Referencing Assets

Components and scripts point at assets so they can use them, a mesh component points at a Static Mesh, a script spawns a prefab by path. There are two ways to hold a reference.

Hard vs soft references

• A hard reference loads its target right away, as soon as the owner loads. The asset fields on components (a mesh slot, a material slot) are hard references. Use them for content the owner always needs.
• A soft reference is just a path that resolves only when you ask for it. It does not force the asset to load. Use soft references for content you load on demand, a level you might travel to, an effect you spawn occasionally.

In components

When a component has an asset field, the Details panel shows an asset picker. Drag an asset onto it from the Content Browser, or click to choose one. The picker only accepts assets of the right type, a mesh slot will not take a sound.

In scripts

Reference and load assets from C# by content path.

// Load now, typed.
CStaticMesh? Mesh = Asset.Load<CStaticMesh>("/Game/Content/Meshes/Crate");

// Load in the background; the callback runs on the game thread once.
Asset.LoadAsync<CStaticMesh>("/Game/Content/Meshes/Crate", Loaded =>
{
    // use Loaded here
});

For an editor-pickable, serializable reference, use a FSoftObjectPath or TSoftObjectPtr<T> [Property] field and resolve it on demand, a path that isn’t loaded until you ask for it. See Scripting › Reference.

Renaming and moving

References survive renaming and moving assets. Scripts and UI files are tracked by a stable id stored in a small .lmeta file beside them, so a reference keeps working after you rename its target. For other assets, the asset registry keeps the path-to-asset mapping current. You are free to reorganize your content folders.