Inventory System
Introduction
This is a side project next to my studies at Futuregames.
I wanted to learn to create an inventory system because I believe they are used in a lot of modern games, a lot of which I play myself. I wanted to learn how they work and how different components can create a bigger system, like an inventory. I am also taking the time in this project to better understand Unreal Engine 5 and C++.
ItemData
Creating items is simple for any developer. Creating items is done in the editor using a Data table. Each item is part of the table with specific ID's. Here, the items can get their specific data set such as name, mesh and icon etc.
This is the representation of ItemData in code. It is built of different structs to contain all the different data in an organized manner.
This is how it looks as a Data Table in the editor. Where each item has its own ID and data.
Pickup
The Pickup class is an actor that uses a Desired ID from the Data table, and sets its data accordingly. It also carries functions like begin and end focus, to trigger highlighting and visualizing the interaction text.
Inside the editor, The specific data table and desired item ID is used to set the pickup actor.
Inventory
The inventory component takes care of removing and adding items from the Inventory TArray, which broadcasts the changes to update the UI.
Interaction
The interaction text is very simple. It inherits from UserWidget, which enables UI for us. using the meta = (BindWIdget), allows us to use UMG and bind the specific component.
Inside the editor, the component called Name is the same as UTextBlock* Name inside the header file. These are now bound and the User Widget can be controlled using c++.
Project
Working in c++ I have learned a lot about structure and better coding habits, here is an example of that. Organizing code into folders makes it a lot easier to follow the architecture, especially for new readers.
Conclusion
This has been a great learning experience for me. Creating an inventory system from scratch has taught me a lot about working on a longer project, scope, architecture and design. Having said that, this project is not finished, as there are more features I want to add and work on.
