UMG Character Creation Menu

Hey guys, So I begun learning how to use UMG and I love it so far. Super simple and real easy to learn. However, I been searching all over for a tutorial on how to create a character using the UMG UI designer. What my goal is:

I plane to have a Menu screen setup with half of it Transparent so that I can have a background of the world and in that “clear” space have my character load. I have several different races and classes that the player will be able to choose from and I want them to be able to choose between a few different heads, hair color, facial hair, facial hair color and eye color. The bodies will remain a default body but I’m not sure How I can tell UMG to render these different effects when a player clicks on the button for “Next Head” or Hair color or whatever. When done creating their characters have them name it and enter the game and when they click “Play Game” button, have Unreal Engine save their character to the server. I know this is basically a HUGE project that I am asking people to help me with, But really I can do all the work. I just need someone to point me in the right direction with actually achieving this goal. Any suggestions or tutorials that show a way of doing this? Thanks in advance!

You literally just typed everything that was going through my mind! Sorry I can’t help much here, as I’m extremely new to game development and still learning the engine. If I make any progress in this category, I will be sure to let you know. Unless you beat me to it, in which case I’d love to know how it’s done! LOL

Subscribed for future references :slight_smile:

Hi there CjInsanity. I’m developing several in-game editors for customizing characters, weapons, and more. Firstly, You’ll need to know how to script with Blueprints. Secondly, you’ll need to know how to bind functions to the UMG widgets and execute blueprints with widget events (tutorials). Thirdly, you need customizable assets such as modular character meshes and materials with exposed parameters for adjusting color. Forthly, obtain a HTTPS plugin such JSON Query to communicate to HTTP Server or Replicate the Character configuration on-demand when the player enters the game (examples).

Lol if I figure it out Amsirahc ill definitely let you know! Also, I might make a short video of how to do it. I like to document my progress incase I ever need to “look back” and see how I did certain things down the road. I’ll share the video :slight_smile:

TechLord! Thanks for the reply, I will look into the Query for HTTP servers! However, I have everything else lined up and ready to roar! I got the game models with customized meshes. I have several heads (faces), several hair, facial hair, and also have armor and weapons that I can equip and unequip for after they are in the game. I know pretty much how to add weapons, as thats as simple as adding a component to the hand slots and just equipping items to the sockets. The armor is a bit more tricky because it needs to animate with the body, That’s also something I will add to a video if I figure out. But thanks a lot for the replies!

Thank you both for the information, this will help greatly! My first game is going to be single-player only, so I’m not going to dive into the networking aspect just yet, but thank you for the link to the guide.

Sounds like you have everything you need to start research & development . I assume you have UMG Inventory System ready to go as well? I’m using a data table to store info for parts and sockets locally until the remote database interface is built. I reviewed several character customization menus systems (one of my fav), anticipate using lots of sliders.

In regards to Armor, if its a hard armor (ie medieval style) it can be separated into even smaller piece/plates and attached to bone/sockets. Flexible/soft armor like chain mail are usually material/texture on the body. If your going for more detail and realism (ie cloth simulation, physics) you’ll most likely use separate animated mesh that are swapped out or attached as an overlay. My characters use hard armor + soft armor materials.

Wow great information! Thanks TechLord! And yea that Character Customization menu looks awesome! I would love to implement something of the sort! Also, I have a basic Inventory System right now and I am trying to learn the implementation of the data bases, still learning all the connectivity of the menu and the database but I am trying to plan ahead for everything. I really appreciate all the help though! +10! :slight_smile:

Curious. Are you connecting to Remote Web Database such as MySql? If so, I may have a simple PHP SQL Handler to get things started.

I haven’t actually hooked much up I actually lost a lot of stuff and am currently uploading my hard drive to a storage backup drive now because almost everything I recently had. I lost. So I have to start over which is actually ok because I have a few new ideas but I have to setup all the networking that I had, all over again. But if you wanna show me some simple ways of doing it, I’m down.

Can some one tell me is there any example of Character creator in side UE anyway ? that we can get some info or something ???

Any Levels Composition video tutorials ?

World composition is very simple. When you create a project you open world settings and check the box “World composition” After that, go up to the “Window” Tab on your menu strip and click “Levels” In this window you will click the “Levels” tab in the top left and open “Import Tiled Landscape” then just find your file and setup the import options. It’s very simple. Also there are tutorials on UE4 Docs pages. That’s where I learned how to do it.

I just seen that tnx anyway i hope i will see some good tutorial soon for UE4 because it need one for real