Tim Mann

@mintmanfresh.bsky.social

317 Followers 503 Following

making games 🏳️‍🌈 he/him previously: Kill It With Fire VR

A before and after showing two blueprint graphs. The graph on the left is labelled "This high level graph without important persistence node." The graph in the image is pretty clean. An arrow points from the left image to the right. The right image is labelled "Automatically compiles to this (nightmare) graph with them that I never need to work with." The graph in the image is a nightmare since there's a ton of additional nodes.
Create a subclass of FKismetCompilerContext `class FNBCampaignFlowCompilerContext : public FKismetCompilerContext` In your game's module cpp file, register our new CompilerContext override for _all_ blueprints. ``` FKismetCompilerContext::RegisterCompilerForBP(UBlueprint::StaticClass(), [](UBlueprint* SourceSketch, FCompilerResultsLog& Log, const FKismetCompilerOptions& Options) { return MakeShared<FNBCampaignFlowCompilerContext>(SourceSketch, Log, Options); }); ``` Implement the PostExpansionStep - first check if it's actually a blueprint you care about. (In my case, I only want this special behaviour to take effect if the blueprint is of a NBCampaignFlow type.) ``` void FNBCampaignFlowCompilerContext::PostExpansionStep(const UEdGraph* Graph) { FKismetCompilerContext::PostExpansionStep(Graph); if (!Blueprint->ParentClass->IsChildOf(UNBCampaignFlow::StaticClass())) { return; } // ... ``` Then use functions like SpawnIntermediateNode to add secret nodes during compilation. ``` UK2Node_CallFunction* MakeGUIDStringNode = SpawnIntermediateNode<UK2Node_CallFunction>(CallFunctionNode); MakeGUIDStringNode->SetFromFunction(UKismetSystemLibrary::StaticClass()->FindFunctionByName(GET_FUNCTION_NAME_CHECKED_OneParam(UKismetSystemLibrary, MakeLiteralString, FString))); MakeGUIDStringNode->AllocateDefaultPins(); // ... ``` To debug, use the Show Intermediate Build Products checkbox in the editor, then compile and see the results. (They look like spaghetti, but the intention is that eventually nobody will need to look at it.) [There are some images here of the graph before, the File/Developer/Save Intermediate Products menu, and the graph after.) This is useful for common changes you want to make to many nodes in a blueprint - if you just want to create your own nodes, look at extending K2Node and override ExpandNode, and then you can use the Same SpawnIntermediateNode function to add these secret nodes.
A slide from a talk about SceneGraph from 2025. It shows an image of a house with a UE scene hierarchy window. It uses the phrase "future metaverse". Full Slide Text: What's a Scene Graph Scene Graph Basics - A unified structure thay connects all objects in the world. - A guiding framework for the future metaverse.
In a dining room, a black wooden chair is standing on a black wooden table, near the "head" of the table. A laptop is open on the seat, at standing desk height. There is a round mug of coffee on the table and a half-finished puzzle and some papers. Theres a piano against the wall, and some (blue) albums are on display on a ledge 3/4s of the way up the wall (Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding).
A picture of the hypercard interface. The window in the center of a screen shows someone drawing an icon. Behind this window is the hypercard interface - someone is working on an outdoor scene with a stone arch below a starry sky. There are a few other windows open - a brush selection window and a tool selection window.
A nonogram game where you dig out bones. The player breaks a few rocks away, and then pulls out a piece of stone. Then, a screen saying "Chunk Extracted" appears and the piece of stone is rotating to the left of the screen. The player presses a button saying "Extract" and the stone is chiseled away until a t-rex skeleton is presented.
A video of an unannounced project I'm working on. The player approaches an old computer. They select options that allow them to print a test page, and then pick up the test page after it has been printed.
A robot from a lavazzo ad. Its made of metal but has an ET-like shape.
A screenshot of Final Fantasy VI, Edgar flips a coin off of a tower of Figaro castle. His twin brother looks on, uncertain of their fate.
Hugo - the hero of Hugo's House of Horrors - walks in a large lobby. The lobby has a picture of a bat and a lit candle on a table. He's wearing a blue sweater and incredibly pink pants. There are two unopened doors a floor above him.
Scrolling through a list of lectures listed in Notion for a planned Unreal C++ course. It is a looping gif but it feels like it just loops forever.
Next to a crosswalk, pieces of lumber from a cut-down tree lay near the stump. Behind one of the pieces of lumber you can see a small orange something resting on the stump.
A large tree by a snow-covered residential side walk. A massive break in its trunk has caused a substantial branch to fall across the sidewalk, narrowly missing a nearby house. There is "do not cross" yellow tape and cones on either side preventing pedestrians from trying to cross under the tree and the broken branch.
An image of text from the article in the previous post. It reads: "b. What about digital goods? Digital goods are protected from the imposition of tariffs under CUSMA/USMCA. Article 19.3 of the agreement provides that neither Canada nor the US shall impose customs duties, fees or other charges on or in connection with the importation or exportation of digital products transmitted electronically, between a person in Canada and a person in the US. A digital product includes a computer program, text, video, image, sound recording, or other product that is digitally encoded, produced for commercial sale or distribution, and that can be transmitted electronically. The restriction under the trade agreement, however, does not prevent the imposition of GST/HST on digital goods."
Its me in front of a whiteboard drawing of myself. I have glasses and brown hair and a reddish beard. The drawing is blue, and has glasses and hair and a beard and one really big ear.
A blueprint macro graph in Unreal, this defines a WaitUntilExec node. It has two ports and pauses upon entering the first port until the second port is hit.