Game Roles
How to give people specific capabilities using the role system
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How to give people specific capabilities using the role system
Last updated
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04/04/2025 This system has been deprecated, in favour of a lighter touch, simplified example: In-game roles. Please speak to support for further info.
26/02/2025: The old roles system is heavily dependent on particular deprecated base classes, and interwoven with other deprecated systems. We are undertaking some work to make a simplified example of how one could make a roles system, and better expose the underlying API.
Support for the Roles system will decrease as we are treating it as an example of functionality rather than a feature in itself.
Game roles enable you to configure (separate) groups of players with:
Different avatars
Different control schemes (e.g: I can now fly)
Different capabilities (able to speak globally)
Game roles are string identifiers that correspond to capabilities inside an Unreal world. Game roles are given to users via a role group.
You can configure game roles in the Unreal Editor when creating your own mods. For a given Unreal level, open the World Setting and search for Roles. For example, the template map shows:
Here you can configure the roles that are available in your world. This can be done by adding data tables to the "Data Tables" array property. We will look at role data table configuration later in this guide. You can also configure the default role for players and bots for your world.
If you open the DT_RolesExample asset you can will see the following rows.
Selecting the Participantrow will display the following:
Here you can see all the fields that are configurable on a role. The following is an breif explantion of these properties:
Name
Name of the game role
Granted Capabilities
The capabilities associated with game role (i.e. the things theyâre allowed to do in the world)
Pawn Lod Level Set
The player character model (and other player rendering options) for different LoD levels to use for players in this game role
Associated Color
Used for UI elements involving roles - make sure this is at least somewhat unique!
Starting Inventory Assets
Items which should be in players' starting inventories when using this role.
Sizes List
A list of possible scale values for the render targets of users with this role. Used primarily with resizable characters, but can also have a single value set to something other than 1.0 to reuse character models at different scales.
Default Size Index
The index in the above list used for scale when spawning the character.
Movement Scale
Scales the movement of users with this role to be faster or slower (multiplicatively).
Avatar Scheme Set
A list of cosmetic schemes for this role supported by the avatar system.
Live Config Value To Check
The live config value responsible for enabling/disabling this role
Emote Selection
The default emote selection set to use for this role
In order to modify one of these properties, you must enable the option using the Role Configuration Override property.
Roles can inherit from a parent role, e.g. the Director role inherits from the Participant role. This grants the Director all of the same capabilities as Participant, as well as any additional ones configured on the Director. All other properties will be inherited from parent unless a properties is specifically overriden at the child level.
As outlined in the table above, you can modify the size of a given role, or give them multiple sizes to choose between using the SizesList (and set the default using DefaultSizeIndex)
If you are in a role which has multiple sizes, you can size your character up or down using the SizeUp and SizeDown input Action Mappings (these are set to and + and - by default)
In order to be able to configure roles in your mod, you'll need to make a copy of a roles table or create one from scratch. We recommend making a copy of DT_RolesExample. Once you've created your own role table, you can freely create, edit, and delete games roles.
To use your new data table, change the World Settings entry for your level. (Both the Default Role, and the Data Tables list).
When you reupload your mod, our tooling parses the world settings and sends them to the web platform.
A full list of capabilities and desciptions can be found in the data table: DT_M2_GameplayTags.
If you wish to add your own gameplay tags to your project, first create a new data table using the GameplayTagsTableRow. Then open your DefaultGameplayTags.ini file in your project's config directory and add the following:
[/Script/GameplayTags.GameplayTagsSettings]
+GameplayTagTableList=PROJECT_RELATIVE_PATH_TO YOUR_DATA_TABLE
You should now be able to use your custom capabilities.
If this field is not modified, the default pawn set in Project Settings - Engine - M2 Engine Defaults for Roles - Default Pawn Set will be used.
When using Play-in-Editor, behaviour is controlled by the Roles section in Editor Preferences
In offline mode (default), you are automatically granted all roles.
To change while role you spawn with, you can either add an extra to Role Data for Each Client OR change the Row Name in the Default Role section (NOTE - the latter affects launched worlds also).
While playing, you can change roles by hitting Shift + ESC to bring up the regular Escape menu and then navigate as normal to Profile.
The way to switch roles is by calling RequestRoleChange on the JM_RolesComponent:
We also have some helper commands that can be run:
j.Roles.ListRoles - lists the roles in the current map
j.Roles.RequestRoleChange [RoleName] - attempts to switch you to the provided role. This will fail if you don't have access to the role.
A pawn set (see ) is an asset which contains a base pawn (the âtrueâ representation of that character) and information about client LOD levels for that pawn for other clients. The Pawn Lod Level Set field in the roles table can be used to override this (if it is added to the Role Configuration Overrides)
Role Configuration Override to show various role configurations properties.Director role inheriting from a Default role in a data table called DT_Roles. Extra capabilities have been added to the Diretor role.DT_ExampleRoles named DT_MyCustomRoles.
