I’m trying to build some interactivity into a small project, I essentially want to be able to select a character and rotate it, and allow the user to select some options from a UI panel, like select other characters or play animations. Similar to the Dota 2 VR demo.
On my way to being able to do this I just can’t figure out the best way of creating a laser beam from the motion controller that acts as a selector, much like the one which you can use to interact with the Steam UI in VR or the Viveport.
Would anyone be able to give me some direction on how this could be achieved within UE4?
First thing you are going to want is a line trace, to know what the controller is pointing at. With that information, you can draw a shape. Something like a cylinder which stretches based on the line trace length.
Then you will need to setup your blueprints to communicate witch each other. One way to do that is to use actor “tags” to identify what you want to be intractable. You could also use an interface, which gives you a bit more flexibility.
That’s really useful Stimpanzee, thank you! - I’ve looked at many different threads and video’s describing creating a ‘laser pointer’, and a lot of them tend to use a particle system due to it’s inherent ability to dynamically extend over distances. However, considering this is for VR I obviously want to keep everything to a minimum to hit a consistent fps. In your opinion, would you say a cylinder as you mentioned previously is the best method or would a particle based system be easier to use in the long run?