AGameModeBase::CanSpectate

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.14

#include "GameFramework/GameModeBase.h"

Access: public Specifiers: virtualUFUNCTIONBlueprintNativeEvent

Description

Determines whether a player is allowed to spectate another specific player. Override this to restrict or grant spectating permissions based on game rules, teams, or player status.

Caveats & Gotchas

• Called server-side only; the result is not automatically communicated back to the client — you must handle any rejection UI yourself.
• The default implementation always returns true, so if you want to restrict spectating (e.g., to same-team only), you must override this method.
• ViewTarget can be null if the player being spectated has no PlayerState yet — always null-check before accessing it.

Signature

ENGINE_API bool CanSpectate(APlayerController* Viewer, APlayerState* ViewTarget);

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
Viewer	APlayerController*	The controller of the player requesting to spectate.	—
ViewTarget	APlayerState*	The PlayerState of the player to be spectated.	—

Return Type

bool

Example

Restrict spectating to same team C++

bool AMyGameMode::CanSpectate_Implementation(APlayerController* Viewer, APlayerState* ViewTarget)
{
    if (!ViewTarget || !Viewer->PlayerState)
    {
        return false;
    }
    AMyPlayerState* ViewerState = Cast<AMyPlayerState>(Viewer->PlayerState);
    AMyPlayerState* TargetState = Cast<AMyPlayerState>(ViewTarget);
    // Only allow spectating players on the same team
    return ViewerState && TargetState && ViewerState->TeamId == TargetState->TeamId;
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.14

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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