Is it possible to make Fallout style pickups like they have for the comics/magazines/etc?

Basically i am making a very small project and need to make it so that my character finds “journal entries” left by another character. I am not sure what i can put the words onto that i can make into a blueprint. Basically my goal is to make something like they use in Fallout 4 for the magazines and comics, etc.

Hope to hear back soon.

Thank you! You are correct, what you described is what i was looking for. So far though i am having an issue trying to get things set up correctly in the last part of the BP.

I created the BP for the pickup, instead of using “E” i used LMB though.

After making the class i went in and added a cube as a reference in scene and box collision.

Added a text render component with a very basic “Read Journal” message

Made “NoteTextContent” variable into a “text” variable and made it editable.

Dragged in “text render” and “Set visibility” and put them both into the gate, as in the screen shot

I think i might have done something incorrect/incomplete with the widget. I made a widget, added a text node with a very basic message to display to prove it worked correctly so i could change as needed per message. i did NOT however, bind it to anything? do i need to and if so - what?

back in Pickup BP
When i drag off the “Gate” node i am able to add the widgetBP but i cannot drag off of the widget and “set text to display”. If i drag in the “Note Text Contents” and “set” it i am able to add it but cannot assign a target. i can drag a wire off the widgetBP and add to viewport. But it doesn’t work in game. I can approach the Pickup and it has the “Read Journal” message above it but cannot click anything.

I really appreciate your time and help with this, i apologize if this might be frustrating to try and explain.

I can approach the Pickup and it has the “Read Journal” message above it but cannot click anything.

the way i had it setup there wouldnt be anything to click, it was just a key input. if you want something to click then you would need to implement something like another widget or a clickable mesh.

i cannot drag off of the widget and “set text to display”

the set text to display that was seen in my example was a variable created in the widget. the value of the text in the widget is bound to this variable. what you see in the script is where we are setting its value.

another thing to change would be the set visibility that comes after then end overlap, here you should uncheck the new visibility (i left it checked by accident). this part is just so that when the character is close to the note the text is displayed.

also you need to connect the white exe pin to the add to viewport for the widget to be visible in game.

I added the variable to the widget, changed to E being the input, was able to connect the exec pin and unchecked the end overlap box. I think i am really confused on what it was supposed to do when i tap E, also am i putting my pop up message in the “Text Render” node? or is it supposed to be put into the “designer” area of the widget. When i hit the E key is it supposed to populate the message on the screen?

the text render is just to let the player know that there is something there to be interacted with its not actually a required item, i just included it in the example.

when you press the e key what is meant to occur is that the widget will be created and shown on screen (like a popup). also note that you may need to enable input in your note pickup actor which can be done either in the details panel or via script.

lastly your actual message is meant to be displayed in the widget and will be populated via the variables. the idea here is that the text variable in the note pickup is made public so you can place many notes in the level then set the text value on each one in the details panel. this allows you to put a different message into each note. this could also be done with a data table or list of strings but i was trying to keep things simple for the moment. to summarize this part you put your message into the notes text variable by selecting it in the level and inputting the text in the details panel, this value is then automatically transferred to the widget when its created, and finally the widget displays the message.

hopefully that all makes sense.

I placed an “enable input” between “E” and “Gate”. Couldn’t figure out how to find it in the details panel but was able to add it into the script.

If possible could you send me a screen shot of your widget script (if any) and an “in game shot”. i can see it in my minds eye but i am embarrassed to say that i am just not following what i am supposed to do.

My understanding is that when i place it into the level and approach it and when i break the collision box (overlap start) i am able to hit E and that will make it pop up, upon releasing or tapping E again it will go away and when i leave the collision box (overlap end) and hit E i can no longer access that popup/widget. is that close to what we are doing here?

putting the enable input after the e wont do anything, how can you enable input from a input key when input isnt yet enabled?

i was more picturing a popup window for the widget where you would click a button to close the note but the way you put it is easy to do too and i will show that in a screenshot below. basically though you would use a flip flop and on the second press remove the widget from its parent.

so below you will pictures as an example, i also made a short video that kind of explains things though im not experienced with video so not great quality (also nervous haha).

UE4Answerhub 2018 08 13 11 56 16 Ue4answerhub-noteactor 1 - YouTube

I cannot put into words how much i appreciate that. Thank you very much for all of your assistance! It’s all working now and I no longer want to throw my mouse and keyboard across the room!

pickups arent too hard and theres a million tutorials on that topic. beyond that you should explain more what your trying to accomplish. i imagine that you just need to have a pickup with a variable in it that will stand for the messages that you want to display then you just need to script a way to display them via a widget or something.

below is an example of a setup i think would work for you. basically when the player approaches the note pickup a text render will display “Read Note” like you see in other games for interactables. then when the player presses the E interact key a widget is created that displays the message you want. the message will be set in the level via the noteTextContents variable on a per instance basis. theres also many other methods and tweaks you could do but this is the basics

personally having never played fallout 4 that example doesnt tell me much.