Hello , I would like to ask how and if can Unreal communicate with external sources , like items , or else, I have seen I can link to a website and call an api to downoad data from there and update my scene, but how can I do for example with something else like a lamp or a Tv in the real world ? what if I want to control them throught an app in unreal?
Bringing outside data into Unreal is easy with Runtime Data Table. Controlling outside data is a bit more complicated. It really depends on what you want to do because each situation will have a specific software solution.
As far as controlling electronics in real life, there’s no built-in way to do that with Unreal but something like that could be engineered, it’s just way beyond my level of engineering expertise.
Let me u derstand… is something like that ?
Yes, if your hardware supports the DMX protocol this is a way to achieve manipulation of that hardware, but not just any hardware does support DMX.
ue4 is c++.
make a class, trow in whatever dependencies you need - likely a Bluetooth link system. And you are good to code.
Lamps/lights come with restful api and/or instructions on how to make calls.
Most packages are readily avaliable via nuget. And will usually work within the project if properly added, instanced, and used.
Some lights and system make a .dll avaliable. Usually that’s that’s same as a nuget package.
add the reference in and use the API as you are told.
You can make your custom class functions blueprint callable. With some extra work. Which would enable you to easily connect to regular BP usage.
if you wanted to make something silly. Say a copy of your house/room where the in game light and the real lights were in sync, this would be a good addition to make it possible…
Thankyou, I am not well put on coding , but if there are tutorials that can explain how to communicate , create a network between my pc , unreal app and another smart item or app I would follow… but I am not finding any documentation or tutorials , may be I am looking in the wrong direction?
follow any cpp tutorial… a function is similar to a cli interface.
Yup, hence the keyword here: engineered. Nothing is built into the engine to do that, you’d need to figure out the API to support your specific hardware then integrate it to your workflow.
Hi , i was trying do something similar where i wanted to control an external hardware from inside unreal engine , i was trying to communicate with Arduino to turn on a light bulb . so i used serial communication plugin and send data fromue4 using ports and received on other side.
i used this plugin GitHub - videofeedback/Unreal_Engine_SerialCOM_Plugin: Serial Com Port Library for Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5
hope it helps .