Editor

Unreal Editor — the desktop app you build games in. Plugins and tools (like WoalzCraft) extend it.

Construction Script

Runs in the editor whenever the actor is placed or changed. Use for editor-time setup; doesn't run at PIE.

PIE

Play In Editor — runs the game inside the editor process for fast iteration. Some systems behave differently in PIE vs Standalone.

Construction Script accessing data that's not ready yet

Why: Construction Script runs while the actor is being placed in the editor — before BeginPlay. Other actors in the world don't exist yet from this actor's perspective. Some self properties are also not yet initialized. Fix: Move the logic from Construction Script to Event BeginPlay. Construction Script should only set up THIS actor's components/properties, not query the world. If you need editor-time behavior, use the ifEditorOnly check + restricted property reads.

Content Browser

The editor panel that lists every asset in the project. Drag-drop, right-click create, and filter by type live here.

Asset

Any project file the editor manages — Blueprints, textures, sounds, materials, levels, etc. Stored as .uasset on disk.

SetActorLabel — change the actor's display name in the editor

Trying to spawn an actor from Construction Script

Why: Construction Script runs in the editor before the world is fully loaded. Spawning actors here is unsupported because the receiving world might not exist yet. Fix: Move the Spawn Actor node from Construction Script to Event BeginPlay. BeginPlay runs at runtime when the world is ready and other actors can be spawned safely.

String

Editable text (Mutable). Use Text for player-facing localized text instead — String is for internal logic.

CreateDynamicMaterialInstance — create a runtime-editable material copy

Must call this before SetScalarParameterValue/SetVectorParameterValue. Store the result in a variable for reuse.