AActor::DispatchBeginPlay

function Engine Since 4.0

#include "GameFramework/Actor.h"

Access: public Specifiers: ENGINE_API

Description

Engine-internal function that orchestrates the full BeginPlay call chain in the correct order — initializing components, calling PreInitializeComponents, PostInitializeComponents, then BeginPlay on the actor and all its components.

Caveats & Gotchas

• Do not call this directly from game code. It is invoked by the engine at the correct point in the actor lifecycle. Calling it manually can cause double-initialization and assert failures.
• The bFromLevelStreaming parameter affects bActorBeginningPlayFromLevelStreaming, which is used internally but also queryable via IsActorBeginningPlayFromLevelStreaming() inside BeginPlay overrides if you need to distinguish level-load spawns from runtime spawns.

Signature

ENGINE_API void DispatchBeginPlay(bool bFromLevelStreaming = false);

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
bFromLevelStreaming	bool	Whether this BeginPlay call originates from level streaming (including initial level load). Readable via IsActorBeginningPlayFromLevelStreaming().	false

Return Type

void

Example

Checking level streaming origin inside BeginPlay C++

void AMyActor::BeginPlay()
{
	Super::BeginPlay();
	// DispatchBeginPlay sets the streaming flag before calling here
	if (IsActorBeginningPlayFromLevelStreaming())
	{
		// Distinguish initial load from runtime spawn
		UE_LOG(LogTemp, Log, TEXT("Spawned during level load/stream"));
	}
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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