How do I regain control of UI in UE4 after hitting Play button?

this is a newbie question i am following first example in docs where you build a simple house assign some materials add a few lights etc… anyway when i run process building there is no problems but when i hit play i get a red error message that’s says that some lights need to be rebuild problem is i have no idea on how to regain control of UI in UE4 i can navigate in editor but there is no mouse cursor and also some of lights icons still appear after process building, help i am new at this and would very much appreciate a response.

Thanks

You can hit escape to stop Play mode, or press Shift+F1 to regain mouse control from Play mode while it is running.

Hey Chez,

As ShinAli mentions, you can exit Play or Simulation mode by pressing Escape, or regain cursor by pressing Shift+F1.

You mention red text on screen telling you that lighting needs to be rebuilt. This happens when you move an Actor in level while you have a Static light in world, because it needs to re-bake shadows for moved Actor. Build button in Toolbar has a drop-down menu from which you can select Build Lighting Only. Do that before you hit Play and you shouldn’t see that error. You won’t be able to build lighting while game is running, though.

Does that answer your question?

yes it does but what about lights icons that still show up after process building ?

Do you mean icons in Viewport while editing? Those are there to show you where lights are in your level. They should not be there while you are playing.

If you’d like, you can choose to hide or resize those icons, which are called Sprites in UE4. To hide them, click Show button in Viewport and go to Sprites > Lighting. To resize them, you’ll need to select each one you want resized and in Details panel under Rendering, adjust Editor Billboard Scale.

Hope that helps!