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Our countdown timer is currently hard-coded to use a value of 3 seconds. It would be more useful if we could set the countdown time to any value we want in the editor, and this is easy to do. In Visual Studio, we can open Countdown.h and find the line that says:
int32 CountdownTime;
In order to expose this variable to Unreal Engine, we need to make it a UPROPERTY. This enables the engine to preserve the value of the variable when launching the game or loading a saved level. The UPROPERTY tag, with empty parentheses, is added right above the variable it affects:
UPROPERTY()int32 CountdownTime;
UPROPERTY supports arguments that change how Unreal Engine will use the variable. Since we want our variable to be editable, we can add the EditAnywhere argument:
UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere)int32 CountdownTime;
We can also add a comment to our variable in C++, and our comment will become the description of the variable in the Unreal Editor, like this:
//How long, in seconds, the countdown will runUPROPERTY(EditAnywhere)int32 CountdownTime;
There is a lot more we can do with UPROPERTY, and looking into other arguments such as BlueprintReadWrite and Category might be good next steps, but we have all that we need at the moment.
When we return to the Unreal Editor and press Compile, our variable will appear in the Details Panel for the ACountdown we placed earlier, and we can test out different timer values by changing this number and pressing Play.
In addition to changing the value of the timer, let's also enable non-programming developers to change what happens when the timer is up. In Visual Studio, we'll open Countdown.h and find the following line:
void CountdownHasFinished();
We can expose this function to the Unreal Engine by making it a UFUNCTION, like this:
UFUNCTION()void CountdownHasFinished();
Just like the UPROPERTY macro, we need to provide information about what can be done with it in order to enable more features and access for non-programming developers. There are three options to consider:
BlueprintCallable functions are written in C++ and can be called from the Blueprint Graph, but cannot be changed or overridden without editing C++ code. Functions marked this way are usually features that have been programmed for non-programmer use, but that are not supposed to be changed or wouldn't make sense to change. An easy example of this would be any kind of math function.
BlueprintImplementableEvent functions are set up in a C++ header (.h) file, but the body of the function is written entirely in the Blueprint Graph, not in C++. These are usually created to give a non-programmer the ability to create custom reactions to special situations that have no expected default action or standard behavior. An example of this might be an event that happens when a powerup touches the player's ship in a spaceship game.
BlueprintNativeEvent functions are like a combination of BlueprintCallable and BlueprintImplementableEvent functions. They have default behaviors programmed in C++, but these can be supplemented or replaced by overriding in the Blueprint Graph. When programming these, the C++ code always goes in a virtual function with "_Implementation" added to the end of the name, as shown below. This is the most flexible option, so we will use it for this tutorial.
To grant non-programmers the ability to call our C++ function and to override it with Blueprints, we need to make the following changes to Countdown.h:
UFUNCTION(BlueprintNativeEvent)void CountdownHasFinished();virtual void CountdownHasFinished_Implementation();
Then, in Countdown.cpp, we will need to change the line that says:
void ACountdown::CountdownHasFinished()
To:
void ACountdown::CountdownHasFinished_Implementation()
We have now made a variable and a function accessible to, and alterable by, non-programmers, while providing our own default value and functionality in C++. To see how a non-programmer might use this, we'll make a Blueprint extension of our ACountdown class and modify it ourselves.
Finished Code
Countdown.h
// Copyright 1998-2016 Epic Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.#pragma once#include "GameFramework/Actor.h"#include "Countdown.generated.h"UCLASS()class HOWTO_VTE_API ACountdown : public AActor{ GENERATED_BODY()public: // Sets default values for this actor's properties ACountdown(); // Called when the game starts or when spawned virtual void BeginPlay() override; // Called every frame virtual void Tick( float DeltaSeconds ) override; //How long, in seconds, the countdown will run UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere) int32 CountdownTime; UTextRenderComponent* CountdownText; void UpdateTimerDisplay(); void AdvanceTimer(); UFUNCTION(BlueprintNativeEvent) void CountdownHasFinished(); virtual void CountdownHasFinished_Implementation(); FTimerHandle CountdownTimerHandle;};
Countdown.cpp
// Copyright 1998-2016 Epic Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.#include "HowTo_VTE.h"#include "Countdown.h"// Sets default valuesACountdown::ACountdown(){ // Set this actor to call Tick() every frame. You can turn this off to improve performance if you don't need it. PrimaryActorTick.bCanEverTick = false; CountdownText = CreateDefaultSubobjectUTextRenderComponent(TEXT("CountdownNumber")); CountdownText-SetHorizontalAlignment(EHTA_Center); CountdownText-SetWorldSize(150.0f); RootComponent = CountdownText; CountdownTime = 3;}// Called when the game starts or when spawnedvoid ACountdown::BeginPlay(){ Super::BeginPlay(); UpdateTimerDisplay(); GetWorldTimerManager().SetTimer(CountdownTimerHandle, this, ACountdown::AdvanceTimer, 1.0f, true);}// Called every framevoid ACountdown::Tick( float DeltaTime ){ Super::Tick( DeltaTime );}void ACountdown::UpdateTimerDisplay(){ CountdownText-SetText(FString::FromInt(FMath::Max(CountdownTime, 0)));}void ACountdown::AdvanceTimer(){ --CountdownTime; UpdateTimerDisplay(); if (CountdownTime 1) {
// We're done counting down, so stop running the timer.
GetWorldTimerManager().ClearTimer(CountdownTimerHandle);
//Perform any special actions we want to do when the timer ends.
CountdownHasFinished(); }}void ACountdown::CountdownHasFinished_Implementation(){ //Change to a special readout CountdownText-SetText(TEXT("GO!"));}
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发表于 2016-6-27 01:04:17
发表于 2016-7-2 19:37:38
