Steps to Use the Menu System Plugin
- Create or open an Unreal Engine 5 project (For new projects, it is recommended that you use the Third Person project template, as it already has a working character which is replicated).
- Configure the project to use the Steam Online Subsystem • Go to Edit -> Plugins -> search for Online Subsystem Steam • Check Enabled • Click Restart Now
• In the project folder, go to Config
• Open DefaultEngine.ini Add the following to the bottom of DefaultEngine.ini (copy them directly from Unreal Engine’s Documentation page) https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/ProgrammingAndScripting/Online/Steam/
• Save and close. The full file should appear as follows (with your project name where it says “MenuSystem”) • Open DefaultGame.ini and add:
• Compile the Visual Studio Project (CTRL + SHIFT + B) 3. Add the Plugin to the Project Folder • Copy the Plugins folder into your project:
• Inside Plugins, you should see MultiplayerSessions • Close Unreal Engine and Visual Studio. Delete your Binaries, Intermediate, and Saved folders. Right-click your .uproject and select Generate Visual Studio project files. • Open your Visual Studio project solution (.sln). You should now see a Plugins folder in the Solution Explorer
• Open your project in Unreal Engine. It will ask if you would like to rebuild modules. Select Yes.
• In the Content Browser, click Settings. Check Show Plugin Content.
• You will now have two extra folders in the Content Browser: Multiplayer Sessions Content and Multiplayer Sessions C++ Classes.
• Go to the Multiplayer Sessions Content folder. There is a Widget Blueprint called WBP_Menu. 4. Create a Lobby Level • Create a new level, and save it in your project (it doesn’t matter where you save it or what you name it)
• Open your starting level.
• Open the Level Blueprint. Use Create Widget to create a new widget, selecting WBP_Menu as the widget class. Connect this to Begin Play.
• Drag off of the Return Value output and search for Menu Setup. Select it.
• Change the Number of Public Connections to the number of players you want in your game • Change the lobby path to the path to your lobby level (use /Game/ instead of /Content/) and leave out the .umap extension.
- Play Test the Game • Go to Platforms -> -> Package Project.
• Create a new folder or select a folder destination
• Click Select Folder • Upload to a Google drive (or anywhere else) and download it onto a second machine • Run the Steam client in the background. Make sure both computers are set to the same region (Steam -> Settings -> Downloads -> Download Region).
• On one machine, launch the game and click Host • On the other machine, launch the game and click Join
• Test Play!