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set complete folders hidden/unhidden in game

Unreal Engine Feedback for Unreal Engine team
#1

Hi guys,
i just am thinking that it would help a lot if we would be able to set complete folders (that we created in the world outliner) hidden / nonhidden or visible or not visible from blueprints
it would help so much in a project i am working on right now.
i have several sections of an environment in one level. i would be able to easily switch some sections on and off if i had them ordered in folders
the engine should automatically see if its a static mesh or a light etc … and switch them off/on accordingly…

i know unreal handles this automaticly to some part, but not as good as i want it to. so i could easily declar what to show and what not and save some frames with it.

i know i can attach objects to another but i find it much more complicated to handle than just a simple folder with all in it.

any thoughts on this ?

kind regards
stucki

#2

nobody else sees the benefits of this ?

#3

2c:
Imho the ideas would benefit from being rephrased a little. After all it sounds like there’s a lot going on…
World Outliner folder hiding. Mesh occlusion systems / backface culling. Environment Level Streaming…

#4

thx for your opinion in this ! but i do not understand exactly what you mean (maybe my bad english …)

All i wanted to ask for is the ability to set the complete content inside a World Outliner folders hidden/unhidden per blueprint. Sorry if i was to complicated about this.

i think having a simple blueprint command to set all content in a World Outliner folder hidden/unhidden would make organizing a scene much more easy and will help saving frames without much effort.

kind regards
stucki

#5

No worries, just trying to understand if there’s a work-around, as Epic isn’t jumping for user ideas right now…
So instead of Get-All-Actors-of-Class with TAG → HIDE kind of thing. You’d like a Get-All-Actors-In-Folder?

BTW: Have you actually tested with rendering stats if it really makes that much difference etc?
Epic’s engines have always been incredible at handling large number of meshes in the scene…

#6

No worries, just trying to understand if there’s a work-around, as Epic isn’t jumping for user ideas right now…
So instead of Get-All-Actors-of-Class with TAG → HIDE kind of thing. You’d like a Get-All-Actors-In-Folder?

BTW: Have you actually tested with rendering stats to see if it really makes that much difference?
Epic’s engines have always been incredible at handling large numbers of meshes in a scene imo…

#7

It sounds like layer and layer group functionality I know from some other engine that “simply” recreated concept from Photoshop. I’d to have it since started working with UE4.

Sadly it’s not that easy and simple to implement. There’s no single “hide/unhide” operation for Unreal actor. There are states based on Visibility, Hidden in Game, activation of components.
And collision management, hiding actors doesn’t automatically change it’s collision state. Unless it would be removed from world, but how would you restore it to original state?

That’s why what we’d truly need is to load/unload folders (seen as layers or group of layers) much alike as loading umap as sublevel. It means extending engine to be capable of virtually unlimited nesting of .umap or new but similar scene/layer format (so the world can contains layers, but layer can’t include map/world).
Possibly we could gain added benefit: every layer stored as separate file. Which would be very much needed by open worlds or game that constantly change its environment.

That’s what Witcher 2 engine already did (modder tools were available for a while).
Check attached screenshot. World in that editor is just container for group of layers (presented as folders) and layers (group of actors). Designer can easily load/unload every layer.

Of course it’s doable in UE4 but I’m afraid that current setup of world/umap/layers would need to be revamped.
For now we’re using sublevels for hiding parts of the game. It’s fine if won’t end up with hundreds of sublevels…
Or could you try current Layers functionality in editor, but… I stopped using for some reasons… :wink:

#8

thnks both of you !
for me it would be easiest if there would be a “get all actors in folder” function and the ability to set “hidden in game” = true /false

@ franktech: its mostly about lights and shadows that stress the framerates, but if scenes are getting more and more complex and with some high detailed closeup objects and all the decals …

@ Just Krishna: are you sure that hidden actors still do have collisions ? have to test this…
the load undload mechanic would be nice, too, but wouldnt that mean i will have loading times, too.
I really want to load everything once and hide/unhide what i need in the scene.

kind regards
stucki

#9

There are several posts about Hidden / Visible performance Hits / Benefits.
But I don’t remember seeing an outright definitive / official Epic answer etc…
So what devs usually do, is use the Render Stats and do some experiments.

#10

there is no way to hide content ??? f@#k sake