Hello, folks!
I am looking for a way to intuitively categorize all the actors I placed on the level; I believe that using hierarchy of folders in world outliner is not always a good idea. Therefore I want to be able to search for actors that match a certain category I assigned in the editor. The main requirement: each actor may be a member of a few categories at the same time. Simply saying, I want to be able to tag actors somehow and have an option to search for them in World Outliner by tag.
So far I found a few ways to implement this functionality:
- Using Actor tags.
Select an Actor, open details window, find “Actor” group, edit “Tags” array. Sort of intuitive, but I see no built-in way to search by tag from World Outliner.
I found a blueprint solution here:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Gameplay/HowTo/FindingActors/Blueprints/index.html
However, I don’t see whether it’s possible to do the same filtering right in the editor. Sure, you can open some actors in property matrix and create “tags” column there, but it takes too much time. I am looking for an easy searching method.
- Using layers
Since each Actor may exist in several layers at the same time, this method works just fine. However, the layers window is designed in a very counter-intuitive way. You cannot just expand all layers and see which objects are inside; you have to manually open each layer and see whether the object is there or not.
- Actor grouping.
This is yet another way to categorize a few actors by their purpose, but since an Actor cannot be a member of two different groups at the same time, and since grouping is usually used for other purposes this is not really an option.
I want to know whether I am missing something. Is there any way to get such functionality out of the box? Or do I have to write a plugin if I want to search by tag (or if I want to have improved layer handling)?