Pixel Streaming: Toggling Mouse Cursor Visibility in Unreal Engine 5 Browser Projects

\

Introduction

Running an Unreal Engine 5 experience directly inside a web browser is one of the most exciting possibilities that Pixel Streaming brings to developers. By offloading heavy 3D rendering to a remote GPU server and transmitting frames to users over WebRTC, Pixel Streaming lets users interact with photorealistic, real-time Unreal applications on any device — even low-power laptops or mobile browsers.

Streampixel takes this technology further, offering a cloud-native managed Pixel Streaming platform that allows Unreal Engine applications to be hosted, scaled, and streamed globally with zero setup hassle. From digital twins and architectural walkthroughs to product configurators and enterprise simulations, developers can deploy fully interactive Unreal projects to the web with just a few clicks.

In this tutorial, we’ll focus on a small but important enhancement — toggling the mouse cursor visibility in browser-based Unreal Engine projects. While it sounds simple, this feature plays a major role in maintaining immersion and usability across different types of streamed applications.

Why Mouse Cursor Visibility Matters

In a locally run Unreal Engine project, controlling mouse visibility is straightforward: you can toggle it directly in Blueprints or C++. However, things behave differently in Pixel Streaming.

During streaming, the user’s input is captured from the browser and sent to Unreal over a WebRTC channel. This means the browser’s cursor and Unreal’s internal cursor are not the same thing.

Developers often notice that:

• The Unreal cursor appears even when it isn’t needed, distracting from cinematic scenes or guided tours.

• Unreal’s own cursor can feel laggy, because its position depends on network latency.

• The visibility toggles set in Unreal Engine don’t affect what users see in the web browser.

  
  

For professional applications like virtual showrooms, design configurators, or immersive learning environments, this small issue can break the visual polish and user experience.

To address this, we’ll learn how to control the browser cursor’s visibility through Unreal Engine’s Pixel Streaming communication interface, ensuring smooth, real-time interaction.

Understanding the Problem

Unreal Engine offers a Set Show Mouse Cursor function, but it only controls the engine’s own rendering of a cursor. In Pixel Streaming sessions, users interact through the browser’s pointer layer, which exists outside of Unreal’s render context.

So even if you hide Unreal’s mouse cursor, the browser cursor remains visible — hovering over your stream window.

The goal is to send a Pixel Streaming response from Unreal Engine that tells the frontend (browser) when to hide or show its own cursor. This ensures synchronization between user input, in-engine interactivity, and visual feedback.

Streampixel’s Solution

The Streampixel Pixel Streaming platform supports two-way communication between Unreal Engine and the user’s browser. Using JSON messages passed through Pixel Streaming events, developers can trigger browser-level UI changes — such as showing, hiding, or repositioning the cursor — directly from Unreal Blueprints.

This requires no additional frontend code. Streampixel’s backend automatically interprets the messages and applies them to the browser stream.

By implementing two simple Blueprint events — Turn On Mouse Visibility and Turn Off Mouse Visibility — you can control whether users see the browser cursor while viewing your streamed Unreal project.

Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Create a Custom Player Controller

Start by creating a new Player Controller Blueprint. Assign it in your project’s Game Mode under Player Controller Class.

Open the Blueprint and add two Custom Events:

• TurnOnMouseVisibility

• TurnOffMouseVisibility

  
  

2. Add Pixel Streaming Response Nodes

For each event, drag from the execution pin and search for Send Pixel Streaming Response.

In the Descriptor field, enter the message string expected by Streampixel’s frontend. You can either copy it from the official documentation or write it manually.Example:

{"command": "showMouse"}
{"command": "hideMouse"}

These JSON payloads instruct the browser to toggle its native cursor visibility.

3. Set Up Input Logic

Open your Level Blueprint and search for the M key input event (or any key of your choice). Add a FlipFlop node to alternate between two outputs each time the key is pressed.

• From A, cast to your Player Controller and call TurnOnMouseVisibility.

• From B, cast again and call TurnOffMouseVisibility.

  
  

This lets users press a single key (M) to toggle the visibility dynamically.

4. Package and Upload

Once the logic is set, compile and save your Blueprints, then package your Unreal Engine 5 project.

After packaging, zip the build folder and upload it to your Streampixel dashboard at dashboard.streampixel.io.

Once uploaded, launch the stream in a new browser tab. Press the M key, and you’ll see the browser mouse cursor toggle on and off instantly — proving that Unreal Engine and the browser are now communicating seamlessly.

Practical Benefits

This improvement may seem subtle, but it significantly enhances professional presentations and user comfort in web-based Unreal Engine applications.

Use Cases:

• Architectural walkthroughs: Hide the cursor during guided camera movements.

• Product configurators: Show the cursor only when user interaction is required.

• Cinematic experiences: Keep the frame clean during storytelling sequences.

• Educational simulations: Dynamically toggle cursor visibility based on lesson stages.

Because this logic happens at the browser level, it ensures perfect synchronization between visual state and user control — even over high-latency connections.

Why Use Streampixel for Pixel Streaming

While Unreal Engine provides the base Pixel Streaming plugin, deploying and maintaining the backend infrastructure — TURN servers, signaling servers, GPU orchestration, bandwidth scaling — is a complex task.

Streampixel simplifies this entire workflow:

• Ready-to-use global streaming infrastructure

• Dynamic CCU allocation to handle concurrent sessions

• Integrated TURN and signaling servers

• Automatic scaling across projects and regions

• Direct integration with Unreal Engine 5 builds

By focusing on the creative side, developers can spend less time managing servers and more time refining experiences like these — from mouse visibility toggles to full-scale interactive web applications.

Conclusion

With just a few Blueprint nodes, you can give users full control over mouse visibility during Pixel Streaming sessions — enhancing both immersion and interactivity.

This feature illustrates how Streampixel’s Pixel Streaming platform bridges the gap between Unreal Engine and the web, empowering developers to build browser-based 3D applications that feel native, responsive, and professional.

Try implementing it in your next project — you’ll immediately notice how much smoother the experience becomes when Unreal and the browser work in sync.

🌐 Try It Yourself

👉 Visit www.streampixel.io to learn more

🚀 Start your Free Trial: www.dashboard.streampixel.io

Keywords

pixel streaming, Streampixel, Unreal Engine web, Unreal Engine 5 browser, pixel stream, Pixel Streaming Unreal, UE5 Pixel Streaming, Unreal Engine on browser, Pixel Streaming platform, Unreal Engine Pixel Streaming, Unreal Engine cloud streaming, Unreal WebRTC, Unreal Engine 5 Pixel Streaming demo, Pixel Streaming AWS Azure, Unreal Pixel Streaming hosting, digital twin streaming, PureWeb, Arcware, Eagle 3D Streaming, Unreal Engine Pixel Streaming Unreal 5, UE5 to web, Unreal Engine browser demo, Unreal Engine streaming, Unreal Engine multiplayer in browser, Unreal Pixel Streaming demo, Unreal Engine Web Browser, Pixel Streaming service