UE4 | UE5 Tutorial : Highlight and Pickup Effect/System (Outline)

[@brandongardiner6860]

Great tutorial! How would you go about implementing the highlight effect on mouse over, specifically for a stationary camera?

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! I'm glad you found it useful. You can use the node "get hit result under cursor" instead of the trace in the tutorial. 😄

[@sihanzhang636]

Thank you! This is sooo helpful!

[@AnimVT]

Hi! It's a great and helpful tutorial! Unfortunately, I have a problem when I duplicate the PickUp blueprint in order to make different items. When I keep an item in my hand and replace it with a different one, the old item spawns in front of me but disappears after a split second and the new item does not appear in my hand and remains on the ground...

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! Hmm I'll have a think. Could you chuck over some screenshots on our discord? I can have a look into it😄 Small update: I may have found an easy solution. You can put a "is valid" node after the set pick up values (in your player controller). If it's not valid - delay 0.05 secs+ set child class to none. If it is valid - connect it up to the set child class to the value of the event pickup (you should already have this) so you can reuse it 😄 I'll post a screenshot in the discord as well just in case for you 😃

[@PleasantMarkus]

Legend

[@realityadriftstudio]

That's much appreciated😄

[@alexismaquaire6201]

Works perfectly fine, just why when I start the game, the outline starts ON :/

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! Sounds like the pick up objects custom depth stencil is active/ set the the bit value as default or at the start of play?

[@zanethixton3520]

I got an issue, the objects starts outlined for some reason, I can't figure it out. Once I look at it it fixes and works properly, but it starts out already outlined

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! If you could jump on over to our discord and share some screenshots I'll have a look! 😁 Just off the top of my head though, does the object start with the custom depth set to 4? If so it will highlight at the start.

[@akc1127]

Can you do this but make it so I have an Area that I'm looking at, multiple actors get highlighted if they're within a radius; and when I look away, any within the radius become un-highlighted?

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! You could swap out the sphere trace for a multi sphere trace which will give multiple trace returns. (As an array) For this to work you would also need to add the hit actors to an array (current and old actors) and loop through them😄 I hope that helps, if you need a hand, jump on over to our discord and I can have a look!

[@PikBo100]

where to link that outline material? i don't see it in your video (

[@realityadriftstudio]

Sorry, thought I put it in the description/ as a pop up. Here is the link to the tuto :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2inoYykjLaVgas

[@PikBo100]

@@realityadriftstudio after 3h i finally fixed my problem, now works fine, but a question, its possible to add multiple outline materials to postprocess? For example if i want with red outline to highlight weapons with blue ammos with green healing syringe how can i do it?

[@realityadriftstudio]

​@@PikBo100 Yeah, if it's just colours you need I would use custom depth stencils to mask out your objects into different colours. You would assign a value to each colour ( red:1 blue:2 green:3) And then you can switch the values within your blueprints with "set custom depth" and "set custom depth stencil value" If you need completely separate materials then I would mask them with custom depth stencils too ☺️ I cover the multi colour process in the outline material video😁 I hope that helps!

[@gazchad]

Hi! Great tutorial! Took me a while to figure out why mine wasn't highlighting, and it's because i didn't follow the step from the previous video for highlighting everything in the scene. I didn't do it because i didn't want that :D I have a couple of issues - Is there a way to stop the player character getting highlighted when you are near a box that's highlighted? If i spawn a few boxes to the scene, and change their size and material, is the best way for the game to remember those settings when they are picked up to make a separate blueprint for each one? My end goal (after probably a couple of decades 😄 ) Is to make a game where you're in the stockroom of a shop, and you've got to get customers their items from shelves quickly, then maybe a delivery comes in and you've got to put all the new things away in the right places before a certain time... etc etc..

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hello! Thank you so much for the support! I'm not sure why your player character is highlighting.if they have a different custom depth index number set they should be ok? Ok so the storing of the info, this might be hard to explain here and if you would like I can make a more in-depth video on the subject? But basically it depends on how much info/ stats you want to store but with size/ material it's no worries! You can do it with one BP, so if you have placed the items in the world, scaled/ added a different material to them. On begin play inside the box BP you want to set the scale and material to variables so that we can get them later. Cool, so you will need to send these variables over with the pickup event in your player character. So if you go into the interface window, click on the pick up event and add pins accordingly (needs to be the same type as your variable) So now your sending the info...we just need to set it. I would probably just make another event in your interface (maybe call it set box info) and give that the same pins as the pick up event. After spawn/ setting your child actor. If you drag out of the child actor variable and call that interface event (set info) that shoild now be telling it what values it needs to be. Right, so now if you go back to your box BP, implement the set info event ( via interface). Out of that create a sequence node. Out of the top pin set your scale of the actor and use the scale from your event. For your material you just need to drag out you box mesh, set material and plug in the info 😁 If you need to change stuff in the material itself you will need to create a dynamic material though! Sorry for the wall do text😅 If you need any help give me a shout and we can go over it in more detail! Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it! And I love your idea, cool project. I'd love to see more of it as it develops?

[@gazchad]

Thanks for the detailed reply! With the highlighting - I think because my character is in the middle of the screen, rather than being offset, it's kinda drawing the edges of the box it can see through the sides of my body :) I wouldn't want you to go to loads of trouble doing a video, although it would help because I thought i knew what i was doing but everything i was doing was not changing anything in game :( I'm not sure what to do with the pickup event nodes I made 😖 I don't know if it's right, but i can only call the message to the set box info event. I've tried using get actor scale 3d and set actor scale 3d, but it doesn't seem to like connecting to the cube mesh component *shrug* Thanks again :)

[@realityadriftstudio]

​@@gazchad it's no worries, I'm here to help 😁 Might be best explained elsewhere so I can send screenshots etc. If you message me on twitter or facebook I'll try to help you out! I'm sorry if my replies are a bit late...I'm currently not at my desk😅

[@krallebiek]

Hi, thanks for the great tutorial 😄 I have 2 problems, with which I hope someone could help me... 1. one was already mentioned by @gazchad (but wasn't solved in the comments...), that when the player is in front of the outlined object, the outlining is around the player, which I don't want... Tried to give different custom depth value to the character, but that didn't help.... 2. when I have 2 outlined objects (white and green outline), which are next to each other, and I look at them from an angle, in which the outlines are overlapping, both of the outlines are drawn and visible (closer outline (green) on bottom and distant outline (white) on top), but I want to draw only one (green) on parts, which are overlapping...

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! Number 1 is a limitation of the effect since it uses the depth pass to see where things are. I may have a solution for his though(for UE5)! Number 2, Im not sure if im following correctly but I dont think this should be happening with this effect. Though, if the two objects have two different Bit values, then they will always show as different outline colours. Could you jump on over to our discord? I can have a look into some solutions :)

[@krallebiek]

@@realityadriftstudio Thanks for the quick answer 😄 1. I am using UE 5.4, so I can at least try 🤔 2. Sorry maybe I didnt describe it correctly... if you look in the video after 35:42, there are the spheres and boxes with black & red outlinings.. when you look closely, the sphere with the red outlining has also black outlining (from the box) around it at the part, which covers the box with the black outlining.... Also the sphere with black outlining has thicker outlining at the part, which covers the box behind it, because there are 2 outlines applied, the sphere and the box outlines... Sorry, I don't use discord 😅

[@realityadriftstudio]

No worries, glad to help! Ahhhh I see, yeah thats a limitation of the Outline post process material since it uses the depth pass. Ok so, I'll try my best to explain my solution haha...sorry if its a bit complicated. We are going to need to use the new "Overlay material" slot in UE5. It wasnt a thing in UE4. Instead of us using custom depth stencils and setting the Bit value when you hover over something, you are going to want to set Overlay material with a new material (Which will outline the object). The material..... I'll probably do a Tuto on this soon but you are going to want to Set the Blend mode - Masked Shading model - Unlit Two sided ticked on Stick a 3 vector in the emissive colour (Name of your choice) Create a TwoSided Sign > 1-x > Then connect that to the Opacity mask. Now Create a camera position and a Actor postion > Connect them to a Distance node (Camera position in the A). Just leave that there for now. Create a parameter called Outline Size > Multiply this with the output of the distance. Hopefully you are still with me haha! last bit. Create a vertex Normal > Now multiply it with the multiply from before. (the one with the distance and the outline size). Chuck the output of your multiply into the World postion offset. That should now be all connected up! Cool, now create an instance from that and away you go...a local outline. Kinda a old school trick with a modern twist. To get it to work, remember to chuck it on an objects overlay material slot for testing. (Check the objects details). In your blueprints.... When you trace for an object instead of setting the stencil value, create a "Set overlay material" and stick in your new instance material. To remove it, call "Set overlay material" again but leave it empty :) I hope this helps! No worries on the discord...just easier with screenshots haha.

[@krallebiek]

​@@realityadriftstudio Thanks a lot for helping me! 😁 Sorry, I don’t have time to test it now, but I look forward to trying it out 😄

[@adamsvolkinas3959]

OMG thank you so much! i have been through so many tutorials for highlighting an object the last 48 hours and every single one of them did not work. i can finally move on with my project. I have tried replacing with Sphere trace with line trace but this did not work. I put all the connected all the pins the same. is there a reason why this cannot be done with a line trace instead for more precision?

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there! I'm glad it's helped you out, all the best with your project 😊 That's actually a little weird, could you send me some screenshots? A line trace should work fine.

[@adamsvolkinas3959]

@@realityadriftstudio yup you’re right. I’ve been up all night and I’m a little dippy. I forgot to connect the event tick. Had to convert the multiply node to a float and set it to 200. This is exactly what i was looking for as I need to the highlight to be super precise in first person

[@adamsvolkinas3959]

@@realityadriftstudio also with the new overlap material in the static meshes. You can just have them activate via collision box at much less blueprinting work rather than sphere trace. I suppose it’s that interaction method because of the pick up system that follows but I didn’t need that. But any thanks again I’ll be keeping an eye out on your uploads

[@realityadriftstudio]

@@adamsvolkinas3959 Ahh I see, I'm glad it's all sorted. Thanks for your support! Drop me a message if you have any issues 😊

[@adamsvolkinas3959]

@@realityadriftstudio Thanks bro I will do. One Brit to another. I would say for complex tutorials like this like split in to two parts I would do a check list at the end for configs on blueprinted meshes or even put them in the description. Had to go back through a few times…. Maybe you want those extra views 😅

[@needlessToo]

EDIT: Ignore this question now, I was doing something silly and that's why it wasn't working normally. Thanks @realityadriftstudio for the help! ------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the tutorial. I have a problem I can't fix though. How do I stop two items getting outlined at the same time? If two or more objects are traced at the same time, they all get outlined. Is there a simple way around this issue? Thanks again.

[@realityadriftstudio]

Hey there, no worries! You could add a "do once" after the branch from a successful trace. Out of an unsuccessful trace, add a "sequence" plugin your existing line and the second output into the reset for the do once. Additionally I would create a delay from your results (value of 0.1) and then plug that into the reset too...just incase. Just on over to our discord and I can put up some screenshots 😁