It’s been a while since my last one of these blogs so I thought it was about time to get back to it!
Today I wanted to share a bunch of tips and tricks relating to speeding up using blueprints that I’ve learned over my time with the Unreal Engine. This list is more about smaller time savers that can help you speed up tasks that you do a lot, aiming to save you a bunch of time over time. So lets get to it. Here is a list of my 10 favourite:
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DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN…
#01 - IS VALID, IN A SINGLE NODE
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Why Useful: Instead of multiple nodes to check if something is valid, you can actually use a single node. Right-click on its out pin and choose Convert To Validated Get. I like this because it keeps things clean, organised, and using fewer nodes is faster. This is the first Quick Dev Tip I wrote about and it’s still one of my favourite and most used.
#02 - Pin Splitting
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Why Useful: You can split any pin that is actually a struct of values. Examples are Vectors, Rotators, Linear Colours and many more. Do it by right-clicking on one of these pins and selecting Split Struct Pin. This speeds things up because you need fewer nodes (you no longer need the “break”/ “Make” nodes) and it has the added benefit of helping you keep things clean and organised as well.
#03 - Quick Variables
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Why Useful: Normally to make a get/set variable you drag it out from the variable list to your blueprint graph where it brings up a little menu and you have to pick to Get or Set. However you can do this in less clicks. If you Hold Ctrl while dragging and releasing onto the event graph you will shortcut make a GET node. If you Hold Alt while dragging and dropping, you will make a SET variable. This can save you a few clicks on a task that you probably do a lot and so can save you a bunch of time over time.
#04 - Quick MAKE PINS
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Why Useful: You can quickly create pins that are of the right type and can be named roughly what you need (based on the variable you pull onto them). It’s simple to do. Just pull out of a variable onto the custom event or function. Make sure to check out my video/blog to get examples of how to do this and of where I use this in my day to day.
#05 - Quick Align
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Why Useful: You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly align your blueprint nodes. For example, highlighting several nodes and pressing Q will straighten the nodes based on the connection wires. I like this because I think an organised blueprint graph is easier to read and so faster to use. Check out the video or the blogpost for the full list of align commands you can use.
#06 - Event To Function & Function To Event
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Why Useful: You can quickly change a chunk of blueprint code between being a Function and an Event and vis versa (Only works in 4.26 onwards). It has some limitations but it usually works pretty smoothly. It can definitely save you some time and reduce the clicks you need to do things by a lot.
#07 - Move Variable to parent
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Why Useful: You can easily move a variable from a child blueprint into its parents in just a few clicks (Only available 4.26 onwards). Before I found out about this functionality, it was always an annoying thing to move a variable up into the parent, so this was a game changer. Just right-click on a variable in a child blueprint (via the variable list) and choose Move to Parent Class, simple!
#08 - Store Blueprint Graph Positions
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Why Useful: This works in a similar way to bookmarking camera positions in your viewport, if you have ever used that. You can store positions in your blueprint graph and quickly switch between them. It’s particularly useful if have a busy/messy blueprint where you often find yourself needing to move between a few key areas. Hold Ctrl + a number to set a bookmark then Hold Shift + a number to move quickly to that location. Check out my video for examples of it in action.
#09 - Delete Node Keep Connection
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Why Useful: When you delete a node if you Hold Shift as you press Delete you will delete the node but keep the connection that was going through it. Again, this is only a small thing but I really like it as it saves you having to spend time clicking to reconnect the wires!
#10 - Blueprint Keyboard shortcuts
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Why Useful: Keyboard shortcuts in any program can save you a bunch of time and it’s no different when using blueprints. There are a whole host of ones I use every day. One of my favourites for example is holding F then left-clicking on the event graph which creates a Wildcard For Each Loop. Check out my video or the blogpost for the full list of the ones you can create!
