Make material instances in assets.digest.verse children of the parent materials

General Feedback & Requests
, , ,
1

Please make it so that material instances can be casted onto their parent material. Right now the materials look like this:

Example1<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}> := class<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}>(material):
    @editable
    var Val1<public>:float = external {}

Example1Instance<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}> := class<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}>(material):
    @editable
    var Val1<public>:float = external {}

And to change parameters for Example1Instance, even though they are the same, we need to cast to it directly:

var PlayersMats : [agent]material = map{}

OnBegin<override>()<suspends>:void=
    for (Agent : GetPlayspace().GetPlayers()):
        if:
            GetRandomInt(0, 1) = 0
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Mats.Example1{}
        else:
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Mats.Example1Instance{}

UpdateMaterial(Agent:agent):void=
    if (AgentMat := Mats.Example1[PlayersMats[Agent]]):
        set AgentMat.Val1 = 1.0
    else if (AgentMat := Mats.Example1Instance[PlayersMats[Agent]]):
        set AgentMat.Val1 = 1.0

My best idea to implement this today is to create UMG widgets with verse fields for each parent material, and manipulate which instance and parameters to use using these fields:

var PlayersMats : [agent]Blueprints.UI.WB_Material = map{}

OnBegin<override>()<suspends>:void=
    for (Agent : GetPlayspace().GetPlayers()):
        if:
            GetRandomInt(0, 1) = 0
            AgentMat := Mats.Example1{}
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Blueprints.UI.WB_Example1Material:
                Material := AgentMat
                Val1 := AgentMat.Val1
        else:
            AgentMat := Mats.Example1Instance{}
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Blueprints.UI.WB_Example1Material:
                Material := AgentMat
                Val1 := AgentMat.Val1

UpdateMaterial(Agent:agent):void=
    if (AgentMatWB := PlayersMats[Agent]):
        set AgentMatWB.Val1 = 1.0

It would be much better if the instances were subclasses of the parent material:

Example1<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}> := class<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}>(material):
    @editable
    var Val1<public>:float = external {}

Example1Instance<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}> := class<scoped {/gameexpf@fortnite.com/ExampleProject}>(Example1):

var PlayersMats : [agent]Mats.Example1 = map{}

OnBegin<override>()<suspends>:void=
    for (Agent : GetPlayspace().GetPlayers()):
        if:
            GetRandomInt(0, 1) = 0
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Mats.Example1{}
        else:
            set PlayersMats[Agent] = Mats.Example1Instance{}

UpdateMaterial(Agent:agent):void=
    if (AgentMat := PlayersMats[Agent]):
        set AgentMat.Val1 = 1.0

*All of the code here was written from blank, and it might contain small mistakes.

2

I’ve been hitting this too especially with ui and sg

3

This will simplify the code for my custom UI. :+1:

1 Like