Touch Interface Designer 2026.1 is here, briging you the tools you need to create the perfect touch interface for your ambitious project!
With this version, create richer and more intuitive touch interfaces thanks to enhanced creation tools, improved gesture recognition, and more useful haptic feedback.
The old Virtual Control Setup system is being replaced by the new Touch Interface Layout system, which brings numerous improvements and a completely redesigned editor. This update includes bug fixes and user experience enhancements necessary to establish Touch Interface Designer as the best tool for creating touch interfaces.
This update will be the last to support Unreal Engine 5.2 and 5.3. Until now, I developed the plugin on Unreal Engine 5.2, but with the increasingly strict restrictions of the Google Play Store for publishing applications, versions 5.2 and 5.3 of the engine no longer allow the creation of a publishable Android application. That’s why I’m also switching to version 5.4 of the engine.
Let’s dive into the details.
What’s new in Touch Interface Designer 2026.1
New Recenter Mode
The widget structure has been improved, resulting in better recentering behavior. It is now more consistent and predictable. The new structure has simplified the code and algorithms that manage recentering, allowing me to add a new recentering mode. You can choose between three modes:
- Fixed: Do nothing. The component keep it’s location.
- Dynamic: recenters the component to the finger’s location if it is within the hitbox.
- Following: It recenters the component to the finger’s position if it’s within the hitbox, then follows the finger if it reaches the edge of the component. This allows the user to keep the component always under their finger.
Drag To Sprint: Sprint Layer Display Mode
The sprint layer display is now independent of the trigger value used to initiate the sprint. There are now three modes for displaying the layer.
- On Press : Displays the sprint layer when user’s finger touch the component.
- Trigger : Displays the sprint layer when the display sprint layer trigger is reached.
- Always : Always display the sprint layer.
The variables have been slightly reorganized to improve consistency.
Decorator Animation
The decorator animation system has been completely revamped to improve the user experience. You can now choose between different animation types or create your own thanks to curve support.
Gesture Recognizer improvements
The gesture recognizer code has been partially revised to improve organization and readability. Also, to improve gesture detection, the code for detecting each gesture has been partitioned into a UObject.
This feature is still experimental. If you choose this new system, you must select each gesture that the recognizer should detect from an array.
This new system brings significant improvements and new features. For example, you can see the number of fingers used for a tap and how many times the user has performed this gesture. There is no longer a limit like in the previous system. Gestures like three-finger taps and zooms are now possible.
For simple gestures, it is possible to use an Input Action to receive input via the Enhanced Input system.
Drawer Logic
It’s been a while since I’ve made any improvements to the shape detection functionality. To enhance the user experience and simplify the code, shape detection now uses new logic based on Free Touch Logic. Currently, this logic is only for drawing shapes. In future updates, this logic will be improved to allow for true drawing and will offer all the features expected for this type of system.
Touch Interface Debug
To improve debugging, particularly with gesture configuration, I’ve added a new type of debugging to the touch interface. You can now see the index finger associated with each touch, as well as the duration of the press on the screen. It’s also possible to enable the drawing of lines between the fingers.
Widget Handle Space Mode
The pivot system in Touch Interface Designer now supports component angle. You can switch between Layout and Component space using the viewport toolbar.
And there’s more…
These are just some of the new features and enhancements in Touch Interface Designer 2026.1. Check out the full release notes.
Join the community
Join the Touch Interface Designer developers on the LIGS Community discord, where you can share your insights on the update.
What’s next?
I will be updating Touch Interface Designer more regularly. The updates will be smaller, but there will be less time between new features. This will prevent major disruptions like those that have occurred previously.
Also, I intend to make Touch Interface Designer a tool for designing any type of touch-optimized interface. Touch Interface Designer will no longer be used solely for character or camera control, but also for designing all types of menus: inventory, map, skill menu, character sheet, compass, selection menu, etc. As always, the goal is to ensure everything is seamlessly integrated into the engine and easy to use, while still offering advanced features. Touch Interface Designer is known for providing advanced features that are simple to configure, and I intend to continue applying this philosophy.