Sample Tutorial: Cavrnus Chess (Unreal Engine)

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Starting Project

We are going to begin with a simple single-player Chess scene.

• 32 movable chess pieces on a table.

• A Reset button in-scene which resets all pieces to their original positions.

• No special game logic other than moving pieces around on the board.

  • No restrictions on movement based on chess rules (just planar movement).

  • No physics applied (see: Sync Property Components and Physics)

Installing the Cavrnus Plugin (Unreal Engine)

As with any Unreal plugin, adding the Cavrnus Spatial Connector is a simple 3 step process:

1. Drop the latest version of the CSC plugin into the Plugins folder of your project files.

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2. Load the project in Unreal Editor and enable the CSC plugin in the Plugins Manager

3. Restart the Unreal Editor as indicated.

Initial Cavrnus Setup

4. The first time a new project is opened with the Cavrnus plugin enabled, the Cavrnus Spatial Connector dialog box may pop up to guide the initial setup.

• Set up your Space - Adds an instance of the CavrnusSpatialConnector to the current map.

• Management Console - Open the Cavrnus Management Console in the default browser.

• Visit Documentation - Open the online documentation in the default browser. (You’re already here!)

• Show when Unreal Editor Starts - Toggling this skips the dialog after you've added the CSC to a level.

• Dismiss - Close the dialog.

5. Click Set up your Space to add an instance of the CavrnusSpatialConnector to the current map.

   1. Alternatively, you can add the CavrnusSpatialConnector instance to the level from the Cavrnus menu on the Unreal Editor Menu bar.

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

6. 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.

Verify user Copresence Components

7. This project uses a custom game mode called “BP_MouseDragGameMode”.

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

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

8. This project also uses a custom Default Pawn Class “BP_MouseGrabPawn”.

   1. In the World Settings panel, under Game Mode, expand the Selected GameMode rollout.

   2. Note that the Default Pawn Class references “BP_MouseGrabPawn”.

   3. Click the “Browse to Asset in Content Browser” button next to the field.

9. Open the “BP_MouseGrabPawn” blueprint from the Content Browser.

10. Under the Component panel in the blueprint editor, note the following components:

    1. SyncTransform_Character

       1. Property Name: Transform

    2. NameTagWidget

    3. CavrnusProperties Container

Add Sync Components to Chess Pieces

7. For each asset in the hierarchy that requires transform synchronization, add the following components

   1. Sync Transform

      1. Set the Property field to “Transform”. Note that this property is case-sensitive.

   2. CavrnusPropertiesContainer

      1. Set the Container Name field to “Pieces/Dark_Pieces/<asset_name>”, where “asset_name” refers to the name of the object as it appears in the Outliner.

Adding an Avatar

The Cavrnus Spatial Connector comes with a complete set of default pawns ready to use in your Cavrnus Space. In this demo we’ve already created a customized player pawn, BP_ChessPlayer, specifically tuned for this level. This custom pawn can be found in project Content folder under Blueprints, and is derived from the BP_Cavnus_Pawn blueprint which comes with the plugin. Note that the derived player pawn inherits all the necessary Cavrnus Sync components from that parent.

Then, in the Cavrnus Spatial Connector, we will set the Remote User Avatar to be this.

You can also create a Custom Avatar by applying the necessary Sync Components to your own pawn, or simply inherit from one of the Cavrnus base pawns. You can find these pawns in the Content Browser under Plugins / Cavrnus Content / Pawns / Blueprints.

Final Product

With the Sync Transform components added, the Avatars and Chess Pieces will move in a synchronized way for all users in the space. This, combined with Voice and Video, will let you play a chess game with whomever else launches this scene!