Storing typed elements in UObjects can easily lead to reference leaks if the elements aren't cleared prior to the UObject being left pending GC. This actually made UTypedElementList tricky to use, as you had to remember to manually empty it when you'd finished with it to avoid reference leaks, and we've had several cases now where that was done incorrectly.
To address this issue, we've moved element lists back to being a normal C++ class, FTypedElementList. However, unlike the original version of FTypedElementList (which was itself a UStruct), this version is always heap-allocated and referenced via a TSharedPtr/TSharedRef.
This gives us a nice middle-ground of a well defined lifetime (ie, no lingering references prior to GC) while still being efficient to pass around, including for scripting APIs via FTypedElementListProxy (which just wraps the TSharedPtr in a UStruct).
The downside of this approach is that we need to wrap the FTypedElementList functions that we want to expose to the scripting API (see UTypedElementListLibrary), however that is a far more reasonable burden than requring every user of the typed element framework to know and understand that UTypedElementList had to be manually cleared to avoid potentially hard to find reference leaks (especially if via leaked via scripting APIs).
The core of this change is to TypedElementList.h/.cpp, with TypedElementListFwd.h existing to forward declare the pointer types, and TypedElementListProxy.h and TypedElementListLibrary.h existing to declare the proxy type and wrapped functions used for scripting APIs. TypedElementSelectionInterface.h (and its implementations) provide an example of using FTypedElementListProxy within a scripting API, and the rest of the change is mostly just fallout to transform const UTypedElementList* to FTypedElementListConstRef and UTypedElementList* to FTypedElementListRef.
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#preflight 60d2720c634cd100016c804b
[CL 16776547 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
Previously we relied on element implementations to know what their parent or child elements might be, and to deal with them correctly in the following cases:
1) When "normalising" a selection to be safe for operations like a move or delete, eg) removing elements that are children of other selected elements.
2) When deleting an element, also ensuring that any implicitly destroyed child elements were deselected, eg) deleting an ISM component that has selected static mesh instances.
This approach hurts the modularity of the elements themselves, as it requires that the element implementations have intrinsic knowledge of any other child (or parent) element types that may exist, and to deal with them accordingly when needed. As a concrete example, an ISM component may have child elements in the form of static mesh instance elements, however the generic component element type does not (and should not) directly know that static mesh instance elements exist.
To address this issue, we've added a new interface, UTypedElementHierarchyInterface, which can be used to provide information about the logical parent<->child hierarchy information of elements. This is implemented as follows for our current element types:
- Actor:
- GetParentElement returns an invalid element handle.
- GetChildElements returns the element handles of any components on the actor.
- Component:
- GetParentElement returns its owner actor element handle.
- GetChildElements returns nothing by default, but UActorComponent::GetComponentChildElements may be overridden to control this behavior.
- eg) UInstancedStaticMeshComponent overrides it to return its static mesh instance element handles.
- SMInstance:
- GetParentElement returns its owner ISM component element handle.
- GetChildElements returns nothing.
Now the problems listed above can be solved by using this interface instead of relying on the element implementations:
1) Selection normalization is now handled by UTypedElementSelectionSet, replacing the previous duplicate implementations of UTypedElementCommonActions and UTypedElementViewportInteraction.
2) UTypedElementSelectionSet will now walk and also update the selection state of child elements, when asked to via the FTypedElementSelectionOptions.
Breaking Changes:
- UTypedElementCommonActions::GetElementsForAction and UTypedElementViewportInteraction::GetSelectedElementsToMove have been removed, in favor of using the selection normalization functions of UTypedElementSelectionSet.
- Note: You may still favor using FLevelEditorViewportClient::GetElementsToManipulate, as it will have removed normalized elements that also cannot be moved by a gizmo.
- UTypedElementCommonActions::DeleteElements and UTypedElementCommonActions::DuplicateElements have been removed, as these functions operated on an unnormalized selection and could be unsafe. UTypedElementCommonActions::DeleteNormalizedElements and UTypedElementCommonActions::DuplicateNormalizedElements should be used instead.
- AGroupActor::ForEachActorInGroup and AGroupActor::ForEachMovableActorInGroup now take a second AGroupActor* argument in their callback.
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#preflight 60ca33a678c3b00001e8f5df
[CL 16705229 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
The editor viewport would previously skip the GizmoManipulationStopped call if nothing had actually moved, but this causes an imbalance in the APIs which call NotifyMovementStarted and NotifyMovementEnded.
GizmoManipulationStopped is now always called, but with an extra argument saying if anything actually moved.
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#preflight 60aeb2de1db8a70001cbe077
[CL 16537833 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
Add implementation for it in the skeletal mesh editor.
#jira none
#rb brooke.hubert, louise.rasmussen
#preflight 609ae9244cb9400001cbe879
[CL 16305022 by halfdan ingvarsson in ue5-main branch]
This was to optimize selecting groups, but we've handled this case elsewhere by just skipping the group logic if the group is already in the list of things that we've processed. This applies that approach to getting the elements to move.
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15890607 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v786-15839533)
[CL 15890762 by jamie dale in ue5-main branch]
This means it can also be used by the InteractiveToolsFramework, and makes sense as the type has Engine dependencies in its API
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#rnx
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15668129 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v779-15635321)
[CL 15668794 by jamie dale in ue5-main branch]
Also fixed a bug where the ISM component was not rebuilding render data when using the placement subsystem.
#Jira UE-109265
#rb jamie.dale
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15528418 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v771-15082668)
[CL 15528424 by brooke hubert in ue5-main branch]
Each group actor is now only enumerated once at the end, rather than once for each selected actor within a group
#jira UE-108343
#rb Brooke.Hubert
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15475127 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v771-15082668)
[CL 15475131 by jamie dale in ue5-main branch]
* Tweak after placement in world and local space using standard level editor gizmos.
* Removed Single place tool settings. Since we're using the TRS gizmos, these settings are unnecessary.
* Moved cycle through palette to shift + right click to match other viewport functions (i.e. cycling static mesh previews).
* Placement mode now inherits from default ed mode, so we will get the new gizmos as they come online.
* Fixed a bug in the select tool where the input was never making it back to the viewport for handling.
* Fixed a bug in the ITF Editor hooks where the mouse capture was incorrectly reporting and eating the input from the viewport.
#Jira UE-107395
[at]jamie.dale
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15464701 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v771-15082668)
[CL 15466468 by brooke hubert in ue5-main branch]
* Preview actor to visualize placement.
* Ctrl + click to rotate to another item in the palette and regenerate rotation and scale.
* Configurable normal axis alignment.
Also fixed a crash on exiting the mode due to lingering mode toolkit references in the level editor.
#Jira UE-107395
[at]jamie.dale [at]chris.gagnon
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15449338 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v771-15082668)
[CL 15454762 by brooke hubert in ue5-main branch]
This defers the actual destruction of the element until the end of the frame (or until UTypedElementRegistry::ProcessDeferredElementsToDestroy is called), or until GC runs (unless auto-GC destruction has been disabled).
This avoids firing the assert about dangling references that can be caused by transient typed elements lingering on the stack during an operation that leads to a typed element being destroyed.
#rb Brooke.Hubert, Chris.Gagnon
#rnx
#ROBOMERGE-SOURCE: CL 15371449 in //UE5/Release-5.0-EarlyAccess/...
#ROBOMERGE-BOT: STARSHIP (Release-5.0-EarlyAccess -> Main) (v771-15082668)
[CL 15371457 by jamie dale in ue5-main branch]
This lets UTypedElementSelectionSet (which has minimal dependencies) to be used by the Engine and InteractiveToolsFramework modules
#rb Brooke.Hubert
[CL 15219316 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
SActorDetails now operates on a given UTypedElementSelectionSet (removing its dependence on the global selection), and also operates based on the list of selected top-level elements rather than the selected actors.
UTypedElementDetailsInterface provides the interface needed for an element to be used with the details panel, with ITypedElementDetailsObject being the underlying glue object.
The ITypedElementDetailsObject instance will exist as long as the details panel is using it, so gives a lifetime to potentially synthesized UObject instances that are created purely for editing (eg, on instances).
This change removes almost all direct use of UpdateFloatingPropertyWindowsFromActorList, with only a single use-case in the reference viewer remaining.
Most code was already using UpdateFloatingPropertyWindows anyway, which now emits an extra OnElementSelectionChanged event in addition to its previous OnActorSelectionChanged event.
UpdateFloatingPropertyWindowsFromActorList now only emits an OnOverridePropertyEditorSelection event and no longer emits an OnActorSelectionChanged event.
SActorDetails is updated from both OnElementSelectionChanged and OnOverridePropertyEditorSelection, with the OnActorSelectionChanged event remaining for backwards compatability with existing code.
#jira
#rb Chris.Gagnon, Brooke.Hubert
[CL 15037524 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
This is equivalent to calling ClearSelection then SelectElements, but happens in a single batch.
#rb Brooke.Hubert
[CL 14891193 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
# FActorFactoryAssetProxy uses the placement subsystem first to try to place a new actor.
# Existing UActorFactory implementations added to the subsystem and hooked up to the placement API
#Jira UE-98159
#Jira UE-98161
#review-14836149
#rb chris.gagnon jamie.dale
[CL 14847312 by brooke hubert in ue5-main branch]
This involved splitting and converting several UUnrealEdEngine functions to no longer operate on or manipulate the current selection set:
- edactCopySelected:
- Split into CopyComponents and CopyActors, which take an array of components and actors to copy rather than use the selection state.
- Breaking: If a DestinationData is provided, it is now used *instead of* the clipboard rather than *as well as* the clipboard.
- In practice nothing seemed to rely on this old method, and in fact some places stashed and restored the clipboard data to workaround it!
- edactPasteSelected:
- Split into PasteComponents and PasteActors, which now returns an array of components or actors that were pasted rather than make them the active selection.
- Note: PasteActors does still update the selection via FactoryCreateText, but we restore it again afterwards.
- edactDuplicateSelected:
- Split into DuplicateComponents and DuplicateActors, which take an array of components or actors to duplicate, and also returns an array of components or actors that were created.
The "edact" versions still use and update the selection state when calling into the internal functions, but the typed element layer does not, and handles duplication via UEngineElementsLibrary::DuplicateElements and UTypedElementWorldInterface, with the level editor viewport handling updating the selection state afterwards.
#rb Brooke.Hubert, Chris.Gagnon
[CL 14838341 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
The following options from the actor viewport menu are now elemenent based:
- Snap/Align (excluding layers)
- Delta Transform
- Mirror X/Y/Z
#rb Brooke.Hubert
[CL 14830849 by Jamie Dale in ue5-main branch]
