---
title: "Unreal Engine Knowledge Base — Index"
type: index
updated: 2026-07-17
unreal_version: "5.8"
---

# Unreal Engine — Knowledge Base

The developer core of Unreal Engine 5.8 for engineers and agents building UE
projects: programming with C++ and the reflection system, Blueprints visual
scripting, the gameplay framework, AI, input and physics, the rendering feature
set (Lumen, Nanite, materials, lighting), and the content/asset pipeline. Scope
is the developer surface — not art tutorials, marketplace content, or the full
C++/Blueprint API reference.

Master catalog — every page appears here.

## Concepts

### Editor & project basics
- [[concepts/unreal-editor-and-projects]] — the editor, project & directory structure, plugins
- [[concepts/unreal-terminology-and-conventions]] — core terms, units (1 uu = 1 cm), coordinate system

### Programming
- [[concepts/programming-with-cpp]] — the gameplay class hierarchy, modules, live coding
- [[concepts/unreal-reflection-system]] — UCLASS/UPROPERTY/UFUNCTION macros & metadata specifiers
- [[concepts/actors-and-components]] — AActor lifecycle, components, attachment, spawning
- [[concepts/blueprints-visual-scripting]] — the Blueprint editor, graphs, variables, flow control
- [[concepts/blueprint-communication]] — interfaces, event dispatchers, function libraries

### Gameplay
- [[concepts/gameplay-framework]] — GameMode/GameState, Controller, Pawn, PlayerState, GameInstance
- [[concepts/input-system]] — input mappings and the player controller's role
- [[concepts/physics-and-collision]] — collision queries, traces, Chaos physics
- [[concepts/ai-behavior-trees]] — Behavior Trees, EQS, StateTree, AI debugging
- [[concepts/cameras-and-ui]] — cameras, view targets, UMG/HUD

### Rendering
- [[concepts/lumen-global-illumination]] — dynamic global illumination & reflections
- [[concepts/nanite-virtualized-geometry]] — virtualized micropolygon geometry
- [[concepts/materials-and-substrate]] — the material graph, PBR inputs, Substrate
- [[concepts/lighting-and-shadows]] — lighting, Virtual Shadow Maps, the Path Tracer

### Content
- [[concepts/content-import-pipeline]] — Interchange, FBX/glTF/USD/Alembic/Datasmith
- [[concepts/meshes-and-modeling]] — static & skeletal meshes, Modeling Mode, geometry scripting

## Entities

- [[entities/unreal-engine]] — the engine as a platform
- [[entities/unreal-editor]] — the editor application

## Syntheses

- [[syntheses/blueprints-vs-cpp]] — Blueprints vs C++: which to use
- [[syntheses/rendering-feature-map]] — Lumen vs Nanite vs Path Tracer vs Substrate
- [[syntheses/choosing-gameplay-systems]] — GameMode/Pawn/Controller & AI system choices

## XL edition (Pro)

Deeper per-item reference is available to Pro subscribers under this wiki's XL
edition (not listed above): the full UPROPERTY/UFUNCTION/UCLASS reflection
specifier tables, the C++ core types (FString/FName/FText, UObject & memory),
the module/build system (.Build.cs, UHT, CLI args), Enhanced Input, gameplay
tags & GAS, data assets/tables/registries, asset management, and networking &
replication — 17 pages. Subscribe at /pro.

## Statistics

- **Total pages**: 23
- **Concepts**: 18
- **Entities**: 2
- **Summaries**: 0
- **Syntheses**: 3