Passing USkeletalMeshComponent by reference is not working as expected

Unreal Engine Programming & Scripting C++
#1

Hello,

I’ve been trying to implement an equipment system. I have SkeletalMeshComponents for different equipment parts in my HumanCharacter class.



...
USkeletalMeshComponent* LegsEquipmentComponent;
USkeletalMeshComponent* FeetEquipmentComponent;
...

I ınitialize these components in HumanCharacter constructor as below:



CreateSubObjectMesh(FeetEquipmentComponent, FName("FeetEquipmentComponent"));

CreateSubObjectMesh method:



void AHumanCharacter::CreateSubObjectMesh(USkeletalMeshComponent* Comp, FName Name)
{
    Comp = CreateDefaultSubobject<USkeletalMeshComponent>(Name);
    Comp->SetupAttachment(GetMesh());
    Comp->RelativeLocation = FVector::ZeroVector;
    Comp->SetMasterPoseComponent(GetMesh());
}

Comp should directly effect FeetEquipmentComponent as far as I know. But it doesn’t.

I have EquipmentManager class which holds a reference to HumanCharacter class as “Owner”. Through this reference I assign mesh of these SkeletalMeshComponents:



void UEquipmentManager::EquipItem(UEquipment* Equipment)
{
    Owner->FeetEquipmentComponent->SetSkeletalMesh(Equipment->SkeletalMesh);
}

Here, Owner->FeetEquipmentComponent is acting like it is not assigned and causing editor to crash. If I remove CreateSubObjectMesh method and directly work on FeetEquipmentComponent everything works without a problem. But I do not want to replicate this for each component.

What am I missing here?

#2

You are using Pass-by-pointer, whereby a copy of the pointer is passed to the function.

You need to pass the pointer by reference:



USkeletalMeshComponent*& Comp
#3

Thanks! Makes sense, I will try that.