On-screen UI during play

Create, change and remove widgets on screen while the game is running.

What it’s for

Ask your assistant to work with UI widgets while the game is running in Play-In-Editor. It can add a Widget Blueprint to the player’s screen, change what it shows, such as text, images and visibility, and remove it again. These changes only exist in the running game. Nothing is saved, and they are gone when play stops.

Use it to see a widget in a real viewport, step a HUD through its states to check it looks right, or push and pop screens the way your game does. Play has to be running first, because there is no game screen to add a widget to in the plain editor.

To change the Widget Blueprint asset itself so the change is kept, use UI widgets (UMG).

Things you can ask

Show a HUD and set its readout

The game starts, the HUD appears on screen, and one of its text fields shows your value.

You: Play the level, add WBP_HUD to the viewport, and set its Score text to 1200.

The level is playing and WBP_HUD is on screen with Score reading 1200.

Hide a widget and swap an image

The running HUD hides one element and shows a different image in another.

You: In the running HUD, hide the WarningLabel and change the StatusIcon to the green one.

WarningLabel is hidden and StatusIcon now shows T_Status_Green.

Remove the widget when you are done

The HUD leaves the screen and the asset stays as it was.

You: Remove that HUD from the viewport.

Removed WBP_HUD from the viewport. The Widget Blueprint asset is unchanged.