In-World UMG: multiple instances of the same widget don't render Verse bound variables

Summary

When two (or more) in-world UMG User Widget instances of the same widget class are live at once, only one renders its Verse-bound field values reliably. Which instance “wins” is non-deterministic and changes per launch — sometimes both render correctly, sometimes only one, occasionally neither. Static (unbound) widget content always renders on all instances; only the Verse-driven bound fields exhibit the problem.

Please select what you are reporting on:

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

What Type of Bug are you experiencing?

Scene Graph

Steps to Reproduce

1: Create a UMG User Widget with several Text Blocks bound (View Bindings) to Verse fields on the widget (var message fields).
2: Add some static/permanent text to the widget as well (a fixed label).
3: Place the widget in the world twice.
4: Drive the bound fields from Verse.
5: Launch a session. Repeat the launch 8–10 times.

Expected Result

Both instances render their Verse-bound field values every launch.

Observed Result

Per launch, typically only ONE instance shows its bound fields; the other shows blank bound fields (static text still shows on both). Which one renders is random and varies launch to launch. Occasionally both render, occasionally neither.

Platform(s)

PC

Additional Notes

What was tried (all reproduce the issue)
The behavior is identical regardless of write path or entity structure:
1: Direct set on two @editable widget entities from the owning creative_device.
2: Two widget entities as children of a single prefab.
3: Two separate prefab instances under a parent prefab.
4: A Scene Graph component on the parent doing FindDescendantEntities(WidgetType) + set in a loop.
5: A per-widget Scene Graph component that self-casts (WidgetType[Entity]) and sets only its own widget’s fields.
6: Adding a startup delay before the first write (rules out a simple init race).

Static (non-bound) content renders reliably on all instances in every case, which indicates the entities and prefabs exist and render; only the Verse-field/View-Binding resolution is affected.

A little more information. This testing was mainly editor side. I also did a private version. Private version two players. Joining different times (JIP) seemed to work well, no issues. But if I put both them in a party, the first player to land (faster PC) had the issue 100% of time…always failed. Second player to land saw it correctly 100% of time.

1 Like

The status of FORT-1130386 changed to ‘Needs Triage’. We are routing this to the appropriate team for investigation.

This can be closed out, I created a new report, after more research. This is the real issue reported here: