Creating GUI tabs with a C++ mod
UE4SS already includes the ImGui library to render its console GUI, built from the UE4SS-RE/imgui repo. Refer to ImGui documentation in that repo on how to use ImGui-specific classes and methods for rendering actual buttons and textboxes and other window objects.
This guide will show how you create custom tabs for the GUI with a C++ mod, and the guide will take the form of comments in the code example below:
#include <Mod/CppUserModBase.hpp>
#include <UE4SSProgram.hpp>
class MyAwesomeMod : public RC::CppUserModBase
{
private:
int m_private_number{33};
std::shared_ptr<GUI::GUITab> m_less_safe_tab{};
public:
MyAwesomeMod() : CppUserModBase()
{
ModName = STR("MyAwesomeMod");
ModVersion = STR("1.0");
ModDescription = STR("This is my awesome mod");
ModAuthors = STR("UE4SS Team");
// It's critical that you enable ImGui before you create your tab.
// If you don't do this, a crash will occur as soon as ImGui tries to render anything in your tab.
UE4SS_ENABLE_IMGUI()
// The 'register_tab' function will tell UE4SS to render a tab.
// Tabs registered this way will be automatically cleaned up when this C++ mod is destructed.
// The first param is the display name of your tab.
// The second param is a callback that UE4SS will use to render the contents of the tab.
// The param to the callback is a pointer to your mod.
register_tab(STR("My Test Tab"), [](CppUserModBase* instance) {
// In this callback, you can start rendering the contents of your tab with ImGui.
ImGui::Text("This is the contents of the tab");
// You can access members of your mod class with the 'instance' param.
auto mod = dynamic_cast<MyAwesomeMod*>(instance);
if (!mod)
{
// Something went wrong that caused the 'instance' to not be correctly set.
// Let's abort the rest of the function so that you don't access an invalid pointer.
return;
}
// You can access both public and private members.
mod->render_some_stuff(mod->m_private_number);
});
// The 'UE4SSProgram::add_gui_tab' function is another way to tell UE4SS to render a tab.
// This way of registering a tab will make you responsible for cleaning up the tab when your mod destructs.
// Failure to clean up the tab on mod destruction will result in a crash.
// It's recommended that you use 'register_tab' instead of this function.
m_less_safe_tab = std::make_shared<GUI::GUITab>(STR("My Less Safe Tab"), [](CppUserModBase* instance) {
// This callback is identical to the one used with 'register_tab' except 'instance' is always nullptr.
ImGui::Text("This is the contents of the less safe tab");
});
UE4SSProgram::get_program().add_gui_tab(m_less_safe_tab);
}
~MyAwesomeMod() override
{
// Because you created a tab with 'UE4SSProgram::add_gui_tab', you must manually remove it.
// Failure to remove the tab will result in a crash.
UE4SSProgram::get_program().remove_gui_tab(m_less_safe_tab);
}
auto render_some_stuff(int Number) -> void
{
auto calculated_value = Number + 1;
ImGui::Text(std::format("calculated_value: {}", calculated_value).c_str());
}
};
#define MY_AWESOME_MOD_API __declspec(dllexport)
extern "C"
{
MY_AWESOME_MOD_API RC::CppUserModBase* start_mod()
{
return new MyAwesomeMod();
}
MY_AWESOME_MOD_API void uninstall_mod(RC::CppUserModBase* mod)
{
delete mod;
}
}