Invalid UserWidgetObject on BeginPlay

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
, , , , ,
1

I have two blueprints BP_Elevator and BP_Player. BP_Player has a WidgetComponent attached.

On the elevator’s BeginPlay I get a reference to the player and therefore can get access to the player’s WidgetComponent. However, when trying to access the component’s widget itself using GetUserWidgetObject, I do not receive a valid reference.

When I use a delay of 2 seconds before accessing it, I do receive a valid reference.

Is this behaviour correct? I thought components were initialized before BeginPlay is executed. Since this is a problem that occurred after updating the project to 4.23, I am not sure if this behaviour is normal or if the project somehow got corrupted or something.

2

This is a problem generally, things may not be ready and you need to code with that assumption in mind.

Having said that, if not much is going on, a delay of .2 should be ample…

3

Bit more info. Are you spawning the player? If so, waiting might make sense. If you’ve placed the player in the world, you shouldn’t need to wait…

4

I’m not spawning the player. I dragged it into my level and set auto possess.

5

There could be a delay if one BP gets initialized before another. How much is in the level and how low can you go with the delay?

6

I just checked the source code of UWidgetComponent. InitWidget() is called in BeginPlay(). I did not expect that, but this explains what is happening. Weird.
I figured component intialization included initializing the widget as well. Does not seem so. Bummer.

I can go pretty low. Using a delay with 0.000001 still works.

7

There are around 450 actors in the level, most of them static mesh actors. A couple of custom blueprints, some lights etc.