This is a really useful Quick Dev Tip, which I use a lot when working with blueprints in a larger project.
You probably knew you could search a specific blueprint for something but did you know you can extend that search across your entire project?
If you would prefer to watch the video version, check it out here
We can right-click on a node in a blueprint and head down to Find Reference to search that blueprint for something specific.
This will bring up a Find Results section at the bottom of the screen with all the relevant search results found in this particular blueprint.
But what if you want to search the entire project? That’s where today’s tip comes in. There are 2 ways: Firstly going up to Window, then to Find in Blueprints, and then opening up one of the 4 find in blueprints windows (I’m not sure why you can have 4 open at one time, I have only ever and can only ever see myself using one at a time).
This will open up a new window and if we type in something in the top bar and press enter, it will search the entire project for us.
The second way which I prefer is to use the little binoculars button on the right side of the Find Results search window that we have already mentioned. I find this is a more natural flow while working.
An example of Find in All Blueprints being useful can be seen when we have a rogue print when I play in-editor, which I cannot remember where is coming from. In the example below the string “annoying print” is being printed to screen on tick.
We can search the entire project for any prints by right-clicking on a print string node in any blueprint doing find references (to find locally). We can then click the binoculars button and it will bring up every single print node in the entire project. In this example, there aren’t a lot of entries, so it’s not too bad to find what we need. However, in a larger project that list could be a lot longer, making it harder to find what we are looking for.
In my case, because the sting that I am looking for has quite a unique name (“Annoying Print”) I would instead search the entire project for it. Only one entry makes this much easier to find. If I double click on the value in the list it will open up and take me to the exact node I am looking for.
This seems to work exactly the same in the Early Access version of Unreal 5. The only difference is that the UI for the binoculars button has changed slightly, other than that it works exactly the same.
This is something super useful and I think everyone should know about it. It can really help you move around your project in a more fluid way.
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Also, check out the parkour game I'm solo developing called Freerunners. Give it a wishlist if you like the way it looks!: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430330/Freerunners/