Unreal Engine has a built-in debug console that can be used for executing commands or "cheats" as Unreal calls them. The console is accessed by pressing the tilde key (it's to the left of the 1 key on most keyboards, and has ` and ~ on it).

Unreal provides many built-in commands like stat fps for showing the frames per second, but it is especially useful for adding your own debug commands or cheats.

By default, the console is only available in the editor, development and test builds (i.e. not shipping builds).

C++ Setup

Subclass UCheatManager

In order to add our own functions and make them available through the debug console, we will need to create a subclass of UCheatManager, and create a subclass of APlayerController if we do not have one already.

As always, we'll be using the naming conventions from the best practices document, where we prefix custom classes with a project-specific set of letters, in this example BUI.

BUICheatManager.h

#pragma once

#include "GameFramework/CheatManager.h"
#include "BUICheatManager.generated.h"

UCLASS( Within = BUIPlayerController )
class UBUICheatManager : public UCheatManager
{
	GENERATED_BODY()
};

BUICheatManager.cpp

#include "BUICheatManager.h"

// Nothing, we will add function definitions here later

Subclass APlayerController

Remember that you will also need to modify your level's GameMode to use this Player Controller subclass.

BUIPlayerController.h

#pragma once

#include "GameFramework/PlayerController.h"
#include "BUIPlayerController.generated.h"

UCLASS()
class EXAMPLE_API ABUIPlayerController : public APlayerController
{
	GENERATED_BODY()

public:
	ABUIPlayerController( const FObjectInitializer& ObjectInitializer );
};

BUIPlayerController.cpp

#include "BUIPlayerController.h"
#include "BUICheatManager.generated.h"

ABUIPlayerController::ABUIPlayerController( const FObjectInitializer& ObjectInitializer ) 
	: Super( ObjectInitializer )
{
	CheatClass = UBUICheatManager::StaticClass();
}

Adding Functions

Now that we have a custom subclass of UCheatManager, and we have made sure that our player controller is using it, we can start adding our own functions.

Here are a few examples to get you going. What you will need will depend on your game!

BUICheatManager.h

#pragma once

#include "GameFramework/CheatManager.h"
#include "BUICheatManager.generated.h"

UCLASS( Within = BUIPlayerController )
class UBUICheatManager : public UCheatManager
{
	GENERATED_BODY()
public:
	// Cheats can take multiple parameters, and have default values
	UFUNCTION( exec )
		void BuyCakes( int32 NumCakes, int32 Diameter = 1 );
	// Cheats can take strings too!
	UFUNCTION( exec )
		void SetCakeName( FString NewName );
};

BUICheatManager.cpp

#include "BUICheatManager.h"

void UBUICheatManager::BuyCakes( int32 NumCakes, int32 Diameter )
{
	// Call some internal buy cake method
}

void UBUICheatManager::SetCakeName( FString NewName )
{
	// Pick an appropriate cake and name it!
}

How to Run your Cheats

Using the examples above, set a breakpoint in BuyCakes and SetCakeName, open up the debug console with the tilde key, and type in the following:

BuyCakes 100

You should see that NumCakes is 100, and Diameter is your default value of 1. Note that parentheses are not required when calling cheats from the console.

SetCakeName Delicious Cheesecake

NewName is "Delicious Cheesecake", note that we did not have to add quotation marks when calling the cheat command, it globbed all the subsequent text together into our single parameter. Nice!

Useful General-purpose Functions

The majority of functions in your cheat manager will be things that are specific to your game. For example in an RPG you might add cheats to give the player extra money or immediately complete certain quests.

However here are a few functions that are useful to have in general.

Please let me know if you have any of your own and I can add them here!

BUICheatManager.h

#pragma once

#include "GameFramework/CheatManager.h"
#include "BUICheatManager.generated.h"

UCLASS( Within = BUIPlayerController )
class UBUICheatManager : public UCheatManager
{
	GENERATED_BODY()
public:
	// Useful for testing crash reporting tools
	UFUNCTION( exec )
		void ForceCrash();

	// Useful for identifying hanging pointers that could cause a crash when
	// garbage collection eventually happens
	UFUNCTION( exec )
		void ForceGarbageCollection();
};

BUICheatManager.cpp

#include "BUICheatManager.h"

void UBUICheatManager::ForceCrash()
{
	// Let's definitely crash
	*( ( int* )0 ) = 0;

	check( false );
}

void UBUICheatManager::ForceGarbageCollection()
{
	GEngine->ForceGarbageCollection( true );
}

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