Can I have instructions on how to use a non Character C++ Script to detect a Key Press in UE5.1?

Development Programming & Scripting
,
1

Hi,

I’m creating a scene which doesn’t have a Character in it and I want to be able to detect a keypress inside a C++ script so I can do some other tasks that I believe I know how to perform already.

I’ve asked ChatGPT if it could help me with this and the code it spit out fails to compile (as i believe it’s outdated now).

I’m guessing there is a slightly different way of going about this in UE5/5.1 so any help would be appreciated.

Here is the code I tried that failed because it didn’t like the definition of the last line:

#include "MyKeyActor.h"

// Called every frame
void AMyKeyActor::Tick(float DeltaTime)
{
    Super::Tick(DeltaTime);

    // Handle key input
    HandleKeyInput(DeltaTime);
}

// Called when the game starts or when spawned
void AMyKeyActor::BeginPlay()
{
    Super::BeginPlay();

    // Set up input component
    InputComponent = FindComponentByClass<UInputComponent>();
    if (InputComponent)
    {
        // Bind key events
        InputComponent->BindKey(EKeys::SpaceBar, IE_Pressed, this, &AMyKeyActor::OnKeyPressed);
        InputComponent->BindKey(EKeys::SpaceBar, IE_Released, this, &AMyKeyActor::OnKeyReleased);
    }
}

// Called when a key is pressed
void AMyKeyActor::OnKeyPressed(FKey Key)
{
    UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Key %s pressed"), *Key.ToString());
}

// Called when a key is released
void AMyKeyActor::OnKeyReleased(FKey Key)
{
    UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Key %s released"), *Key.ToString());
}

// Handle key input
void AMyKeyActor::HandleKeyInput(float DeltaTime)
{
    // Check if input component exists
    if (!InputComponent)
    {
        return;
    }

    // Handle input
    InputComponent->ProcessInputStack();
}

InputComponent->ProcessInputStack();

I get an error from the compiler along the line that ProcessInputStack isn’t defined, no matter what combination params I plug in to it. I believe the source comes from PlayerInput.h but using

virtual void ProcessInputStack(const TArray<UInputComponent*>& InputComponentStack, const float DeltaTime, const bool bGamePaused);

in the form: (nullptr, DeltaTime, false) still produces an error.

I’m not looking for the blueprint solution here as I want a script that will detect my keyboard input and fire off code to set a position of a Camera and for whatever reason this only seems to be possible in C++.

Thanks!

Tim