Course Updates, New C++ Article and more coming in 2026


New Articles, New Course Lessons, and more in 2026...

I have been rather busy, in this newsletter you can read some of the more important updates, and what's coming in early 2026.

New Article: Setup Rider for Unreal Engine C++

I have published a complete C++ setup guide for JetBrains Rider with Unreal Engine 5. Including troubleshooting errors you might run into during installation or first compiling your Unreal project.

A few personal preferences and settings are included, depending on how minimalist you like your code editors.

Steady Progress on 'Professional Game Development in C++ and Unreal Engine 5' Course

I previously announced early access to the total rework of the Unreal Engine 5 C++ Course. Progress is steady with now more than 19 hours of content completed and available to all students. That means it's nearing completion (final duration expected around 25-30 hours), yet I still have some exciting sections coming such as: data-oriented programming, State Trees, and persistence!

Newly added Sections:

  • Enemy Monsters (AI, Behavior Trees, EQS)
  • Assignment 4 (Flee & Heal Behaviors)
  • Action System (similar to Gameplay Ability System)
  • GameplayTags
  • Expanding Attributes System
  • Assignment 5 (Attributes)
  • Debugging & Polish

New lessons for 'Complete Game Optimization for Unreal Engine 5'

Once the C++ Course Upgrade has concluded I will continue adding optimization content at a much higher pace. I did recently add two new lessons on Collision & Physics that you can watch below.

New Lessons

If you haven't recently checked the curriculum, you can find other new lessons marked with the 🆕 icon.

Smaller Updates

  • The Co-op Action Roguelike Sample Game has been named "Project Orion" and received its own landing page for future updates. I have a lot more to share about this soon, currently receiving new features every week.
  • The blog website has been completely moved over to a new backend (Jekyll) and received a ton of improvements to make it easier to maintain and make small updates to existing articles and publish new ones.
  • I did some optimization work on Far Far West, an upcoming co-op shooter, expect some Case Study lessons for the Optimization Course later this year!

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Tom Looman

Learn the Unreal Engine techniques used by AAA studios and experienced indie developers. Join 5,000+ developers receiving my latest articles, optimization tips, and course updates.

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New Article: Unreal Engine 5.8 Performance Highlights It is possibly the last Performance Highlights overview for Unreal Engine 5. The release of UE 5.8 marks the final release before Epic Games is moving development efforts to Unreal Engine 6. That brings the focus of 5.8 to stabilize and optimize existing features (Although plenty of experimental features were added). A couple of major performance oriented improvements include MegaLights becoming production-ready and Lumen receiving a new...

New lessons for the C++ and Optimization Courses, plus looking for reviewers! I've added 8 new lessons across the UE5 C++ and Optimization courses, including new Nanite case studies and a new enemy spawn system section. The C++ course is also getting close to its V2.0 release. 3 New Optimization lessons! The 'Complete Game Optimization for Unreal Engine 5' Course has 3 new lessons in the Case Study section: Nanite - Optimizing Overdraw (VisBuffer) Nanite - Auditing Shading Bins (Empty Draws)...

New Course Lessons, C++ State Trees Code Samples and More Progress continues to be steady on the courses, including continued work on the open-source Project "Orion" which feeds back into the courses and tutorials with advanced topics on C++ and Performance. 13 New lessons for 'Professional Game Development in C++ and Unreal Engine 5' Since the last newsletter I have added 13 new lessons including some performance profiling, a new buff system, GameplayTag hierarchies and the latest Assignment...