The problem is being caused by a plugin only: the character constructor for Polyphoria Metahumans, although in theory it is applicable to the loading of any component within a class or subclass (inherited class or similar). How to reload the Polyphoria plugin components in Unreal Engine 5 within the Character class (in turn within other classes, of course) for a multiplayer game without using c++?
We are programming a multiplayer based game (it is a social game with a hyper-realistic image like the old Second Life) using only levels because the network system is very simple, and using metahumans. We use Polyphoria’s character creation plugin for metahumans.
And something really strange happens! We add all the components to the “Character” class (we add a subclass called BPCharacter where we put all the necessary components of the Polyphoria plugin), then we compile and everything is OK! but… surprise!
But then when we test the program on computers 75% of the time it loads and everything is OK, but 25% does not load on time the components inside BPCharacter! and only on clients, never on the computer that creates the session! So in short, it does not load the Polyphoria character constructor/selector.
The problem is obvious and we see that it only occurs either on slightly slow computers or when the connection is a bit slow (we have tested it on more than 50 different computers and about 20 different connection lines, from fiber to 4G).
It seems obvious that in some circumstances it does not fully load all the components implemented in BPCharacter (inside the Character class). We have seen this problem happening to more people in the Unreal forums but through blueprints nobody gives solutions, although it could be extended to any component not loading. The simplest solution is to reload all the components of the failing class, that’s easy using an Unreal Engine project with C++, but with Blueprints we can’t find a way!
We have optimized the stage as much as possible, materials, instancing, etc., disabled Nanite and Lumen, etc. I mean, it loads very fast, it’s a very simple and level optimized environment. In fact, when the builder loads and the metahuman works, (about 75% of the time) the rest of the game goes really perfect! (voice chat, lights, interactions, character animation, etc.) So… All the blueprints, components, plugins (we are talking about more than 1000!) work perfectly!.. except the polyphoria plugin that sometimes doesn’t load or loads incorrectly and the character selector/builder doesn’t appear!
Given how Unreal Engine compiles the Character class, you can not change its execution point, if any component fails to load, (it’s increible!) only fails those related to polyphoria among hundreds!) you can no longer run the constructor and there is nothing to do, you must close and restart the program.
A project created in C++ and migrate everything is the simple solution but it would cost months and hours of work for a single plugin! Besides everything works great when it does not fail to load and is fully tested. So the question is how to force from a blueprints based project to reload components in a subclass of Character once the network connection is initiated. (Another solution, of course, is to not load a component until it verifies that the previous one has loaded successfully and restarts the load. But with blueprints we can’t think of how to do that and have it actually work, from C++ it’s obviously no problem.)
Maybe we have missed something and the cause is somewhere else?, if we extend it can affect many networked games designed with only one project with blueprints? please, any idea, any help?