Hey, everyone, and welcome
back to another Unreal Tips and Tricks video. Today, we are going to be using the
latest product configurator template that ships with Unreal 4.25. We'll be showing you how to use your
custom geometry, add our personalized configuration, and also get a basic
understanding of how it is set up. Let's starts by
creating a new project. And let's select Automotive
Product Design and Manufacturing. We can see that we have several
templates to start your projects. We are going to pick
the product configurator and create the project from here. Here we are back in Unreal. And we can see that we
have a scene set up for us. So let's go into Play
mode and see what we have. So first of all, we can see that
we have our setup with a user interface. So we're going to be looking
at the different buttons here. For example, this one allows me to
go through different camera angles. The second one here allows me to
switch between two lighting modes. Now, the third one on
the bottom here allows me to change the shape of the guitar. And finally, the fourth
one here that we're going to be looking
for the demo allows me to swap between different colors. So these are the items that we're
going to be looking at today and-- import our custom
mesh and use this template to drive our configurator. Now, you might be wondering
how all of this is driven. Well, all of this configuration
is using the Variant Set Manager. So the basic functionality
of the variant set is to record attributes of an
actor, such as transform properties, materials, and more. This is very useful
for a configurator where you may want to
show several color options or designs of the products. So let's go up to a folder and
let's check the Variant Sets. So if I double-click on it,
this will open a new tab for me with the Variant Manager. And we can immediately
recognize the configuration variants we saw earlier in the
user interface in Play mode. Now, let's go back to
our World Outliner tab and let's select the
Level Variant Sets Actor. This is where we will define which
level variant sets we will be using. Now, if we go up and look
at the BP_Configurator, this is where we can specify
which level variant sets actor we will use. And this will allow us
to keep that interface and keep away from blueprints
and only use the Variants Manager feature. We can already start by duplicating
the default variant sets and call this one Variant Sets Custom. And we'll come back
to this one shortly. For this demo, I've
imported a custom mesh that I'll be dragging
into the viewport. And I'm going to start
placing it in the scene. I'm going to make sure
it's set to movable. I'm just going to place
it right around where the guitar actor is set. Now, the next thing I want to do is
parent the components to an actor. So I'm simply going to duplicate
the guitar root by Alt-dragging. And I'm going to rename
this to Headphones. I'm going to attach all
of my components to it and keep things tidy. Now, we simply need to
hide our guitar mesh by selecting the components
and go into the Details panel and make sure it's set non-visible
and check Hidden in Game. I'm just going to reduce the
size of those billboard actors. So I'm just going to select
those two, go to my Details tab, and lower that value to 0.3. Let's go into Play mode
and see if this works. So we now have our
custom mesh displaying. But we still have the old information
displaying on the configurator. So let's go back to our variant
sets that we earlier duplicated, and let's open up this guy. I'm going to personalize
this template for this demo and only use the features I find
interesting for my scenario. But please feel free to explore
all the different opportunities the Variant Manager offers. So in my case, I'll be keeping
the two environment variants. For the cameras, I'm only going
to be using two camera angles. So I'm going to delete these two. For the body shape,
I'm not going to be using any of this old information. So I'm going to retain
that variant, though. So I'm going to name mine
Speaker Cup since this is the one I'm going to be using. And I'm going to delete these. We're going to bring all of
our information later on. And same goes for body color. This is something I can keep. I'm just going to rename this
Headband Color since this is the part I'm going to be using. And I'm just going to
delete all of this. And we're going to be
doing the same for all of these parts, which essentially
share the same properties. So I'm just going to press Delete. And let's start with
the camera variants. So what we want to do here is
switch between two camera angles. First variant is called Overview,
which will be our starting view when launching the experience. So let's keep this
variant as is for now. And the second one from a
3/4 angle that we will name correctly to avoid
confusion later on-- Let's check how this looks. I'm just going to go in the View
mode and select my Config Camera. And let's see what that does. So I'm here in Overview mode. Now, if I switch to 3/4, I can
see that is slightly offset. So I'm going to be grabbing
that camera target. And it's highlighted here. So I'm just going to drag
this bit more to the center. And as soon as I release, you can
see that the value here is changed. So I'm going to apply this value. And now if I switch
back to Overview in 3/4, I have that new value stored,
which is exactly what we wanted. Now, before we move on
to the speaker variants, I want to change those
thumbnails with my custom ones. If I right-click on the variants,
we can either import our own images or capture directly
from the viewport. So let's switch to our Overview mode. And let's make sure that
the actors are hidden by pressing G on the keyboard. And let's click on the Overview
Variant, right-click, and Set from Viewport. Now, let's do the
same for the 3/4 view. Right-click and Set from Viewport. Now, for the speaker cups,
what I'm going to be doing is create two variants--
so one with the Unreal logo that you're currently seeing and the
other one with some more fancy RGB lighting. So I'm going to be clicking
on the plus sign here and create my first variant. And I'm going to rename this UE Logo. Now, I'm going to go to
my World Outliner tab. And I'm going to be grabbing
this mesh and this mesh. So I'm going to drag this
over to the Variants Manager. And as soon as I let go
on this first variant, it's going to prompt
me a message asking me what properties I'd like to change. Since I'll be just hiding
and unhiding the mesh, I can simply type in Visibility. And this is going to
give me that property. So I'm going to assign
that property to that mesh. Now, for the second
variant, I'm simply going to duplicate the first variant. So let's go ahead,
right-click and duplicate, and let's rename this to UE Logo RGB. And what I'm going to be doing
is simply grab that RGB mesh. And I'm going to drag that
to the second one here. And same as above, we're going
to simply type in Visible and assign that. Now, I want to be hiding
these two first ones. So I'm going to select those
two and untick those and make sure this one is set to Visible. Now, what happens if I
switch between the two is that we can see that our two
meshes are correctly displaying. I'm also going to be using
the same technique as before for the thumbnails
for my speaker cups. Now, for the headband color, all I
need to do is create a new variant. So I'm going to click
on the plus sign. And I'm going to name this Black. Now, I'm going to go
into the World Outliner and select the headphone frame. And I'm going to drag this
into my color variants. And this time, we want to
change our material property. So let's simply type in Material. And we can see this showing up with
element 0, which is, essentially, my material ID. Now, if we look on
the bottom right, we can actually see in the
Details panel of the mesh that this is the material
property we'll be changing. So I'm going to check this. And I'm going to press Select. I'm just going to expand
the window a little so we can see our variant
properties a bit better. And we can see our
material property captured. Now, all I have to do
for my second variant is duplicate the first variants. And rename this to Red. And I'm going to change the
value to my custom materials that I've set earlier on. Now, if I click on
the Red variant, we can see that those properties are
changing for the material, which is exactly what we want. I'm going to repeat this task for
my other colors and see you shortly. One last step before we hit Play-- we need to specify that new variant
set to the level variant actor we mentioned earlier. So I'm just going to go in the World
Outliner and select Level Variant Sets Actor. And I'm simply going to specify that
I'm going to be using this new one. Now let's hit Play,
and we can immediately see that we have a cleaned up
interface with our new system. So if I go into the camera, I
can swap between the two angles that we've set earlier on. I still have the two environments. So I can see the different lightings. Now, if I go into my
speaker cup, I can switch between the normal
logo and the RGB lighting. I can rotate the object
and check different angles, which is pretty cool. And finally, I can change
the headband color. I hope you enjoyed this video, and
see you very soon in the next Unreal Tips and Tricks series.
