UEFN Private Alpha Creator Information (June 30th, 2022)

General Announcements
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Hello UEFN Alpha Creators! This post is intended to help you understand what to expect from your experience with the UEFN Alpha. It covers what you can do with UEFN right now, what you want to wait on and things you should know.

Things Alpha Users Should Do:

These are the things that you should be able to do with the current release of the UEFN Private Alpha:

  • The focus of this version of the Private Alpha should be on Map Design and Level Layout.
  • Assets
    • Find Meshes and Props you’re familiar with in the folders
      • /Fortnite/Meshes
      • /Fortnite/Prefabs
      • /Fortnite/Props
    • Import your own Assets
      • Try to import your own meshes and textures. Use them in your UEFN project.
      • Documentation: Importing Assets
    • Create new materials for use in your projects
  • Do Map Design
    • Using existing assets or importing your own
    • Use Landscape Mode to create, sculpt and texture your Island
    • Use Modeling Mode to create basic geometry for your map design
    • Use Placement Mode to populate your Island with meshes and props
  • Live Edit
    • When you press Play in UEFN, a Fortnite client will launch and enter Creative Mode. Once connected, both UEFN and the Fortnite Client are in Live Edit Mode.
    • In Live Edit Mode:
      • UEFN: Props, Prefabs and Meshes added and edited in the UEFN editor will appear live in the client that is running Creative Mode.
      • Creative Mode: Prefabs and Galleries placed in Creative Mode appear in UEFN.
    • Note: Edits to a UEFN project can only be done in Creative Mode while the UEFN editor is connected. Changes made without UEFN connected will be lost!
  • Collaboration
    • Launch from UEFN into Creative Edit mode
    • Have another Private Alpha Creator launch into Creative Mode and join your session. Work collaboratively!
  • New Workflows provided by UEFN
    • Undo and Redo changes
    • Easier object selection using Multiselect and the Outliner
      • Batch Editing: You can edit multiple devices of the same type all at once. Multiselect the same device and change the properties in the Details panel.

Things Alpha Users Should Wait On:

These are things that are not included in the Private Alpha and should be considered under heavy development:

  • Creating fully playable experiences. The new Event Binding System and Devices are present in this version of the Private Alpha but are not guaranteed to function correctly, nor will they be forward compatible at this stage.
  • Using Devices
    • Devices are present in your build but they are not 100% compatible with UEFN.
    • Any project built right now with devices will not function properly in the next Private Alpha release of UEFN.
  • New Event Binding System
    • The Event Binding System is the replacement for the Channels System you are familiar with.
    • The new Event Binding System is present but isn’t 100% compatible with devices yet.
    • Any project built using the Event Binding System will not function properly in the current release of UEFN.
  • Importing Islands from existing projects into UEFN
    • All devices are not available during the Private Alpha so importing your island will result in undefined behavior and we are discouraging it.
  • Assets - The following Systems/Asset types are not fully supported yet:
    • Control Rig
    • Sounds
    • Animation
  • Verse
  • Publishing
  • Creating Playsets with intent to share.
  • Editing a UEFN Project in Creative Mode without the Editor running.
    • In order to edit a project in Creative Mode, you must have UEFN running on a PC and be connected to it. Changes made without being connected will be lost.
  • “Experience Settings” may change in the future, requiring you to update the project in a later version of UEFN.

Things Alpha Users Should Know:

Here are some helpful pieces of information to help you navigate using the UEFN Private Alpha:

  • DO NOT OPEN AN ISLAND MADE IN UEFN in the RETAIL version of Fortnite. You will see your Islands there but you should not open them. They are not compatible. Doing so may damage your project.
  • Live Edit mode is in development:
    • Not all changes will reflect properly.
    • Material Graphs, Importing Assets, Deleting or Renaming assets require you to Refresh your project.
    • Terrain Sculpting requires a Refresh of the project in order to see changes in the Creative Mode client.
  • Experience Settings
    • Island Settings in Creative Mode can be found in the “Experience Settings” device. This device is automatically added to every empty level.
    • Experience Settings may require you to hover over individual settings to manually input the desired setting.
    • Experience Setting changes in UEFN may require you to perform a Project Refresh before they are reflected in Creative Edit mode.
  • When you create a New Level and choose a template island, Shaders may get stuck compiling. Most of the time you can run your Island but you will be missing materials.
  • If you import a lot of assets into your UEFN Project, you may receive an error message that you could not run because you exceeded the download limit. Reduce the number of assets in your project for the time being to run it again.
  • Project Memory
    • Project Memory is the equivalent of “Cell Memory” found in Creative
    • The Project Memory indicator is currently only available in the UEFN editor.
    • Currently, the Project Memory Indicator does not reflect any custom assets you have imported and are using.
  • By default, when the editor opens, the Details panel is underneath the World Partition panel. Select the Details panel to see details on your Devices and other objects.
  • If your Fortnite Client that is in Creative mode stops responding, close it and wait for the UEFN Editor toolbar status to change from “Refresh” to “Play” and try again.
  • Iteration times
    • The more actors you have, the longer the Upload and Preparing times will be. If you base your project on an Island with a large number of actors such as Tilted Towers or Greasy Grove POI, expect longer Upload and Preparing times.
    • Please report any exceptionally long Upload and Prepare times longer than 10 minutes.
  • We encourage you to use Placement Mode over Foliage Mode in the editor.
  • Devices
    • The Select Actor in the viewport button in the details panel does not work.

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