Tutorials and notes on building Unreal Engine systems: game mechanics, AI, and the problems the TechnicallyArtist plugins solve.https://technicallyartist.com/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/squash-and-stretch-along-spline-unreal-engine/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/squash-and-stretch-along-spline-unreal-engine/How to make a mesh squash, stretch, and bend as it travels along an editable spline in Unreal Engine using World Position Offset, so the geometry follows the curve while the actor transform and collision never move.Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginesplinesworld-position-offsetmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-triggering/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-triggering/How a radial skill check decides when to appear: a solving session that runs between Begin and End, an auto-trigger timer with randomized intervals, manual Show Gauge calls with optional per-check settings, and random on-screen placement.Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkcppgame-mechanicstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-scoring-events/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-scoring-events/How a radial skill check scores the player's stop: compare the gauge angle to the great zone first, then the good zone, else a miss, and broadcast one of three Blueprint events. Why great is tested first and what else counts as a miss.Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkcppblueprinttutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-widget-materials/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-widget-materials/The Blueprint seam of a radial skill check: create dynamic material instances for the two zone arcs and the background ring, then on every update push the component's normalized zone values into the materials' Angle, Radius, and Color parameters.Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineumgmaterialsskill-checktutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-radial-material/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-radial-material/How the skill check zones are drawn: a UMG material that builds a thick ring from two RadialGradientExponential nodes, then cuts an arc out of it with a radial-cut function driven by an Angle and an arc-length parameter. The Radius parameter is the zone size.Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginematerialsskill-checkuitutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-randomize-zones/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-randomize-zones/How a radial skill check places its targets each attempt: a good zone randomized to fit inside the 0-1 dial, a great zone nested at a random offset inside it, and a tunable reaction lead-in so the gauge always starts a fair distance away.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkcppgame-mechanicstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-rotating-gauge/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-rotating-gauge/How the skill check needle rotates: a C++ component advances one normalized angle per tick from a rotations-per-second speed, wraps it to 0-1, tracks travel distance for a timeout, and the widget turns that angle into a render-transform rotation.Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkcppuitutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-how-it-works/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-skill-check-how-it-works/The architecture behind a radial skill check in Unreal Engine: one normalized 0-1 angle, a C++ component that owns the logic, a widget that only rotates a needle, and materials that draw the arcs. Why the visuals are split off from the gameplay.Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkuiarchitecturetutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-engine-skill-check-system/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-engine-skill-check-system/How to build a Dead by Daylight style radial skill check in Unreal Engine: a C++ component that drives normalized 0-1 zone values, a widget that rotates one image, and materials that draw the good and great arcs. A reproducible build in seven steps.Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineskill-checkblueprintuigame-mechanicshttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-parse-cpp-functions/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-parse-cpp-functions/How an Unreal editor locates a function's declaration in a header and its definition in a cpp with no AST: a filter pipeline that narrows candidates to exactly one, bracket matching that ignores strings and comments, overload disambiguation by parameter matching, and generating a definition stub from a declaration.Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppparsingeditortutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-cpp-syntax-highlighting/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-cpp-syntax-highlighting/How to syntax-highlight C++ inside Unreal's Slate text framework: a two-state tokenizer feeding a marshaller that recovers semantic colors, the look-ahead heuristic that tells a class from a function call without a parser, color presets, and highlighting every occurrence of the word under the cursor.Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppslatesyntax-highlightingeditorhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-code-completion-context/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-code-completion-context/Two completion systems compared: an instant offline dropdown backed by a trie and Unreal's reflection system, and an LLM inline suggestion. The focus is the token-economy context ladder, current line, nearby lines, code above the cursor, the whole function, and why you never send the whole class.Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppaicode-completioneditorhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-ai-assistant-integration/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-ai-assistant-integration/A code-heavy walkthrough of wiring an LLM into the Unreal editor: one provider-agnostic HTTP client for both Claude and ChatGPT, the strategy and factory pattern, building and parsing JSON with FJsonSerializer, async requests with FHttpModule, marshalling back to the game thread, and bounding conversation history to control tokens.Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppaiclaudechatgpthttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-slate-ui-and-settings/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-slate-ui-and-settings/How a plugin panel is composed in Slate (SCompoundWidget, SNew vs SAssignNew, splitters, reactive _Lambda attributes) and how its options are exposed in Project Settings with a config UObject registered through ISettingsModule, with live updates via PostEditChangeProperty.Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppslateuieditorhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-plugin-toolbar-and-tabs/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-editor-plugin-toolbar-and-tabs/How an editor plugin hooks into Unreal: declaring keyboard commands with TCommands and UI_COMMAND, docking a panel into the Blueprint editor with a workflow tab factory and FLayoutExtender, adding a toolbar button via FExtender, and building a right-click menu with FMenuBuilder.Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppeditorslatepluginhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/claude-chatgpt-cpp-unreal-engine/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/claude-chatgpt-cpp-unreal-engine/A practical guide to using an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT for Unreal Engine C++: what context to give it, prompts that work, the reflection-macro gotchas, and how to iterate fast.Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppaiclaudechatgpthttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/edit-cpp-with-ai-unreal-engine/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/edit-cpp-with-ai-unreal-engine/Read, edit and generate the C++ behind a node without leaving Unreal Engine, with a Claude or ChatGPT assistant docked beside your Blueprint graph. Plus a six-part deep dive into how the editor is built: tabs, Slate UI, AI integration, completion, syntax highlighting and C++ parsing.Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginecppaiblueprintcode-editorhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-stacking-pile/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-stacking-pile/How gathered resources pile up neatly in Unreal Engine: a home location set on assignment or moved by cursor, an optional home marker actor, and a stacking utility that places each dropped item into a centered three-row pyramid instead of a messy heap.Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaimathrtscpphttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-multiplayer/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-multiplayer/Why resource-gathering AI in Unreal Engine must be spawned and owned by the player: beginning an assignment is a Server RPC, so the client has to own the minion. The full ownership chain from player to minion to resource to carried actor, plus the replicated state that keeps clients in sync.Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginemultiplayerreplicationrpcaihttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-carried-actor/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-carried-actor/How the harvested item is spawned, attached to a skeletal mesh socket, and dropped in Unreal Engine: an Extracted Resource component that rides the carried actor, server-side spawn and ownership, and a collision swap so the haul never shoves the worker but still stacks on the pile.Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaiattachmentreplicationcpphttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-component-harvestable/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-component-harvestable/How a Resource component marks an actor as harvestable in Unreal Engine: a Sphere component that doubles as the overlap trigger and extraction timer, a replicated extraction count that destroys the actor when depleted, and the Can Ever Affect Navigation trap that stops a worker reaching it.Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineainavigationreplicationcpphttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-assignments-tags/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-assignments-tags/How a data asset of Gameplay Tag pairs turns a single resource-gathering loop into wood, stone, and anything else in Unreal Engine. Each assignment maps an order tag to a resource tag, a carried actor, a Behavior Tree, a home marker, and an attach socket.Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaigameplay-tagsdata-assetrtshttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gatherer-component/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gatherer-component/How the Gatherer component turns an AI character into an autonomous worker in Unreal Engine: a Server RPC to begin an assignment, a replicated state enum for animation, and a Blueprint-callable API that Behavior Tree tasks call to find, extract, carry, and drop.Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaibehavior-treecpprtshttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-architecture/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-resource-gathering-architecture/The architecture behind autonomous gatherer AI in Unreal Engine: three actor components (Gatherer, Resource, Extracted Resource), one Assignment data asset, and a Behavior Tree that sequences the find, extract, carry, drop loop, all server-authoritative.Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaibehavior-treemultiplayerrtshttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-engine-resource-gathering-ai/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-engine-resource-gathering-ai/How to build autonomous worker AI in Unreal Engine that finds, harvests, and hauls resources: three components, an assignment data asset, a Behavior Tree gather loop, and a server-authoritative ownership spine. A seven-part guide, from architecture to the drop-off pile.Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTunreal-engineaibehavior-treemultiplayerrtstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-vision-occluders/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-vision-occluders/Inside the beacon Niagara system for Unreal Engine fog of war: a Grid2D-to-render-target setup whose GPU simulation stages clear the grid, stamp every beacon's spotlight into cells, and copy it to the render target the fog material samples, with no particle renderer.Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warniagaramaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-beacons-niagara/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-beacons-niagara/Add stationary vision sources to top-down fog of war in Unreal Engine. The Fog Manager packs each beacon's location, radius, and FOV into FVector4 arrays and hands them to a Niagara system, and the material unions the beacon mask with the player's reveal.Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warniagaramaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-floor-mask-spotlight/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-floor-mask-spotlight/How the player's position drives top-down fog of war in Unreal Engine: the Fog Manager writes CharacterUVLocation each tick, and the material turns it into a SphereMask spotlight intersected with a baked floor mask so light lands only on visible, walkable ground.Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/multiplayer-fog-of-war-part-2-cliff-shadows/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/multiplayer-fog-of-war-part-2-cliff-shadows/How M_Main_Fog_Volume controls light and shadow in Unreal Engine fog of war: the dark-to-lit lerp, the combined mask, custom-stencil vision occluders that stay unlit, and a scene-capture cliff-shadow mask subtracted from the reveal.Sun, 18 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/multiplayer-fog-of-war-part-1-post-process-setup/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/multiplayer-fog-of-war-part-1-post-process-setup/How the Fog Manager holds top-down fog of war together: an unbound post-process volume, a dynamic instance of the M_Main_Fog_Volume material driven from C++, and the fixed parameter contract it fills every tick.Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-actors-and-components/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-actors-and-components/The cast of a top-down fog of war system in Unreal Engine: the Fog Manager actor, the unbound post-process volume, the M_Main_Fog_Volume material, beacon and occluder components, the Niagara system, and the shadow scene capture, and what each one is for.Sat, 10 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-introduction/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-fog-of-war-introduction/An introduction to top-down fog of war in Unreal Engine: why it is a screen-space post-process and not GPU visibility work, and the two independent layers, the local visual reveal and the server-authoritative actor hiding, this guide separates.Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/top-down-fog-of-war-unreal-engine/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/top-down-fog-of-war-unreal-engine/How to build top-down fog of war in Unreal Engine as a screen-space post-process: an unbound volume, a Fog Manager, the M_Main_Fog_Volume material, player and beacon vision, Niagara, and cliff shadows. A reproducible build in seven steps.Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginefog-of-warmaterialsmultiplayertutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-render-target-player-location-map/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/unreal-render-target-player-location-map/Use a Scene Capture 2D and a render target to bake a top-down map mask in Unreal Engine, draw the live player location on it with a custom depth stencil, then export it as a static texture.Sat, 06 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginerender-targetsscene-capturematerialstutorialhttps://technicallyartist.com/blog/introducing-technicallyartist/https://technicallyartist.com/blog/introducing-technicallyartist/A short intro to the plugins and tutorials I make for Unreal Engine, and what to expect from this blog.Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTunreal-enginebehind-the-scenes