APawn::SpawnDefaultController

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.0

#include "GameFramework/Pawn.h"

Access: public Specifiers: virtualUFUNCTIONBlueprintCallable

Description

Spawns the default controller class for this Pawn (from AIControllerClass) and immediately possesses the pawn with it. Call this after manually spawning a pawn that should be AI-controlled.

Caveats & Gotchas

• Only runs on the server (or in standalone). Calling it on a client is a no-op — the AI controller is not replicated and possession is server-authoritative.
• If AutoPossessAI is set to anything other than Disabled, the engine calls this automatically on BeginPlay. Calling it again will spawn a second controller and may leave the first dangling.
• The spawned controller class is read from AIControllerClass. If that is null or not set in the pawn's defaults, no controller is spawned and no error is logged — it silently does nothing.

Signature

ENGINE_API virtual void SpawnDefaultController();

Return Type

void

Example

Manually spawn an AI-controlled pawn at runtime C++

AMyAIPawn* NewPawn = GetWorld()->SpawnActor<AMyAIPawn>(SpawnLocation, SpawnRotation);
if (NewPawn && HasAuthority())
{
	// AutoPossessAI is Disabled on this pawn, so we must call manually
	NewPawn->SpawnDefaultController();
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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