rdBPtools Tutorial 4.1 – Editing individual Instances
Last Updated: 11th December 2024
Tutorial created using rdBPtools version 1.40
Note: Instance selection was introduced to UE in version 5.0 so 4.27 doesn’t currently support it.
UE5.5.0 and 5.5.1 have bugs that prevent instances from being selected.
If the next few updates don’t address this I’ll change the editing system to work as Actors (which would then also work in 4.27)
Version 1.20 of rdBPtools introduces instance editing for both BP based prefabs and rdInst based prefabs.
You can turn on Instance Edit Mode, select each instance and transform in any way you wish.
How you activate Instance Edit Mode depends on if you’re using rdInst based Prefabs or BP based Prefabs. This tutorial walks through both ways.
These edits are saved locally to the Actor being edited – there is also an option to copy your edits back to the main Prefab Blueprint.
This tutorial will show creating a simple prefab (in both BP and rdInst) and then edit the instances within.
It uses a basic project containing the starter content.
Step 1. Open a Level with a rdBPtools Prefab in it (BP_ContainerBaseX)
Just load a level that you have created a prefab that you wish to edit. In this tutorial the prefab is just some assets from the starter content.
Add some of the meshes to your level, then create a prefab with them if you’re starting with a blank project.
Step 2. Enable Instance Edit Mode
Now right-click on the prefab in the level or in the outliner, and select the “Set PerInstance Editing” option.
This then deselects the prefab ready for you to start selecting and editing its instances.
These edits are saved into that instance of the prefab – you can edit each instance in the level in it’s own unique way.
Step 3. Edit the Prefab Instances
Now you can transform, duplicate, replace and remove instances from the Prefab instance.
Select any instance by clicking on it – you’ll get a transform gizmo in a similar way as selecting actors.
Right-Clicking on an instance opens a menu. You’ll see an rdBP section near the bottom – it has options to Duplicate, Remove, and Replace the selected instances. Don’t use alt+drag to duplicate instances (it only seems to partially work anyway) as it won’t record the changes in the prefab.
The Duplicate and Delete are pretty self-explanatory, the duplicated instances are created in the original instances transforms and the selection remains the same.
The Replace option allows you to replace the selected instances with a new mesh, selecting this tool opens this window:
Spawn Type: The way to spawn the mesh, either as a StaticMesh Component, an Instance or coming to a future update, a componentless mesh.
StaticMesh: The Mesh to use as the replacement.
Materials: Override any of the materials of the mesh from here.
Collision Type: The type of collision to use for the mesh.
Culling: The Start and End Culling values – these are for Instances, for the other types, the middle of the range of both these values is used.
ID: This is a custom ID that can be used to create an ISMC or HISMC specifically for this ID – this allows the same mesh and render settings to be used in separate Instance Components if you want to keep the instance count down in one.
Step 4. Exit Edit Mode
Once you’ve finished editing, you can exit Edit mode by right-clicking on an instance and choosing the “Exit Edit Mode” option
Alternatively, you can right-click on the actor in the World Outliner and choose the “Exit PerInstance Editing” from there.
Step 5. Save the changes to the actual Asset
It’s also possible to save your instance edits back into the main prefab asset. Follow Tutorial 4.3 to do this.
Step 6. Edit an rdInst based prefab
Now we’ll edit the instances of a rdInst prefab. These are easier to edit, there is no need to turn it on/off in the menu.
There is an option in the rdActor details called “Edit Instances” – just tick that when you want to edit, and untick after.
You can also update the main prefab asset in the same way as BP based ones (needs rdInst version 1.50).
