Pilot Actors in the Viewport

A look at how to Pilot/Lock Actors to the viewport camera for intuitive placement.

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Actor Piloting allows for the perspective Viewport camera to be used as a placement mechanism for Actors within your levels. Simply lock to a given Actor, position the view where you want that Actor to be placed, and then unlock. The position and orientation of the camera will be used to position the given Actor.

Piloting an Actor in the Viewport

To Pilot a Actor in the Viewport, right-click on the Actor and choose the option from the context menu for Pilot .

PilotActorViewport.png

Piloting is especially useful for Camera Actors and Lights.

While piloting is active, you will see the piloting text and icons in the upper left of the Viewport. This indicates that you have some Actor attached to the view.

PilotViewportOptions.png

Once piloting, you will look down the X-Axis of the given object. You may then move the view as normal and the Actor will come along automatically.

PilotActive.png

In this image, we have locked a SpotLight Actor to the view. Now, wherever we move the view, the light will follow as if attached to the Viewport's camera.

Camera Actors

When using a Camera Actor there is one additional feature that allows you to see exactly what the camera sees. This can be toggled on or off when Pilot mode is active.

Camera View

Button

Description

Enabled

CameraViewEnabled.png

This mode will use any settings specific to the Camera Actor.

Disabled

CameraViewDisabled.png

This will only use the basic view from the viewport.

Camera View Enabled

Camera View Disabled

Once you are finished positioning the Actor by way of the view, you can stop piloting it by choosing the option in the upper left of the Viewport:

StopPiloting.png

You can now continue working and the Actor will maintain the position previously set by the view.

PilotComplete.png

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