UX Tools 0.10.0 release notes

This release of the UX Tools supports only HoloLens 2. Support for other MR platforms remains a goal for us but is not the current focus.

Unreal 4.25 required.

What's new

UI elements

The new UxtUIElementComponent allows an actor's visibility to be controlled by its parent actor, allowing for easy construction of hierarchical UIs. The hierarchies can be constructed using actor attachment or child actor components.

UxtPressableButtonComponent, UxtPinchSliderComponent and UxtTouchableVolumeComponent now inherit from UxtUIElementComponent.

HandMenuExample

Hand menus

Hand menus are a convenient hand-attached UI that are great for frequently used functions. An example level has been added to demonstrate various types of hand menus and to act as a guide for building custom menus.

HandMenuExample

Tap to Place

Tap to place is a new far interaction component that can be used to easily place primitive components against surfaces. It works with collidable surfaces in the scene, as well as with the spatial mesh.

TapToPlace

Surface Magnetism (experimental)

This new component (far interaction only) allows an actor to stick to a surface.

It works both with other actors in the scene

SurfaceMagnetism

as well as a spatial mesh

SurfaceMagnetismSpatialMesh

Follow component

The follow component now has the ability to maintain a fixed vertical distance from the camera. This can be used to prevent the actor from obstructing the user's vision.

FollowFixedVerticalDistance

UMG widgets

The new Widget component allows interaction with Unreal Engine's UMG widgets.

WidgetsOverview

Visual Logging

UXTools hand interaction supports visual logging now. This is useful for debugging interactions intuitively in the editor. To enable visual logging simply follow the standard Unreal Editor instructions here.

Currently supported features include:

  • Basic hand tracking (joint positions and pointer pose)
  • Near pointers (grab and poke)
  • Far pointer
  • Proximity detection (switching near vs. far)

GrabPointerVisualLogging

Breaking changes

BP_BaseButton and derived buttons

BP_BaseButton and the buttons derived from it have been moved to native code.

  • BP_BaseButton has been replaced by AUxtBasePressableButtonActor.
  • BP_ButtonHoloLens2 has been replaced by AUxtPressableButtonActor.
  • BP_ButtonHoloLens2Toggle has been replaced by AUxtPressableToggleButtonActor.
  • BP_ButtonHoloLens2ToggleCheck has been replaced by AUxtPressableCheckButtonActor.
  • BP_ButtonHoloLens2ToggleSwitch has been replaced by AUxtPressableSwitchButtonActor.

Toggle button state and event dispatchers are now accessible through the UUxtToggleStateComponent instead of directly on the actor.

BP_SimpleSlider

BP_SimpleSlider has been replaced by AUxtPinchSliderActor. It has the same feature set as BP_SimpleSlider and can be extended from either Blueprints or C++.

  • AUxtPinchSliderActor now faces positive X.

BP_TextActor

BP_TextActor has been replaced by AUxtTextRenderActor. It has the same feature set as BP_TextActor and can be extended from either Blueprints or C++.

EUxtInteractionMode

EUxtInteractionMode has moved from Interactions/UxtManipulationFlags.h to Interactions/UxtInteractionMode.h.

UxtBackPlateComponent

UxtBackPlateComponents now scale correctly when parent components are scaled. Any existing UxtBackPlateComponents may need to have their 'x' and 'z' scales swapped.

Unreal doesn't account for parent child rotations when applying parent child scales, so it was possible to run into situations where scaling the parent would not scale the child back plate appropriately. Before this change back plates where scaled as "height x width x depth" and are now scaled via the Unreal's traditional "depth x width x height" convention. For more information please see the graphics documentation.

UxtBoundsControlComponent

The Preset property of the bounds control component has been replaced with a data asset, which can be more easily copied and customized by users. All six presets exist as data assets in UXTools Content/Bounds Control/Presets. The Config property on existing bounds control components may need to be updated.

  • Default: corners resize bounds, edges rotate them.
  • Slate2D: only has front side affordances, all of them resize bounds.
  • AllResize, AllScale, AllTranslate, AllRotate: have all possible affordances with the same action, mostly for testing.

The preset assets contain a list of affordance configs, each of which consist of

  • A placement enum, e.g. "Corner Front Top Left", "Edge Right Bottom".
  • The action performed by the affordance (resize, scale, translate, rotate).
  • Flag to toggle uniform actions, i.e. allow non-uniform scaling of the bounds.

FUxtBoundsControlAffordanceInfo has been replaced with FUxtAffordanceInstance.

  • Data that was available in FUxtBoundsControlAffordanceInfo can be accessed through it's Config property.

Bounds control component now uses simple mesh assets for affordances instead of full blueprint classes. The existing static meshes from affordance BPs can continue to be used.

  • If the affordances classes (e.g. CornerAffordanceClass) on a BoundsControlComponent have been customized then the new equivalent mesh property (e.g. CornerAffordanceMesh) needs to be set.

UxtFarPointerComponent

The UxtFarPointerComponent now uses simple collision primitives instead of complex collision primitives for its interactions. Any objects that require the complex collision mesh be used with the far pointer should set the mesh's Collision Complexity to Use Complex Collision As Simple under its collision settings.

UxtFarTarget

The interface for handling far interactions has been moved from IUxtFarTarget into IUxtFarHandler. There are three changes necessary to update classes inheriting from IUxtFarTarget:

  • Inherit from IUxtFarHandler alongside IUxtFarTarget
  • Add an implementation for IUxtFarHandler::CanHandleFar to the class.
  • Update IsFarFocusable to be a const member function.

UxtFollowComponent

MoveToDefaultDistanceLerpTime has been renamed to LerpTime.

UxtGrabTarget

The interface for handling far interactions has been moved from IUxtGrabTarget into IUxtGrabHandler. There are three changes necessary to update classes inheriting from IUxtGrabTarget:

  • Inherit from IUxtGrabHandler alongside IUxtGrabTarget
  • Add an implementation for IUxtGrabHandler::CanHandleGrab to the class.
  • Update IsGrabFocusable to be a const member function.

UxtGrabTargetComponent

  • GetGrabPointCentroid has been updated to return an FTransform instead of just a location vector.
  • GetGrabPointCentroidTransform has been removed. Instead GetGrabPointCentroid can be used by passing the target component's world transform.

UxtHandInteractionActor

NearActivationDistance has been removed. The proximity detection is defined by the ProximityCone parameters now.

UxtNearPointerComponent

GetFocusedGrabTarget and GetFocusedPokeTarget now also return the surface normal as an output parameter.

UxtPinchSliderComponent

The UxtPinchSliderComponent has been simplified and streamlined. It now operates on the same principles as the UxtPressableButtonComponent.

Interface changes:

  • GetCurrentState has been renamed to GetState.
  • GetThumbVisuals/SetThumbVisuals has been renamed to GetVisuals/SetVisuals.
  • GetSliderValue/SetSliderValue have been renamed to GetValue/SetValue.
  • GetSliderLowerBound/SetSliderLowerBound have been renamed to GetValueLowerBound/SetValueLowerBound.
  • GetSliderUpperBound/SetSliderUpperBound have been renamed to GetValueUpperBound/SetValueUpperBound.
  • IsGrabbed, IsFocused and IsEnabled have been removed in favor of using GetState.
  • Any references to the track and tick mark visuals have been removed as they are now managed by AUxtPinchSliderActor.
  • SliderStartDistance and SliderEndDistance have been replaced by a single TrackLength property that dictates the length of the track.

Event changes:

  • OnBeginInteraction has been renamed to OnBeginGrab.
  • OnEndInteraction has been renamed to OnEndGrab.
  • OnSliderEnabled has been renamed to OnEnable.
  • OnSliderDisabled has been renamed to OnDisable.

EUxtSliderState changes:

  • Focus has been renamed to Focused.
  • Grab has been renamed to Grabbed.

Other changes:

  • The min / max positions on the slider have been swapped to make sliders face positive X.

UxtPokeTarget

The interface for handling far interactions has been moved from IUxtPokeTarget into IUxtPokeHandler. There are three changes necessary to update classes inheriting from IUxtPokeTarget:

  • Inherit from IUxtPokeHandler alongside IUxtPokeTarget
  • Add an implementation for IUxtPokeHandler::CanHandlePoke to the class.
  • Update IsPokeFocusable to be a const member function.