How can my C++ Actor Component contain a list of blueprint classes that can be modified in the editor?

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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1

I have a C++ component that generates a map. I want this component to be able to place random vegetation.

Each possible type of vegetation is a blueprint actor, and I want my component to be able to spawn any of them.

For that, I want to have an array in the C++ component that contains reference to the blueprint classes, so they can later be spawned. This array should be editable in the editor.

I found this thread which asks a similar question, and one response gives the following solution:

 static ConstructorHelpers::FObjectFinder<UClass> FloorCellClassFinder( TEXT( "Blueprint'/Game/YourProject/SomeFolder/YourBP.YourBP_C'" ) );
 FloorCellClass = FloorCellClassFinder.Object;

The problem with this solution is that you still need the path to the blueprint hardcoded in your code. What I want is something that can be modified in the editor, without having to edit the code.

I have found another answer in this question with the following solution:

 UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite, Category=Guns, meta=(AllowPrivateAccess = "true"))
 class UClass* Weapon;

This looks like what I would be looking for, except it doesn’t work. I tried adding a UClass* field this way to my component, and it doesn’t appear in the editor at all.

Here is my code:

USTRUCT(BlueprintType)
struct FVegetation {
	GENERATED_USTRUCT_BODY()
	UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite, Category = "Vegetation")
	int Density = 100;
	UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWRite, Category = "Vegetation", meta = (AllowPrivateAccess = "true"))
	class UClass* VegetationActor;
};

And here is the result in the editor:

232354-ue4-vegetation.png

As you can see, the “VegetationActor” property doesn’t appear at all.

Is there any way I can have an editable list of blueprints to spawn like that, or is the only option to hardcode all of them?

2

ok 1. Blueprints take too much CPU for you to run around sprinkling them down like grass seeds.

  1. Use the asset registry, which has a complete list of all of your assets under content. Including the BP’s you want to sprinkle around like grass seeds.

Should look something like this:

	IAssetRegistry* AssetRegistry;
    AssetRegistry = &FModuleManager::LoadModuleChecked<FAssetRegistryModule>(TEXT("AssetRegistry")).Get();
	
	TArray<FAssetData> AssetDatas;
	AssetRegistry->GetAssetsByClass(UBlueprint::StaticClass()->GetFName(), AssetDatas);

But you can make it easy for yourself if you create an empty class that you derive your BP’s you want to find. Then you can change the

UBlueprint::StaticClass()->GetFName()

to

<MyGrassSeeds>::StaticClass()->GetFName();
3

Thanks for your answer, this seems like it could work for me.

For precision, the reason I want to spawn blueprint actors is that they will run special code because they are not fully passive. For the ones that don’t need to run code, I can probably just spawn static meshes to avoid wasting performance I suppose.