Lee Deuk-woo's Unreal Programming Part 3 - Understanding Network Multiplayer Framework

Before you start full-scale game production, you will learn the basic concepts of network multiplayer and the development and testing environment required for practice. After learning the key concepts, internal working principles, and optimization techniques that you must know when producing a network multiplayer game, you will produce a hack & slash type PvP battle game.

💡 Let me introduce you to the unique features of this course !

• To properly implement network multiplayer in Unreal Engine, you need to have a good understanding of all three concepts:
  • Communication flow and related event functions in the client-server model
  • How to adjust the frequency of network data transmission according to the importance of the actor
  • Optimization methods to reduce the size of data transmitted over the network
• This requires the use of Unreal C++ programming , and additional learning of various core concepts not covered in standalone game development.
• This course is characterized by providing a step-by-step organization according to difficulty level so that you can effectively learn many core concepts. In particular, it provides sequence diagrams and various visual diagrams to effectively convey checkpoints that you must know from the vast Unreal Engine source code.
• We also focus on helping you solve problems yourself by triggering an intentional packet lag simulation to identify common problems beginners often overlook during implementation. We also focus on showing you how to improve them and how to implement them in Unreal Engine.

Q. There is official documentation on the Unreal Engine website about network multiplayer, but I have a hard time understanding the feature. Will this tutorial help?

The official Unreal Engine documentation does a good job of summarizing the core terms and settings that those new to network multiplayer need to know. However, I personally felt it was a shame that there was no systematic explanation of how things actually work when these terms and settings are changed.

Also, some detailed documents have advanced contents, but they simply describe the flow of the source code, making it difficult to read and understand the documents alone. To improve this problem, this course has prepared practical examples so that you can directly check key terms and concepts, and while looking at the source code together, we have focused on pointing out the main parts that you need to check, and organizing them into visual diagrams. I am sure that it will be very helpful.

Q. Will this course help me create large-scale multiplayer games?

Unlike other engines, Unreal Engine requires a clear understanding of the core frameworks provided by the engine before you begin creating a game. If you make good use of the frameworks provided by the engine, you will achieve high productivity, but if you proceed with development without understanding them, the functions provided by the engine and the functions you have implemented yourself will become intertwined, making development difficult.

This course focuses on the engine's network framework, which you should definitely know before creating a full-fledged game. After you have a solid understanding of the basic concepts related to networks, we will explain optimization techniques that you should consider when creating a large-scale multiplayer game, and use the specialized analysis tools provided by Unreal Engine to observe changes before and after improvements.

Q. I have only dealt with client development and have no experience with network multiplayer games. Does the lecture cover basic knowledge such as TCP, UDP, and socket communication?

This course does not cover fundamental topics such as socket communication and TCP/IP. Instead, you will learn how to design network play effectively using high-level concepts such as network drivers, channels, and connections provided by Unreal Engine.

When I first planned the lecture, I thought that if I started with the fundamentals to understand the advanced network multiplayer production in the game industry, people would easily lose interest in learning and the lecture would become boring, so I excluded such content.

However, compared to other part lectures, the amount of analysis of engine source code has been greatly increased. If you acquire the ability to analyze source code on your own through this lecture, I think you will get enough of the content you want.

Q. Is this course taught using the latest version of Unreal?

At the time this lecture was opened, Unreal Engine 5.3 was released. However, in line with the previously published Part 1 and Part 2 lectures, this lecture will also proceed with Unreal Engine 5.1. Since this lecture covers the core functions provided in the framework of Unreal Engine 5, it is expected to work well in future versions.

Q. Do I have to take Part 1 and Part 2 to take this course?

This course is designed as a series to maximize learning effectiveness by linking with Part 1 and Part 2. However, if you have sufficient experience in Unreal Engine development, I think you will be fine with just Part 3.

• Practice environment
  • Windows operating system (Windows 10 or Windows 11)
  • Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition
  • You will have no problem learning as long as you have the minimum specifications to run Unreal Engine .
• Learning Materials
  • Example programs are provided via GitHub .
  • The lectures are conducted in the form of explaining basic theories using PPT and following practical examples, and each lecture consists of a video of 25 to 50 minutes in length.
• Player Knowledge and Notes
  • This course is an intermediate course designed to jump-start beginner developers.
  • A basic understanding of object-oriented languages such as C++, C#, and Java is required.
  • It is prohibited to copy the lecture content as is and publish it on external blogs.
• A learning-only community
  • We run a Discord server where you can ask questions and get answers about anything you're curious about.
  • Discord server invite address: https://discord.gg/G45cCJ4AKs
• Examples of excellent lecture notes
  • As you take the course, we hope you'll create your own amazing study notes.
    Example of excellent notes from student Kim Jae-yoon
    https://ideugu.notion.site/Part-1-4a28f6cb49604cce93530fd415b4da03?pvs=4
• Other notes before taking the course
  • This course is not just about teaching you the core concepts that make up a network multiplayer system, but it also provides a variety of practical examples corresponding to each concept. It is also designed so that you can experience how Unreal Engine implements it by analyzing the source code yourself.
  • We designed a PvP network multiplayer game using the results from Part 2 of the tutorial, which modeled the basics of a hack & slash game.
  • If you feel that you lack the basics of Unreal Engine programming, we recommend that you take Part 1 and Part 2 courses first to build a solid foundation for Unreal Engine, and then expand your capabilities through Part 3 courses.
  • If you are familiar with Unreal Engine and understand the content covered in Part 1 and Part 2, you can start this course from the beginning.
  • This course is taught in Unreal C++ and often uses Blueprints to implement simple functions or compare features.

• Epic Games Headquarters Hosts, Unreal Outstanding Developer Selection (Dev Grant 2017)
• Author of "Lee Deuk-woo's Unreal C++ Game Development Principles" (Acorn Publishing, 2017)
• Epic Games Unreal Engine Certified Instructor (2022)
• Epic Games Korea Education Program (Start Unreal 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
• Author of "Lee Deuk-woo's Game Mathematics" (Book Only 2022)
• Smilegate Professional Unreal Programmer Training Program UNSEEN Education Manager (2022)

Hello, this is Lee Deuk-woo from Cheonggang Cultural Industry University .

I have been studying and teaching Unreal consistently for 10 years since the release of Unreal Engine 4 in 2013.

While teaching students, I have also received corporate requests and have been providing Unreal Engine and programming education to leading game companies such as NCSOFT and Nexon Korea. This year, I am conducting UNSEEN education, a full-fledged Unreal programmer training course, together with Smilegate.

It's already been 6 years since I wrote "Lee Deok-woo's Unreal C++ Game Development Essentials" in 2017. Because I organized it in a limited amount of space, I felt that there was a lack of explanation on the basics of Unreal C++, so I have since supplemented the changes and opened a full-fledged Unreal lecture tailored to the newly released Unreal Engine 5.

In particular, this Unreal Engine Part 3 lecture contains important content that can help you further improve your Unreal Engine proficiency. I hope this lecture will help you increase your value.