Buildable

Next, create a blueprint of type FGBuildable with f.e. the name "Build_DocBuild" inside your folder. This is the actual building object in which the model and factory logic are defined, among other things.

Now we need to populate the buildable description by simply filling the default values. Set M Hologram Class to FGBuildableHologram, which will cause the FGBuildable to automatically find the hologram by itself.

Fill M Display Name with something like "Doc Buildable" and M Description with "An example building that showcases the MI_Factory_Base_01 material.".

As you can see in the Components pane in the top left, the actor already contains a few components. But not any visuals, so, now add a new FGColoredInstancedMeshProxy component in the center of the viewport. The build gun uses the origin when targeting the mesh to be built or snapped. You can use this example Mesh, the Plantpot of Knowledge, for your buildable.

This Actor is also where you can define the snapping area and the clearance area, but we won’t do that for now. Look to other machines and examples for inspiration as there are several relevant settings to make those behaviors work correctly.

We want to make our buildable paintable, meaning, able to be painted it with the paint gun. Because the FGBuildable-class already provides a basic implementation for that, we just need our buildable’s mesh to use the MI_Factory_Base_01 material. The provided example mesh already provides a proper UV map for said material, so you will not need to edit the UVs of the provided mesh. You will need to do so for your own models. More info on the materials already in the game can be found at Main Materials documentation page.

You must ensure that the materials of the Mesh and Buildable are set to point to a material called MI_Factory_Base_01 within Content/FactoryGame/-Shared/Material. If this does not exist, create a placeholder material in its place, and it will point to the correct texture within the game.

Similar to how we created a descriptor for our item, we now need to create one for our buildable of type FGBuildingDescriptor.

Simply add a new Blueprint of type FGBuildingDescriptor to the same folder as the buildable itself and call it f.e. "Desc_DocBuild".

Building descriptors are very similar to item descriptors. This is because FGBuildingDescriptor extends the item descriptor class, meaning it inherits all of its fields and adds a few more.

Note that not every item descriptor field is useful to a building descriptor. For example, the stack size and conveyor mesh of a building are irrelevant to its functionality despite being editable.

Make sure to set the M Buildable Class field to your Build_DocBuild actor. This field determines what building actor will be placed when the player uses the build gun. The building’s final display name and description are also pulled from this asset; the descriptor’s fields for this purpose are not used, which is part of why they are greyed out in the editor.

The descriptor category, subcategory, and icon also determine how the building will appear in the Build Gun. You can use this example image as the icon.

Building Descriptors use categories to determine where they appear in the build gun. It’s possible to create your own categories, but for now, use BC_TradingPost in the M Category field and SC_Progression as the only array entry in the M Sub Categories field. This will sort your building near the HUB in the build menu.

To define how our building is constructed we will use an FGRecipe, just like we did for our custom item. Create a new FGRecipe asset and set ProducedIn to FGBuildGun, then add Ingredients entries to define the cost of constructing the building. The Product field should contain exactly one entry - the FGBuildingDescriptor asset you just created for your buildable.

Don’t forget to list your newly created recipe in the unlocks of a Schematic otherwise it won’t be registered.

That’s it! You don’t need to register anything else. When the recipe gets loaded, everything else also gets loaded and the buildable in the save file has soft references to the classes, and if they get loaded also the classes like our newly created buildable get loaded.

If you load up the game now, you should be able to build the Doc Build in game, but it is purely an object that sits there and exists. You should be able to paint it with the paint tool, and it should look roughly like it does in the icon image.

In the next section, we’ll make another buildable that has some custom logic, allowing it to act as an item counter.