UE4 Utilities

Some usefull structs, classes and macros I use to develop more featured plugins.

I've decided to make all the code I developed for my games free to use and open source. I am a true believer in the mindset that sharing and collaborating makes the world a better place. The thing is: I'm fulltime dedicated to my project and these open source plugins, for coding I need a looooot of coffee, so please, help me to get my drug 😝 !!

• 1. Requirements
  • 1.1. UE4 Plugins
• 2. Features
  • 2.1. Blueprint & CPP
    • 2.1.1. Text Library
    • 2.1.2. MathExtension Library
    • 2.1.3. FlashMessage
    • 2.1.4. AI: Behavior Tree
    • 2.1.5. FBPDelegateHandle
  • 2.2. CPP only
    • 2.2.1. Array Utilities
    • 2.2.2. Error Utilities
    • 2.2.3. Comparator Utilities
• 3. Contributing and Supporting

1. Requirements

1.1. UE4 Plugins

• NansCoreHelpers (free UE4 plugins)

2. Features

2.1. Blueprint & CPP

2.1.1. Text Library

TextLibrary.h

Method, Node or Macro	Type	Goal
ENUM_TO_STRING(EnumClassName, ValueOfEnum)	CPP Macro	Passing an enum type and a value, this will return the enum label as string.
ENUMNAME_TO_STRING(EnumClassName, ValueOfEnum)	CPP Macro	This one will returns the "DisplayName" UMETA's attribute.
	Blueprint	This is a blueprint wrapper for the FMD5::HashAnsiString function, it takes an FName as parameter.
	Blueprint	Same but takes an FText as parameter.
	Blueprint	Compare two strings, checks if the first one is a permutation of the second.
	Blueprint	Same as above + outputs a TMap: keys are each TCHAR of the first string, and values are distances with the same TCHAR in the second string.
	Blueprint	Only checks if letters from the first string are contained in the second.
	Blueprint	Will splits every words separated with a space.
	Blueprint	Will splits text trying to make lines, each line should have a Char length defined in the 2nd argument. This algo will not cut words and always cut line before the word exceeding the chars length.
	Blueprint	Same as above but each line will be an array entry.
	Blueprint	Convert a name to a display text. Eg: ItIsAName => It Is A Name
	Blueprint	Same as above but string output.
FString WorldTypeToString(const EWorldType::Type Type)	CPP	Usefull for debugging, will output the WorldType Name.

2.1.2. MathExtension Library

MathExtensionLibrary.h

Node	Type	Goal
	Blueprint	This will create an FBox (AABB object). ⚠️ The Rotation argument will rotate the first cube, but the final result is still an AABB.
	Blueprint	Check if 2 boxes intersect.
	Blueprint	A ZoneBox (FZoneBox struct) is coming from the NansCoreHelpers module.
	Blueprint	Check if vector A is at the left of the point B using point as reference.
	Blueprint	Rotate a vector using a pivot point and an axis.
	Blueprint	Retrieve the AABB from a FZoneBox.
	Blueprint	Retrieve the rotation between 2 point and a pivot point.
	Blueprint	Returns a FTrigonometryDataForZone.

2.1.3. FlashMessage

MessageTypes.h

	Type	Goal
FNFlashMessage	Blueprint / Struct	Is a simple Blueprint UStruct embdeding text, duration and priority level data.
EFlashMessagePriorityLevel	Blueprint / Enum	Blueprint UEnum to indicates priority level.
FNFlashMessageList	CPP / Struct	A simple CPP struct which enqueue messages and prioritize their retrieval depending on their priority level.

2.1.4. AI: Behavior Tree

	Type	Goal
UBTTask_NotifyAIOnAbort	CPP / Class	An abstract Behavior Tree Task Node. When it finished in an "Abort" result, it notifies any component implementing UAITaskAbortAware of the Behavior Tree owner.
UBTTask_NotifyAIOnAbortBP	Blueprint / Class	The same as above but overrides UBTTask_BlueprintBase instead.
UAITaskAbortAware	CPP & Blueprint / Class	This interface allow any component to be notified by the children nodes of the both above.

2.1.5. FBPDelegateHandle

FBPDelegateHandle is a simple container which allows passing a FDelegateHandle through blueprint nodes.

2.2. CPP only

2.2.1. Array Utilities

NansArrayUtils

2.2.2. Error Utilities

Macro	Goals
EDITOR_ERROR(MsgChannel, Text [, Object])	Will output an error message in the UE editor message panel. Object arg is used to create a link to your object.
EDITOR_WARN(MsgChannel, Text [, Object])	Will output an warning message in the UE editor message panel. Object arg is used to create a link to your object.
SCREEN_LOG(duration, color, format, ...)	Log a message to the game screen.

2.2.3. Comparator Utilities

NansComparator.h.

A bunch of functions allowing data comparisons using blueprint enums (ENansConditionComparator and ENansConditionOperator) and blueprint struct (FNansConditionOperator).
This way you can easily create a blueprint interface to build data comparison (see NansDialogueSystem for usages).

3. Contributing and Supporting

I've decided to make all the code I developed for my games free to use and open source.
I am a true believer in the mindset that sharing and collaborating makes the world a better place.
I'll be very glad if you decided to help me to follow my dream.

How?	With
Donating Because I'm an independant developer/creator and for now I don't have any income, I need money to support my daily needs (coffeeeeee).
Contributing You are very welcome if you want to contribute. I explain here in details what is the most comfortable way to me you can contribute.	CONTRIBUTING.md