Common Unreal Engine Questions

This is a notice board for commonly arising questions regarding Pixel Streaming and Unreal Engine.

For a more extensive list, please have a look at our FAQ page on:

Question: I can't open the Console window whilst streaming. Answer: The default keyboard binding in Unreal Engine for opening the Console window is unfortunately using a symbol based from the English keyboard layout. We would recommend changing your Console binding to a keyboard input that works on all keyboard language layouts, such as the 'C’ key (instead of one of the symbol keys). The binding can be changed in your Unreal Engine project settings (see screenshot)

Please also be aware, the Console can only be opened in applications packaged as 'Development'.

Question: How can I access stream statistics for debugging purposes, Latency/ Framerate/ Bandwidth/ Resolution / Internet speed etc? Answer: You can simply press 5 + T together on your keyboard to show the stream statistic dashboard

Question: How can I debug if my keyboard inputs are being accepted when streaming? Answer: You can add the following Blueprint nodes (See screenshot) to your level blueprint, they allow for pressed keyboard inputs to be displayed as a message on the screen.

Question: Some keyboard buttons stay constantly active after pressing once. Answer: There are two causes for this issue... 1) There is currently a known issue with the WebRTC player regarding pressing Shift / Ctrl / Alt buttons. When these buttons are pressed at the same time as another button (e.g. Ctrl + Left Click or Shift + A) they stay constantly active after being pressed down only once. 2) Russian keyboard layouts also cause the keyboard keys to get stuck all of the time, English keyboard layout works well however.

Solution: The latest release of the Tensorworks Pixel-Streaming infrastructure fixes both these issues. The fixes will be implemented in the following update of the Arcware WebSDK, although we cannot provide an exact release date for this yet.

Question: My Ctrl and Shift keys are not working? Answer: There is currently a known bug that the Left Shift and Left Ctrl actually trigger the Right shift and Right Ctrl. Temporary Fix: If you want to use Left Shift for example to sprint/run your in-game character, the current workaround would be to connect your sprint function to trigger on the Right Shift too, then the Left Shift will work as intended.

Question: Some special characters on the keyboard are not triggerable in my Unreal Engine application. Answer: Unfortunately, not all symbols/characters on the keyboard are triggerable in Unreal Engine. For example, keys that need to be combined with 'Shift' or 'Alt' in order to activate, are not triggerable in the default game viewport (such as the @ symbol). If you need to use special characters in your Unreal Engine project (for example, when the user needs to enter an email address or type in a chatroom), then you will need to implement in-game UI with an 'Editable Text' component inside. The 'Editable Text' component will recognize any symbol/character from any keyboard layout. The text submitted in this text box could then be repurposed/utilized in whichever scenario you need. If you would like to test keyboard inputs in a Pixel Stream, our Arcware Pixel Streaming Template demonstrates this set up. https://share.arcware.cloud/share-827d3e5b-b692-4fa9-a929-fc01b8343598

Question: In-game screen messages are always visible when streaming. Answer: In Unreal Engine 5.1 there is a bug that forces screen messages to be enabled when launching your application with Pixel Streaming. The temporary workarounds are: Add a delay on 'EventBeginPlay' before triggering 'DisableAllScreenMessages' or...package your application as 'Shipping' build.

Question: Pressing F5 Key activates 'Shader Complexity debug view' in my application Answer: Package your application as a 'Shipping' build instead of 'Developer' build, this will remove the debug view binding from the F5 key.