Time of Day viewport widget override checkboxes do not work as expected when importing DaySequenceActor via level instancing

Development Programming & Scripting
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1

Hi UDN,

We have a DaySequenceActor set up in a level that we import into other levels via level instancing in order to share a common setup across multiple levels. However, under this setup, we’ve noticed that neither the “Override Initial Time of Day” nor “Freeze Time in PIE” Time of Day viewport widget checkboxes work as expected when entering a PIE session as our imported DaySequenceActor still seems to follow the Time of Day viewport widget settings from the imported level rather than our current level.

Is this a bug or are we misunderstanding how these widget settings should function? Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Sam

2

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Launch the Editor
  2. Ensure that the DaySequence plugin is enabled
  3. Create a new Basic template level
  4. Add a SunMoonDaySequenceActor to the level
  5. Enable the “Override Initial Time of Day” and “Freeze Time in PIE” Time of Day viewport widget checkboxes
  6. Set the preview time to something other than the default/initial time
  7. Start PIE session
  8. Observe that the initial time is overridden and paused
  9. Save the level
  10. Create another new Basic template level
  11. Add the previously created level to the new level via level instancing
  12. Disable the “Override Initial Time of Day” and “Freeze Time in PIE” Time of Day viewport widget checkboxes
  13. Start PIE session
  14. Observe that the initial time is still overridden and paused as a result of the original level’s Time of Day viewport widget settings and not the current level’s Time of Day widget settings
3

Hi there,

I’ve tested your reproduction steps and can confirm that I’m seeing the same behaviour when importing the DaySequenceActor via level instancing. Based on my testing, this appears to be a bug present in both UE 5.5 and 5.6, where the Time of Day viewport widget settings don’t correctly apply when the actor is part of an instanced level.

The good news is that this issue appears to be resolved in the upstream UEMain branch, so I expect the fix will be included in the upcoming 5.7 release.

In the meantime, you could work around the issue by placing the DaySequenceActor directly in each level rather than relying on level instancing. Alternatively, if you’re interested in pulling the specific changelist that resolves this, let me know and I can help point you to the relevant engine commit so you can attempt a cherry-pick it into your source build.

Let me know how you’d like to proceed.

Regards,

Thomas

4

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for confirming the issue. If you could provide the specific fix CL, that would be great :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Sam

5

Hi there,

Sure thing. I will check in with the Epic team, who are more familiar with this system, to get the specific commit that fixed this issue.

It is currently the Epic break period, so there may be a slight delay in my response, but I will be in touch as soon as I hear back.

Regards,

Thomas

6

Hi there,

I have just heard back from Epic regarding this issue. Unfortunately, they have been able to internally reproduce this issue on 5.7 as well.

An internal task has been opened to fix this. I can’t share a public tracking link for this issue at this stage, but I will be in touch if any additional information can be shared publicly.

Regards,

Thomas