Is there any info out there on creating HUDs/UI for Unreal4?

Will there be support for Flash, Scaleform that are currently used for UE3? I’ve seen Slate mentioned for the UE4 menus but haven’t found any documentation on how to change/modify/create custom stuff for a new project.

Thanks,

TM

With full source code access you have essentialy three options:

  1. Buy Scaleform and integrate it on your own. Though there should be already integration hooks, so It shouldn’t be that hard.
  2. Use Slate. I personally do not recommend it. Slate is still bit poorly documented and it one of a beast to grasp on.
  3. Intragrate other gui solution. Like CoherentUI or awesomium.

twitch whaddabout Blueprints ? ?

I’m not sure if you can make something like inventory manager in blueprint easily.
It’s probably possible, just not sure about feasibility of that solution in long term.

you can layout a Canvas UI in blueprints, but anything with button clicks and interaction has to be down with Slate or another option. Im working on transfering some documents from the beta forum to the new one for people. Slate isnt bad imo, it just takes some getting used to. Once you figure out how to do it initially, its actually quite fast to work with.

Slate is very powerful and has lots of potential, but has a fairly steep learning curve.

During the beta, a Canvas based system was developed by Rama (where are you man?) and several people began work on integrating other systems.

One that I assume a lot of people will now be annoying me about a lot more is Coherent UI support:

Once complete, it will give you the ability to create UI’s, HUD’s both in-game or directly on the screen, based on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript.

I am sure you can make UI/HUDs easily with blueprint :slight_smile:

I think I heard about Coherent UI from Unity. It looks very promising indeed. In-game browsers and all that jazz.

Yes you are right we really are totally going to annoy you over Coherent UI support, it looks amazing.

Does Coherent UI support touch input?

The version shown above takes what ever input you send it.
Whether that is touch, keyboard, controller or mouse is up to you.

I have been in touch with Scaleform as I have a license with them currently for a Unity project. I guess I should of known this going in but Scaleform integration is done through C++ and ultimately would be simple to integrate IF you have a good coder. On the Flash/AS side of things it would actually give you more control than with the UDK integration but with more power comes a steeper learning curve. Also there is the little part of paying for the license. With Unity you have a good deal and it is still a few hundred dollars per Console (PC/Mac/iOS/Android/Etc). For the UE4 their solution is in it’s early stages and licensing is pricey.

With that, an “indie” licensing option is in the future with documentation and such but there is no details on a time line or pricing. You can go to the scaleform site and sign up for a demo for UE4 but I am sure they are now inundated with these requests and will likely be difficult, at least for the foreseeable future, to obtain it.

With all of that said, smart coders could probably grab the files as they exist in UDK and develop an integration for development and then worry about getting the license at release time but I am not sure how the EULA would dictate that.

Hope this all helps. FWIW, due to what might be a lengthy process with a steep learning curve, it might be worth learning Slate (the system that Epic deems powerful enough for their upcoming projects) as it is likely to get a lot of love going forward.

For proof of how powerful and flexible Slate is - just look at all the tools!
The only current issue with Slate is the learning curve.
This will become moot over time.