Point rendering suggestions?

[metric.tensor]

I am porting an older game I have been working on from a custom engine to Unreal. I have a spiral galaxy map in 3D. In the good old days I used GL_POINT to plot the stars. I have the following requirements:

• support large world coordinates

• display 3D points in different colors ( i use this for different spectral types)

• detect mouse-over so that I can display data on the star system under the cursor

I have read the I can programmatically place Niagara particles. Can I set the color? Detect mouseover? I would appreciate any suggestions.

I am using blueprints and C++.

[admin]

Strangely missed your inquiry, so, I’m really sorry to get back to you that late.

Hah, I used GL_POINTS as well in some distant past. Memories-memories, some smaller first steps. =)

• Go with doubles or even your custom coordinate type to achieve this. Apparatus really doesn’t care about the types internally used by the user.
• Just use the custom data functionality inside the UE’s own instanced static mesh component. See the official docs here: UInstancedStaticMeshComponent::SetCustomDataValue | Unreal Engine Documentation
• These can be achieved with some really simple raycast-sphere algorithms. Detecting if some vector cast from the user’s point is close enough to a point is quite trivial. Check out this article for example: A Minimal Ray-Tracer: Rendering Simple Shapes (Sphere, Cube, Disk, Plane, etc.)

Anyways, feel free to ask on those matters again. A solution is always there.