Control Unreal using a port through Python

Development Programming & Scripting C++
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1

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a solution that enables a back and forth communication channel between Maya and Unreal using Python. The goal is to be able to run commands from one software that do things in the other. This works from Unreal to Maya surprisingly well without the need of using the built-in ‘cmds.commandPort’ feature.

The connection is managed by the socket module in Python and to trigger them to execute the messages I am using eval an/or exec functions with the globals() flag.

This works beautifully on Maya side, however when I try running Unreal commands from Maya I get this error:

LogEditorScripting: Error: You are not on the main thread.

I’m hoping someone with a better Unreal understanding would be able to tell me why this happens and how to overcome it, because currently it seems to be a biggie.

Thank you!

2

You cannot call other Blueprint and scripts and UI outside of the main thread.
You can marshal calls to the main thread using a task with the TaskGraphMainThread run mode. EAsyncExecution | Unreal Engine Documentation
Check out Async.h for more details.
If you’re not writing any C++, and just have to use Python, I don’t have a good answer for you, because while I’ve integrated with Python in the past, I haven’t done so in Unreal.

3

I faced the same problem. Solved it with unreal.register_slate_post_tick_callback.

UDP->CMD code example:

PORT = 7899

import unreal
import socket
import traceback
from threading import Thread
from queue import Queue


syslib = unreal.SystemLibrary()


class MyTimer:
	_hndl = None
	def __init__(self, *w, **kw):
		if w:self.start(*w, **kw)

	def start(self, foo, delay=0.0, repeat=False):
		self.stop()
		assert callable(foo)
		self._foo = foo
		self._delay = max(delay, 0.0)
		self._repeat = repeat
		self._passed = 0.0
		self._hndl = unreal.register_slate_post_tick_callback(self._tick)
	
	def stop(self):
		self._foo = None
		if not self._hndl: return
		unreal.unregister_slate_post_tick_callback(self._hndl)
		self._hndl = None

	def _tick(self, delta_time):
		if not self._foo: return self.stop()
		self._passed += delta_time
		if self._passed < self._delay: return
		try: self._foo()
		except: traceback.print_exc()
		if self._repeat:
			self._passed = 0.0
		else:
			self.stop()
			

class UDP2CMD:
	def __init__(self):
		self._live = False
		self.from_sublime_queue = Queue()
			
	def start(self):
		print("START UDP2CMD %r"%self)
		if self._live: raise RuntimeError
		self._live = True
		self.listen_socket = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
		self.listen_socket.bind(("localhost", PORT))
		self.listen_thread = Thread(target = self._thr_listen)
		self.listen_thread.start()
		self._main_timer = MyTimer(self.onTimer, 0.3, repeat=True)

	def stop(self):
		print("STOP UDP2CMD %r"%self)
		self._live = False
		self._main_timer.stop()
		self.listen_socket.close() 

	def _thr_listen(self):
		while self._live:
			try:
				data, address = self.listen_socket.recvfrom(10000)
			except OSError as err:
				print("UDP2CMD _thr_listen recvfrom ERR:%s"%err)
				break

			if data:
				self.from_sublime_queue.put(data)
		print("UDP2CMD STOP thread %r"%self)

	def onTimer(self):
		if not self._live: 
			return self._main_timer.stop()
		if not self.from_sublime_queue.qsize(): return
		data = self.from_sublime_queue.get_nowait()
		print("UDP2CMD data:%r"%data)
		cmd = data.decode()
		syslib.print_string(None, string=cmd, print_to_screen=True, print_to_log=True, 
			text_color=[255.0, 0.0, 0.0, 255.0], duration=2.0) 
		syslib.execute_console_command(None, cmd)


prev = getattr(unreal, "udp_2_cmd_listener", None )
if prev:
	prev.stop()

unreal.udp_2_cmd_listener = UDP2CMD()
unreal.udp_2_cmd_listener.start()
4

I use this script and get the same error of main thread on unreal 5

5

I figure it out, I should use command as “py print(‘Hello unreal’)” because the I run the command in unreal cmd not python.