As a creator who isn’t primarily interested in incorporating the classic Fortnite destruction, harvesting, and building mechanics into my game, I found it misleading that the Adding Custom Content modules seemed to imply that the only reason I needed to convert an asset to a prop was so that players could destroy it for harvesting resources. This is a functionality I don’t need for my game, and I’m sure some other creators don’t need it either. But in practice, there are broader uses for prop conversion, like making an asset compatible with devices like the Prop Mover, Prop Manipulator, and Prop Gun. And because I skipped the prop step I couldn’t do these things.
Edit: TinyWorks pointed out that we also need to convert meshes into props in order for the phone tool to work on them in Creative mode!
Because I didn’t need my prop to be harvested by creators, in fact I specifically do not want players to damage and destroy my mesh, I skipped the “Creating a Building Prop Blueprint,” “Converting Assets into Prop,” and “Playtesting Custom Assets” modules. I assumed that I was ready to move on after “Creating a Material Instance”. I think that other creators like me might make the same mistake.
Then when I tried to move my mesh using the Prop Mover and it didn’t work, I was disappointed because I assumed that UEFN must not support using devices on custom assets. Or that something was wrong with my Verse script, or with the way I had positioned the device. Until Rynex in Discord told me I needed to convert to a prop, and then I did that and it worked great. And I saw that I can uncheck “Can Be Destroyed”.
Even just the name “Building Prop” implies that this is a prop for harvesting and building with, not for general use. The word Prop is in there, which matches the name for Prop Mover etc, but for me it was still not intuitive enough. Creators who don’t come from FNC may not be familiar with device names.
Below are examples of how the docs describe the purpose of converting a mesh into an prop. All of it revolves around destruction:
At the end of “Creating a Material Instance” module (this is the point where I left the webpage because I didn’t need destructibility):
Once you’ve created the material instance for your asset, you’re ready to create a BuildingProp that allows you to determine the destruction and damage properties of your asset and the resource type it drops when destroyed.
The end of Creating a Prop Blueprint:
After the Building Prop Blueprint is created, you need to convert your asset into a prop by adding details to your Blueprint by configuring the resource settings, damage and destruction for the asset.
The beginning of "Converting Assets into Props:
By converting your asset into a prop, you can determine how your asset handles gameplay elements like damage and destruction, and which resource type is dropped when the asset is destroyed.
The following workflow configures resource, damage and destruction properties into the empty BluePrint you created.
I suggest the docs include some copy that keeps creators who aren’t interested in building mechanics on board with the tutorial, by explaining broader uses for Building Props.
In addition to the phone tool, would we be able to use the custom meshes with devices like the Prop Mover, Prop Manipulator, and Prop Gun? Later when it’s possible I would plan on using Verse for transformations instead of devices.
