AActor::SetLifeSpan

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.0

#include "GameFramework/Actor.h"

Access: public Specifiers: virtualUFUNCTIONBlueprintCallableENGINE_API

Description

Schedules this actor to be automatically destroyed after the given number of seconds. Passing 0 cancels any existing timer so the actor lives indefinitely.

Caveats & Gotchas

• The timer is affected by the actor's time dilation — a lifespan set to 5s on an actor with 0.5x dilation will take 10 real seconds to expire.
• Calling this multiple times resets the timer to the new value; the old countdown is discarded. If you want the first call to 'stick', guard it with a check against `GetLifeSpan() > 0`.
• Must be called after `BeginPlay` — setting a lifespan in the constructor or in `OnConstruction` may not produce a valid timer handle in all contexts.

Signature

ENGINE_API virtual void SetLifeSpan( float InLifespan );

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
InLifespan	float	Time in seconds until the actor is destroyed. Pass 0 to cancel an existing lifespan timer.	—

Return Type

void

Examples

Auto-destroy a projectile 5 seconds after spawning Blueprint

Self-destruct a projectile after 5 seconds C++

void AMyProjectile::BeginPlay()
{
	Super::BeginPlay();
	// Destroy if it hasn't hit anything within 5 seconds
	SetLifeSpan(5.0f);
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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