I’ve noted that editor utility widgets are specific to the level editor. Um. Does anyone know why? Is there something specific that makes it more difficult to implement similar functionality in graph editors? I’ve seen one plugin that allows this sort of function, and I was hopeful. It did have some potentially useful tools. The plugin gave access to the Kismet context, but basically nothing for manipulating/creating nodes. I’m also hesitant to use it anyway, since it’s not even listed in the available plugins and has to be installed manually.
Does anyone know why Unreal doesn’t have something vaguely similar already? Is it that we aren’t allowed that much control over our developing environment? That seems unlikely. Is there something legitimate keeping it from working? Is Epic just holding back so they have useful updates for some later time? It would be really useful to have widgets able to manipulate nodes, or generate graphs based on some input. Making macros or copy/pasting doesn’t work for everything. Or rather, it does, but it can get tedious and slow. Sort of like how any of the things possible with utility widgets in the level editor are possible without, but would be tedious and slow. It seems like the editors are all set up in much the same way, so I’m confused about why this wasn’t possible as soon as utility widgets existed. It seems like it would have to be a deliberate choice to leave other editors out, and I’m really curious about the reasoning behind it.
There are utilities which work with the editor itself (toolbars, windows, content browser extensions, node control, entire programs even) which you can write yourself. One plugin which modifies blueprint nodes is “Blueprint Assist”
It seems that I had a blind spot regarding paid plugins! I’ve missed several because I was searching in the plugin menu and not on the marketplace. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, even if inadvertently. I will have to see if Blueprint Assist will help in what I’m looking to do.
I think the answer why utility widgets really are Level Editor Utility Widgets is because the request comes from LevelDesign/LevelArt/TechArt and that no one thought they could use them for more fun stuff. Or at least that the prio to have them work in other part of the editor was/is low.
As it was very easy to get utility widgets working in the Blueprint editor like I do in the ElgKismetEditorWidget plugin you linked to
And yeah you can mostly add/edit/remove stuff like variable, functions or macros but it’s mostly because I didn’t have any specific user case plus it would be somewhat cumbersome to create and link nodes with blueprint nodes.
One way you could “generate graphs based on some input” is to use the copy/paste feature and manipulate the clipboard text data and insert/edit/remove nodes based on some input.
But yeah the copy/paste feature is also kinda halfa**…
Ah, that makes sense. And thanks for your response! It didn’t occur to me that the widget could belong to the level editor and make things happen across the whole system. Although the way they are restricted from docking anywhere but the level editor (without tweaking things) is sort of odd still.
I will have to dig into this further once I have time to really get into C++ more. Right now I’m trying to use as little of it as possible (thus, the focus on Blueprint).
