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Settings and volume sliders

The SETTINGS screen has four tabs: GAME, GRAPHICS, AUDIO and CONTROLS. There is no APPLY button: a < VALUE > selector applies as soon as it changes, a slider when you let go of it. This page shows where each value is kept, how to add a setting of your own, and how to put your own sounds under the volume sliders.

  • The screen and its rows: Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/Widgets/Menu/
  • The settings struct: Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/Structures/S_GameSettings
  • The sound classes and the mix: Content/MPFriendslop/Audios/

The same WBP_SettingsPage opens from the main menu and from the pause menu.

Where each value lives

Tab Rows Stored in
GAME MOUSE SENSITIVITY, INVERT LOOK Y, FIELD OF VIEW S_GameSettings, on the Game Instance, saved in the profile
GRAPHICS WINDOW MODE, RESOLUTION, VSYNC, MAX FRAMERATE, RENDER SCALE, SHADOWS, TEXTURES, EFFECTS, VIEW DISTANCE The engine's GameUserSettings, in GameUserSettings.ini. Never copied into the profile
AUDIO MASTER VOLUME, SOUND EFFECTS, MUSIC, INTERFACE S_GameSettings, on the Game Instance, saved in the profile
CONTROLS the rebind list The engine's Enhanced Input user settings. See The controls, and adding an input

S_GameSettings holds MouseSensitivity (1), InvertLookY (off), FieldOfView (90) and the four volumes (1 each). BP_FriendslopGameInstance keeps it. It saves it in the one profile save, SG_FriendslopProfile (slot FriendslopProfile), together with the credits and the cosmetics. To read it from another Blueprint, call GetGameSettings on the Game Instance, through BPI_GameSettings.

A change applies at once, even in the middle of a run. Each time a setting changes, the Game Instance calls ApplyGameSettings from BPI_GameSettingsListener on the local player controller, on its pawn, and on every component of that pawn that implements it. BP_FriendslopPlayerController uses it for the look settings, and BP_ViewMotionComponent for the field of view. Both also read GetGameSettings once in their BeginPlay, for the values saved before they existed.

The volume sliders run from 0 to 100 on screen and are stored from 0 to 1.

The two row widgets

Every row on the screen is one of these two widgets, placed in WBP_SettingsPage.

WBP_SettingsSlider:

Field What it does Default
Label The text on the left SETTING
Min Value / Max Value The range of the slider 0 / 100
Decimals Decimals shown next to the slider 0
Tick Sound Played while you drag CUE_UIClick
Tick Notches How many notches along the slider play Tick Sound 20

WBP_SettingsCombo, the < VALUE > selector:

Field What it does
Label The text on the left
Options The values it steps through, as Text
Hover Sound / Click Sound CUE_UIHover / CUE_UIClick
Dispatcher When it fires Fires on
OnSliderCommitted The player lets go of the slider. Gives Value owning player
OnComboSelected The player steps to another option. Gives Index owning player

Setting a row's value from a graph (SetValue, SelectIndex) does not fire its dispatcher, so filling the screen when it opens does not save anything.

Add a setting

This is an edit of WBP_SettingsPage and S_GameSettings. Copy an existing row all the way: MOUSE SENSITIVITY for a slider, INVERT LOOK Y for a selector.

  1. Open S_GameSettings and add your field, with its default value.
  2. Open WBP_SettingsPage. Place a WBP_SettingsSlider or a WBP_SettingsCombo next to the other rows of the tab you want, and tick Is Variable.
  3. Fill its Label, then Min Value, Max Value and Decimals, or Options.
  4. In its Details, add the OnSliderCommitted or OnComboSelected event, and call a new handler function from it.
  5. In the handler, break Current Settings, make a new S_GameSettings with your value on your field and every other pin wired from the break, set Current Settings, then call PushGame. HandleSensitivity is exactly this.
  6. In LoadFromGame, give your row its value from Current Settings with SetValue or SelectIndex, so the screen opens on the saved value.
  7. In the Blueprint that uses the setting, call GetGameSettings on the Game Instance in BeginPlay and read your field. To follow later changes, add BPI_GameSettingsListener to that Blueprint (the controller, the pawn, or a component on the pawn) and read the same field in its ApplyGameSettings event.

Warning

Adding a field to S_GameSettings adds a pin to every Make S_GameSettings node in the other handlers of WBP_SettingsPage. Wire that pin from the Break in each one. A pin left unwired writes the default value, so your setting silently goes back to its default every time the player changes any other setting.

A profile saved before your field existed reads it as 0. If 0 is not a valid value for your setting, treat 0 as "use the default", the way RefreshSettings falls back to a sensitivity of 1.

For a graphics setting, skip S_GameSettings. In the handler, call Get Game User Settings, set your value on it, then call ApplyUser, which applies and saves it. The existing HandleShadows is the model.

Put your sounds under the volume sliders

The sliders drive four Sound Classes through the mix SMIX_UserAudio:

Slider Sound Class
MASTER VOLUME SCLS_Master
SOUND EFFECTS SCLS_Effects
MUSIC SCLS_Music
INTERFACE SCLS_UI

SCLS_Effects, SCLS_Music and SCLS_UI are children of SCLS_Master, so the two volumes multiply: music at 50 with master at 50 plays at a quarter. SCLS_Dialogue and SCLS_Cinematics are also under SCLS_Master and follow only the master slider.

To hook up a sound:

  1. Open your Sound Cue, Sound Wave or MetaSound.
  2. In the Details panel, under Sound, set Sound Class to one of the classes above.

A sound with no Sound Class does not follow any of the sliders, not even MASTER VOLUME. Check this first when a sound stays loud at volume 0.

To point the sliders at your own classes, change the five fields in Settings|Audio on BP_FriendslopGameInstance: Audio Mix, Master Class, Sfx Class, Music Class and Ui Class. A fifth slider for a new class needs three things: the recipe above, a Sound Class variable on the Game Instance, and one more Set Sound Mix Class Override in its ApplyAudio function.

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