The Prop O' Matic Manager: Taming the Chaos Button

Ever tried to play a Hide-and-Seek map where everyone turns into a rock at the exact same second, and your screen turns into a confusing spiderweb of ping markers? It’s less "tactical gameplay" and more "visual migraine." That’s where the Prop O’ Matic Manager device comes in. It’s the traffic cop for player-transformations, and today we’re going to teach it how to stop spamming ping markers so you can actually see what’s going on.

We’re building a simple Hide-and-Seek mode where you turn into props. But instead of a UI cluttered with cooldown timers that never go away, we’re going to write a tiny bit of Verse to toggle those notifications on and off.

What You'll Learn

• The Prop O’ Matic Manager Device: What it is and why it’s the boss of all prop-transforming games.
• Logic Inputs: How to use a simple "On/Off" switch in Verse (the logic type).
• SetShowPropPingCooldown: The specific command that hides the annoying cooldown timer on your HUD.
• Verse Syntax Basics: How to call a device function using the <public> and <transacts> keywords.

How It Works

In Fortnite, when you use a "Prop" item (like the ones in Prop Hunt modes), your character model swaps out for a chair, a tree, or a trash can. To help you find your friends, the game usually draws a little "ping" marker above them and shows a cooldown timer so you know when you can turn into a prop again.

But sometimes, that UI gets messy. Maybe you want a minimalist look. Maybe you want players to focus on sound cues, not visual clutter. Or maybe you just want to turn the pings on during the "seeker" phase and off during the "hider" phase.

That’s what SetShowPropPingCooldown does. It’s a toggle. Think of it like the Storm Timer display on your HUD. You can choose to show it or hide it. It doesn’t change the storm; it just changes how much information you’re seeing.

In Verse, we control this using the Prop O’ Matic Manager device. This is a special device that sits in the background of your island, managing all the prop-related logic. We don’t need to place it in the world for players to see; we just need to reference it in our code.

The function we’re using, SetShowPropPingCooldown, takes one parameter: a logic value. In programming, a "logic" value is just a binary switch—it’s either True (On) or False (Off). It’s like the On/Off switch on a lamp. You flip it, and the light either turns on or off. There’s no "maybe."

We’re going to attach this function to a Timer device. When the timer goes off, our Verse script will tell the Manager: "Hide the ping cooldowns!"

Let's Build It

Here is the complete Verse script. Don’t worry if it looks scary at first—we’ll break it down line by line.

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /VerseOrg.Core }

# This is our main script. Think of it as the "Game Rule" that runs everything.
HidePingCooldownsScript := class(VerseWorld):

    # 1. Define the devices we need.
    # PropManager: The boss device that handles all prop logic.
    # CooldownTimer: A simple timer that counts down.
    PropManager:PropOmaticManagerDevice = PropOmaticManagerDevice{}
    CooldownTimer:TimerDevice = TimerDevice{}

    # 2. The Setup function. This runs once when the game starts.
    Setup := function():
        # Tell the timer to start counting down for 5 seconds.
        # In Verse, we call .Start() on the timer.
        CooldownTimer.Start(5.0)

        # Connect the timer's "Finished" event to our HidePing function.
        # When the timer hits zero, it will trigger HidePing.
        CooldownTimer.Finished += HidePing

    # 3. The HidePing function. This runs when the timer finishes.
    HidePing := function():
        # Here is the magic line!
        # We call SetShowPropPingCooldown on the PropManager.
        # We pass 'false' as the argument.
        # 'false' means "Turn OFF the display."
        PropManager.SetShowPropPingCooldown(false)

        # Optional: Print a message to the debug console so you know it worked.
        Print("Ping cooldowns are now hidden! Play nice.")

    # 4. The Main Entry Point.
    # This tells Verse to run the Setup function when the island loads.
    Main := function():
        Setup()

Walkthrough: What Just Happened?

1. using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }: This is like opening your backpack. It tells Verse, "Hey, I’m going to need access to all the standard Fortnite devices like Timers, Prop Managers, etc." Without this, Verse wouldn’t know what a PropOmaticManagerDevice is.
2. PropManager:PropOmaticManagerDevice = PropOmaticManagerDevice{}: We’re creating a variable (a container) named PropManager. We’re filling it with a new instance of the Prop O’ Matic Manager. Think of this like grabbing the Battle Bus from the sky—you’re bringing the device into your script so you can use it.
3. CooldownTimer.Start(5.0): We start a 5-second countdown. This is just to demonstrate the change. In a real game, you might trigger this when the "Hiders" phase begins.
4. PropManager.SetShowPropPingCooldown(false): This is the star of the show.
   • PropManager: The device we’re talking to.
   • .SetShowPropPingCooldown: The action we’re performing.
   • (false): The instruction. false = Off. If you wanted to show the cooldowns, you’d use true.

Why Use false?

In Verse, true and false are booleans (short for "binary digits"). They are the simplest type of data. They’re like the Elimination Counter. It’s either 0 (false/no elimination) or 1 (true/elimination). There’s no middle ground. By passing false, we’re telling the game engine to stop drawing those cooldown bars above your head.

Try It Yourself

The example above hides the pings after 5 seconds. But what if you want to make it a toggle?

Challenge: Modify the script so that the pings are hidden when the game starts, but then shown again after 10 seconds.

Hint: You’ll need two timers.

1. Timer 1 starts at 0.0 seconds and calls a function that sets the cooldown to false.
2. Timer 2 starts after Timer 1 finishes (or just run it in parallel) and calls a function that sets the cooldown to true.
3. Remember: true = Show, false = Hide.

Don’t worry if you get stuck! The key is just changing that one word inside the parentheses: SetShowPropPingCooldown(true) vs SetShowPropPingCooldown(false).

Recap

• The Prop O’ Matic Manager is the device that controls prop-hiding mechanics.
• SetShowPropPingCooldown is a function that toggles the visibility of the prop ping cooldown on the HUD.
• It takes a logic value (true or false) to decide whether to show or hide the UI element.
• You call this function in Verse by referencing the device and passing your boolean value.

Now go forth and clean up those UIs. Your players’ eyes will thank you.

References

• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/fortnite/verse-api/fortnitedotcom/devices/prop_o_matic_manager_device/setshowproppingcooldown
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/fortnite/verse-api/fortnitedotcom/devices/prop_o_matic_manager_device/setshowpropsremaining
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/fortnite/verse-api/fortnitedotcom/devices/prop_o_matic_manager_device/setpingprops
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/uefn/animating-prop-movement-6-combining-movement-rotation-and-scale-in-verse
• https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/26-00-release-notes-in-unreal-editor-for-fortnite