[Request] Ability to go to script to see code behind when browsing components in blueprint scripts through EventGraph

For example, I can see the class and all of the available functions in the list palette, bit I would like to be able to
browser to, or at least open in Visual Studio, those classes.

Blueprint is excellent for visually scripting functionality, but I think the next step would be able to hard code it, and this could really assist
with that.

I’m assuming that the Blueprints are generating code somewhere. How/where can I access this underlying code?

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi Dave,

When you create a blueprint it becomes a uasset file that is located wherever you created it. The level blueprint is kept in the umap file. You can technically edit them through visual studio or any text editor. Personally, I have never attempted to hard code via text editing these files. I hope that this helps.

-Alexander

Thanks Alexander, that clarifies things for me.

I realized the other day that I could also see the .cpp file attached to the blueprint.

In Unity there is the ability to see the actual code within the Unity UI, as well as the ability to right click → open in IDE (Visual Studio or MonoDevelop). It would be wonderful to have either of these features added to Rocket as well.

Hey Dave,

I went ahead and added a feature request to be able to open blueprints for code editing from the editor. Thank for the great idea! If there is anything else you’d like to see in Rocket, let us know.

Thanks,

Alexander

Thanks!

And to further clarify what I was talking abut when I mentioned viewing code within the GUI, here’s a screen cap from Unity:

I’ve referenced this support question in the report, so they will be able to see these additional details.

Just to clarify - this would be a feature that would jump you to the source for a Blueprint-exposed C++ function. As you do not get source for the engine, this would not work on most of our functions, but would work for C++ functions you write yourself and then expose to Blueprints. Does that sound helpful?

Oh, absolutely. It greatly streamlines work, especially if it is just my code, as I can just double click (or whatever) and go immediately to my variables, rather than constantly opening VS and sifting through my project folders to find the same file.

In addition, the ability to see the code on the same screen as where it is being executed (that is, in the Rocket viewport) is extremely helpful.

Ah jumping to variable declarations as well makes sense. If you don’t have source for the function, we could jump to its declaration instead.

It is not really possible to ‘embed’ a Visual Studio source window inside our editor, and I think it would not be helpful to show you the source in our own text window without being in a good environment to edit it. I think we want to direct people to VS, as that is the best way to view and edit code for UE4.

If I open a .uasset or a .umap file in a text editor I just see a bunch of garbage. Am I doing something wrong? I’m more of a programmer than a designer and not being able to audit what is happening in the code behind the blueprint is a huge deal breaker as I try to determine which engine to use in the future. As an example, I was just following along with this tutorial video and in the blueprint graph editor (at around 3:50) he tries casting an object to a particular type and if it works he moves on. I want to ensure there’s not an unnecessary try catch statement here because that is what it sounds like is happening. As far as I can tell, I can not do this. Am I wrong? Will this be changing in the near future?