Open RTS Plugin for Unreal Engine 4

Development Pipeline & Plugins Plugins
41

Hey @duyth! We have discussed that above in detail, indeed, e.g. with @ambershee (although I don’t blame you for not reading the entire thread :slight_smile: )

In short: Yes, squad support is on the list. Also, as this is open source, feel free to add it yourself and open a pull request.

42

sorry, was too excited and missed that feature. Subscribed to this thread :slight_smile:

43

Keeping my eye on this! I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about starting an RTS project but it always feels so daunting. I love the work so far and I can’t wait to see all the future additions! Keep it up!

Just wanted to add that I count myself along those keen for a squad style system, though I’m unsure how that would work as you described it above with the invisible pawn etc for melee battles where you want pawns hitting each other and dealing damage. Just for reference I’m thinking of something like the Battle for Middle Earth games https://youtu.be/zLevf1IZTWE?t=513

44

Has anyone successfully rebuilt plugin DLLs for 4.17 or 4.16v3? Could you please share as I can’t seem to rebuild/compile. Tried with both VS15 and VS17 but keep getting the errors below and I haven’t been able to get the plugin up and running in the past few days, which is sad :frowning:

Error UnrealHeaderTool failed for target ‘RTSEditor’ (platform: Win64, module info: E:\UE Projects\RTS\Intermediate\Build\Win64\RTSEditor\Development\RTSEditor.uhtmanifest, exit code: OtherCompilationError (5)). RTS E:\UE Projects\RTS\Intermediate\ProjectFiles\EXEC 1
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error MSB3075 The command ““E:\Epic Games\UE_4.16\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\Build.bat” RTSEditor Win64 Development “E:\UE Projects\RTS\RTS.uproject” -waitmutex” exited with code 5. Please verify that you have sufficient rights to run this command. RTS C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Microsoft.MakeFile.Targets 41

45

I’ve just started a full rebuild and will get back to you in case I get any errors. In the meantime, can you tell me how you’re trying to build? Are you building just the RTS project from the GitHub repository? Or have you copied the source to your own? Are you trying to export the plugin using the Unreal Editor?

46

Thanks man. I cloned the 4.16.1 pack (with the plugin folder Screenshot by Lightshot ) - > opened and was asked to rebuild to make it compatible with my version (4.16.3) so I went ahead, but it then asked to be manually “re-built” -> generated VS sln file -> tried rebuild in VS but didn’t work

47

@duyth Thanks for the details! For me, everything’s building fine, but I’m on Unreal Engine 4.17 already. I recall having a similar issue, but in fact there was another compilation error that caused the build process to fail.

Can you check for any additional errors? More specifically, reverting the changes made in commit c5a62a0 might fix your problem:

  • Use ComponentToWorld instead of GetComponentTransform() in RTSMinimapWidget
  • Pass InContext.MyClippingRect to both MakeBox calls in RTSMinimapWidget
48

Thanks man. I removed some plugins, switch UE version to 4.17 , then rebuilt DLL with VS17. –> it worked

I also tried with 4.16 , and yes, had to revert these Screenshot by Lightshot (this revert isn’t required for 4.17)

49

Glad I could help :slight_smile:

And here we go with another update: This video illustrates some of the different aspects of resource gathering exposed in the plugin, e.g.

  • types of resources a gatherer can gather (e.g. ghouls in Warcraft 3 can only gather lumber, not gold)
  • allowed resource sources for a specific gatherer (e.g. Undead in Warcraft 3 need to haunt goldmine before gathering)
  • amount of resources a gatherer can carry before returning
  • gather speed and cooldowns (e.g. 100 every 2 seconds vs. 50 every second)
  • gather range
  • whether gatherers need to return to some building for returning resources, or not (e.g. Age of Empires vs. night elf wisps in Warcraft 3; the latter return resources immediately, without having to move)
  • sweep radius for finding similar resources if a source is depleted
  • resource capacity of a source
  • gathering factor (e.g. abundant minerals in StarCraft 2)
  • whether gatherers must enter the source for gathering, or not (e.g. gold vs. lumber in Warcraft)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oBUQoOwPbDk

As always, you can mix and match all of these properties to achieve the desired results :slight_smile:

50

What kind of feedback are you expecting for this atm?

I’m looking forward for this and would love to be able to use this to mess around when it’s ready.

51

looking good!

as you’re making gathering mechanics I’ll throw this request:
regenerating resource deposits. this mechanic comes from Dark Reign, and it’s about resource deposits that can re-generate but having an upper limit

52

More complex variant of this would be Gold mines/Tiberium trees in C&C series. They regenerate resources in a circular area around them.

53

Hello!

I am start to make a Free Space Based RTS, and trying to use the Plugin with no success.

I am using version 4.17 i grabed the plugin from github and tried to open it on unreal engine like a project but with no sucess, can you help ?

Problem solved.

54

Amazing work. I really need to learn how to do this.

55

Hey everyone! Again, it’s been some time, but it’s not due to me being lazy :wink:

Thanks! I’ve opened #58 Regenerating Resource Sources](Regenerating Resource Sources · Issue #58 · npruehs/ue4-rts · GitHub) for this :slight_smile:

For everyone still struggling with this: #55 Unable to use plug in](Unable to use plug in · Issue #55 · npruehs/ue4-rts · GitHub)might help!

Also, I’m having issues with properly rendering fog of war in 3D space right now. I’ve opened another thread on this in order to keep this discussion focused, maybe you want to add your two cents:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/deve…-and-materials

56

I cant seem to get this to work with all the suggested work arounds. I’m super lost and new to this plugins and such.

57

I understand that getting plugins up and running can be a bit confusing at first. Everything’s going to be much easier as soon as I push this into Marketplace (will do so shortly after the fog of war feature is finished). If I find the time, I might add a more comprehensive guide for adding the plugin from GitHub :slight_smile:

58

hey, just came across this. Amazing work man!

Im curious how the project is going!

Im starting an RTS, curious how multiplayer is going to turn out, heard it’s quite complex

59

Multiplayer is already in place for all of the features shown here (all videos have been created by starting a listen server and connecting a second client, capturing the gameplay from the second client). It’s based on built-in Unreal networking features - let me know in case you have any issues :slight_smile:

60

Hey everyone,

I’ve been quite busy during the past weeks, but here we go: The fog of war implementation is finished, including

  • computing visibility from unit vision
  • three different states (unknown, seen before but out of sight, visible right now)
  • drawing on minimap
  • rendering in 3D space
  • proper replication for multiplayer

The results are previewed here:

I’m aware that any VFX artist could improve on the rendering in 3D space, but you get the basic idea. Thanks for all the help with that in the other thread at Need help with dynamic textures and materials - Rendering - Epic Developer Community Forums, I’m going to post my results there later today.

Next, I’m going to update the plugin to Unreal Engine 4.18, do a little cleanup and improve on the documentation.

Also, I’ve got other good news: I’ve learned about a team that’s going to make a quite big RTS game based on this plugin, so there might be many more small additions and improvements in the near future. Stay tuned!