WTF Is? Data Asset in Unreal Engine 4 ( UE4 )

What is a Data Asset in Unreal Engine 4.

[dbarr]

When you are creating your Data Asset class if you inherit from Primary Data Asset instead of Data Asset it becomes Blueprint friendly and you don't have to worry about C++. Good video! Great info!

[argosbrave]

This tutorial was more effective at explaining Data Assets than the 3 official Epic talks on the ARPG sample project combined. Godspeed to you sir!

[MarcoMariaRossiArte]

I managed to make this fully work using blueprint:


Step one: Create a Blueprint from the "PrimaryDataAsset" class, set whatever values you want in here
Step two: Right-click> misc >create data asset file and assign the previously created PDA asset
Step three: In whatever blueprint you want, create a new "PrimaryDataAsset" object reference and compile
Step four: select your Data asset from the drop-down list
Step five: From here you can do whatever you want with it, you can read variables, you can set them and they will stay like that


I hope you find this helpful!

[MathewWadsteinTutorials]

Thanks for the feedback and mentioning that yes you can create a "Primary Data Asset" derived class to use as a Data Asset parent in the editor to skip the C++ part =) This does work for the basic Data Asset abilities such as getting variables from them and calling functions. The downside I can see to this is as of this time, version 4.22, you cannot get these BP derived Data Assets to show up properly in the Asset Manager which removes some of the usefulness =( If anyone does know the proper way to get them to show up properly in Asset Manager alongside other C++ Derived Data Assets I would be more than happy to make a follow up video showing how to completely skip over the C++ part of this requirement. This video took so long to actually come out due to me hoping they would eventually remove the C++ requirement but I have yet to figure that part out.

[dreamrider]

this video just saved me from going crazy, didn't know that I had to update project settings for these to work; I was even starting to copy paste script by script the action RPG template just because I couldn't get the data asset to work on my own project, now I can continue working on it normally. Thank you very much

[bd_dev]

Sir, thank you for these WTF vids. They are incredibly informative and simple to follow for beginners like me.

[geniuspancake]

I just want to thank you for this. Perfectly understood what it does and what's it uses are.

[SpikeTheSpiker]

For anyone wondering why they can't make a variable with the type of your new Data Asset, you need to make sure the Uclass is "UCLASS(BlueprintType)"
When you make one it doesn't do this by default and while you can't make a DA in the new type, you can't make a variable of that type without this.

[tematoscybersage]

thank you Milord for great explanation🙇‍♂

[angrybonobro]

Your channel is awesome, thanks for doing this for the community =)

[koaku]

You can do this in Blueprint you can use a PrimaryDataAsset

[curtisnewton]

as mentioned below, you cant have a DataAsset variable type, so use Primary Data Asset for the base class

[ShereefHisham]

This really did help me a lot .. Thanks man

[FrancoSciaraffia]

At first I was like "Why not use a data only blueprint, or a Data Table?" and then I realized this is embedded into the whole Asset Manager System and it made sense!
I definitely need to read up on that. It was introduced in 4.17 if I recall correctly. Has a ton of cool features any "real" game should be using.

[goldennboy]

Thanks man! I've been using structs and datatables before I learned about this >_<

[noname-wr]

the way you say " That contains DATA... " Freaks me out :D

[simonesc]

really nice video, thanks. Super usefull!

[rudyh]

You had be clear at 1:34, so it's possible to write in a data asset variable 2:30 ??
I try to figure out how applying damage to an Enemy's baseHP variable ?
Anyway data asset look super usefull ! Thank you !

[commandertash]

Question: There is the way to create DataAssets without any Code (described below). Are there any drawbacks if not using C++?
Method to create DataAssets:
If I rightclick in the Content Browser and create new Blueprint and search for the Class PrimaryDataAsset, I can create a PrinmaryDataAsset. When opening it like a normal Blueprint I can specifie it's default Variables. Then, if I go under Miscellaneous I can select the just created PrimaryDataAsset. There is no C++ involved in the process. Am I missing any drawbcks?

[RolyPolyGames]

The github link to this no longer seems to be working.