Creating object pick-up billboards

anonymous_user_8b77cbb9 · June 19, 2015, 2:49pm

I want to create a system such that when the user presses a button, nearby objects will display a billboard featuring the name of the object and a sprite showing its category (defined by colours). I am lost on how to create the billboard.

I’m thinking that I could use a UTextRenderComponent for the text and a UBillboardComponent for the sprite, but I can’t figure out how to get the text to face the camera (main problem is that I can’t even seem to get the camera object), and the billboard component shows up in the editor but not the game.

Is there a better way to go about this?

MiniTurtle · June 23, 2015, 2:15am

Here is a preview how it will look

Pickup.h

UCLASS()
class APickup : public AActor
{
	GENERATED_BODY()
	
public:	
	APickup();
	
public:
	UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly)
	class USphereComponent *Collision;

	UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly)
	class UMaterialBillboardComponent *Billboard;

	UPROPERTY(EditDefaultsOnly)
	class UTextRenderComponent *TextRender;
};

Pickup.cpp

#include "Components/MaterialBillboardComponent.h"
#include "Components/TextRenderComponent.h"
#include "Engine/Font.h"
#include "Materials/MaterialInterface.h"

APickup::APickup()
{
	Collision = CreateDefaultSubobject<USphereComponent>(TEXT("Collision"));
	Collision->SetCollisionEnabled(ECollisionEnabled::QueryOnly);
	Collision->SetCollisionResponseToAllChannels(ECR_Ignore);
	Collision->SetCollisionResponseToChannel(ECC_Pawn, ECR_Overlap);
	RootComponent = Collision;

	Billboard = CreateDefaultSubobject<UMaterialBillboardComponent>(TEXT("Billboard"));
	Billboard->AttachTo(RootComponent);

	TextRender = CreateDefaultSubobject<UTextRenderComponent>(TEXT("Text"));
	TextRender->AttachTo(RootComponent);
	TextRender->SetText(FText::FromString("Pickup Text"));
	TextRender->HorizontalAlignment = EHorizTextAligment::EHTA_Center;
	TextRender->VerticalAlignment = EVerticalTextAligment::EVRTA_TextCenter;

	static ConstructorHelpers::FObjectFinder<UFont> FontClass(
		TEXT("Font'/Game/FirstPerson/Blueprints/TestFont.TestFont'"));
	if (FontClass.Object)
		TextRender->SetFont(FontClass.Object);

	static ConstructorHelpers::FObjectFinder<UMaterialInterface> Material(
		TEXT("Blueprint'/Game/FirstPerson/Blueprints/M_Font.M_Font'"));
	if (Material.Object)
		TextRender->SetMaterial(0, Material.Object);
}

Font setup:

Create new font and make sure to make it a offline font

Create new material, Shading Model = Unlit, Blend Mode = Masked