Tracing & Target Selection

The player component runs a trace loop to determine which object is currently “focused”.

It can focus:

• Actor interactables (UEDInteractableComponent on an actor)
• Foliage / instanced meshes configured in UEDInteractionSettings

Direct trace vs multi-trace

The system uses a two-stage approach:

1. Direct line trace (fast): checks if the player is directly aiming at an interactable
2. Sphere multi-trace (fallback): collects candidates and picks the best one using scoring

Scoring

Each candidate receives a score based on:

• Distance
• Look-at percentage (how centered the target is in the view)
• Trace method selection strategy (EEDInteractionTraceMethod)
• Optional tag-based priority weights (interactableTagPriorityWeights)

The best-scored candidate becomes the focused target.

Trace method (EEDInteractionTraceMethod)

Each interactable can request a trace policy via:

• FEDInteractionFocusInfo::TraceMethod

UseDefaultMethod resolves to the player component’s DefaultTraceMethod.

Configurable ranges

The main ranges are:

• DirectInteractionTraceDistance
• directTraceLength
• sphereTraceRange
• FEDInteractionFocusInfo::MaxDistanceToCharacter

You can configure defaults globally through Project Settings or per-controller through component properties.

Filters

The player component can reject candidates based on:

• GameplayTag whitelist / blacklist / required query
• Actor tag whitelist / blocked tags
• Ignored actors list (runtime)

Output focus state

Focus state can be read from:

• GetFocusedActor()
• GetIsFocusingFoliageInstance()
• GetFocusedInteractableTag()
• GetFocusedLocation()

And observed via the local delegate:

• Local_OnFocusChanged