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Using the Level Visibility Track

Example of how to control the visibility of a Level.

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There may be times when you want to toggle the visibility of entire Levels during your sequences. You can do so with the Level Visibility Track by setting Levels to either Visible or Hidden within Sequencer. This does not stream in/out the level but sets all the content within the level to either Visible or Hidden.

In this example we create two very small levels with unique content and toggle the visibility of those levels during our cinematic.

Steps

For this how-to, we are using the Blueprint Third Person Template with Starter Content enabled.

  1. Inside your project in the Content Browser , Right-click and create two Levels named Level01 and Level02 .

    Visibility01.png

  2. Open Level01 , then in the viewport click the ViewMode drop-down and select Unlit

    Visibility02.png

    This will make it easier to see the items that we place in the level since there are no lights.

  3. From the Content Browser under Content/StarterContent/Architecture drag the SM_AssetPlatform into the level.

    Visibility03.png

  4. From the Content Browser under Content/StarterContent/Props drag the SM_Chair into the level.

    Visibility04.png

  5. Save the level, then open the Level02 level and drag a Wall_Door_400x300 into the level.

    Visibility05.png

  6. Drag the Floor_400x400 (or any other assets) into the level as shown below.

    Visibility07.png

    The content we are added are for example purposes to distinguish Level 01 from Level 02. Feel free to add your own content!

  7. In the Content Browser under Content/ThirdPersonBP/Maps open the ThirdPersonExampleMap and set the viewport to Lit .

    Visibility08.png

  8. From the Menu Bar, select Window then select Levels .

    Visibility09.png

  9. Click the Levels drop-down menu then select Add Exisiting... .

    Visibility10.png

    We need to add which levels we want to affect with the Level Visibility Track.

  10. In the Open Level window point to your Level01 then repeat the process and add Level02 .

    Visibility11.png

  11. Hold Shift and click on each level, then Right-click and change the Streaming Method to Always Loaded .

    Visibility12.png

    This will allow us to selectively turn on/off each level with Sequencer's Visibility Track.

  12. Right-click on the Persistent Level and select Make Current .

    Visibility13.png

    Our Levels are now set and we can jump into Sequencer and use our Level Visibility Track to affect them.

    Please see the World Composition User Guide for more information on Level Streaming.

  13. From the Toolbar, click Cinematics and Add Level Sequence .

    Visibility14.png

  14. In Sequencer, click the Add button and add the Level Visibility Track .

    Visibility15.png

  15. On the Level Visibility Track, click the Visibility Trigger button and add two Visible and two Hidden tracks.

    Visibility16.png

  16. Right-click on the top-most Visible track, then under Properties click the + for Level Names and enter Level01 .

    Visibility17.png

    The Level Names field is where we define what level we want to affect, which we set to Level01 for this track.

  17. Repeat the previous step for the second Visible track, but use Level02 instead.

  18. For the two Hidden tracks, set one of the Level Names to Level01 and the other to Level 02 then arrange as shown below.

    Visibility18.png

    Above, the top-most tracks are pertaining to Level01 where we move from Visible to Hidden. The bottom two tracks pertain to Level02 where we start out Hidden then move to Visible .

    You may not see your items in the level, used the WASD keys and check under the level.

    Visibility19.png

    The location where they appear when streamed in is based on the location they are placed in their corresponding levels. You can select the level streamed in Actors like you can any other Actor and manipulate them with the

    [**Transform Tools**](Basics/Actors/ManipulatingActors)
    .

  19. Use the preview Play button for the Sequencer Editor to play the Level Sequence.

End Result

The items placed in Level 01 will appear in the Persistent Level before disappearing at which point the items placed in Level 02 appear.

We also dragged the Level Sequence asset into the Level and enabled the Auto Play option so that we could use the Play in Editor option.

One thing to keep in mind with using the Level Visibility Track is that while you can toggle whether or not a level and its assets are hidden or visible, it does not unload or load levels as each level still sits in memory and is either rendered or not rendered based on the setting you choose.

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