Adding Text Chat to UE4 in C++

  • Tue, Nov 10, 2020
  • 3-minute read

Note, this is a C++ based example. However, it's easily converted to BP.

If you want to just check out the code or skip the guide then you can download the project here.

There are a few things wrong with this setup such as no deletion of messages so you'll keep a copy of them until you exit the game so you're probably going to want to set up a timer to destroy them after x time.

 

  1. Open your PlayerController class and add a struct called FChatMessage.
    USTRUCT(BlueprintType)

struct FChatMessage

{

	GENERATED_BODY()


    UPROPERTY(BlueprintReadWrite)

FDateTime Time;



UPROPERTY(BlueprintReadWrite)

FString Message;



UPROPERTY(BlueprintReadWrite)

FColor Color;



UPROPERTY(BlueprintReadWrite)

class APlayerState* Sender;



FChatMessage() : Time(FDateTime::Now()), Message("No Message"), Color(FColor::White) {}

FChatMessage(const FString& message) : Time(FDateTime::Now()), Message(message), Color(FColor::White) {}

FChatMessage(const FDateTime& time, const FString& message, const FColor& color, class APlayerState* sender) : Time(time), Message(message), Color(color), Sender(sender) {}


    };

  2. Add a delegate in the PlayerController for receiving chat messages. DECLARE_DYNAMIC_MULTICAST_DELEGATE_OneParam(FOnChatMessageReceived, const FChatMessage&, ChatMessage);
  3. Add 2 methods and the delegate to your PlayerController class.
    UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Server, Reliable, WithValidation)

void Server_SendChatMessage(const FChatMessage& ChatMessage);


    UFUNCTION(Client, Reliable)
void Client_ReceiveChatMessage(const FChatMessage& ChatMessage);
    

    UPROPERTY(BlueprintAssignable, meta = (DisplayName = “OnChatMessageReceived”))
FOnChatMessageReceived m_OnChatMessageReceived;

  4. Create the implementation of these methods.
    bool ATCPlayerController::Server_SendChatMessage_Validate(const FChatMessage& ChatMessage) { return true; }

void ATCPlayerController::Server_SendChatMessage_Implementation(const FChatMessage& ChatMessage)

{

	// Our message is empty or the sender is null so don't send a message

	if (ChatMessage.Message.IsEmpty() || ChatMessage.Sender == nullptr)

	{

		return;

	}


    // Iterate over all clients in the map and send the message to them

for (FConstPlayerControllerIterator Iterator = GetWorld()->GetPlayerControllerIterator(); Iterator; ++Iterator)

{

	if (ATCPlayerController* const PC = Cast<ATCPlayerController>(*Iterator))

	{

		PC->Client_ReceiveChatMessage(ChatMessage);

	}

}


    }
    void ATCPlayerController::Client_ReceiveChatMessage_Implementation(const FChatMessage& ChatMessage)
{
m_OnChatMessageReceived.Broadcast(ChatMessage);
}

  5. Now onto the non-code portion of this guide. Create 3 widgets (only 2 if you already have a HUD widget). Let's create WBP_Chat and WBP_ChatEntry.
  6. In WBP_Chat add a scroll box and a text box.
  7. In WBP_Chat create 2 functions called ToggleChat (with an input of boolean) and AddChatMessage (with an input of our FChatMessage struct).
  8. In WBP_Chat implement the event OnTextCommitted for the text box. 
  9. In WBP_Chat on Construct add our binding for our C++ delegate (FOnChatMessageReceived).
  10. In WBP_Chat implement AddChatMessage.
  11. In WBP_Chat implement ToggleChat.
  12. In WBP_ChatEntry add a text block. Then make a variable exposed on spawn of our FChatMessage struct.
  13. In WBP_ChatEntry on Construct set the text of the text block.
  14. Now all you have to do is go into your WBP_HUD or whatever and add the WBP_Chat to it wherever you want. Then spawn your HUD in your HUD class or again wherever you want to.
  15. You also need to add a keybinding for the chat called TextChat.

 

until next time

TODO