Unreal Engine — AAA Game Engine

Overview

Unreal Engine (UE) is Epic Games' engine. The current line is UE 5.8 (June 2026, with hotfixes). Gameplay is written in C++ (modules built by UnrealBuildTool, UBT) and Blueprints (node graphs saved as assets); the two mix freely through UCLASS, UPROPERTY and UFUNCTION reflection macros. Main rendering and world features: Nanite (virtualized geometry), Lumen (dynamic global illumination), Virtual Shadow Maps, MegaLights (many dynamic lights, production-ready in 5.8), World Partition (streamed open worlds), and Iris (new replication system, production-ready in 5.8). Download the engine through the Epic Games Launcher, or build it from source after linking your Epic account to GitHub for access to the EpicGames/UnrealEngine repository.

Instructions

Project layout and C++ modules

• A project is a .uproject file plus Source/<Module>/ with <Module>.Build.cs, <Module>Editor.Target.cs and <Module>.Target.cs. Add engine modules to PublicDependencyModuleNames in Build.cs: "Core", "CoreUObject", "Engine", "InputCore", "EnhancedInput".
• Create classes in the editor (Tools > New C++ Class) or add the .h/.cpp pair by hand and regenerate project files (right-click the .uproject > Generate Visual Studio project files, or GenerateProjectFiles.sh for source builds).
• Every reflected header ends its include list with #include "<ClassName>.generated.h". A new UPROPERTY or UFUNCTION needs the editor closed or Live Coding off for a full rebuild (Live Coding patches function bodies only).
• Use UPROPERTY() on every UObject* member you hold; otherwise garbage collection can free it. Use TObjectPtr<T> for member pointers in UE5.

A Blueprint-friendly character with Enhanced Input

Enhanced Input has been the default input system since UE 5.1: axis mappings and BindAxis("MoveForward") are the legacy path. Create UInputAction assets (IA_Move as Axis2D, IA_Jump as Boolean) and a UInputMappingContext, then bind them: