Get a reference to C++ actor

[tonetechnician]

Hey community!

Hoping someone can give guidance on this, was struggling to understand this from the documentation.

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something but I thought I'd be able to get a handle to Unreal instantiated native cpp actors using the UCLASS macro with Blueprintable + BlueprintType specifiers similar to how we get access BP actors, but when trying this doesn't seem to work. For instance, the cpp actors here returns null. Is this expected behaviour?

I have a BP actor (created via editor using blueprint) and cpp create actor instantiated in my scene. I'm able to get a handle to the BP actor but I'm unable to get a handle to cpp actor.

My aim is to be able to invoke a function on the cpp actor if possible. Currently the only way to do this is to invoke a function via the BP actor which seems a bit unnecessary to me.

// cpp actor
#pragma once

#include "CoreMinimal.h"
#include "TestActor.generated.h"

UCLASS(BlueprintType, Blueprintable)
class ACppTestActor : public AActor
{
	GENERATED_BODY()
public:
	ATestActor(const FObjectInitializer& ObjectInitializer);

public:
	void TestFunction();
};

// C# code
  private static Actor BP_Actor;  // Made as an editor BP actor
  private static Actor CPP_TestActor; // Made as a cpp actor with UCLASS(BlueprintType, Blueprintable)

  public static void OnWorldBegin()
  {
      BP_Actor= World.GetActor<Actor>("BP_Actor");   // Return Unreal.Framework.Actor type able invoke custom events as expected
      TestActor = World.GetActor<Actor>("CPP_TestActor");  // Returns null
  }

Thanks!

[nxrighthere]

Make sure that the name of the actor is correct, labels in the outliner are often misleading, it should work as long as actor is instantiated in the world.

[tonetechnician]

Ah, thanks again @nxrighthere !

Indeed, the outliner misrepresented the ID name which had a "_1" appended to it. Hovering my mouse cursor over the label revealed this.

All seems to work as it should now.

I appreciate the response and help. Thanks for your work on this awesome tool!

[nxrighthere]

You are welcome.