Load Asset BP node compiler error

Development Programming & Scripting
1

I’m using the Load Asset BP node. One of the parameters is an Asset ID. It has a little widget that allows you to browse for an asset, which I have done. This results in a compiler error:

Error The current value (/Game/Geometry/Meshes/1M_Cube.1M_Cube) of the ' Asset ' pin is invalid: 'Asset' must have an input wired into it ("by ref" params expect a valid input to operate on).

If I make a variable which holds the Asset ID, and connect that to the pin, it compiles fine.

Is this a bug or am I misusing this seemingly obvious UI?

2

My best guess is that the loaded asset is not internally managed by a smart pointer. So simply loading an asset without assigning its output to some variable may result in a memory leak. To prevent this from happening, users are required to reference that allocated block of memory.