SmartRefs
SmartRefs›Getting Started›Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

Stable

Asynchronously load an asset on demand in 3 simple steps.

Quick Start Guide

Follow these steps to load a soft-referenced asset without hitching your game.

Step-by-Step Setup#

Create a Soft Reference Variable

In your Character or Weapon Blueprint, add a new variable (e.g. SoftMeshRef). Set its type to Soft Object Reference > Static Mesh.

Place Async Load Smart Ref Node

In your Event Graph, right-click and add Async Load Smart Ref. Connect your SoftMeshRef variable to the Soft Reference pin.

Use Loaded Asset

Drag off the On Loaded exec pin to your mesh spawning or assignment logic. The Loaded Asset pin provides the ready-to-use mesh object!

Async Load Node Wiring
Click to expand
Visual Guide: Async Load Node Wiring
Non-Blocking Execution:

The rest of your game continues to render at 60+ FPS while SmartRefs streams the asset from disk in a background worker thread.