UE4 / UE5 - PlayerStartPlugin

Introduction

The PlayStartPlugin for Unreal Engine version 4 or 5 enables you to easily setup, manage and switch between multiple PlayerStarts for your Maps / Levels in a Game. This is done via the WorldSettings in the Editor Outliner. You can inherit your Projects WorldSettings Class from the custom PlayerStartWorldSettings class provided by this Plugin. The system then automatically loads all available PlayerStarts and you can choose your default with a ComboBox in the WorldSettings in the Editor Outliner. Please check out the following documentation on how to include and implement and use the PlayStartPlugin in your own projects.

Install the PlayerStartPlugin

1. Fire up the Epic Game Launcher
   
   (Pic.: EPIC_Launcher_Icon.png)
2. Goto Marketplace and search for PlayerStartPlugin - Add it to your cart and checkout
3. After the Plugin is downloaded you can add it to your projects by opening the PluginManager in the Unreal Editor and searching for PlayerStartPlugin and activating it
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStartPlugin_InPluginsManager.png)

Implement and use in your projects

1. To get the plugins functionality you need to use the customized WorldSettings for your map / level
2. Open ProjectSettings and setup the custom WorldSettings PSWorldSettingsBase as default - you can also create a own subclass and use that as WorldSettings.
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStart_ProjectSettings_WorldSettings_edt.png)
3. Restart the Project / Unreal Editor (Important!)
4. To automatically start the level from your selected PlayerStart you have to use the custom GameMode PlayerStartGameModeBase the plugin provides - or you can create a own subclass of this GameMode Class and then use that as GameMode.
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStart_SetCustomGameModeClass_edt.png)
5. Now you can add your PlayerStarts to the map / level and they will be available for selection in the Editor Outliner
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStartPlugin_PlacePlayerStarts.png)
6. After that you can set your disiered PlayerStart in the Editor Outliner like so
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStartPlugin_284x284_02.png)
7. Now your all setup! You can start the game with the Play button to test the setup PlayerStart or you can discover and goto the selected PlayerStart in Edit Mode by clicking on the GoTo PlayerStart button in the Editor Outliner
   
   (Pic.: PlayerStart_GotoPlayerStart_02.png)

Setup without removing Player Character from Map

If you don't want to remove your Player Character from the map you can setup the plugin with the following procedure:

• Create a child class (Blueprint) of PlayerStartGameModeBase and set this class as GameMode Override in the WorldSettings in your maps Editor Outliner.
• Set your Player Character as Default Pawn Class in the Selected Game Mode Details > This way you can keep your Player Character on the map and use the functionality of the PlayerStartPlugin at the same time

Youtube demo video

Download PlayerStartPlugin

• Source code of PlayerStartPlugin on GitHub
• macOS package of UE4 PlayerStartPlugin on kimhauser.ch
• macOS package of UE5 PlayerStartPlugin on kimhauser.ch
• macOS package of PlayerStartPlugin in the Unreal Engine Marketplace

Visualize Input Event Plugin - for Unreal Engine 5

Visualize Input Event Plugin for Unreal Engine 
v.1.0.0 - 2023-07-04

Introduction

This Plugin visualizes Input Events such as Key-Presses, Mouse-Clicks and Game pad Events from all the Unreal Engine Editors as well as all the Level Viewport. The functionality is helpful specially if you are making learning videos or tutorials and want the viewers to see which Keyboard-Key you pressed, which Mouse-Button you clicked, or Game pad Event was fired. There is indeed a similar basic functionality built into the  Unreal Engine Widget Reflector, but this Plugin here offers quite a few more options to choose. The functionality of the plugin is extensively configurable through its settings from the plugin toolbar menu, which are saved in a config INI file. Checkout this documentation for more information.

I really appreciate that you download the plugin and give it a try. If you experience any problem or missing functionality, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly and tell me about your urge. On the other hand, if you are comfortable with the extension, and you like it - it would be really great if you could give me feedback and drop a line on the Plugin-Page of the EPIC Marketplace. Your feedback is very welcome.

Documentation

Enable / Disable the Plugin

The plugin can be enabled or disabled with the main toolbar button, which controls the overall status of the plugin. If you want to toggle the state of a specific functionality (i.e. Key-Presses, Mouse-Clicks or Game pad Events) please use one of the menu options of the section "What to show".

	Menu Button (Disabled)
	Menu Button (Enabled)

What to show

Keyboard Pressed

When this option is enabled the plugin will show you messages for every key you press on the keyboard. The basic message shows you the key character or function of the pressed key and also if it was pressed together with a modifier key such as CTRL, SHIFT, ALT the COMMAND key or CAPS LOCK.

In the Keyboard Details you also can enable the option to show the Key-Code of the pressed key in the message. And as another option you can choose to show the Character-Code of the pressed key in the message.

Mouse Clicked

With this option you enable the plugin to show you messages about what mouse button was clicked. I.e. Left, Middle, Right Mouse-Button or others. It shows single and double clicks. You also have the option to show the position of the cursor (x/y) in the notification when the mouse was clicked and you even can show a circle at the position of the cursor so the feedback will be more prominent. The color of the circle can be adjusted to any color you like with a color picker and the shape of the circle comes in 3 different basic variants (Default, Fancy and Blast), more info about this circle variants a little bit further on down on this page.

Game pad Events

This option enables the plugin to show you messages about what game pad button was pressed and also - as an extended setting - you can show the analog input of the game pad.

ATTENTION: Please be cautious with the analog input setting as this will generate continuous messages at the moment and will only be logged to the Output Log. A better solution for the Analog Input reporting is in progress and will be released with the next version of the plugin. Please stay tuned and check back for an updated version soon.

Where to show

Editor as Notification

This option shows the messages in a standard Unreal Engine Notification message overlay widget.

Gameplay / Level Editor Viewport

This option shows the messages as a OnScreenDebugMessage String in the Level-Editor Viewport. The messages are shown while development.

To use this option while development you will have to enable Show Stats in the Level Viewport Menu.

Output Log

This option shows the messages in the standard UE Editor Output Log as normal log message.

Details 

Fade out Delay

This is the delay in seconds for how long you want the info message to be shown - affects only Editor Notification and OnScreenDbgMessage.

Keyboard Details

You also can choose to show the Key Code (this is the hardware key code before any conversion) of the pressed Keyboard Key and / or the Character-Code (the character code after conversion to OS / Device specific character map) of the pressed Keyboard Key.

Mouse Details

• With this details you also can show the mouse cursor position (X/Y) upon click event within the info message. 
• You also can visualize the position of the cursor with a colored, growing and fading out circle at click event so the user has a more prominent feedback of where the mouse click happened.

Click Circle Variants:

	Default cursor circle
	Fancy cursor circle
	Blast cursor circle

Mouse Circle Zoom Factor / Fade Delay 

For the animation of the Mouse Circle you also can set the zoom factor, this how big it's gona grow and a fade out delay, this is how long it takes to fully grow and disapear. You also can choose to rotate the animation of the circle or not.

TIP "Own circle template":

Even though it's a bit hacky, but if you really want to use your own circle template for this visualization you can create a 512x512px png image with your own WHITE! circle version on a transparent background. Then you can replace one of the preset circle templates in the Ressource directory of the plugin. Your circle template will then be used if you select the replaced circle variant in the settings menu of the mouse details.

(It's planned to make this functionality as part of the next plugin version so you can select your own circle version for a settings menu item)

Game pad Details

In the game pad details you can enable the plugin to show the analog input of the game pad device. This is an experimental feature of the plugin and produces a huge amount of info messages therefore it's disabled by default and should be used with caution. The messages are only logged to the output log because of the vast amount of information. It's planned to redesign this feature with the next release of the plugin to make the logging of the information a bit more useful.

 Clean Message 

You can choose to remove "Key(...)" from the info messages by enabling this option.

Settings in Config-File

VIEPlugin.ini in Project Config folder

[VIEPlugin]
bEnabled=False
fShowDuration=0.75
fShowDurationDelta=0.25
fMouseCircleZoomFactor=6
fMouseCircleFadeoutDelay=1.25
bLogKeyboard=True
bLogMouseClick=True
bLogMouseWheel=False
bLogGamepad=False
bShowEditorNotification=True
bShowGameplayViewport=False
bShowOutputLog=False
bShowMousePosition=False
bShowKeyCode=False
bShowCharacterCode=False
bShowMouseCircle=True
sMouseCircleColorString=(R=1.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=1.000000)
sViewportColorString=(R=1.000000,G=0.000000,B=0.000000,A=1.000000)
sMouseCircleImage=Default
bMouseCircleRotate=True
bShowAnalogInput=False
bRemoveKeyAndBrackets=True

EPIC Marketplace Download

• Download the Visualize Input Event Plugin from the EPIC Marketplace

Youtube-Video

• Visualize Input Event Plugin Demo - YouTube 

Github pages site

• VisualizeInputEventPlugin on Github pages