Creating Custom Style RTS Drag and Drop Box

anonymous_user_eedea4421 · October 18, 2022, 2:45am

Hi there! I’ve been learning UE5 for just over a week now so i’m very new to it. I’m working on an RTS game and have a basic drag-select box using “draw rec” function but i want to customize the look of it.

Here is my blueprint:

Here is what the rectangle looks like in the game right now:

Here is an example from AOE4 that has a border around it:

I would like to be able to freely customize it beyond just changing the color by adding a border, perhaps a stylized texture or make it glow. Spent hours searching on the internet for a solution but i’m out of luck now.

Cheers!

Supremative · October 18, 2022, 11:18am

You could try this tool:

anonymous_user_eedea4421 · October 18, 2022, 2:35pm

Thank you for the response but before i commit to this project and start buying assets and plugins, i would like to get further ahead. Unless there aren’t any free DIY solutions, perhaps i’ll leave this on my wishlist for later.

Supremative · October 18, 2022, 3:13pm

You could implement the same effect with a custom user widget:

Make a user widget with this hierarchy:

Set up mouse events:

Call:

Download widget (UE5):
WBP_CustomDrawRect.uasset (99.2 KB)

I hope it’ll be helpful.

My Products

anonymous_user_eedea4421 · October 19, 2022, 4:38pm

Thank you for the detailed response. I’ve never worked with Widgets before so this was completely new to me. A couple of questions:

Where do i input the Call? In my custom Controller BP? I tried that but couldn’t get the Create “…” node.
I tried to replicate what you showed but couldn’t figure out how to link the Size Box Rect widget with a variable. I made a variable with that same name and changed the variable type to Size Box but i don’t think the system made the connection - couldn’t really test it out though due to lack of Call
Lastly, what is this node type called (with the _ _ )? I couldn’t pull it up.

Supremative · October 19, 2022, 5:39pm

Widget receives mouse input automatically.
You should use Create Widget node:

You shouldn’t create a new SizeBox variable.

Did you download my example widget above?

anonymous_user_eedea4421 · October 19, 2022, 10:50pm

Thank you for the explanations and yes, i ended up uploading the .uasset you attached.

I added the call function to my Controller BP, this is what it looks like now:

When i load up the game, the Widget appears on the screen. When i click on it it disappears and then without pressing any mouse button, this happens:

I still have my previous marquee selection active but i don’t think that matters.

Supremative · October 20, 2022, 6:58am

Set SizeBox WidthOverride and HeightOverride to 0.0.
The widget only draws a rectangle.