Page Comparison

Installing the Cavrnus Plugin (Unreal Engine)

The Cavrnus Spatial Connector

plugin for Unreal has already been installed in this project. For guidance on how to add the CSC-Unreal plugin for your new projects, or to upgrade your plugin to a newer version, see the documentation under “Cavrnus for Administrators”.

Testing the Demo

To get an idea of what this demonstration will do, load the preconfigured map called “Cavrnized_CarConfigurator”.

1. In the Content Browser, under Content/Maps, double-click the “Cavrnized_CarConfigurator” level.

2. In the outliner, scroll down to the “Cavrnus” folder and click the CavrnusSpatialConnector actor.

3. As described in the Setup Your Scene guide, configure the settings for the CavrnusSpatialConnector on the Details panel:

   1. Domain Name: e.g. <CompanyName>.cavrn.us

   2. Auth Method: Select Guest Join Auto

   3. Guest Join Username: <Enter any name here>

   4. Space Join Method: Select Automatic

   5. Automatic Space Join ID: Reference a valid 24-character Space ID from the Management Console.

      1. You can also input a User Defined Join ID.

Image Added

5. Click the Play-In-Editor (PIE) button to run the level. (or press Alt-P)

6. Once the Space is connected, you can click any color button to change the color of the car.

7. Click the “Stop Simulation” button to stop PIE. (or press the Escape key).

8. Click the PIE button again to start the simulation.

   1. Note that when the Space loads, the car will return to the last color you selected the last time you were loaded into the Space.

Initial Cavrnus Setup

9. In the Content Browser, under the “Maps” folder, open the CarConfigurateScene level.

10. Add the CavrnusSpatialConnector instance to the level from the Cavrnus menu on the Unreal Editor Menu bar.

    1. Note that you only need one instance of CavrnusSpatialConnector for a given level.

Image Added

11. As described

11. above, configure the settings for the CavrnusSpatialConnector on the Details panel:

    1. Domain Name:

11. 1. e.g.

11. 1. <CompanyName>.cavrn.us

    2. Auth Method: Select Guest Join Auto

    3. Guest Join Username: <Enter any name here>

    4. Space Join Method: Select Automatic

    5. Automatic Space Join ID: Reference a valid 24-character Space ID from the

11. 1. Management Console.

11. 1. 1. You can also input a User Defined Join ID.

Image Modified

Verify

Heads Up Display (HUD) Class

7. This project uses a custom game mode

7. BP_

7. CarConfigGM.

   1. From the World Settings panel, expand the Game Mode rollout.

   2. In the “GameMode Override” field, note the entry says “BP_

7. 1. CarConfigGM”.

8. This project also uses a custom

7. HUD Class “BP

7. _HUD_CarConfig” that references a custom Widget Blueprint : WB_CarConfig.

Setup the Synchronization workflow

The synchronization of the car color takes place in 3 steps.

Step 1: Update the Journal with a string value that describes the car color selected.

Step 2: Use the Cavrnus SyncMaterial component to update the car material with a texture corresponding to the color in the Journal.

Step 3: Create a texture map that will serve as a reference between the name (string) value of the color in Step 1 with the texture reference in Step 2.

9. In the

9. Content Browser, under

9. Content/Widgets, open the Widget Blueprint “WB_CarConfig”.

10. Click the “Graph” button on the top right of the Widget Blueprint Editor.

    1. Note that Event stubs have already been placed for this Blueprint.

11. From the Execution Pin of the Event Construct node, attach the function Await Any Space Connection.

    1. This dispatcher is part of the Cavrnus Function Library

12. Bind a custom Event to the “On Connected” pin of the Await Any Space Connection node.

    1. Give this a logical name, such as “SetCurrentSpaceConnection”.

13. Right-click the “Space Connection” pin in SetCurrentSpaceConnection and select “Promote to Variable”.

    1. Give the variable a logical name, such as “SpaceConnection”.

14. From the list of Variables under “My Blueprint”, drag the “Connected?” boolean variable and drop it on the execution pin of the Set Space Connection node.

    1. This will add a Set node for that variable.

    2. Check the box in the Set Connected? node to set it to true.

Image Added

15. For each On Clicked event for the 5 button colors, connect a Post String Property Update node to the “True” pin of the branch node.

    1. Space Connection: Drag the “SpaceConnection” variable onto this pin to connect it as a get node.

    2. Container Name: Car

    3. Property Name: CarColor

    4. Property Value: Reference the “Property Value” in the table below

Image Added

16. Navigate to the “Cavrnus” folder in the Outliner and open the BP_CarController in the Blueprint editor.

17. The BeginPlay event for this Blueprint is already setup to create a dynamic material instance (MID) and assign it to all of the painted surfaces of the car.

    1. We’re going to insert a synchronization step into this blueprint.

Image Added

18. In the Components panel, add a SyncMaterial component and CavrnusPropertiesContainer component.

    1. In the CavrnusPropertiesContainer component, set the Container field to “Car”.

19. In the gap between Create Dynamic Material Instance and Get All Actors of Class with Tag, insert a Set Material Instance node.

    1. Connect the “Return Value” of Create Dynamic Material Instance to the “New Material Instance” of the Set Material Instance node.

    2. Drag the SyncMaterial component from the Components panel onto the “Target” pin for this node to attach a Get node.

20. From the Get SyncMaterial node above, create a Get Children Components node.

    1. This will return an array of Material Sync components that SyncMaterial references.

    2. To see this list, select SyncMaterial from the Components panel, and then expand the “Material Sync Map” rollout in the Details panel. Each of these Map elements is synchronized at runtime.

21. Insert a For Each Loop after Set Material Instance.

    1. This will loop through each item in the Material Sync Map.

22. Insert a Cast to SyncMaterialTextureParam node after the For Each Loop.

    1. The SyncMaterialTextureParam component will synchronize the texture we want to swap in the paint material.

23. From the “As Sync Material Texture Param” pin, drag a setter for the TextureMap variable.

    1. This variable is a dictionary that stores mapping between texture names and corresponding texture references.

24. Promote the TextureMap pin to a variable and give it a logical name, such as “CarTextureMap”.

Image Added

25. Select the CarTextureMap variable in the Variables panel.

26. In the details panel, under “Default Value”, add an element for each button in the HUD, corresponding to car paint colors.

    1. Click the plus sign to add a map element to the Car Texture Map.

    2. Name the element based on the Property Value in the table above.

    3. Select the corresponding Texture File Name as described in the table above.

    4. Repeat this for each item in the table.

Setting Up Copresence

Copresence in the scene requires a little setup for your Avatars. Fortunately, you can get started very quickly by using existing Character blueprints in the CSC plugin.

27. In the Details panel, under “Game Mode”, expand the “Selected GameMode” rollout.

28. Set the “Default Pawn Class” to BP_DesktopFlyModePawn.

    1. Any Cavrnized character blueprint will work. This one is configured for desktops and moves in all directions.

29. Confirm that all inputs have been defined for your project.

30. For more information about setting up avatars for copresence using the CSC plugin, see the Avatar Documentation.

Final Product

With the Sync

Material component added,

not only can you synchronize the texture references, scalar and vector parameter in materials can be shared as well! Opacity, roughness, emissivity, any property that can be referenced as a data point or string value can be shared in real-time and stored in a persistent Space!

Image Added