Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial: Creating References

[@IlumenSeeker]

This has been the best tutorial on this functionality I have see so far. Especially the part from the 4:00 mark. ;)

[@VividMind-40of60]

You did a great job in this tutorial, I learned a lot . your examples and teaching method are clear and easy to understand.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Thanks 😁 glad it was helpful

[@smcgrath86]

This helped me figure out a mod I was working on. Thanks so much!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

I'm glad

[@DonMatek]

Great explanation, this is one of the most frustrating things when you are a beginner, work on your script for half hour just to do some silly stuff and then your cast or reference isn't a valid one! :) DonBusso was here.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Haha, yea I understand the frustration! Wait till you work on something for an hour only to realize you forgot to connect a wire! Or worse, a blueprint node just randomly got corrupted and the fix is delete + recreate node....spent days on phantom bugs like that!

[@tomi71]

The blue pin in casting (Object (wildcard)) has been a headache but after looking this is like taking an aspiring. Very helpful and useful. I could only after get all actors from class and GET made a lot of stuff to work which was a problem earlier. Huge thanks sir!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to have provided the "aspirin" for this headache. 🤣

[@ConnorDoesRugby]

Thank you so much I had been stuck on my widget menu system for days and now it’s working

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help 🙂

[@zackii90]

this helps me a lot! Thank you very much for your kind sharing. Best regards,

[@blackivy011]

This is the best tutorial I have ever seen. My god. I have been struggling with this shit for SO LONG DUDE. You saved my life and I owe you everything I own. Thank you so much holy jesus thank you. You're a true lord master class giga gangster and I hope you get 1 million dollars cash money on your porch TUNIGHT. If I had 1 million dollars I would fly that shit right and drop it on your doorstep. I'd ring the doorbell and RUN AWAY cause I don't deserve to be in your presence. I mean holy christ. You made a difference in my life. THANK. -Ya boi D-Train

[@NebulaGamesInc]

You're welcome

[@FlavioDiniz]

5:04 a 3 days search for this answer came to an end ! Finally I could get the component velocity (a sphere falling) to a text widget :-)

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Love that this is still helping people all these years later

[@napoleonbonaparte5086]

Literally been trying to figure out how to set another BP object to a var inanother BP. So happy I found this.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help!

[@byLovebird1]

I have an Actor Blueprint with a Mesh and a Widget Component. The Blueprint can be placed in the world by the player and the Widget will update over time(for example: a chest that has a bar which shows the player when the chest is full ). If the player can place multiple chests in the world, how can I reference all the chests individually so that the Widget Component can track them all?(When the player hovers/interacts with a chest, if I use the "Get All Actors From Class" node, how will it know what ID does that particular chest have?) Thank you for your videos and answers on the forums!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

If you have 1 widget for each chest then the "chest" actor should have the mesh and the widget component as part of its hierarchy. Within the actor BP you should link the widget component to display whatever data you would like. This would make each widget responsible for one chest. You could then place many instances of the chest actor into the world and each widget would automatically know which specific chest it is linked to. You shouldn't need a get all actors node at all. Your player should be able to interact with the individual chests through an overlap event or line trace.

[@byLovebird1]

@@NebulaGamesInc Thank you! I thought that I have to bind the progress bar of the widget blueprint with a function inside the actor blueprint, but for that I would need to reference the chest and I still don't know how to do that. :( Thank you again!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

I'm confused. You have a chest actor. It contains a mesh and a widget component. The widget needs to update based on some variable in the chest (full or not). So all you need is to create a widget that updates a progress bar based on your variable similar to any generic health bar. Once you have that you create a widget component in the chest actor and select your newly created widget as the widget to be contained in the widget component. It should now appear in the actor viewport. Then within the editor graph of the chest actor you drag out the widget component and drop it on the graph. This will create a reference to the component. You will then need to "get user widget object" and cast that nodes output to your specified widget (whatever you named the widget). Then you use the output of the cast node to access the widget and its variables including the progress bar. You can then control the progress bar of the widget from within the chest actor. You don't need a binding. This is more efficient for updating widgets.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Here is a simple tutorial to create a widget with a progress bar. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXSUY6Ski715mMk

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Isn't your chest an actor...that has a "mesh" ( the visual representation of a chest) and the widget (a separate component to manage a progress bar)?? So the chest actor should be able to handle both the widget component and any interactions. Im confused what your set up is.

[@ID3CR]

Good video. Thank You

[@billywap]

Well said

[@TheiLame]

Thank you!

[@shrikerecords]

I am trying to get a reference to another static mesh component located on the parent actor of the actor component I am referencing from.. When I use 'get components by class' to find static mesh components and then 'get' to get the right one - as soon as I connect the array to 'validated get' to set the variable it changes to a different mesh.. any idea why that might be happening?

[@NebulaGamesInc]

I'm confused....can you be more specific? Referencing components of parent actors of components is hard to follow.

[@TheNiranjan100]

My problem is that i have a gun which is spawned in the level on begin play. When i get reference to using all actors it will be empty until it is spwned and hence gives out error message. How can i get a referemce to the objects which are spawned ?

[@NebulaGamesInc]

I would save a reference to the spawned object within the blueprint that spawns the object itself. Then you can reference the spawning blueprint to gain access to spawned items.

[@nahiansharif4200]

oh boi, I was stuck for weeks trying to figure out how to reference my AI character with the widget, but 4:00 took all my pains away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help man

[@nahiansharif4200]

@@NebulaGamesInc Thank you for staying active! Keep this up!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

I wish, I haven't really been "active" with new content but I do still try and keep up with support of the tutorials I've made thus far.

[@nahiansharif4200]

@@NebulaGamesInc Yeah :( I also didn't do enough for my KZbin channel. So I feel you :v but even with the little content, keep going! UE5 is coming up, so we definitely need you there! stay safe!

[@wolfsblessing]

Thanks for the explanation. However, I have a case where I've made a parent of a sort of 'machine gun' type that uses specific type of bullets (different blueprint). Now, I want to be able to create a public variable that controls the speed of the 'bullets/projectiles' and I put as many children on the level as I need, but I want to access through the details panel of the 'machine gun' blueprint. You know, place the 'machine gun' on the level, and change the speed on the fly. So, I thought I'd do casting from 'machine gun' to bullets blueprint and get that variable, or get access to the min/max speed of the projectile. How do I do that cast? Or maybe I'm having a wrong approach?

[@NebulaGamesInc]

You want to change the bullet speed from the details panel of the editor? If yes then just make the variable public and instance editable and should show up in the editor after you place the actor in the level. This variable should be within the machine gun BP and also in the bullet BP. When you spawn the bullet you set the bullet's "speed" variable to the value you set for the machine gun bullet speed. So you will have 2 variables BulletSpeed_Gun and BulletSpeed_Bullet. The gun is placed in the world so this is the variable you will modify on the specific actors through the editor details panel. Inside the machine gun BP it should spawn a bullet actor, then bullet BP will have a public and instance editable variable for "speed". Now when the bullet is spawned from the machine gun BP you simply set the exposed parameter on the "spawn actor from class" node (BulletSpeed_Bullet) to the value of BulletSpeed_Gun. Hope I understood you correctly. If not, maybe post some screen shots and a clearer explanation of what you want.

[@wolfsblessing]

@@NebulaGamesInc Hi Nebula, thanks a ton for the reply. I really appreciate it. I subscribed just for that. It's good to know that there are people that not just explain but also answer/help people that need help, especially in beginning stage. Re. the reply... That's exactly what I've intended and tried but I tried to access to Bullets via 'cast' and that's where all stopped. I'd like to send screenshots if it's ok with you and if you got time. Is the email the same as on bellow comment [e-mail]?

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Yep, same email. I'll take a look when I get a chance.

[@wolfsblessing]

@@NebulaGamesInc Thanks so much for the willingness. I got it!!! What I did, while looking at the 'machine gun' blueprint scripts, and the place where I actually spawn the bullet actor by class... it had an 'target' pin. I dragged from there and that's how I could access the 'initial' and 'max' speed of the projectile/bullet. Here I set the speed and made it public. It was right there but, too blind to see... Experience I guess. Tested it with few 'machine guns' and it worked like a charm. Again, thanks for the videos and tutorial and for willing to help me. :). Very deserved sub!!!

[@vovoer]

THANK YOU !!!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help

[@NateEMG]

I want my enemy to be able to open door blueprints. Can I do it using this? If so, how?

[@NebulaGamesInc]

You can do just about anything using blueprints. How depends on what exactly your setup and implementation of this "enemy opening doors" will be. This is just a video that describes how to create references which you will definitely need to have any kind of interaction with your game world be it an enemy or the player or a random object. References are a must.

[@Neiv74]

Do u know how do I get a reference for a widget thats its not created on a thirdPersonCharacter, i mean, my widget its created+addToViewport on a simple cube blueprint so I cant use the 'get player character' to conect to the cast node

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Check my tutorial on "creating references", it goes over various ways to create references to different types of in game objects

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Just realized this WAS the tutorial you watched 🤣 so, I thought i went over how to get references to something like an actor in the world (your cube) the only caveat is to access a widget created by that actor you first reference the actor then access the widget. When you create the widget you should always store the output as a variable for later access. I have a video on creating widgets and modifying variables on them maybe check that one out.

[@Neiv74]

im trying to use the cast node instead of the get all node since a lot of places say its a expensive node. When my thirdCharacter enters this cubeBP that I created, i want to have acess to a widget that is created inside this same cubeBP, theres a variable to store the widget right after its creation. In my thirdCharacter I try to use a cast node to acess my cubeBP, but i have no ideia what should be pluged on the 'object' pin.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

You probably just want a simple overlap event then....if your player walks "into" the cube then you can easily get a reference to the cube "on overlap" and use that to access the widget. The overlapped actor will be what you plug into the "cast" node object reference

[@Neiv74]

@@NebulaGamesInc Im doing in the 'opposite direction', Im handling the overlap inside the cube since I have a lot of cubes showing each one different widgets. When my character enter the box it triggers the cube event begin overlap creating the widget

[@nitadebbarma1727]

Bro I heard that get all actors of class node is very expensive to use. Is it true.

[@NebulaGamesInc]

It can be but it isn't as expensive as people make it out to be. Unreal keeps track of all your actors by class so when you create a new actor BP and search "get all actors" for that one it has ways to optimize the search so it doesn't actually scan through each actor in your world but only the ones from a certain base class. On top of that, if you don't have a lot of the particular actor you are searching for then it isn't that intensive. However, if you use it to search for a class that is highly used in your level and that class happens to have children then it will search through all child classes too and it can quickly become a very expensive node.

[@mohammaddirani8411]

what if i have the same actor duplicated and i want to cast to it ???

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Depends how you are getting the reference for "casting". If it is an overlap event it doesn't matter how many duplicates you have, only the overlapped actor will be the one you do anything with out of the cast node. If you are using "get all actors of class" and you have more than one, you will need to figure out a way to decide which "one" you want out of the array and use that in the "index" pin for a "get" node. Hard to tell you what to do without knowing more about what you are trying to achieve.

[@mohammaddirani8411]

@@NebulaGamesInc thanks for your answer and your time ... If i can contact you in any way i will be appreciate thanks agian in return

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Sure just email me [e-mail]

[@user-nf4pt4vk5x]

the framerate is going to give me a stroke

[@user-nf4pt4vk5x]

good video tho

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Not sure what you mean but cool ha

[@t0psher949]

How i cant cast to not my charapter(my game haven't any pawn or player)

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Don't really know what you're trying to do so hard to help you figure out the problem. Please explain more....what are you trying to create a "Cast To" node for?

[@mikaznavodya9300]

Thanks

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help!

[@inaudiblefuzz]

Woo!

[@Thunder_Owl]

Thank You! Saved, tweeted

[@GDPROD]

Thank you very much!

[@NebulaGamesInc]

Happy to help!