rdInst Tutorial 6.4 – Prefab Proxies
Last Updated: 9th May 2025
Project Created with rdInst version 1.50
Prefab Proxies are similar to the default Instance Proxies, but the whole prefab blueprint (usually built from many instanced meshes) is swapped for the interactive actor on proximity.
In this tutorial we are going to create a House Prefab – up until now the tutorials have used simplistic assets, but this tutorial is going to use a game ready house from the Prophaus Residential Houses collection (volume 2).
This tutorial also uses rdBPtools to create the prefabs.
If you don’t have this pack, you’ll need to create the project as described rather than use the download project, substituting the assets with your own.
If you do have the pack, you can migrate it to your new project or to the downloaded tutorial project and use it from there.
Step 1. Create a new FirstPerson Project
Create a new project based on the FirstPerson Template.
Step 2. Add the Residential Houses Volume 2 to the project
Add the Residential Houses Volume 2 to the project. If you don’t have this pack, you can use any modular house pack.
Step 3. Create a new Level and add a default Landscape
Add a new level, then add a Landscape using the default settings to it.
Step 4. Drag the House07 Blueprint into the Level and move to level
Drag the House07 Blueprint from ResidentialHouses/Houses02 into the level.
Then right-click on it and in the rdBPtools section, select “Harvest Instances -> To Level”.
Once you’ve created the prefab you can remove the original House07 Blueprint from the level.
Step 5. Add a DepthFade to the Window Transparency
We want to change the window glass a little – by adding a CameraDepthFade we can reduce the opacity depending on the distance from the player – just so the empty inside bits don’t show through. Open MM_Glass in the Material Editor and add these nodes:
Step 6. Separate the Inside and Outside (skin) Meshes
Go through and select all the meshes visible from the outside of the house. These will be our skin proxy.
One way to make sure you select everything you need is to set the translate grid up to 2000 and move your selection away from the main house, looking for missing meshes – those can then be selected and moved over too. I also move the selection into it’s own folder so it can be easily worked on in the future if need be.
If you intend to also build a destroyed version of the prefab for destruction, you can also select just the base parts first, create a prefab for that – then select the rest of the outside for the skin.
Once you’ve separated them into their skin and inner folders, move them back in together.
Step 7. Add a shared Pivot Point for both prefabs
Now as we want both prefabs to have the same pivot point, we add a simple cube to the level and add a tag to it called “rdPivotPoint”.
Place the cube near the corner of the house, somewhere where the pivot tool will be most useful. Note that the pivot point is taken from the pivot point of the mesh used, so in the case of the cube, the center of it.
Step 8. Create the Outside (skin) prefab
Once you have all the skin meshes selected – and the PivotPoint mesh, go ahead and “Create Blueprint from Selection”. This prefab is our skin prefab, shown until the player is in close proximity to the house. Use the default settings when creating.
The Skin prefab is what will be scanned for proximity swapping – so once we’ve created the prefab, open it in the Blueprint Editor (double click it) – we need to enable ProxyScanning for the prefab by ticking the “Scan for Proxy” tickbox in the details panel of the prefab.
Create a prefab on the interior meshes too – we’ll use 2 systems of swapping in the proxies, one hiding the skin prefab and showing the proxy prefab, the other doesn’t hide the skin and just shows the interior proxy.
When creating this prefab, also include the PivotPoint actor.
Once you’ve created the prefabs you can delete the house parts from the level.
Step 9. Create a new Blueprint for spawning the houses
Now we create a Blueprint to spawn the houses in the level – use rdActor as the parent and call it “BP_SpawnHouses”. Set the ActorMode for the rdActor to “None”.
Add a function called “SpawnHouses” and add the code below:
Note that we are hide hiding house skins on the left and just showing the inside proxy – but on the right we’re hiding the prefab and using the full house proxy – when you’ve added Door Blueprints, lights etc – this is the best way to go.
Now call that function from the BeginPlay event:
Add one to the level.
Step 10. Change the Mesh Collision settings
We want to be able to collide with the houses and walk into them, so we turn on collisions for the meshes.
Navigate to the ResidentialHousees/Meshes/Architecture_02 folder and add a filter for static meshes – then select them all, right click and select “Instance Settings” from the menu:
Change the Collision setting to “Collision Enabled”:
Step 11. Setup the Proxy management from the Level Blueprint
Now just select the “rdInstSettings” actor from the outliner and set up the Proxy values as below.
Step 12. Done – Play the level.
That’s it, now Play the level and walk into the houses – see how they seamlessly swap between the prefab and the proxy.