I’m working on a TV-focused streaming app concept in Unreal Engine and I’m trying to figure out the best approach for the UI.
The app is mainly intended for a TV/remote-control experience, so things like focus navigation, smooth transitions between screens, thumbnails, menus, and video playback are more important than mouse/touch interaction.
For a project like this, would you recommend building the interface primarily with UMG, Common UI, or a combination of both? I’m also wondering how well either approach holds up when the UI contains a lot of poster/thumbnail images and animated elements.
I’d especially appreciate input from anyone who has worked on a TV, set-top-box, or streaming-media style application in Unreal Engine. Are there any UI architecture or performance issues I should plan for from the beginning?
If im not mistaken Common UI just add gamepad support because of fortnite. UMG doesnt have device support. You can either create your own from scratch or use a plugin called UINav 3.0 (free), it will let you hook up custom FKeys to the Navigation IMC. if you need help with UINav i can assist you I’m currently using it for my entire project and it works perfectly.
Thanks, that clears things up. I hadn’t considered UINav 3.0, so I’ll give it a try. The custom FKey support sounds pretty useful for a TV interface where everything needs to work cleanly with a remote.
I’m also looking at how existing streaming-style apps handle the overall navigation and content layout. For example, I’ve been comparing the UI approach used by apps such as İnat Box APK, and I came across inattvproapkindir while looking at examples of similar streaming interfaces. Obviously the implementation is different, but the way these apps organize categories, thumbnails, menus, and playback screens is useful inspiration for the kind of UX I’m trying to build in Unreal.
If you’ve got any UINav-specific advice for handling poster grids or nested focus states, I’d appreciate it.