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

Before embarking on full-scale game development, you'll learn the fundamental concepts of network multiplayer and the development and testing environments necessary for practical training. After learning the essential concepts, internal workings, and optimization techniques required to create a network multiplayer game, you'll create a hack-and-slash PvP battle game.

💡 Introducing the unique features of this course !

• To properly implement networked 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
  • A method for adjusting 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 features a step-by-step approach, organized by difficulty level, to ensure effective learning of many key concepts. In particular, it provides sequence diagrams and various visual diagrams to effectively convey essential checkpoints within the extensive Unreal Engine source code.
• We also intentionally trigger packet lag simulations to identify common issues beginners often overlook during implementation. We focus on helping you solve these problems yourself by providing guidance on how to improve them and implementing them in Unreal Engine.

Q. Even though there's official documentation on network multiplayer on the Unreal Engine website, I'm having trouble understanding the feature. Will this tutorial help?

Unreal Engine's official documentation does a good job of summarizing the core terms and settings that beginners in networked multiplayer need to know. However, I personally found it disappointing that there was no systematic explanation of how these terms and settings actually work when changed.

Additionally, some detailed documents, while providing advanced information, simply describe the source code flow, making it difficult to understand simply by reading the documentation. To address this issue, this course provides hands-on examples that allow you to directly examine key terms and concepts. We also highlight key areas to consider while examining the source code, focusing on visualizing these points through diagrams. We believe you will find this course very helpful.

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

Unlike other engines, Unreal Engine requires a clear understanding of its core frameworks before launching into game development. Effectively leveraging these frameworks can lead to high productivity, but if you proceed without a thorough understanding, the engine's features and your own implementations will become intertwined, making development difficult.

This course focuses on the engine's networking framework, essential for full-scale game development. After a solid understanding of networking fundamentals, the course will cover optimization techniques essential for large-scale multiplayer game development. It will also use specialized analysis tools provided by Unreal Engine to observe changes before and after improvements.

Q. I've only covered client development and have no experience with network multiplayer games. Will the course cover basic knowledge like TCP, UDP, and socket communication?

This course doesn't cover fundamental topics like socket communication and TCP/IP. Instead, you'll learn how to effectively design network play using high-level concepts like network drivers, channels, and connections provided by Unreal Engine.

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

However, compared to other lectures, we've significantly increased the amount of analysis on engine source code. If you develop the ability to analyze source code on your own through this lecture, I believe you'll fully grasp the content you need.

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

At the time this course is being offered, Unreal Engine 5.3 has been released. However, in keeping with the previous series of lectures, Part 1 and Part 2, this course will be conducted using Unreal Engine 5.1. Because this course covers core features offered within the Unreal Engine 5 framework, it is expected to function 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 it to Parts 1 and 2. However, if you have sufficient experience with Unreal Engine development, you should be able to complete Part 3 without too much difficulty.

• 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 through GitHub .
  • The lectures are conducted in the form of explaining basic theories using PPT and following along with practical examples, and each lecture consists of a video of 25 to 50 minutes in length.
• Player Knowledge and Precautions
  • This course is an intermediate course designed to help beginner developers jump-start their development.
  • A basic understanding of object-oriented languages such as C++, C#, and Java is required.
  • Copying the lecture content as is and publishing it on external blogs is prohibited.
• A learning-only community
  • We run a Discord server where you can ask questions and get answers.
  • 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 goes beyond simply explaining the core concepts of network multiplayer systems through documentation. It provides a variety of hands-on examples that illustrate each concept. Furthermore, it's structured so that you can directly analyze the source code and experience how Unreal Engine implements these concepts.
  • We designed a PvP network multiplayer game using the results of 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 taking Part 1 and Part 2 courses first to build a solid foundation in Unreal Engine, and then expanding your skills through Part 3.
  • 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 Dev Grant Awards (2017)
• Author of "Lee Deuk-woo's Unreal C++ Game Development Essentials" (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's Unreal Engine Professional Programmer Training Program, UNSEEN (2022)

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

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

While teaching students, I've also taken on corporate requests, providing Unreal Engine and programming training to leading game companies like NCSOFT and Nexon Korea. This year, I'm working with Smilegate to offer UNSEEN, a full-fledged Unreal Engine programmer training program.

It's already been six years since I wrote "Lee Deuk-woo's Unreal C++ Game Development Essentials," which I wrote in 2017. Because it was written in a limited format, I felt it lacked a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of Unreal C++. However, I've since addressed the changes and opened a full-fledged Unreal course tailored to the newly released Unreal Engine 5.

This Unreal Engine Part 3 lecture, in particular, contains valuable content that will help you further enhance your Unreal Engine proficiency. I hope this lecture will help you increase your value.