Current Version 1.01 (17th Jan 2023)

rdBPtools is an Unreal Engine Plugin that resides in the Blueprint Editor Toolbar, the Content Browser Context Menu , the Blueprint Editor Component Context Menu and Hotkeys.

The tools provided focus on prefab like tools, allowing copying/moving actors to and from the level into Blueprints containing Component Actors with deep hierarchies which can be hidden or shown at run-time, optional optimized C++ Instanced Static Mesh conversion, generation and assimilation – and a sophisticated Randomization system.

rdBPtools is completely compatible with rdInst, a fast C++ Instanced Static Mesh Manager that speeds up editing large amounts of meshes and can optionally be included with your project to give high speed instanced meshes there too, or convert to your system of choice. There are Blueprint-only Actors included that do the same thing, so all bases are covered and you have access to all data that rdBPtools sets up.

Moving actors into BP’s in your levels can have the following advantages:

• Easy to migrate to other projects (retaining any settings you have made).
• Easy to move around in your level.
• Easy to duplicate as many times as you wish.
• Easy to change – change in one place, gets updated everywhere.
• Dynamically move Blueprint at runtime. e.g. have just one room in the level and move it to where it’s wanted.
• Easy to optimize.
• Easy to control via Blueprint or C++ (e.g. show/hide sections).
• Easy to Randomize. (including per-instance random material data)
• Easy to convert to a StaticMesh.

The tools provided have been designed to make it as quick and easy to do your work as possible, and with the least amount of mouse movement, mouse clicks and key presses.

There are usually menus not far from where you are working – and the tools can be assigned hotkeys, if you’re working in the Blueprint Editor or have run a tool from the Content Browser, then settings are made as the objects default settings – using those tools on actors in your level, or from the Details Panel outliner – those settings are saved in the instances of those actors.

Settings Windows have custom defaults that you can set, and thoughtful defaults.

With the Hierarchical system built into rdBPtools, you can easily Show and Hide folders of actors in your Blueprints – including Instanced Static Meshes. It’s simple to start your BP hidden (or it’s inside actors hidden), and trigger the showing of the actors from some event such as a door opening. Note these are not soft references, they will have been loaded at startup, but when hidden, their meshes, physics and textures are not resident in VRAM – this can be a great way to pseudo-stream – slightly more overhead but less “Streaming Glitches”.

Take your optimization to the next level – if you’re wanting to have millions of rooms (for example) – just create the inside of your room in the blueprint and have just one in the level – opening doors or triggering boxes can dynamically move that blueprint to the correct place and randomize – Populate whole cities worth of rooms in your levels!

At any stage you can convert your Blueprints back to Actors in the Level – if you have randomization settings, the Actors store them as tags, so you won’t loose them if you convert back to a Blueprint later.

At any stage you can also convert your complete Blueprints to Static Meshes – This allows you to use our powerful Randomization system to create randomly placed assets from within the editor, then convert them to Meshes for Nanite.

Of course, the tools provided by rdBPtools are just the beginning – they give You an excellent Blueprint system which you can derive from and create your own features on top.

The Blueprints can be nested into other Blueprints in pretty much any way, this gives an incredibly powerful procedural system. Check out rdBuildBuddy and rdBeacons.