Take me to...

Basic UI tutorial

This tab covers the basic use of the Character Creator’s UI.
For information on how to edit characters or gears, please view the “Character Editor - Editing an Existing Preset”.

Mouse Controls

While the Character Creator is primarily interacted with through drop downs and slider, the user can move the model that currently displays as well as the camera with their mouse.

Left Click + Motion 

  • When the user presses the left mouse button outside of the UI areas, the character model that displays will be selected.
  • Moving the mouse pointer while holding left click will tilt/spin the model horizontally towards the motion made by the user until the right mouse button is released.

Right Click + Motion

  • Pressing the right mouse button within ~2 inches of the displaying character model’s head will cause the character’s eyes to look towards the mouse pointer.
  • Moving the mouse pointer while holding right click will make the character’s eyes follow the mouse pointer until the pointer moves out of range or until the right mouse button is released.

Mouse Wheel / Middle Mouse Button

  • Scrolling the mouse wheel down will make the camera pan away from the character in focus.
  • Scrolling the mouse wheel up will make the camera pan towards the character in focus.
  • Pressing the mouse wheel / middle mouse button will cycle through the different types of focus the camera can have. (Face, Full Body, Upper, Lower, & Shoe)

Top Bar

Editor Mode 

Location & Use

The “Editor Mode” drop down is situated at the top right of the character creator window. With it, the user can change the type of asset they’re about to modify.


Different Options:

None

When the selection is set on “None”, all editor windows will be dismissed and the user will be able to view their scene more clearly. No modifications can be made to the scene when this option is selected.


Character

Selecting this option will add a window on the right side of the scene named “Character Editor”.

Through this window, the user will be able to make modifications to the character model currently displaying in the scene.


For more information on how to select a different character, please view the “Character” drop down below.

There is also information on how to edit the visuals of an existing Character in the tab named “Character Editor - Editing an Existing Preset” tab of this confluence page.

Gear

When this option is selected, a window named “Gear Editor” will appear on the right side of the scene.

Through this window, the user can make modifications to the appearance of equippable items found in game.


Avatar Preset

When the selection is set to “Avatar Preset”, a window named “Preset Editor” will appear on the right side of the scene.

Through this window, the user can make modifications to the available presets of player characters in the in-game character creation window.


Type

The “Type” drop down is at the left of the top bar, between the “Editor Mode” and “Character” drop down.
This drop down is directly related to the “Character” drop down next to it, as selecting different options in the “Type” drop down will allow for different NPCs to be accessed in the “Character” drop down.
The types of bodies should be self explanatory in their name.

For a breakdown of all the different species available for modifications and their specific location in the “Type” drop down, please view the “Body Types Location” tab of this confluence page.


Character (Up Arrow / Down Arrow)

Directly associated with the “Type” drop down, the “Character” drop down allows the player to pick which NPC they want the scene to display.


While the user can change their selection by opening the drop down and clicking on a different option, they can also cycle through the NPCs by using the keyboard’s Up Arrow to view the previous NPC and the Down Arrow to view the next NPC.


Every time the user attempts to change the character selection without having saved their modifications (if any) to the current selection, a pop up will appear and ask if the user wants to save their changes. 

Pressing “Yes” will apply the changes made by the user to the NPC and Pressing “No” will discard the changes and reset the NPC to its previous visual state.


Camera (Middle Mouse Button)

The “camera” drop down is on the right side of the top bar.


Selecting area will move the camera’s focus on the character model displaying in the middle of the scene.

The user can also cycle through the different focus selections by pressing the Middle Mouse Button.


Scene

The “Scene” drop down is right at the right of the Camera drop down.


Changing the selection of this drop down will change the environment art of the scene.

Certain scenes will have additional UI that appear along with them at the top right corner of the scene.

This UI allows the user to adjust the time of day and weather of the scene.


View Mode

The “View Mode” drop down will determine how the user views the scene.

The “Lit” option is the default one, which the end user is supposed to see when in game.


Show (Additional UI)

This drop down is present in the middle of the top bar.


It allows the user to tick what they want to see in the scene. This can range from a statistic window to the presence of the character model itself.

For more information on each of the options present in this drop down, please read the “Additional UI” tab.


LOD

The “LOD” drop down is on the right side of the top bar.


The selection made in this drop down will determine the level of detail of the character model that displays in the scene. Usually, the LOD of a character depends on how far the camera is from it. The closer the camera is to the model, the more detailed the model should be.


Selecting “Auto” will change the LOD automatically with camera movement, selecting any other value will lock the LOD regardless of the distance of the camera.


Setting the LOD to 0 will cause the details to display as if the camera is very close, therefore, the model will be very detailed.


A high value will cause the details to display as if the camera is very far (and therefore less detailed).

Creator Kit Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s and Don’ts

  • Do use some form of source control to back up the contents of any mods that you are working on. When the Creator Kit is updated from the Epic Game Store, sometimes files that are not part of the official installation (such as a user’s mods) will be removed. Backing up your mod source in some form of source control will help you prevent lost work such as this.
  • Don’t attempt to open the Creator Kit uproject directly (e.g. by double-clicking on it) - users should always launch from the Epic Game Store.
  • Don’t change the activation state of any of the Creator Kit project’s plugins - it tends to break things.
  • Don’t use non-alphanumeric characters in the names of assets (this includes whitespace characters) or database fields. This will likely cause problems and may prevent things from working as intended. In place of whitespace characters in names, use an underscore _ instead if needed.
  • Don’t attempt to change the enabled / disabled state of any existing plugins in the Creator Kit. That will break things.
  • Don’t attempt to add / remove any plugins from the Creator Kit. That will break things.
  • Don’t force-delete Blueprints / other assets that are referenced by any mods you might be working on in the Creator Kit. Force-deleting in-use assets can lead to instability / crashes.
  • Don’t attempt to create a new character from within the Creator Kit multiple times. Specifically, entering the avatar creator portion of the Root Level more than once per program run in the Creator Kit can cause the Creator Kit to get stuck, requiring the user to restart the Creator Kit.