LyraStarterGame Plugins
Epic distributes several plugins via the LyraStarterGame sample project.
One way to use them is to base your new project on Lyra.
Another way is to export one or more of these modules to your existing project.
Async Mixin
C++ utility class for managing asynchronous operations like loading.
For more info, see the comments in the C++ header AsyncMixin.h.
Common Game
Adds a system for utilizing CommonUI’s Activatable Widget Containers as “Layers”,
and providing functions to push widgets to certain layers.
This is help for having your HUD on one layer and pushing a setting or pause menu to a layer above it.
This also makes it easy to use Gamepads to navigate your UI Menus,
as they are all constructed using CommonUI Activatable Widgets
in various Container layers.
Common Loading Screen
Adds base classes and settings for handling a loading screen.
I haven’t looked into this plugin much, but from what I can remember you can also add an interface
(ILoadingProcessInterface) to any class to show the loading screen when something needs to be loaded.
Common User
The Common User plugin provides a common interface between C++, Blueprint Scripting, and the Online Subsystem (OSS) or other online backends. It is a standalone plugin that can be used in any project.
Official Epic Docs: Common User Plugin
Provides Common User Subsystem, Common Session Subsystem and a Common User Initialize async action.
Gameplay Message Router
Adds a system for you to broadcast and receive events across the game by Gameplay Tag, optionally including a custom struct with event data.
An example is if you kill someone it could broadcast an event under a specific tag that provides the name of the person you killed, and a UI widget could receive that event to display the kill.
These events are local-player-only, a nice compliment to Gameplay Ability System’s
Gameplay Event which is replicated over the network.
The two systems are roughly analogous,
Gameplay Message Subsystem being local-client only scope
and Gameplay Event with network client scope.
Game Settings
Adds base classes for handling a settings screen in your project.
It builds off of CommonUI’s ActivatableWidgets,
so it will be using that system for its base screen classes.
Something to note is all the settings data is declared in C++, meaning designers won’t be able to expand upon it without engineering help.
Game Subtitles
Provides Subtitle Display Subsystem
Lyra Example Content
Content-only plugin with some Lyra assets.
Lyra Ext Tool
Adds EUW_MaterialTool, an editor widget seemingly useful in the Lyra Material editor.
Also adds a BP function Change Mesh Materials, which
explicitly invokes PostEditChange when meshes change.
Modular Gameplay Actors
Base classes that allow for Game Feature Plugins to have the ability to load components, widgets, etc at runtime.
All of Lyra’s base classes are themselves based on Modular Gameplay Actors.
Overview of a ModularGameplay Plugin
Pocket Worlds
This plugin allows for easy streaming of levels.
It is designed as a cleaner, compact solution for the classic way to render 3D characters in menus, which usually implies loading a map outside the normal gameplay boundaries.
Excellent Pocket Worlds Example and documentation:
https://gitlab.com/IsmaFilo/pocketworldexample
UIExtension
Provides a map of Extension Point Gameplay Tag to Activatable Widget.
In this way you can access any widget you want/need via its Extension Point,
and it is organized into your HUD as defined by the parent layout.
For example, you can load in different Widget classes depending on the type of
Lyra Experience you load in a Game Feature Plugin.
The score might go into the same location on the HUD, but be a different
widget depending on the Experience.
Thank you!
Special thanks to Cade on benui’s Discord who provided some excellent descriptions of many of these modules.