Fourseeable Problems

It seems like for blog post four, we are to discuss problems and how we personally work through them.

I personally work through problems like most folks, or at least I think most folks work through their problems like this. I tend to panic first and try to rerun my code multiple times to see if anything changes without changing any of my code. If that doesn’t work (which why would it), I then throw in some print statements and only bring out the big bad debugger if my print statements fail to catch the problem. I occasionally whip out Google for some assistance if my debugging doesn’t result in any progress. I will admit I have gotten better with the panicking part. Anyhow, for this project, Unreal does not gel well with this process, as I can’t simply throw in print statements to catch errors. My approach for troubleshooting with Unreal is to use Google and also ask my teammates if they have any leads. Most of the problems I have encountered with this project tend to pop up for my teammates as well. Google is also a huge assistance as Unreal has a dedicated forum for development-related questions, so a lot of information can be found on it.

This question and answer does not relate to troubleshooting a problem, but I would like to address the question of “How do I tend to learn new tech?” I am a huge fan of using video tutorials to learn something new. It can be a pain sometimes, as I often fall into the trap of tutorial purgatory. Tutorial purgatory is the state of going through a tutorial and being unable to use that knowledge to build something, so you continue to go through more tutorials hoping that you will be able to build something on your own soon. In short, it is a never-ending cycle of not advancing in your skill level because you’re blindly following along with the videos. Before enrolling in the Post-Bacc program, I found myself stuck in tutorial purgatory, often with Udemy courses. With the Post-Bacc curriculum, I can now push through the tutorial purgatory state, as to succeed in this program, you have to actively use learned information to solve problems.