Prerequisites

To follow this guide you need to understand the basics of Unreal Engine, working with blueprints inside the editor and using a custom Game Instance. We have linked guides below to these topics.
The basics of blueprint actors.
Adding variables to blueprint actors.
How to use custom Game Instances.
Custom Events in Unreal Engine.

It would also be beneficial to understand how Input Actions work in Unreal Engine:
Click here to learn how to use input actions and axis.

How it Works

SaveGame is a class in Unreal Engine that is preconfigured to save and load the data contained in the variables you add.

The variables you set are then saved to a file stored on the user’s machine. This is then read and the variables can be accessed in your game.

The save file is located in these locations:
Windows: Local Appdata folder
MacOS: Library/Application Support
Linux: /home/username/.local/share

Almost every variable type can be saved and loaded using the SaveGame class.

Creating our Save Class

Firstly, create a new blueprint class from the content drawer.

Next, in the popup window, click the drop down arrow at the bottom. In the search bar type “SaveGame” and click the option from the list.

Then, give your new SaveGame blueprint a suitable name. We need to remember this as it is used later. In our case, we used the name DemoSaveGame.

Saving the variables

Now that your SaveGame class has been created, you can add any variables you need for your project.

For this demo we create a new Vector variable called “PlayerPosition”.

Once you have created the variables you need for your project, click Compile and Save to ensure your changes are applied and saved.

Adding Save and Load Functionality

Firstly, in our Game Instance, add two new custom events. “Save” and “Load”.

We also need to add a new variable on the Game Instance. Name this variable SaveGame and set the type to the class you created in the previous step.

Loading our Variables from the Save File

Now that our Game Instance is setup, on the Load event, create a new “Does Save Game Exist” node. The “Slot Name” pin needs to be given a name. This can be set to anything you want. Each different name you use saves to a different file.

In our case we just named this “savegame”.

Next, add a branch to the output pin of the “Does Save Game Exist” node. This will branch if our save file exists or not.

If the Save File Exists

From the “True” pin, create a new “Load Game From Slot” node with the same “Slot Name” as before.

Next, from the blue output pin, create a “Cast to” node. This should cast to the class you created in the first step. For us this is “Cast to DemoSaveGame”.

Then set the Game Instance’s Save Game variable we created earlier to the output of the “Cast to” node.

From there, we create a “Set Actor Location” node. This will be used to move our character to the saved location.

From the variables list on the left of the editor, drag the “SaveGame” variable and drop near the the nodes. This will show a list of options. Click the “Get SaveGame” option to allow us easy access to this variable for the next few steps.

Dragging from the “Save Game” blue pin then typing “get player position”, we can see our “Player Position” Vector variable that we created earlier. Click this option in the list to add it to the blueprint graph.

Next, connect the “Player Position” vector pin to the “New Location” option on the “Set Actor Location” node.

Lastly, create a “Get Player Character” node and connect this to the “Target” pin of the “Set Actor Location” node. This now gets our saved player position and moves the player character to it.

If the Save File doesn’t Exist

If the save file does not exist then we need to create a new file. From the “False” pin create a new “Create Save Game Object” node. Then set the “Save Game Class” purple pin to the custom SaveGame class we created earlier.

Then, set the Game Instance “Save Game” variable to the blue output pin value.

Lastly, connect the “Set Save Game” node to the blueprint nodes above. This can be done by double clicking the white lines to create points.

Connect the blueprints nodes together as shown in the image below.

Saving our Variables to the Save File

Now that we can load saved variables, we need to save the variables!

Firstly, drag and drop the SaveGame variable and click “Get SaveGame” next to the Save event.

From there, we create an “? Is Valid” node. This allows us to branch the code if our save file has been loaded or not.

If the Save File is Valid

From our “Save Game” blue variable, create a “Set Player Position” node and connect it to the “Is Valid” pin.

Next, create a “Get Player Character” node and from the blue output pin, create a “Get Actor Location” pin.

Lastly, connect the yellow output pin of the “Get Actor Location” node to the yellow input pin on the “Set Player Position” node. Now if our save game object is valid we will save the player character location to the save file on disk.

If the Save File is not Valid

If the save game object isn’t valid, we need to create it before saving any data.

Firstly, create a “Create Save Game Object” node, set the purple input value to our previously created save game class, then connect this to the “Is Not Valid” pin as shown below.

Next, set the Game Instance SaveGame variable to the blue output pin of the “Create Save Game Object” node.

Then, connect the “Set Save Game” node to the “Set Player Position” node as shown below. This will save the player character’s position after the “Save Game” object is valid.

Finally, create either a “Save Game to Slot” or “Async Save Game to Slot” node from the blue SaveGame variable.

If your game needs to save lots of information, use the “Async Save Game to Slot” node.

If your game only saves a small amount of data, use the “Save Game to Slot” node.

Make sure to set the “Slot Name” variable to the name you used earlier. In our case this was “savegame”.

Saving and Loading the Player Position

Now that your Save and Load system is complete, we need to trigger this functionality.

In your Player Character class add an Key Press Event. For this guide we used the number 1 key from our ThirdPersonCharacterBP class.

From there, create a “Get Game Instance” node and a “Cast To” node to your custom game instance. Connect the two as shown below.

Next, from the blue “As Game Instance” pin, call the “Save” event we created earlier. Now when we press the number 1 key, our game will save the current player character’s position to the save file.

Repeat the previous step for the number 2 key as shown in the image below.

Finally, call the “Load” event from the “As Game Instance” blue pin. This will now load our saved player position from the save file and teleport our player to that position.

Demo

Download the Project Files

Conclusion

Now your project has saving and loading capabilities!

This is a very basic implementation but allows you to expand this further. Any data you want to save and load can be implemented into the events we created during this guide.

An example of this would be the player’s health. This variable could be created on the SaveGame, saved and loaded onto the character with minimal setup.

Further Reading:
Official UE4/5 documentation for the Saving and Loading in the engine.
Tom Looman’s great guide for implementing Saving and Loading for C++ classes

The post How to Save and Load in Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on Couch Learn.

Is VOIPTalker Voice Chat Difficult?

No, not at all!

Implementing Positional Voice Chat into your UE4 multiplayer game only using blueprints is simple and requires very little knowledge of how the backend C++ code works.

Adding this system to my own project initially was very difficult due to the lack of resources available from both the community and Epic themselves on their wiki.

As I don’t want anyone to follow the painful nights of troubleshooting like it did, I have created this guide for the UE4 community to enhance their own projects.

Examples of proximity and positional voice chat 

• Rust https://rust.facepunch.com/ developed by Facepunch Studios
• PUBG https://www.pubg.com/ developed by PUBG Corporation
• Fortnite https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/home developed by Epic Games

Requirements

• Unreal Engine’s basic voice chat system fully working.

• Unreal Engine version 4.19 and above.

• The new audio mixer and associated plugins be enabled. (If not using Unreal Engine 4.24)

Complete these requirements to move onto adding the VOIPTalker component.

The VOIPTalker Component

Adding the Component

The VOIPTalker component intercepts voice data and runs it through any effects or attenuation thus preventing player voices playing directly to the players.

Firstly, on your character blueprint, type create the blueprint node named Add VOIPTalker and attach it to your Begin Play event.

From the return value pin, promote the new VOIPTalker to a new variable. Call this variable something relevant as we will use this again soon. I named this VOIP.

Validating the Player State

Next, connected to your Add VOIPTalker node, we need check if the PlayerState is valid and as a result, preventing failure during VOIPTalker’s initialisation.

There are far more pretty ways of doing this check but reliability and simplicity is key for understanding how this system works.

At this step, the code should look like this.

Registering Voice Chat data to the Player State

VOIPTalker in its current setup, can’t receive any voice data.

We now need to assign the correct PlayerState.

Using the Register with Player State node, we can assign the target pin to the promoted variable we created earlier. In the earlier steps we named this VOIP.

In the owning state pin, the PlayerState variable needs to be connected.

Microphone Sensitivity

When using this system I found that the microphone sensitivity was far to low to sustain voice chat without stuttering or cutting out entirely.

To fix this simply create a Set Mic Threshold node and set it to -1.

VOIPTalker Voice Settings

We are almost there!

VOIPTalker by default has no effects, location for the sound to originate from or attenuation preset.

From the VOIP variable, drag and type set settings to create this node shown below.

This node gives us the ability to define the settings we want for our voice chat.

Set Component to Attach to a reference to the player’s camera. This will appear to make the audio originate from the player’s mouth.

I created a specific attenuation class for VOIP which will more accurately reduce volume over distance in the context of speech. You can create and set your own Attenuation class in here and tweak till it sounds right.

If you don’t know how to setup Audio Attenuation in Unreal Engine 4 click here for a simple guide.

In the content browser create a new source effect chain class and leave it empty. Assign the source effect chain setting option to this new class.

Completed Blueprint

The entire system is fairly simple. The lack of documentation is the difficult part.

Here is the complete blueprint nodes all inside my player character blueprint.

Example Video

Download the Project Files

Conclusion

Positional Voice Chat should be well documented and developed considering how many games use this feature.

If you found this tutorial useful please share to other developers, family and friends because I believe that this takes very little time to set up and adds a whole dimension of gameplay.

Developers should not have to rely on custom C++ solutions for basic multiplayer features.

The post How to use VOIPTalker Proximity Voice Chat using only Blueprints in your Multiplayer Unreal Engine 4 game appeared first on Couch Learn.

Configuration

Config Directory

All files that we will be creating or editing will be in the config folder. To find this folder navigate to your project folder and open the config folder.

Enabling the Features

Here I will show you how to enable the new audio engine for each platform.

You only need the folder and files for the platform that you wish to build your game for.

Here are the platforms and their folder names:

Inside the platform folder that you wish to use we need to create the configuration file for that platform.

To create these folders right click in the folder and create a new text document. From there you can change the name and extension to make it work with the engine.

Configuration File Names

Windows Folder – WindowsEngine.ini

MacOS Folder – MacEngine.ini

iOS Folder – IOSEngine.ini

Android Folder – AndroidEngine.ini

Make sure the extension is exactly .ini for the engine to understand the file.

If this alert box shows press YES to create the file.

If done correctly the file type should be “Configuration setting”.

To edit .ini files, right click the file and click on the edit option.

WindowsEngine.ini

Open WindowsEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerXAudio2 

MacEngine.ini

Open MacEngine.ini, open copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAudioUnit

IOSEngine.ini

Open IOSEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAudioUnit

AndroidEngine.ini

Open AndroidEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAndroid

This is all you need to tell the engine what audio engine to use. The next step is to enable the plugins so the editor gives you access to the blueprint nodes and additional audio blueprint classes.

Enabling the Plugins

To access the plugin browser press Edit then plugins from the drop down menu.

The two plugins we need to enable are in the Audio section of the plugins browser:

Enable the sound utilities and Synthesis and DSP effects plugins

The final step left to do is to restart the editor.

Conclusion

You are all set! There are many powerful tools in the new audio engine for you to now use in your new or existing projects. My main use for the new audio engine is to control the VOIPTalker component with audio effects through a source effect chain.

As the new audio engine is experimental not much documentation exists. I encourage you to create a new blueprint and look through all of the synth nodes and make something new. The best way to learn how these systems work is to dive headfirst and play around with it.

The post How to enable the new audio engine in your Unreal Engine 4 Project appeared first on Couch Learn.