GETTING

STARTED

GUIDE FOR SECONDARY EDUCATORS

01 INSTALLING

GETTING STARTED

This guide is designed to help you and your students start your game development journey. Each student should

have access to Unreal Engine. This document provides information about how students and teachers can get Unreal

Engine, how to install the tutorial material, and how to optimize Unreal Engine for use on all machines.

INSTALLING UNREAL ENGINE

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE EPIC GAMES LAUNCHER

To install Unreal Engine, you must first download and install the Epic Games Launcher application

here. Follow the directions on this page for your platform (Windows, Mac, or Linux).

The Epic Games Launcher application is a centralized service that allows users to discover, download, and update

games and applications. You only need to install it once on a computer, and it should be available to all users.

It’s a good idea to pre-install it, and Unreal Engine, on classroom computers before the class starts.

After installing the Epic Games Launcher, open it up and sign in using your Epic Games account.

INSTALL UNREAL ENGINE FROM THE LAUNCHER

Now that you've signed in to the Epic Games Launcher, you're ready to install Unreal Engine.

version of Unreal Engine.

3. Choose a location for the Unreal Engine

installation, or accept the default, and

click Install. Depending on your system

specifications and internet connection

speed, downloading and installing Unreal

Engine will take around 10–40 minutes.

Note: Unreal Engine can use over 100 gigabytes of disk space for every version of the engine that is installed on a machine.

Make sure you have plenty of disk space prior to installing Unreal Engine, and plenty of time to download it.

You can significantly reduce the download

change your mind and reinstall them later.

While Unreal Engine installs, take some time

to explore the launcher. There are free learning

resources and content in the Marketplace

and Samples tabs, along with timely news and

community spotlights. You can also configure

the launcher with an extensive Options menu,

including the ability to turn the Games tab off.

DEPLOYING TO A CLASSROOM OR LAB

The preferred method for schools to deploy Unreal Engine is to install the Launcher and Engine on a single

workstation, then clone, image or otherwise deploy that installation across the other machines in a computer lab or

offline installation of Unreal Engine here. This version is fully featured but does not have access to the Launcher, Marketplace

or the Quixel Bridge plugin. You will also need to manually download and manage content and future engine updates.

STUDENT USERS

Schools have many options in regards to how students access Unreal Engine and the content available in the Launcher

and Quixel Bridge. Students do not need to have an Epic ID or to log into the Launcher to use Unreal Engine. However, we do

encourage students to create their own accounts if possible. An Epic Games account gives users access to thousands of free

assets in the Marketplace and tens of thousands of assets in the Quixel Megascans library. An Epic ID will also give students

access to the Epic Developer Community (EDC) , the official Unreal Engine learning, forums and community support site.

Creating an account is very easy:

1. Create a new Epic Games account via epicgames.com.

02 USE

USING UNREAL ENGINE

CREATING A NEW PROJECT FROM A TEMPLATE

Unreal Engine ships with a collection of industry- and game-specific templates to help you start building games and projects faster.

Students can explore the basics of game types—such as third person, first person and driving—in a simple, easy-to-modify way.

Once Unreal Engine is installed, either via

the launcher or via the offline installer, click

the Launch button or the Desktop Shortcut

for Unreal Engine. This will launch the Unreal

Project Browser, which lists your most recent

projects along with a selection of templates

to store your project files, choose a Project

Name, and click Create. A new project will

be created, and will launch immediately!

LOADING A MARKETPLACE OR SAMPLE PROJECT

You can also access a huge number of free projects via the launcher. These projects

are more fully featured, but also require a little more knowhow to start using them.

In the launcher, click on the Marketplace

tab at the top of the window.

Once the Marketplace loads, hover over the

Free section and select Epic Games Content.

projects are a great place to get started.

Once the project page loads, it should look like this:

Click the Free button, then select Create Project.

On the prompt that appears, click Create.

Once the project finishes downloading, you will

see it listed under My Projects in the Library

tab of the launcher. Double-click on the project

to begin, and you’re ready to start working

03 RUNNING UE

RUNNING UNREAL ENGINE

IN THE CLASSROOM

You can find detailed hardware and software requirements on our documentation page here.

turns off advanced rendering effects, such

as Lumen GI and Reflections, and replaces

them with more performant versions.

The easiest way to improve performance

in UE5 is by utilizing Engine Scalability

Setting. This allows you to set the fidelity

of graphics options by using presets.

Infinity Blade content opened in Unreal Engine

5 and converted to use Lumen and Nanite.

Another strategy is to use content in your

classroom that was designed for mobile

platforms. Some great examples are the Soul

City and Soul Cave packs and the Infinity Blade

Collection. These projects are pre-configured

to run on lower-end hardware and will typically

work better than graphical showcases such

as City Sample, Lyra, or even Stack O Bot.