Prefab Tool - Prefab Support for Unreal Engine

[Nate]

Now that we've been working with this a little bit, we've run across some workflow speed-bumps and thought you might have some ideas about how to overcome them. Or maybe take them as suggestions for future updates.

It's not obvious when you select an actor that it is part of a prefab. I've moved stuff around, saved, and when I re-opened the map the changes are lost because the Prefab is still connected. I can imagine a few ways to approach this workflow problem. One would be to have the actors in the prefab be Grouped using Unreal's editor groups and have that Group be locked as long as the Prefab is connected. When you try to choose an actor that's inside that prefab, you'd know immediately that you were doing so. To move things inside the prefab, you'd have to disconnect it. (I assume this behavior would need to be an option for people with other workflows.)

In our workflow, most prefabs should be disconnected because we always tweak the items in it a bit. But by default, dropping in a prefab leaves it connected. There are also times where we do want it connected. It turns out that some prefabs are meant to be used one way and others the other way. So, maybe we could mark a Prefab asset as "is disconnected by default." (Internally, we call these kinds of prefabs "Stamps", because you stamp them into the map.) (Or maybe they shouldn't even be connected any more; I'm not sure about that.)

One more requests since I'm here: Select all siblings/children - If you have a prefab selected, select all the children. If you have a prefab child selected, select all the siblings.

Thanks again for this tool. It is really great.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.

I like the "stamp" prefab and the select sibling/children ideas, will find a way to implement them in future updates.

For the grouping prefab actors, I actually have once implemented that functionality in early prototype, but remove it since I found grouping not works well when nested. I'll re-visit the grouping idea, and maybe add it as an experimental feature.

[Nate]

I am thinking of this kind of scenario: make Prefab > convert it into BP actor > edit and update Prefab > BP actor automatically gets updated. Is it something that you plan on having in the first iteration of the feature ?

The new blueprint generation feature added in 1.0.4 is basically do what you described, except the changes on Prefab have to be apply to blueprint explicitly.



The blueprint generation support need to be enabled in editor preference first.




Then you can:

1. Generate Blueprint to make a blueprint from selected prefab.

2. Update Blueprint: to update blueprint with selected prefab

3. the Update Blueprint operation is using the "Generated Blueprint" field as the update target, you can change the "Generated Blueprint" to make vary versions of blueprints base on same prefab actor.

[Nate]

1.0.5 update is now live on itch.io. Marketplace version submitted.

This update is mainly for resolving lightmap data lost issue when re-opening map.

1.0.5
Add option to check if prefab content changed before updating all preab actors when opening map

[Sitrec]

1.0.4 update now live on itch.io. Marketplace update submitted.

Change Log:

I just bought the plugin on the Marketplace. Is this version live yet? I'm using 4.15.3 still, not sure if it's still getting updates.

[Nate]

Sitrec, thanks a lot for your support.

Sorry that the marketplace version is still on 1.0.3.

I've submitted 1.0.3.1 update on 08-15, 1.0.4 update on 08-24, and 1.0.5 update on 09-14, but none of them been published yet. I'm still trying to contact unreal marketplace support for status update.

[Sitrec]

Sitrec, thanks a lot for your support.

Sorry that the marketplace version is still on 1.0.3.

I've submitted 1.0.3.1 update on 08-15, 1.0.4 update on 08-24, and 1.0.5 update on 09-14, but none of them been published yet. I'm still trying to contact unreal marketplace support for status update.

Ah I see, thank you! Is there any way of accessing newer versions somewhere else for those that bought on the marketplace? I really want to try the blueprint features.

[Nate]

I'm so sorry that the marketplace version is not up-to-date as I wanted. So for anyone who purchased Prefab Tool from unreal marketplace and would like to get the newest version, I'll grant you free access to the itch.io version as well.

Please forward your marketplace receipt mail to my marketplace support mail (https://www.unrealengine.com/marketp...le/Mary%20Nate), I'll set up an itch.io download key and send to you as soon as the order been verified by marketplace support.

[Sitrec]

I'm so sorry that the marketplace version is not up-to-date as I wanted. So for anyone who purchased Prefab Tool from unreal marketplace and would like to get the newest version, I'll grant you free access to the itch.io version as well.

Please forward your marketplace receipt mail to my marketplace support mail (https://www.unrealengine.com/marketp...le/Mary%20Nate), I'll set up an itch.io download key and send to you as soon as the order been verified by marketplace support.

Not your fault at all but I really appreciate it. I've forwarded my receipt.

Thanks!

[Denis.Korkh]

We noticed that prefabs wipe out instance vertex colors from objects when we "apply" prefab changes. If we vertex paint a prefab's member static mesh and keep those colors on the instance rather than bake to the original mesh asset, when we "apply" changes to the prefab the colors are destroyed. What we'd expect is that the vertex colors would be applied to the copies of the prefab as if we had painted each of those copies. Do you recommend we find a work-around or is this a realistic addition for a future update?

Our team loves your tool and we use it a ton, so regardless thank you for your awesome work!

[Nate]

@Denis.Korkh

So glad you like the tool

Instance vertex colors should be applied to copies of the prefab, here's a simple test I just did:
https://streamable.com/wwb1e

So it might be a bug somewhere. What version of Prefab Tool are you using? And if not too much trouble can you send me a test level for reproducing the bug? Thanks!

[Denis.Korkh]

Ah! I apologize - we were actually painting on static meshes inside blueprints inside prefabs. While it would still be nice to be able to do it that way, realizing that it works on simple static meshes in prefabs gives us a simpler work-around for now. Thank you for taking a look!

[Nate]

Denis.Korkh, the vertex color data painted inside blueprints will be lost when you duplicated the blueprint instances inside editor (unless the static mesh component is the native root component), It's UE's default behavior and I'm not quite sure whether it's by design or a bug indeed. I'll implement a workaround for that in next update.

I probably will never has the chance to run into that particular usage (painting on a non-root static mesh inside a blueprint inside of a prefab) in my own project , so thanks a lot for reporting that issue to me.

[Denis.Korkh]

Thank you! It gives us a ton of confidence to see how responsive and active you are in continuing to make this tool better, we definitely appreciate it.

[emanuel.may]

Hi Nate, thanks for this handy tool! Unfortunately we ran into an ensure whenever we load the engine after we created a blueprint from a prefab. The ensure is in "SimpleConstructionScript.cpp:446" in 4.17. I think it mainly happens on child actors that use construction scripts themselves, but I am not sure yet. For now we commented the ensure out, as it does not seem to have much affect on the way the engine works, but it would be better if you'd take a look as well and maybe figure out why the blueprints trigger this ensure in the first place. I think it has something to do with actors getting renamed during the blueprint generation of your tool.

[Nate]

@emanuel.may,

Sorry for that ensure issue you ran into, I'll include a fix in next update, meanwhile you can open "PrefabTool\Source\PrefabAsset\Private\PrefabToolHelpers.cpp" and comment out line 5504. ( The "Update Blueprint" button in prefab detail panel could be used to re-generate the blueprint after re-build the plugin ).

5504:                    ChildNode->SetParent(*ParentNodePtr);

That line is only need for attaching child component/node to inherited/native component and will trigger the ensure (added after 4.16) check if the rule been violated.

Thanks a lot for reporting that issue!