Actor Overview

The Actor Classes Browser

The Actor Classes Browser is used to add anything from Decorations, to event-driven special effects (Triggers) to your level. To bring up the Actor Classes Browser:

• click the button labled "browsers #1" on the toolbar
• or do UnrealEd Main Menu → View → Actor Class Browser.

How To Insert Actors

The first step is to select an item in the Actor Classes Browser. Then in one of the UnrealEd Viewports, do:

• Viewport Context Menu → Add <selected actor> here

In a 3D viewport the actor will appear near the surface that was right-clicked. In a 2D view, UnrealEd will take the third coordinate to be 0 and may refuse to place the actor in solid space. More: Add An Actor.

Other Actor Techniques

Duplicate Actor

Do Actor Context Menu → Duplicate to create an exact copy of the actor near to the original.

Make Current

Do Actor Context Menu → Make Current to make that actor's class the new selected class in the Classes Browser.

Copy/Paste

If you select an Actor and press CTRL+C, a copy will be placed on the clipboard. This can be pasted into the same map or another, but note that UnrealEd often takes a long time to process a paste command. It can also be pasted into a text editor, where only the properties that have changed from defaults for that actor will be shown. This is very useful for understanding how other mappers have achieved an effect. This copy can be pasted in maps, but this feature can cause errors in your map and is not recommended. – not had any problems with this myself. —Tarquin

Import/Export Actors

see Data Import And Export

Snap to grid

Make any actor snap to the grid by setting its Advanced → bEdShouldSnap property to True

Superimposed actors

if two actors need to be in the exact same location, set Display → Drawscale of first one you placed there to something larger than default. You'll get a big icon with the smaller, newer actor on top, and can thus select either easily.

Actor Properties

The huge list of properties each actor has may seem daunting at first. The large majority of them are common to all actor classes. They fall under the following property groups:

Advanced

Contains deep technical mojo. Some of these are handy for mappers, eg bEdShouldSnap makes the actor snap to the grid. See Actor/Advanced.

Collision

Determines the size and behaviour of the Collision Cylinder – for something like a Trigger, this sets the "listening" area. See Actor/Collision.

Display

Things relating to the actor's display. Skin textures and sizes of models, for example. See Actor/Display.

Events

Holds just two properties, which determine how what actors trigger and what they are triggered by. See Event for an overview, and Actor/Events for technicals.

Filter

Determines under what cicumstances the actor should appear (eg single player, net game, etc ). See Actor/Filter?.

Lighting, LightColor

These two groups set the light-emitting properties of the actor. This includes light colour, brightness, effects and fog. See Actor/Lighting.

Movement

Holds things like rotation, but also an actor's location. See Actor/Movement.

Networking

See Actor/Networking?.

Object

The actor's name and class, which aren't editable, and its InitialState property.

Sound

Sets properties for the actor's ambient sound. See Actor/Sound.

Related Topics

• Reference for the UnrealEd Interface
• Toolbar reference
• Actor Properties Window
• Category Tutorial

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Category Mapping