APlayerState::GetPlayerController

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.0

#include "GameFramework/PlayerState.h"

Access: public Specifiers: UFUNCTIONBlueprintCallableENGINE_API

Description

Returns the player controller that created this player state, or null for remote clients. Use this to reach the owning controller from gameplay code that only has a reference to the PlayerState.

Caveats & Gotchas

• Returns null on remote clients — the controller only exists on the server and on the local machine for the owning player. Always null-check before dereferencing.
• For AI-controlled pawns, this returns null even on the server because AIControllers do not use APlayerController. Use GetOwningController() if you need to handle both cases.

Signature

ENGINE_API class APlayerController* GetPlayerController() const;

Return Type

APlayerController*

Example

Check authority before accessing controller C++

void AMyPlayerState::NotifyPlayerOfEvent()
{
    if (APlayerController* PC = GetPlayerController())
    {
        // Safe: we're on server or this is the local player
        PC->ClientShowMessage(FText::FromString(TEXT("Event occurred!")));
    }
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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