AActor::LifeSpanExpired

function Engine Since 4.0

#include "GameFramework/Actor.h"

Access: public Specifiers: virtualENGINE_API

Description

Called when the actor's lifespan timer fires (set via SetLifeSpan). The default implementation calls Destroy(). Override to perform cleanup or delay destruction.

Caveats & Gotchas

• If you override this without calling Super::LifeSpanExpired(), the actor will NOT be automatically destroyed — you must call Destroy() yourself.
• This is fired by an internal FTimerHandle (TimerHandle_LifeSpanExpired). If the timer subsystem is not running (e.g. during dedicated server shutdown), this may not fire reliably.
• On replicated actors, LifeSpanExpired is only authoritative on the server. The actor will be destroyed on clients via normal replication teardown, not by a separate timer.

Signature

ENGINE_API virtual void LifeSpanExpired();

Return Type

void

Example

Playing an effect before the actor is destroyed C++

void AMyProjectile::LifeSpanExpired()
{
	// Spawn a fizzle effect before we disappear
	if (FizzleEffect)
	{
		UGameplayStatics::SpawnEmitterAtLocation(GetWorld(), FizzleEffect, GetActorLocation());
	}
	Super::LifeSpanExpired(); // Calls Destroy()
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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