Unreal Engine 4 Tutorial - Saving Level States

In video voted for by my Patrons and KZbin Members we go through the process of saving the state of a level and player data between level changes. This is intended to show you the thinking behind how to accomplish this, along with a working example.
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[@RobertVari]

For those having problem with actors (pickups and like) not being destroyed after reloading a level/game here is the problem/and solution. The Problem: You store a hard reference in CollectedPickups to a particular actor which had ben destroyed (you picked it up/killed it). Next time you save the level these references will be overridden by a null. Solution: Store a soft reference in CollectedPickups and resolve them in the for each loop. This way there won't be a direct link to a destroyed actor in the level when you save next time.

[@AeonSaturnal]

Awesome. Thanks so much.

[@ryutenchi]

Does this remove the need to add Unique IDs and find the actors based on that... that is to say, will this keep the reference even after closing the editor and re-opening it?

[@RobertVari]

​@@ryutenchi I use this method for saving level states in my game. Works perfectly even when you restart your editor.

[@DankSoss]

soft reference? like a name? I've been trying all day and still struggling Lol

[@MichaelofthehouseFalcone]

indeed, what do you mean by soft reference? still learning haha

[@benfala9984]

this is super cool. its like those games you switch between spirit world and normal world!

[@Alaet_]

Great tutorials as always, thanks Masta Laley for this quite clear and quick explanation of saving level states. Will be of use

[@xTwistedmarionettex]

Can you make a tutorial on how to save locations of classes of actors?

[@valkyra5167]

Hi, I tested it a lot, after a while the reference are changing and are not valid anymore. Maybe it would be better to create an own ID, so make a base class and add an ID and get all actors of you base class and destroy all items with the same ID.

[@EmarStudios]

if i already had a SaveGameObject type thing and the initial checking and loading of save game data was being done through the game instance ... couldnt i put all this gamemode stuff through the gameinstance and use the original SaveGameObject instead of making a LevelDataObject?

[@davidtaylor8195]

you did this very differently in your other save game tutorial. Is this a better way in most cases?

[@radleypillay7096]

Thanks for all your vids Ryan, really learning a lot from you. I was having an issue with my save game where at times it would not destroy the objects that I save in it. My method was very similar to yours. I tried your method exactly and I'm finding the same issue. If you collect a few pickups, switch levels a few times, run around etc. and switch back eventually the objects don't get destroyed anymore and the 'Is Not Valid' pin is fired from the 'Load Collected Pickups' in the LevelDataObject. Any ideas on how to fix this so that it always without a doubt destroys the objects in the list?

[@ЕвгенийЧумашов]

If someone is looking for an answer. The problem is because after destroy. After 1 minute, the link ceases to exist and when you re-save, you save an empty array.

[@ЕвгенийЧумашов]

In my case. I made the storage outside the level and did not use destroy, I move all the objects there so as not to destroy the links.

[@Toxort]

@@ЕвгенийЧумашов Thank you for leaving this comment, this helped me a lot

[@nightdragon4611]

Hey Ryan, I really enjoy your work, I am wondering how this would work when using multiple save files? I am currently running into this problem in my game, I have 3 save slots, but the level state is saved to the map name so if I have Save1 Data the level state saves as map1, then a different player starts a new game and saves to Save2 Data and the level state saves again as map1, so now player 1 and 2 are both using the same level state and it obviously doesn't work out well. What would you recommend for this?

[@christophermcninch1386]

Did you ever get a fix for this? I would think the easiest fix would be using an append node in blueprints attaching the level name to the slot name.

[@RiffSharkMusic]

just save all your data in one slot (like all games do), eg playerdata struct and levels dictionary in save1, then just read corresponding data, no need for separate save objects per level like in the video

[@MaxStudioCG2023]

you lost me at level1 and level 2 ....i only have 1 level and i want save game where my character will be on that map ...i hate when people on tutorials skip steps ....and as starters lost watching hafe video and then stop because video incomplette (as for example the points part how you created the Hud and the update points and all that stuff

[@alexrusu2905]

saving cofuses me

[@michaelcasseus2497]

hey great episode did you travel to a duplicate level while saving the world location of the character instead of starting at the player start of the next level in this one ????

[@Kno_696]

How can I make this work with a Save/Load system? I want the player to be able to load the level after closing the game. Will this work?

[@asumjessen2013]

How do you combine this with multiple save slots? Having trouble tying the level saves with a profile.

[@jol0973]

How can I store the player location in a level, but then still use the door (open level) player starts?

[@ФедорСимонов-я4т]

Thank you!!!

[@charsonist9841]

Would you have any idea where to find the saved data in the directory when it's not in the saved folder? The code works, I just can't get any of my items to respawn lol

[@kevinl5219]

Thanks !

[@beastmodejelly8654]

I want to go to college for game development,, every time that I think about it and check the website of the college that I want to go to I feel like light in my chest,like a peaceful calm... I must search for the light

[@Potato_Hole]

You're honestly better off following game development series on KZbin. You can learn the same information following KZbin series if not more so than going to a college and putting yourself in debt. If your parents are going to pay for your college, then I suppose you can take advantage of that. If you were planning on paying for it, I'd suggest putting that money into something more worthwhile and continue watching these types of videos. Many people in the game industry didn't actually go to college, you know. A lot of them didn't have KZbin back then when they were first starting out either. KZbin is basically college.

[@diliupg]

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Go for that..

[@artdrawing6682]

haw to save wopen collec and other thing the gun is not destroyed

[@stealthgamesaremyjam145]

If your project has one of the maps you want to transition from as a "Editor Startup Map" and/or "Game Default Map" in the project settings, It doesn't save the data of that map. at least it isn't for me.

[@stealthgamesaremyjam145]

I changed my start up map, but it does seem to save the start up map as well, something about one of my maps just doesn't work with the save functions, but my other maps do work.

[@stealthgamesaremyjam145]

I found out why It wasn't saving the data in one of my levels, it was because I had an Override game mode set in the Settings, world settings, to a different one on that particular level.

[@nowherebrain]

I really wish they would put the scripting back in...you added like 12 nodes in what you can do in two lines of scripting...not your fault..I'm just saying...it's the only thing that keeps me away from UE...the OLNY thing. I would love to use it.

[@SandyM1993]

If he just did the whole thing the right way from the start we wouldn't be watching a 26 minute long video. Why did he keep changing the blueprint and correcting mistakes he purposely made. That isn't a teaching. Get to the point, it's a video, we can pause and playback.

[@GaryParkin]

Thanks Ryan. This was just what I needed.

[@alexrusu2905]

what did you do in that Update Hud function? I can't figure it out.

[@tjrizvi251]

Im assuming you'd make the widget, then get a reference to the count on the player blueprint and bind that to a number on the widget

[@1AnimeFinder]

Can you make one 4 world composition ?

[@notfabiantapia8942]

I'm making a simple game, and im struggling a lot

[@AleksanderFimreite]

Story of my life ^^

[@bluethumbbuttoneek9465]

11 months have pass ed hopefully ur not struggling much now

[@rathore3991]

@@bluethumbbuttoneek9465 1 year

[@victorhuchet1677]

@@rathore3991 2 years

[@MuftaDjenter]

If in a random moment of time, you have your array cleared - replace all the actor references to the soft references :)

[@D.A.R.K_S.T.A.L.K.E.R]

What is soft references?

[@yuancui4305]

@@D.A.R.K_S.T.A.L.K.E.R Have the same question

[@mam9zyc]

what do you mean bro? i know it's old af but your reply would mean world👊🏻

[@MuftaDjenter]

@@mam9zyc when you choose a type of your variable (f.e. let it be Actor), you can choose whether it's an 1) Object Reference 2) Class Reference 3) Soft Object Reference 4) Soft Class Reference So what i meant by that is you need to change your Object Reference to Soft Object Reference, or if it's a Class Reference you need to change it to a Soft Class Reference

[@COACH_KARSTEN_OPPINIONS-xs3xn]

You lost me at 4:27. Where does that branch magically come from?

[@mam9zyc]

this is basic knowledge mate, however he didn't actually SAY it in the video- he clicked left mouse button while holding B key for Branch node :)

[@Abdou3131]

Learn the shortcuts

[@juliakp8366]

would it be possible to send the Level State to another Program using OSC?

[@MrMurp35]

Incredible video. Thank you very much.

[@Spadez.]

Fantastic! That was great🍾

[@LeszczynskiDavid]

I really cant hear lol