Transparent window

BestWarrior · March 11, 2019, 10:20pm

Hi, I am trying to make a transparent window, so the objects in the scene will display on top of windows. Take a look at this: https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/8e8bib/question_fully_transparentclickthru_application/
This is how it looks if I use that code:

Anyone know how to fix this? Thankyou

anonymous_user_2d4b4bb8 · April 25, 2019, 8:25pm

This works:



    const auto hwnd = GetActiveWindow();

    if (hwnd)
    {
        SetWindowLongPtr(hwnd, GWL_STYLE, WS_VISIBLE);
        SetWindowLongPtr(hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_LAYERED | WS_EX_TRANSPARENT);

        RECT rect;
        GetWindowRect(hwnd, &rect);
        SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, rect.left, rect.top, rect.right - rect.left, rect.bottom - rect.top, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);

        const MARGINS margins{ -1 };
        DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(hwnd, &margins);
    }

Remove WS_EX_LAYERED if you don’t want click-through

BestWarrior · November 27, 2021, 6:33pm

Thankyou very much!

ProStat · December 11, 2022, 11:46am

Can you guide a bit upon where this should be done? Is it in unreal ? if yes then which file or classes needed to be modified ?

BestWarrior · July 1, 2023, 12:39pm

Hi, any idea why this works on windows 8 but doesn’t work on windows 11 ? I haven’t tried on windows 10.

BarakXYZ · November 30, 2023, 8:44am

Hi!
I want to test it in Windows 10 but can’t figure out which class should I manipulate. Is it the regular SWindow in Slate? Something else?

Thanks for any clues on the implementation!

Anonymous_bd14bf9b62945a81b9b69b59be8d0392 · March 13, 2024, 5:02pm

NickJPN99 · April 29, 2025, 5:00pm

I’m trying to install the TransparentWindows plugin from the Epic Games Launcher on Unreal Engine 5.2, but the installation fails immediately with the error code MD-0011-0 and the message “Could not download installation information.”

Things I’ve already tried (no luck):

Cleared the Launcher WebCache and restarted.
Re-logged into my Epic account.
Disabled VPN / proxy.
Made sure the Launcher is on the latest version.

From what I can tell, MD-0011-0 usually means the plugin’s manifest is missing or corrupted on the Fab/Marketplace server.
Could you please re-upload or ask Epic to regenerate the manifest on their side?

Screenshot for reference is attached.

Thanks a lot for looking into this!