Data Tables

Lots of functionalities use Data Tables to expose their variables. Data tables allow you to have a more data driven pipeline for creating your game, which can be really usefull.

Data Tables are a way to store datas of a certain type (Structures).

For each feature concerned with DataTables, an "empty" Data Table has been created in the same folder where the feature is implemented and a copy resides in the Demo/DataTables/ folder. Actually, the Actors/Components references the DataTables which are in this Demo/DataTables/ folder. You can directly modify these tables, or create new ones and make sure they are correctly referenced by the Actors/Components who need them.

Global Datas Access :

Several Datas are consider to be "global". Let say I need informations about a specific item (Its name, or its icon...). I need to retrieve this informations form somewhere and avoid duplicating these infos all over the project.

To solve this problème, I use the GameInstance class, and to make everything more modular, I've decided to split the Datas into separate UObjects :

- ItemGlobalDatas,

- EffectGlobalDatas,

- StatsGlobalDatas,

- MetaGlobalDatas,

- TravelGlobalDatas

These objects will store the global datas (mostly links to the DataTables)

The TopDownRPGTemplateGameInstance store all these objects.

To make things simpler, I've decided to associate a Blueprint Function Library to each Global Datas. These Blueprint Function Libraries are used to access datas :

- ItemUtilities,

- EffectUtilities,

- StatsUtilities,

Then, all you have to do to access the Global Datas is to call one of the Getters which resides in those Blueprint Function Libraries.