A flexible, data-driven system for creating interactive 2D card UIs with advanced, performance-first visual effects. This plugin project serves as a showcase of professional architecture for UMG and material design in Unreal Engine.

This system is built for stunning visual effects without sacrificing performance. All effects are driven by a single, powerful, and highly-customizable master material.

Dissolve / Burn Effect	Interactive Hover & Shake	Procedural Glow & Layout

>> Watch Full Video Showcase on YouTube <<

• 🎨 Advanced Material-Driven VFX:

  • Procedural Dissolve: A highly customizable "burn" effect with an emissive edge, controlled by a single material parameter.
  • Interactive Shake & Glow: Responds to player interaction with a material-based shake and a soft procedural glow on hover.
  • ID Mask ("Clown Mask") Layout: The entire card layout (frame, icon area, title background) is defined by a single color-coded texture, allowing for radical design changes by just editing one image.
  • UV Remapping & Pseudo-Fresnel: Implements advanced material math to correctly fit textures into masked areas and to generate a border glow compatible with UI and Bloom.

• 🚀 High-Performance by Design:

  • Tick-Free Animations: All animations (hover, dissolve, etc.) are driven by timers and interpolation (FInterp To), not Event Tick, ensuring updates only happen when needed.
  • Optimized Shaders: The material is built for performance, with complex logic encapsulated in reusable Material Functions for a clean and efficient graph.

• ⚙️ Data-Driven Architecture:

  • Data Assets are King: All card data (title, description, cost, icons) is stored in PrimaryDataAssets. Create and balance new cards without ever touching a Blueprint widget.
  • Widget Factory (WBP_Deck): This central widget acts as a factory, dynamically spawning and populating card widgets from an array of Data Assets. It uses a Wrap Box for a responsive, flexible layout.

You have two options to use this system in your own project.

This is the easiest way to get started. You get a clean, ready-to-use plugin without any git history.

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download the .zip file from the latest release (e.g., GBLabProgressionSystem-v1.0.0.zip).
3. In your Unreal Engine project's root folder, create a folder named Plugins if it doesn't already exist.
4. Unzip the downloaded file into the Plugins folder. The final path should look like this: YourProject/Plugins/GBLabProgressionSystem/.
5. Launch your project. Unreal Engine will prompt you to build the plugin; agree and proceed.

Use this method if you want to contribute or follow the development history.

1. Navigate to your Unreal Engine project's root folder.
2. Create a folder named Plugins if it doesn't already exist.
3. Open a terminal or command prompt inside the Plugins folder and run the following command:

   git clone https://github.com/GetBoros/GBLabProgressionSystem.git

4. Launch your project. Unreal Engine will prompt you to build the plugin; agree and proceed.

After installing the plugin:

1. Set your project's GameMode to use the BP_HUD class provided in the plugin.
2. Create a WBP_Deck widget in your level (or use the provided Demo Map).
3. Populate the Cards In Deck array on the WBP_Deck instance with the example DA_Card_... assets.
4. Press Play.

This is an ongoing learning project. Future development plans include:

• Polishing the 3D Actor System (BP_Card): Integrating the material baking pipeline to create a fully performant 3D version of the cards.
• Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Implementing interactive card dragging.
• Refining Animations with Curves: Using Curve assets for more nuanced animation easing.