Max Proof: Finishing Item Blueprint

  Hey guys, I wanted to continue from where I left off with the Item Blueprint. Previously in the blueprint I was working on creating the construction script for the class to where we can allow anyone such as designers or anyone in my team to be able to change the items mesh, material and collision. Having complete the construction script I was ready to jump into creating the full logic for the item class. To give a brief description of the classes purpose; in Max Proof, players have the opportunity to grab different hazards in the level and move them to prevent Max from getting hurt. These hazards are considered to be Items in the level. So with that we know well one, players need to be able to have the ability to drag and drop them in the game world and two, if the player fails to move them from Max's reach well there's a point deduction. With knowing this information we can begin our logic for this class. Very similar to how we creating the drag and drop for our HUD items, we can apply this same logic for our Item class.
  You may recall in one of my previous blogs that I discussed the issue with creating a smooth drag and drop with the HUD versus any other class blueprint. In any other class blueprint, we have the option of creating on click and on release events. In widget classes we only have the option of creating on click events. When it came to creating the movement logic for our item class, it was far more smoother and vastly simple to do. To begin I created a function called SetActorPos.

  In SetActorPos I created three variables; bool MouseBtnHeld, vector MousePos and Item ItemObj. The purpose of MouseBtnHeld is to check when the mouse is being pressed on an item. So with this check we can say hey, when this is true at every tick get the mouses position and assign that to the actor position. Now this is where MousePos comes in. MousePos gets and updates the X,Y position of the mouse. You may be wondering, whats with ItemObj? Looking at the picture above we assign the target of SetActorLocation to ItemObj. Keep in mind ItemObj is of class Item so we're basically saying hey...For every hazard of class Item, we will update it's position upon click. Now the different thing we did with this variable is allow it to be editable. Doing this now allows you in the editor to say what each instance of the class is. So let's begin the logic! When SetActorPos is called we do a check. If MouseBtnHeld is true, continue the logic; set MousePos which is given through breaking a vector that receives a hit result under a mouse cursor. Afterwards SetActorLocation using the parameters ItemObj and MousePos. Now that we have this done we can begin creating our last two functions.
  These next two functions I created were more towards if someone decided to play this on PC. In all honesty we could've took these functions out during refactoring but we decided to leave it for the moment. The two functions I created are basically HoverBtn but for hazards. So whenever we go over a hazard, the mouse cursor changes images. These two functions I created are called SetHold and ReleaseHold. In SetHold we say hey, we have officially clicked and are holding on a hazard so change the image. In ReleaseHold we are saying, we have now released the mouse button so now changed the image once more. So let's begin!

  Looking at the image above upon calling SetHold function we are setting the mouse cursor's image to GrabHandClose and the target is Get Player Controller. Afterwards we set MouseBtnHeld to true because when it's true we're able to dynamically move the actor. Similarly in ReleaseHold we have the same logic but Instead we have the image be GrabHand and we set MouseBtnHeld to false.

  Thus ending the last two functions. Now that we have that over we can now begin the last part of the class which is the Event Graph. To make this class come to life in Max Proof we now need to call these functions made. On InputTouchEnter and OnBeginCursorOver we set the mouse cursor image to GrabHand. On InputTouchLeave and EndCursorOver we set the mouse cursor image back to default. On Click and OnTouchBegin we call the SetHold function. We do this because upon clicking the image, we want it to look like its visually being held and plus it allows the SetActorPos to become active. To continue this OnRelease and OnTouchEnd we call the ReleaseHold function. Lastly to end the class on EventTick we call the function SetActorPos.

So now if we were to throw instances of this item class into the level, we can drag and drop now.