UActorComponent::TickComponent

function Engine Since 4.0

#include "Components/ActorComponent.h"

Access: public Specifiers: virtual

Description

Called every frame to update the component. Only executes if the component is registered and PrimaryComponentTick.bCanEverTick is true.

Caveats & Gotchas

• PrimaryComponentTick.bCanEverTick defaults to false on UActorComponent. You must set it to true in the constructor before the component is registered, or ticking will never occur regardless of other tick settings.
• Calling Super::TickComponent is required — it advances internal tick bookkeeping and fires the Blueprint ReceiveTick event. Skipping Super breaks Blueprint subclasses.

Signature

ENGINE_API virtual void TickComponent(float DeltaTime, enum ELevelTick TickType, FActorComponentTickFunction *ThisTickFunction)

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
DeltaTime	float	Time in seconds since the last tick.	—
TickType	enum ELevelTick	The kind of tick — e.g. LEVELTICK_All, LEVELTICK_TimeOnly, LEVELTICK_ViewportsOnly. Indicates whether the game is paused, running in-editor, etc.	—
ThisTickFunction	FActorComponentTickFunction*	The internal tick function struct that triggered this call. Can be used to inspect tick group or add tick prerequisites.	—

Return Type

void

Example

Enabling and implementing a component tick C++

// Constructor — enable tick
UMyComponent::UMyComponent()
{
    PrimaryComponentTick.bCanEverTick = true;
}

void UMyComponent::TickComponent(float DeltaTime, ELevelTick TickType, FActorComponentTickFunction* ThisTickFunction)
{
    Super::TickComponent(DeltaTime, TickType, ThisTickFunction);
    // Per-frame logic here
    ElapsedTime += DeltaTime;
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

Feedback

Was this helpful?