[Unreal Engine version 4.4 Only] Creating a Pause Menu for UE4 with Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG)

This is a short tutorial on adding a pause menu to your game. The steps here are very similar to Part 2 of my UMG menu tutorial, but enough of the logic is changed that I decided it warranted another tutorial.

[Unreal Engine version 4.4 ONLY] How to Create a Menu in Unreal Engine 4 using Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) - Part 2

Note: Since the update to Unreal Engine 4.5 this tutorial is out of date. If you are using Unreal engine 4.4, then this is the correct tutorial for you. Otherwise, please go here to my updated tutorial.

This is the second and final part of my tutorial on how to create a menu in Unreal Engine using UMG. Here we will cover how to hook up blueprint functions to the menu buttons you created in Part 1 to make them work.

[Unreal Engine version 4.4 only] How to Create a Menu in Unreal Engine 4 using Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) - Part 1

There are several options (both free and paid) that you can use to create menus for your game in UE4. The latest menu tool that Epic has been creating is called Unreal Motion Graphics or UMG. Right now this is an experimental tool and they are still adding features to it , but it's been developed enough to start using in your projects. This is Part 1 of a tutorial on how to use UMG to add a menu to your game.

Blender to Substance Designer to UE4: My Workflow

I like to think my workflow is unique. I use a free 3D modeling program, an engine that comes with a very affordable subscription plan, and a fairly expensive model texturing program (at least relative to my other tools). No Photoshop and no Autodesk products are involved. This is in part because the FBX exporter in Blender doesn't carry over the textures that you use in the Blender material editor to UE4 , and also partly because Substance Designer is a tremendous time saver.

(UPDATE: It seems that the materials in Blender can, in fact, be exported to UE4 now. I only exported a mesh with basic colors [by accident], so I can't attest to what extent Blender's material editor settings will carry over to UE4)

Here is the workflow I currently use to create meshes, texture them, and import them into UE4.

Creating Custom Collision for Unreal Engine 4 in Blender

After you have gone through the steps of readying your mesh to export into Unreal, you may want to consider adding your own collision to your model. Collision, put simply, is what tells your game what parts of your mesh objects can and can't pass through. UE4's collision tools are great, they have even updated the collision creation tool to work with more complex geometry to allow objects to pass through holes in the mesh, but if you want more control over how your collision works, it can be easily done in Blender.

Here are the steps to create custom collision in Blender for use in UE4.

Texture Mapping Tools

Normal and specular maps generated using Substance Designer 4

At some point in game development, you are likely going to need to do some texture mapping for your game materials. I'm not going to use this post to explain what textures and materials are, but if you don't know, check out this Wikipedia article about texture mapping and this page from Epic Games that discusses materials and textures. Here is a list of some popular free and paid software you can use to help you create materials for your game assets.