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How hard is it to learn in a professional environment ?
I would probably pick it up as part of a seasoned team.
There are a few jobs offer close to home with this requirement.
It's for a local game company (with all the good and bad things it comes with, at least it's not UbiSoft or EA ... so)
I'm off to watch some tutorials now, but would like to know some real life experiences.
Thanks.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Like anything else, it's about understanding their "object model" (IMO). For whatever reason, I found Unity more inviting. (More C# examples?)
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Maximilien wrote: It's for a local game company
Just noting that rather than the engine you might want to look at the history of game company longevity. At least if that matters for your career.
For me looking at it seems like a lot of them don't last very long.
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The company is from 1992. It's well established.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Sorry man, wish I could help. If you make like a 3D Tetris clone while learning though, let us know. 
Jeremy Falcon
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I came to UE4 (Unreal Engine 4) with over 20 years programming experience, mostly using C in graphics, CAD (Computer Aided Design) and mapping applications.
I was the first person in our organisation to use UE4. It was my job to assess it's suitability as a new development platform in addition to the two CAD applications we already use: MicroStation and AutoCAD. We liked having access to the source code and that UE4 is multi-platform. The UE4 documentation also looked better than the Unity documentation.
The bad news is that starting from scratch it took me about three years to become semi-competent with UE4. The difficulty is that game engines cover such a large number of largely separate areas, each of which could easily (and often do) have a dedicated specialist. When I started (with no game engine experience) I was unaware that these disciplines even existed!
The good news is that the second person on the team got up to speed in about three months, and the third person was productive almost straight away. Issues that took me weeks to partially understand could be answered immediately.
As someone previously mentioned, the hardest part is understanding their object model. There are dozens of ways a game engine could be put together and UE4 have gone down one path. It's neither particularly good or particularly bad - it's just the one they have chosen and the one you have to learn.
Another take-away lesson is that programming is no more than 20% of the overall activity. MRA (Modelling, Rigging, Animation), UI (User Interface), packaging, level design, shaders, PBR (Physically Based Rendering) Materials, audio, physics, QA are all huge topics in themselves.
The third lesson (a hard one) is that there is a lot of bad information out there on the internets. There are hundreds of "How to get started in UE4/UE5" videos and articles and each one spawns dozens of forum posts similar to "I followed your video and am stuck with X". The majority of these end with "I tried Y and Z - they might work for you". Not inspiring!
TL;DR if you are joining an existing team - go for it.
(You can track the evolution of one of our projects in these articles)
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I just asked my son your question - he works in this area. His reply was:
"It's not really a pick-it-up-as-you-go situation at all. Complex environment so you're definitely awful at it for the first like, year"
FWIW
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Thanks.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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As in most questions of this type it depends on what you need to do. Unreal is easy to get started but quickly becomes complicated unless you have a background in programming games, ideally writing your own engine, or using another engine like Unity, Godot, Lumberyard, or one of the others. Plan to spend a lot of time learning the API layer. While Unreal gives you lots of systems and excellent search capabilities you do need to know what you are looking for and what the different components do. Plan to spend a significant amount of time learning Blueprint (Unreal's visual programming language).
If you are staring with an existing code base, you might be able to start being productive in as little as a month of concentrated effort. If they expect you to be the 'sole' developer and you don't have any other experience then you might want to consider your options or make it very clear to your employer that you will need significant ramp up time.
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My daughter is a junior at Digipen and about 7 months ago they asked her to teach a summer coding class in Unreal Engine, which she'd never used before (she has spent ~5 years using Unity and other game frameworks). She taught her first day of class yesterday, for which she had to develop all the course materials (part time, while attending school and doing other work). Basically, she had to design and build the same projects that she would have the class building so that she could teach them how to do it.
To get started, I bought her some books on UE (which I prefer over videos, they're easier to cross reference, more comprehensive, and usually better edited) and some digital assets from the Unreal Store (materials and such so that she could quickly add realistic/fantastic looking textures and objects to her sample game).
There's a lot to learn and don't try to learn it all at once. For example, decide if you want to use Blueprints (templates that appear to be heavily used in Unreal) to start or avoid them (for now) in favor of code (or maybe you don't care). (My daughter was leaning towards Blueprints, but Digipen wanted her to teach the class as a C++ coding class, so she minimized her use of Blueprints to focus on code). I'd avoid things like shaders until you have a lot of other things working and are ready for a nice side project.
I think the main thing is to start with a simple project, build it, get it working, then add on to it. Don't try to do too much at once, one step at a time. Since you're looking at this in relation to a potential job, see if there's any particular expertise they're looking for or value, and make building that one step (once you have the basics down, don't try to jump into advanced concepts until you have a simple game working well).
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Thanks.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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David On Life wrote: her some books on UE (which I prefer over videos, they're easier to cross reference, more comprehensive, and usually better edited)
And post-it notes stick a lot better too.
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Amarnath S wrote: sad to see the CEO of Oceangate, can feel his passion towards his mission.
CEO was a crook. Charging lots of money knowing his vessel was unsafe. He cut a lot of corners in safety, apparently.
Most of the submersible community questioned the CEO's tactics, methods, and overall design of Titan.
Most believe that the final verdict will show that the carbon fiber shell suffered from cyclic fatigue, causing the catastrophic implosion.
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Slacker007 wrote: crook
Either that, or too naive about deep sea engineering design.
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I think crook will be the final verdict. One of the designers quit when the CEO overrode the portal design for one that was rated to 1300 meters vs. the 12,000 meters needed.
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He was told repeatedly that there are severe problems with the design of the sub and he either fired or cut ties with every single person who pointed this stuff out.
This was profit above all else.
This was "gross negligence".
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Considering he was trying to make a political statement rather than listen to the pros, he's probably both.
Like seriously, I'm a scuba diver. Which equates to rookie, n00b, nobody roughly. And even I know the second you start ignoring common sense that deep... well, the rest is history.
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: And even I know the second you start ignoring common sense that deep... well, the rest is history.
That's because you don't have enough money. 🫠
Neither did the CEO.
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: Like seriously, I'm a scuba diver. Which equates to rookie, n00b, nobody roughly. And even I know the second you start ignoring common sense that deep... well, the rest is history.
I have never dived deeper than 3 meters in a pool using my own lungs, and even I know that.
Even more... it doesn't matter in which direction (up or down) you do it, in the moment you keep off see level for a couple of hundred meters... an error is deadly
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Yeah that’s a good point. Even the bottom of the deep end of a pool has a bit of pressure. You can feel it.
Jeremy Falcon
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In my company, "management" are sometimes trying to bend physics laws with money.
So far, this never ended well : turns out you cannot corrupt physics that easily, no matter the amount.
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The laws of physics are like the word of god, if you want to be religious about it. Try to break them or wiggle around them and see where it gets you. But yes, there are those who always think to be smarter than everyone else. Actually, when they wave around with money to convince you of that, it's about the most pleasant way to interact with them. Some have much more painful ways to demonstrate their superior intelligence.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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CodeWraith wrote: ... smarter than everyone else. Actually, when they wave around with money to convince you of that, it's about the most pleasant way to interact with them.
If anyone believes that they are smarter than everyone else and wishes to give me a large sum of money so that I'll believe that, too - I'll take it!
(But the attempt to persuade me with money shows that they're not so smart.  )
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Aww, come on, I have enough outlandish ideas. So, how much? 
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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