# \[4.7.5\] 'Hidden in game' and 'visible' ignored for child actors

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** visibility, child-actor-componen, unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [April 16, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227 "2015-04-16T08:37:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/1 "2015-04-16T08:37:51Z")

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![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/6/3/663d69140785b66e01b39ad35ff8d3622b273e86.png)  
This child actor is configured as ‘hidden in game’ and has additonally ‘visible’ set to FALSE. This settings get ignored in the game (still visible).

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**Author:** ![TJ\_V](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tj_v/32/1008648_2.png) [@TJ\_V](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TJ_V)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/2 "2015-04-16T13:58:59Z")

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Hi ,

Thank you for the report. I was easily able to reproduce the issue, so I’ve created JIRA UE-13893 in our tracking software. Our developers will be investigating the issue further and we will post back here with updates as we have them.

Cheers,

TJ

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_689e935a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_689e935a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_689e935a)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/3 "2015-05-30T00:30:39Z")

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Just came across this too. so it is a bug? I wasn’t even sure if it’s actually desired behavior.

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**Author:** ![TJ\_V](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tj_v/32/1008648_2.png) [@TJ\_V](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TJ_V)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/4 "2015-06-01T12:30:39Z")

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Hi Gigantoad,

Yeah, this is not the intended behavior. We are still investigating the root cause though.

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/5 "2015-06-03T18:29:26Z")

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It’s especially a problem if a USceneComponent is the root of the child actor. hiddenInGame seems to have no effect _at all_ on scenes, isn’t propagated to children.

That might be the problem of the child actor, too. The child actor _component_ isn’t the actual child actor but is has a _property_ with the same name with the actual object in it.

That’s also the - confusing - reason, why casting a child actor to his own class fails, but has to be done on myChildactor–\>get child actor.

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**Author:** ![TJ\_V](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tj_v/32/1008648_2.png) [@TJ\_V](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TJ_V)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/6 "2015-08-17T17:35:48Z")

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Hi DatapawWolf,

This is still being investigated by the developers. We will update back here when the status changes.

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**Author:** ![LuLima](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@LuLima](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/LuLima)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 1:31pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/7 "2015-09-30T13:31:00Z")

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Any update on the issue? Is there any workaround for now?

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**Author:** ![TJ\_V](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tj_v/32/1008648_2.png) [@TJ\_V](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TJ_V)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/8 "2015-09-30T19:46:05Z")

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Hi LuLima,

This has not been fixed yet but it is on our to do list. Please keep in mind that crash bugs and showstoppers always take priority. Hopefully we will have more news on this issue soon.

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/9 "2015-10-03T00:42:41Z")

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Yes, that would be great, thank you. I had to use workarounds for this for half a year now. Is showing/hiding child actors really such an exotic case?

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**Author:** ![Raed\_Abbas](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/raed_abbas/32/482168_2.png) [@Raed\_Abbas](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Raed_Abbas)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/10 "2015-10-13T14:34:45Z")

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Hi,  
Any updates on this one? It’s still there in 4.9.2!!!

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**Author:** ![TJ\_V](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tj_v/32/1008648_2.png) [@TJ\_V](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TJ_V)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/11 "2015-10-13T15:57:22Z")

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Hello everyone,

This exact JIRA has recently been closed and will not be fixed directly. The reason being is we have plans for other features to be implemented that will very likely fix this issue by default. We currently don’t have an exact timeline when these new features will be implemented.

Cheers,

TJ

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_8a1df24c](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_8a1df24c](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_8a1df24c)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/12 "2015-12-01T22:12:53Z")

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as a temporary fix I just set component scale to 0.001  
Ugly but worked =)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 9:43am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/13 "2015-12-02T09:43:34Z")

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Did the same thing at the end. Whatever.

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Jaeger](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Frank\_Jaeger](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Frank_Jaeger)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/14 "2016-01-04T23:13:59Z")

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I’m doing this programmatically in C++. I noticed that if I set the variable bVisibility to false or bHiddenInGame to true the actor is still visible. However using the function ToggleVisibility() does hide the actor. I don’t know how to implement this in blueprints however my code is something like this:

```
USkeletalMeshComponent* mesh = this->GetMesh();

if (hide_actor) //If you want to hide the actor
{
    if (mesh->IsVisible()) mesh->ToggleVisibility(); //Check if visible and make invisible
}
else //If you want to show the actor
{
   if (!mesh->IsVisible()) mesh->ToggleVisibility(); //Check if invisible and make visible
}

```

I don’t know why this would work and the individual variables don’t, however this is working for me and it’s not dirty like scaling the mesh. Hopefully you can follow the logic and make a blueprint out of it if that floats your boat.

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**Author:** ![0vr](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@0vr](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/0vr)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2016, 8:42am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/15 "2016-02-18T08:42:33Z")

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hoping the alluded to indirect solution is in 4.11 :\

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**Author:** ![Slavq](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Slavq](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Slavq)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/16 "2016-02-22T01:02:00Z")

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+1, another way to reproduce the bug is to add child actor via ‘Add Child Actor Blueprint’ and try to hide the ‘parent’ actor by Set Actor Hidden in Game. Whole actor will hide, but all child actor components will remain unhidden.

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/17 "2016-02-22T18:40:57Z")

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Four (!) engine versions later now, and this is _still_ not fixed…?

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_c0687f281](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_c0687f281)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/18 "2016-02-22T18:41:44Z")

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Hi, it’s been another 6 months. Any news on this?

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**Author:** ![anon84358076](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anon84358076](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anon84358076)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:01am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/19 "2016-03-03T11:01:58Z")

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when this bug will be fixed?

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**Author:** ![amcofi](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@amcofi](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/amcofi)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227/20 "2016-04-01T17:13:27Z")

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Hei, at least in 4.10, you can also set the visibility using `SetVisibility`, then you do not need to check the current state. The issue seems to be that setting `bVisible` does not mark the render-state as dirty (`MarkRenderStateDirty`).

[Next page](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/4-7-5-hidden-in-game-and-visible-ignored-for-child-actors/315227.md?page=2)