Working Cash Register

Get it on the Exaro store or on Fab (search Working Cash Register).

1. Install

From Fab:

1. In the Epic Games Launcher, open Fab Library, find Working Cash Register and click Add to Project.
2. Pick your project and engine version (5.5 to 5.8). The pack lands in Content/CashRegister.

From the Exaro store: the download holds the FBX and GLB files and an Unreal folder with one zip per engine version (CashRegister_UE5.5.zip to CashRegister_UE5.8.zip).

1. Unzip the one for your engine. It is a small project, CashRegister.uproject: open it to try the demos first.
2. To add the register to your own game, close your editor and copy the project's Content/CashRegister folder into your project's Content folder, then open your project again.

The FBX (a skeletal mesh and one FBX per clip) and GLB (every clip embedded) work in any engine: the 68 animations and the designed collision are there, the register's logic is the Unreal Blueprint.

The pack is Blueprints and content only: no plugin, no C++, no project settings to change. The demo maps set their own game mode and the demo input adds its own mapping, so nothing in your project is touched.

2. Play the demos

Playing the cashier game

1. Read the customer's ticket (top left). Each line is a preset item: PLU 6, 2 x MUFFIN.
2. For a quantity, key it and press X/TIME: 2 X/TIME.
3. Key the PLU number and press PLU: 6 PLU. Repeat for every line.
4. Press SUBTOTAL to see what is due with tax.
5. Key the customer's cash in cents and press CA/AMT TEND: a ten is 1 0 0 0 CA/AMT TEND. The display shows the change and the drawer springs open.
6. Click the drawer to push it shut and click the receipt to tear it off. The next customer steps up.

A sale scores 100 for the right total, 50 for tendering the right amount, and a point for every second under 90.

3. Put it in your level

1. Drag Blueprints/BP_CashRegister from the Content Browser onto a counter. It stands on its rubber feet at the actor's origin.
2. With it selected, open the Cash Register sections of the Details panel and set it up for your store (below).
3. Place as many as you like: each register keeps its own sale, totals, receipt and settings.

Receipt Date Time is entered and shown in your local time, and the receipt prints exactly what the Details panel shows.

4. Let your player use it

The register needs one thing from your game: when the player uses it, tell it which part they used. Every key and moving part is a bone of the register's mesh, and each has its own collision, so a line trace or a cursor hit already knows the bone. Pick whichever of these fits your game.

Send Interact (recommended)

BP_CashRegister implements BPI_Interactable. From your interaction code, send Interact to the actor you hit with the hit's bone. No cast and no reference to the register: other actors that do not implement the interface ignore the message.

Line Trace (or Get Hit Result Under Cursor by Channel, Visibility)
  -> Break Hit Result
  -> Interact (Message)   Target = Hit Actor   Bone Name = Hit Bone Name

Demo/Cashier/BP_CashierController does exactly this for a mouse game, and the first-person pawn in Demo/BP_ShowroomPawn does it for a camera trace. Copy either.

Or call it directly

• UseBone(BoneName): the same as Interact, when you already hold a reference to the register.
• PressKeyCode(Code): press a key by its code, as a player would. It moves and works. Good for NPC cashiers, tutorials and cutscenes: PressKeyCode("1"), PressKeyCode("plu"), PressKeyCode("cash").
• OpenDrawer, CloseDrawer, SetMode(NewMode), Tear, Feed: the moving parts and the receipt, without a click.
• PrintRow(Row) and PrintLine(LeftText, RightText): print your own lines on the receipt (a loyalty message, a promotion).

5. How the register works

It follows a shop register's rules, so a player who has worked a till knows it already.

• REG rings up sales. X and Z print reports when CA/AMT TEND is pressed: X reads the day's totals (gross, cash, RA, PO, no-sale count), Z prints them and resets them. OFF and PGM ignore the keys; OFF turns the displays dark.
• The first item of a sale prints the receipt's head: the store's name and address, the date and time, the sale number and the clerk.
• Every item prints a line with its amount (T when taxed); a quantity prints a 3 @ 1.99 line above it. The tender prints tax, total, the amount tendered and the change.
• A tender short of the total shows the balance still due, so a sale can be split between cash, check and charge.
• Cash and check tenders spring the drawer open; it stays out until someone pushes it shut.

6. Listen to its events

Everything the register does is announced through event dispatchers, so your game reacts without polling. In any Blueprint, drag from a reference to the register and pick Bind Event to On…. The register does not need to know about your game.

OnReceiptTorn hands over the receipt exactly as printed, so a game can put it in the player's inventory, show it in the UI, or check it against an order. The cashier game shows the last one in its HUD.

7. Reading its state

The sale is readable at any time from the register's variables (Cash Register → State). Amounts are whole cents.

Helpers: LookupPlu(Code) returns a preset item's name, price and tax status (the cashier game builds its orders and its PLU sheet with it), and Money(Cents) formats an amount the way the register prints it.

8. What is in the pack

9. Performance

The register is built to be placed many times in a store level.

• One skeletal mesh of 5,626 triangles with 59 bones. Its printed key legends, labels and display windows are textures, not geometry.
• One 2048 texture set for the body.
• No Tick in the Blueprint. The register only does work when it is used: a key press, a Timeline while a part moves, a line of text on the receipt.
• The mesh animates only while it is on screen, and less often when it is far away (update rate optimisation), so a store full of registers costs little.
• The displays are a material with two parameters, not text actors or render targets.
• Collision is 380 boxes over 59 bones, fitted to the parts, so traces and physics stay cheap.

Troubleshooting

Clicking the register does nothing

Your trace must use a channel the mesh blocks (Visibility, the default) and send the Hit Bone Name, not the component's name. Check the mode key: OFF (dark displays) and PGM ignore the keys. Turn it to REG.

The receipt shows the wrong date

Tick Use Current Date Time on the placed register, or set Receipt Date Time to the moment your scene is set.

The drawer will not open for a sale

Charge tenders never open it; cash and check do. A tender short of the total leaves the sale open and shows the balance. Key the rest and tender again.

PLU rings up nothing

The keyed number has no row in Plu Items. PLU 1 is the first row.

Need help?

Email [email protected] with your engine version and a screenshot.