Unreal Editor - automation help

[RAMzor]

Hi all.
Knowing the rules of the forum, I want to say right away that I don't play any games and have never played.
I came across Unreal Engine for first time in my life a week ago at my work (medical imaging). So please be understanding.

I need help to start automating the Unreal Editor (WorldSim).

To be more precisely, I need just a few commands such as load batch json file, play/stop level, read/clear log.
How can I take control through ActiveX, COM, Web or something else. Spend a lot of time with no success.
I will be grateful for any help/examples here, PM or email. 

Moderators, if this is still against the rules, you can delete this post without warning me 

Edited July 22, 2024 by RAMzor

[Melba23]

RAMzor,

I see from a cursory Google search that the Unreal Editor does indeed have uses other than gaming, but I would appreciate some information from you (via PM if you prefer) as to what exactly you are intending to do with it. Why do you need to automate it? What sort of imaging are you dealing with? We would like to help, so please provide us with the data to allow us to do so.

M23 

[RAMzor]

I will try to explain...

Sent PM to you.

Thanks!

Edited July 23, 2024 by RAMzor

[Melba23]

RAMzor,

Thanks for that - I am happy for the thread to continue.

M23

[RTFC]

I have trouble understanding why you would wish to automate Unreal Editor; that's like wanting to automate Scite to write an AutoIt script. If you have access to the uncooked, unpackaged project, it makes more sense to directly edit the blueprints (or add your own BPs to run alongside, or edit/add to project source code) to achieve your goals:

• JSON: there are several JSON plugins available out of the (UE) box to interact with JSON data (Edit->Plugins->Search "JSON", and several more on the marketplace
• start/stop: just run the editor headless from the cmdline with the appropriate settings (e.g., if you launch the editor with -game this would act the same as choosing the standalone launch option in the editor)
• the output log is already written to file (in <YourProjectFolder>\Saves\Logs), or in the Output Log window, click Settings->Open in External editor.

Moreover, automating UE editor seems a terrible idea to me anyway, because its GUI layout/ menu organsiation tends to change (sometimes drastically) with almost every engine update (of which there are several a year).

Edited July 23, 2024 by RTFC
typo

[RAMzor]

Hey @RTFC

2 hours ago, RTFC said:

I have trouble understanding why you would wish to automate Unreal Editor;

I didn't choose to use The Editor this way, I inherited this work process style from developers...

 

2 hours ago, RTFC said:

...that's like wanting to automate Scite to write an AutoIt script. If you have access to the uncooked, unpackaged project, it makes more sense to directly edit the blueprints (or add your own BPs to run alongside, or edit/add to project source code) to achieve

You are absolutely right but .....
I don't want to spend too much time to learning something bombastic  like BLUE to make a "few clicks" and never more use it again, it's overkill to me. This software is used only for this purpose.
Once again, I don't come from the gaming world and know nothing about this software. Even simple commands. I'm just now studying and it's blowing my mind

 

2 hours ago, RTFC said:

• start/stop: just run the editor headless from the cmdline with the appropriate settings (e.g., if you launch the editor with -game this would act the same as choosing the standalone launch option in the editor)

Thanks for the guidance! It can help with something. To know how about this cmdline options you need to know that this option exists at all 😁. I will look now
I saw an option to write commands in the Editor but I was unable to write there programmatically 😒... 

 

2 hours ago, RTFC said:

• the output log is already written to file (in <YourProjectFolder>\Saves\Logs), or in the Output Log window, click Settings->Open in External editor.

I actually found it 🙂 But while running batch with hundreds of tasks the log is inflated and it's quite difficult to do parsing without deleting between tasks.

 

2 hours ago, RTFC said:

Moreover, automating UE editor seems a terrible idea to me anyway, because its GUI layout/ menu organsiation tends to change (sometimes drastically) with almost every engine update (of which there are several a year).

For this specific mission there is no need to upgrade every time if at all.

 

 

 

[Nine]

I do not know Unreal Editor, but maybe the community could help if you show an example of what you want to achieve (thru GIF or screen shots or whatever).

18 hours ago, RAMzor said:

I need just a few commands such as load batch json file, play/stop level, read/clear log.

This statement is intended to someone who knows the editor and is useless to most of us.

[RTFC]

I think you may have misinterpreted/overestimated the (very limited) "command" functionality its editor implements; these are mostly startup cmdline options that you can set/change at runtime, and stuff like taking screenshots at some specific resolution. To do the things you want to do in a development environment (i.e., uncooked, unpacked application), by far the easiest way is to create a new, or edit an existing blueprint. Blueprints were explicitly designed for people that are uncomfortable writing code (e.g., most game designers). It's incredibly simple to learn, just connect event/function nodes with their Exec pins to form a flow diagram in the BP, and stick variables into your inputs (or read them from node outputs) where required/desired.

Example: You wrote you need JSON interaction. So open your project, Top Menu->Edit->Plugins, search "JSON", then enable (tick) "JSON Blueprint Utilities" (available for free), and confirm. Restart the Engine, open any blueprint (or create a new one), right-click anywhere on the background, type json in the new window's search bar, and select any of these functions:

There are literally hundreds of video tutorials online to get you up to speed in a matter of a few hours. And as long as your tasks are not frame-critical, you don't need to engage with the underlying C++ code at all.

Edited July 24, 2024 by RTFC