Skip to content

Add a level to the lobby

After this guide, your map has its own card, with a name and a picture, in the lobby and on the SOLO RUN page. The host clicks the card, then START THE RUN, and the crew plays your map. Alone, a player does the same from SOLO RUN.

A card is a level Data Asset in the Levels list of BP_FriendslopGameInstance. The lobby and the SOLO RUN page both read that list. Adding a level opens no graph.

Before you start

  • MPFriendslopV2 open in Unreal Engine 5.8.

Make the map

L_Annex is a complete run map with no generator. A copy of it already has the players, the loot, the extraction, the lamps and the look.

  1. In the Content Browser, open Content/MPFriendslop/Maps/L_Annex.
  2. Open File, then Save Current Level As.
  3. Save the copy in Maps/, as L_ followed by your map's name, for example L_Warehouse.
  4. Change the rooms. Keep the PlayerStart actors, the extraction trap and some loot spawn points.
  5. Save.

What a run map needs, actor by actor, is on Build your own level.

Make the picture

The card shows a 16:9 picture at 256 x 144. The shipped pictures are 512 x 288, so they stay sharp on a large screen.

  1. In your map, move the view to the shot you want on the card.
  2. Press G to hide the editor icons.
  3. In the Cmd box at the bottom of the editor, type HighResShot 1920x1080, then press Enter.
  4. Unreal writes the picture to Saved/Screenshots/WindowsEditor/ in the project folder.

Any 16:9 picture of your own works too.

Import the picture

  1. In the Content Browser, open Content/MPFriendslop/Textures/Widgets/Levels/.
  2. Drag the picture file into the folder.
  3. Rename the new texture T_Thumbnail_Level_ followed by your map's name.
  4. Open the texture.
  5. Set Compression Settings to BC7.
  6. Set Mip Gen Settings to NoMipmaps.

  7. Set Texture Group to UI.

    The three texture settings of a shipped card picture: BC7, NoMipmaps and UI.

  8. Save.

Make the level Data Asset

  1. Open Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/DataAssets/Level/Childs/.
  2. Right click in the folder, then click Miscellaneous, then Data Asset.
  3. Pick BP_LevelDataAsset, then click Select.
  4. Name it DA_Level_ followed by your map's name.
  5. Open it.
  6. In Display Name, type the name the card shows.
  7. In Map, pick your map.

  8. In Thumbnail, pick your texture.

    The three fields of DA_Level_Annex: The Annex, L_Annex and its picture.

  9. Save.

Add the card to the lobby

  1. Open Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/Misc/BP_FriendslopGameInstance.
  2. Click Class Defaults in the toolbar.
  3. In the Details panel, find Levels, under Settings then Level.
  4. Click the + next to Levels. A new row appears at the end of the list.
  5. In the new row, pick your DA_Level_ Data Asset.
  6. Click Compile, then Save.

The cards follow the order of the list. The first card is the one picked when a page opens.

The SOLO RUN page shows the same cards, so your level is there too.

Change the picture of a card

  1. Import the new picture as in Import the picture.
  2. Open the level Data Asset of the card, for example DA_Level_Annex for THE ANNEX.
  3. In Thumbnail, pick the new texture.
  4. Save.

The name under the picture is Display Name, in the same Data Asset.

Check that it works

  1. Open Content/MPFriendslop/Maps/L_MainMenu.
  2. Click Play, then HOST RUN.
  3. Click the HOST tab.
  4. Look at the left of the page. Your card shows after the two shipped ones, with its picture.
  5. Click your card. Its frame and its name turn amber.
  6. Click OPEN LOBBY, then START THE RUN. The run starts on your map.

If it does not work

What you see What to check
The card shows an empty white frame Thumbnail is empty in the level Data Asset. Pick the texture, then save

Join the Discord