PCG World Actor preventing the landscape from loading in packaged game - UE5.3.2

[ThinVeil]

I have an open world project and since using PCG in my project I can’t get my landscape to load in my packaged game, there is no collision so I don’t think it is transparent; it just simply isn’t there. I’m not sure if this is a bug in 5.3 or something else.

My workaround is to basically bake out my PCG and delete my PCG World Actor. I clear the PCG link, uncheck activated, change generate to on demand in my PCG volumes, and then delete my PCG World Actor to prevent it from coming back in my scene.

I can also reproduce this issue on the Electric Dreams demo, but not with a new simple scene, so I am not exactly sure why this is happening.

Also, none of this is an issue if I play in the editor. Wanted to see if anyone has this issue and if they know of a better fix for this.

Other things I have tried: Deleted non essential folders in the project - Migrated my project to a new project folder – Exported my landscape data and reimported it on to a fresh landscape – Tried a landscape at a different resolution – Tried it without world partition

With PCG World Actor

Without PCG World Actor

Same deal in Electric Dreams Demo

[ThinVeil]

Just did another test. I did a clean install of Unreal 5.3.2 and redownloaded the electric dreams demo and packaged it and still no landscape.

Is anyone else having this issue as well?

[ThinVeil]

I went ahead and submitted a bug report, but it would be super helpful If someone could try to package the Electric Dreams demo and see if the result is the same.

[steve-jo]

Hi, ThinVeil

I ran into a similar problem. My problem only occurred when I had a PCGWorldActor, enabled world partitioning, and connected to a packaged dedicated server. Then the spawned actors did not collide with the landscape. I solved it by applying the following two commits.

https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/4d4869fc65fa81cadfb05ea9e846aa9d4d57983b
https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/f84292423ef419bad963601bbcf98a467bf723a8

Thanks to this question of yours, I was able to resolve the issue. Thank you very much.

[ThinVeil]

Thanks for the Reply Steve Jo,

Yep, I ran into that issue as well before the PCGWorldActor didn’t allow my landscape to package although mine wasn’t running over a server.

I’m glad this post helped you out! So many times I stumble upon a forum post that might just have a random comment that puts me on the right path.

Unfortunately those two links give me a 404 error, so I can’t check it out. What are they?

[steve-jo]

They are the commits that fix the landscape loading issues caused by PCGWorldActor.

It looks like you don’t have access to the UnrealEngine repository on github. You can get access by referring to Downloading Unreal Engine Source Code | Unreal Engine 5.3 Documentation.

Even if you don’t have access, you can modify APCGWorldActor::BeginCacheForCookedPlatformData in the engine source code to look like this:

if (WorldPartition && CVarLoadLandscapeInWPOnCookData.GetValueOnAnyThread())
{ 
	FWorldPartitionHelpers::ForEachActorDesc<ALandscapeProxy>(WorldPartition, [WorldPartition, &ActorRefs](const FWorldPartitionActorDesc* ActorDesc)
	{
		// Old code:
		// ActorRefs.Add(FWorldPartitionReference(WorldPartition, ActorDesc->GetGuid()));

		// New code:
		if (!ActorDesc->GetActor())
		{
			ActorRefs.Add(FWorldPartitionReference(WorldPartition, ActorDesc->GetGuid()));
		}

		return true;
	});
}

If you find it’s difficult to apply the fix to the engine source code, then you can wait until 5.4 is released. Because it looks like it will be fixed in 5.4.

[ThinVeil]

Thanks for sharing.

Oh I didn’t realize I needed to associate my Github account with my Unreal account. I will do that. Knowing this will be helpful for future issues for sure.

Since I already have a workaround, I think I will wait for 5.4 and hopefully not worry about another update until I finish my project.

[WorldBuilder]

First of all, I will gain new information through a fruitful discussion between the two of you. thank you

I have a question regarding this.

Do you know what role a PCG World Actor plays? When using PCG or baking with PCGStamp, a PCG World Actor is created, and even if you delete this, the PCG Stamp lives normally, but I cannot delete it because I don’t know what the problem will be if I delete it.

[ThinVeil]

Yeah I’m not exactly sure what the full purpose it serves. If you are still creating and editing your PCG you will need it, but it seems like once you bake to PCG stamps it’s no longer necessary. It shouldn’t comeback unless your PCG is activated automatically.

I do know the PCG world actor will hold some info if you check mark world partition to on, break the link with your PCG actor. The PCG world actor will have some children in it.

Since, I am using multiple small containers I just break the link with world partition turned off. It creates one chunk as a PCG stamp. The I just delete the world actor and everything will stay as is when I package my game. If you want PCG world actor to come back you just need to activate one of your containers again.

I did try that workaround with the Electric Dreams demo and I ended up breaking the scene. So if you do try it, for sure make a back up.