UClass::GetDefaultObject

function CoreUObject Since 4.0

#include "UObject/Class.h"

Access: public Specifiers: const

Description

Returns the Class Default Object (CDO) for this UClass — the shared archetype that holds default property values for all instances. Lives on UClass, not on UObject instances.

Signature

UObject* GetDefaultObject(bool bCreateIfNeeded = true) const

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
bCreateIfNeeded	bool	If true (default), creates the CDO if it does not yet exist.	true

Return Type

UObject*

Caveats & Gotchas

• GetDefaultObject() lives on UClass. Access it via MyClass->GetDefaultObject() or the type-safe helper GetDefault<T>().
• Never mutate the CDO at runtime. It is shared across all instances and is serialized; modifying it corrupts save data and causes hard-to-debug behavior in PIE.
• The CDO is created lazily on first request. Accessing it from multiple threads without external synchronization can cause a race condition.

Example

Read default property values C++

// Preferred — type-safe helper
const AMyCharacter* Defaults = GetDefault<AMyCharacter>();
float DefaultSpeed = Defaults->MaxWalkSpeed;

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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