselect Content in the Outliner

You can hide and unhide Content by using the eyeball to the left of the Content name

You can pin Content in the Level so it cannot be Rotated, Scaled, or Moved

To unpin the Content, simply select it

You are also able to double-click on the Content Name and frame it within the Level Viewport

You can also select Content and use F2 to rename it

You can keep things a lot tidier by selecting Content and placing it within folders

Right-click in the Outliner to make a new Folder and name it

Then select your Content with the LMB and drag it into the folder

Below the Outliner is the Details Panel – the options will change depending upon the Actor you have selected

We will be exploring this in more detail in later tutorials

For now, just be aware that if you want to change the Location, Rotation, or Scale, you can do so under the Transform section

The Curved Arrow icons to the right of the Value field will reset the Location and Rotation of the selected Content

Importing Static Meshes

I will quickly show you how to import your own Actors into UE5

First, open the Content folder, right-click and make a new Folder

Rename the Folder to whatever makes sense to you

Open the new Folder since this is where you can import an FBX file that you already have access to – in my case, I will use a maul from a previous tutorial

You can simply drag-and-drop the FBX file into the Folder

You will see a pop-up menu for FBX Import Options

Right now, you can leave everything at default and click on Import

You can just ignore these errors for now

*Note: If you are using Blender, when you export the FBX, under the Geometry panel and under the Smoothing dropdown menu, choose Face – this means you won’t receive a smoothing error in UE5

One of the errors I received was about the wood texture

If I double-click on the Wood material in the Folder, notice that the Base Color is missing

I select the Parameter node and Delete it

I can then drag-and-drop my Wood Color Texture into the Folder

I then drag-and-drop the Color Texture into the Material Window

I connect it to the Base Color

Then I click on Apply and Save

Now my maul is correctly textured

You also have access to Quixel Megascans from within UE5

Under the Window dropdown menu, choose Quixel Bridge

Under 3D Assets, go to Props

Then choose a Prop from the list

Select the Quality and click on Download

Once it is downloaded, click on Add

Back in UE5, notice that you have a new Megascans Folder with your downloaded Prop

Now all you need to do is select the Static Mesh Actor and drag it into the Level Viewport

To bring in Actors from the Epic Games Marketplace, open the Window dropdown menu and choose Open Marketplace

Under the Free dropdown menu, select Permanently Free

Select a Pack and click on Add to Cart

Click on the Cart icon and Checkout

Under the Library tab, find the Asset Pack and choose Add to Project

Select your Project and click on Add to Project

Now you have a new Folder containing the Asset Pack

Open the Folder and find the Mesh Folder

Open the Folder and choose a mesh you want to import

Now, as you did with the Quixel Megascans, drag-and-drop the Actor into the Level Viewport You can also access the options for Quixel Megascans and Epic Games Marketplace under the Add to Project icon

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.