I am continuing the Battery Collector in C++ tutorial from Unreal Engine. This is the 7th video.

Defining What to Spawn

In the SpawnVolume.h header file, we declare a protected variable “WhatToSpawn”:

protected:
 /** The pickup to spawn */
 UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, Category = "Spawning")
 TSubclassOf<class APickup> WhatToSpawn;

We also declare a private function:

/** Handle spawning a new pickup */
 void SpawnPickup();

In the SpawnVolume.cpp source file, we define that SpawnPickup behavior:

void ASpawnVolume::SpawnPickup()
{
	// If we have set something to spawn:
	if (WhatToSpawn != NULL)
	{
		// Check for a valid World:
		UWorld* const World = GetWorld();
		if (World)
		{
			// Set the spawn parameters
			FActorSpawnParameters SpawnParams;
			SpawnParams.Owner = this;
			SpawnParams.Instigator = Instigator;

			// Get a random location to spawn at
			FVector SpawnLocation = GetRandomPointInVolume();

			// Get a random rotation for the spawned item
			FRotator SpawnRotation;
			SpawnRotation.Yaw = FMath::FRand() * 360.0f;
			SpawnRotation.Pitch = FMath::FRand() * 360.0f;
			SpawnRotation.Roll = FMath::FRand() * 360.0f;

			// Spawn the pickup
			APickup* const SpawnedPickup = World->SpawnActor<APickup>(WhatToSpawn, SpawnLocation, SpawnRotation);
		}
	}
}

In order to use the Pickup functions, I need to include “Pickup.h” in this source file.

Someone in the comment section of the video says that there is also a util function in the Kismet library called UKismetMathLibrary::RandomRotator(bool bRoll = false) which does exactly the steps provided for getting a random rotation value.

Next Step

In the next step, we will define when to spawn.

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