In this post I will focus on creating another UMG widget which will:

• Let me know how much ammo do I have in mag and backpack,
• Let me know when I’m reloading weapon,
• Will be implemented as UMG pipeline was created,

This Tutorial has been created using Unreal Engine 4.8.2. 
Make sure you are working on the same version of the engine.

In last post I’ve showed how to use events to drive data to UMG, this time I will use UMG bindings to drive data to widgets. It’s less optimised because when binding to functions they will tick all the time but it’s great UMG feature which you should definitely use!

Creating widget.

Create new Widget Blueprint named HUD_WeaponInfo and open it. Try to recreate my hierarchy:

Now in Graph add those variables:

• CurrentWeaponRef (BP_BaseWeapon actor),
• isReloading (bool),

Go back to designer and select your TextBlock_AmmoInMag. Create new binding.

By default function will have name like GetText_0 or something. Rename it to GetText_AmmoInMag. Here’s the function:

Create binding for TextBlock_CurrentAmmo named  GetText_AmmoInBackpack:

Create last binding for TextBlock_Reloading named GetText_IsReloading:

Basically you can bind almost everything in UMG. This feature is really powerful if you have references for your data.

Now in Event Graph create those functions:

• SetIsReloading (input bool: newreloading),
  
• SetWeaponRef (input BP_BaseWeapon actor: Current Weapon),
  

On event construct we need to play Reloading Animation.

And that’s all for the Widget!

Attaching widget to Character

Open GameplayCharacter and add Widget Component named HUD_WeaponInfo . It should be attached to Camera->FPPMesh->SpringArm as in earlier post. Here’s the widget properties:

• Location: (X=-12.177326,Y=11.173154,Z=5.743647)
• Rotation: (Pitch=0.000068,Yaw=89.999947,Roll=89.999947)
• Scale: (X=0.034050,Y=0.034050,Z=0.034050)
• WidgetClass: HUD_WeaponInfo,
• DrawSize: 300 / 100,
• Collision Presets: No Collision,

Now we need to set CurrentWeaponRef in this widget and update isReloading.

Updating widget

SpawnWeaponsAndAssignToSlots function:

In the end of this function – you can use sequence let’s set current weapon in widget.

Create new Custom Widget named UpdateHUDWeaponInfo:

So we will have one event to update the hud and it will be called from other places.

In Reload Event – after changing GameplayCharacter isReloading bool.

In EquipWeapon event:

It would be much easier if we will store isReloading in BP_MainWeapon but it will be too much change for me at this point.

Final Effect