Master Unreal Engine: Understanding Hard and Soft References

In this video, we'll be exploring the concept of hard and soft references in Unreal Engine. We'll be looking at how loading times can be improved by using hard references, and how memory usage can be reduced by using soft references.

If you're new to Unreal Engine or are looking to improve your game performance, this video is for you! By the end of this video, you'll have a better understanding of how hard and soft references work and be able to apply this knowledge to your own projects.

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00:00 Whats the difference?
00:15 Example
01:01 Why this matters
02:00 Recommendations
02:25 Converting Hard to Soft pointer
05:49 Soft References in C++
09:44 Casts = References
12:24 Wrapping it up

[DanGoodayleUnreal]

Trying something a little different, instead of a disembodied voice talking I wanted to have something on screen that was a bit more interesting to watch than whatever my mouse was pointing at. This was an experiment so let me know if it's working or not, if it's distracting / getting in the way from what I'm talking about let me know 😶

[SphealIcecream]

I recently got asked about this during a job interview! Thanks for covering it!

[acesonfire]

I have been about to pull my hair out trying to wrap my mind around this, I have probably watched close to 30 different videos attempting to explain this concept. Yours is the one that finally made me get it. Thank you.

[draftdrifter]

Great video. I love the fact that you show both blueprints and C++. Hope you continue making more!:)

[Daniel-becj]

This is great, I had changed some skeletal meshes I wanted to load to a soft reference but they weren't loading, the async load node was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[xultix]

Just saying Thanks for these kinds of videos, definitely things I wasn't really thinking about as I started dabbling in unreal engine again so always good to know and expand my knowledge!

[ThadeousM]

I'm just starting out and so far all the info I've coming into contact with suggest going straight to BP Interfaces rather that Casting so thank to folks like yourself for continuing the convo

[CRL]

Great video Dan, I've recommended it to my team 😊

[loumzhz]

your video is greatest i've seen a couple of them and i've learned so much. Expecting for your gameplay ability series~

[unreal_metronomus]

Earned a sub. Really very well explained, thanks a lot!

[eduard]

Briliant! Thank you so much for this particular video. After reading 5 pages long articles full of water with as much sense as "games made with Unreal Engine use RAM", it makes me uneasy, that the concept of hard/soft references technically could be explained in one sentence lol I've recommended this video to all my fellow UE devs just in case hehe

[draicor]

This video was amazing, thank you mate

[SuperLordee]

Thank you for this video this was extremly helpful since you also showed in C++!

[alexkulev]

Very clear explanation. Gonna use this video every time I need to pitch the necessity of the soft refs to designers :D

[libertarianterminator]

I was trying to get my head around using triggers in my VR project and I saw the notes that said casting is taxing. This video explained neatly how to do it right. Thank god I found this before I implemented too many features! Keep making videos about UE, you are great!

[vinreals]

A few spots that are not correct. Objects loaded through soft references won't stay in memory forever. If there is no hard reference pointing to that object, Garbage collection will step in and delete that object. That's why you don't see soft references get unloaded in source code.

Loading assets synchronously is not always bad. That's where the loading screen comes in. Lyra uses it extensively to load in crucial assets for the shooter core.

[ReubenAStern]

C++ eh?! That's gonna make me subscribe!! For some reason every Windows IDE I use works for a while then tells me all my code failed. But I'll get back to learning C++ one day.

[Whiskeysim]

Good video, but you should check your audio levels. I had to crank my volume to like 85% just to be able to hear you. My average volume sits at 6% if that gives you an idea.

[ethanwasme]

Something else i'm trying to tackle before scaling is circular dependencies

[mangarookie]

Hey Dan thanks a lot for the tutorial. I have a little question thou. When I async load a soft class reference, do I not need to get the handle and unload/cancel it? Also what will happen if I async load a soft class reference in a struct?