How can I unload assets I loaded using “Load Asset Blocking” and “Async Load Asset”?
For optimization purposes I wanted to unload all lootable items when the character is far away from them and load them back when he is close. The question I have is How I unload the Data Assets after loading them into memory in order to free Ram?
Also I read somewhere that they unload automatically if not referenced. If this is the case, promoting the object loaded to a variable for easy use in blueprint prevents the asset to unload?
There is no unload call, the garbage collection will do this efficiently for you. Unless… you have hard references to lots of different blueprint types, then nothing will ever unload.
For something like collectables, it doesn’t really matter, because you’re going to be using most types pretty frequently anyway.
Notice that the overhead of loading types you are not going to use ( which is what soft references try to avoid ), and the sheer number of these items in a level, and not related. In other words, no matter clever you are with soft refs, it won’t affect the overhead of having 20,000 coins in a level. That’s another subject.
Thanks for answering, but you didn’t answer my last question about promoting the loaded asset to a variable. Doing so will prevent it from unloading or not?
It’s totally possible to use only actor type variables. You can talk to them with an interface.
If you have code to promote to type X, then your blueprint is already loading type X before you even get to use any soft asset calls. This is because just having a reference of a certain type in you code is enough to load the type.
In any event, if your pickup blueprint only takes a few MB, there’s no point in using soft refs anyway. Just load a few MB 
Look, the 1st image show that I Load the Asset then I store the loaded asset
I do so in order to easily use it to get out data from the data asset only when needed, but I don’t get all the data in all of the blueprints. For example in this one I get the static mesh soft reference and convert it into a hard reference, but the data asset also stores a skeletal mesh soft reference that I need in another blueprint, both are store as soft references in the same data asset to avoid loading them if not needed.
Now, Should I avoid setting it to a variable and load again the assets data in the functions during runtime when I need to refresh something in the blueprint or should I keep it stored like that to make it easier to use?
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I see ‘item ref’ is an object ref. What type is DA_Item?
Can you show the code in ‘get static mesh’?
Looking at the ‘size map’ of this blueprint in the asset browser will soon tell you what is and isn’t being loaded.
DA_Item is a “Data Asset” soft reference the “Get Static Mesh” is a soft reference passed from the parent of the DA_Item
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That looks ok. Try the size map, all will be revealed
( Also, look at the blueprint in the asset viewer, but size map is usually easier to read ).
Even if I remove the Item_Ref it doesn’t Change the size map. The fact is that Item_Ref is an Object type not Data Asset type
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Yes, but it’s 300k. That’s nothing. Job done
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