Legacy:Event Triggers

There is some low-level link between the key bindings and the UI events. For example, in User.ini, under [Engine.input], we have the following line:

Escape=SendEvent ShowMenus

This states that pressing escape will trigger ShowMenus. This relates to the following in U2Menus.ui

[Root]
Class=MultiStateComponent
State=NonMain
State=Main
Transition=ResetMenus,0,0,0,NULL
Transition=ShowMenus,1,1,0,NULL
TriggerEvent=0,0.0,CodeMonkey,UnPause
TriggerEvent=1,0.0,CodeMonkey,Pause
TriggerEvent=1,0.0,Event,MenuBackgroundBlurry.FadeOut
TriggerEvent=1,0.0,Event,MainMenuBackgroundLarge.Grow
TriggerEvent=1,0.0,Event,MainMenuBackgroundSmall.Show
DrawOrder=99
Localize=true

The line:

Transition=ShowMenus,1,1,0,NULL

defines this particular event.

I tested this by creating a useless event, which does the same thing as notifying you of a new objective. In U2HUD.ui, this defines the ObjectiveNotify component:

[ObjectiveNotify]
Class=MultiStateComponent
State=NULL
State=ObjectiveNotifyText
Transition=NewObjective,1,0,4.0,ObjectiveNotifyText:NewObjective
Transition=Honestly,1,0,4.0,ObjectiveNotifyText:Honestly
Transition=ObjectiveCompleted,1,0,4.0,ObjectiveNotifyText:ObjectiveCompleted
Transition=ObjectiveFailed,1,0,4.0,ObjectiveNotifyText:ObjectiveFailed
TweenLocation=false
TweenAlpha=true
DrawOrder=1

I added the line in bold here. Then, I entered the corresponding keybinding in User.ini:

F3=SendEvent Honestly

Finally, in U2HUD.int, the text is defined:

[General]
AutoTurret=Auto Turret
RocketTurret=Rocket Turret
FieldGenerator=Field Generator
ProximitySensor=Proximity Sensor
XMP_Unknown=Unknown
Objectives=OBJECTIVES
NewObjective=F4 - New Objective
Honestly=Honestly!
ObjectiveCompleted=F4 - Objective Completed
ObjectiveFailed=F4 - Objective Failed
EndGame_LoadMenu=Load menu
EndGame_QuickLoad=Quick load
EndGame_RestartLevel=Restart
EndGame_Quit=QUIT
Confirmation_Ok=Ok
Confirmation_Cancel=Cancel
Confirmation_QuickLoad=REALLY LOAD?

Thus, when I press F3 during the game, "Honestly!" appears in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Normally, Objective notify events will be triggered from UnrealScript - the U2GameInfo class, in function UpdateObjective()

switch(Status)
{
  case OBJECTIVE_Incomplete: class'UIConsole'.static.SendEvent("NewObjective"); break;
  case OBJECTIVE_Completed: class'UIConsole'.static.SendEvent("ObjectiveCompleted"); break;
  case OBJECTIVE_Failed: class'UIConsole'.static.SendEvent("ObjectiveFailed"); break;
}

This acheives exactly the same result, and the same native function must be called, if not from UnrealScript, in the first case I described.

MythOpus: I believe EventTriggers are only used in Unreal 2 am I right?