Unreal

---
name: unreal
description: Use when an existing Unreal Engine project needs skill contracts mapped onto its actual Actor tick groups, physics/substep policy, animation, collision, input, and camera architecture.
---

# Unreal adapter

Inspect the Unreal Engine version, project tick configuration, physics settings and existing gameplay framework before choosing an update owner.

## Timing

`AActor::Tick` / Actor Tick is called per frame when enabled; it is not inherently a fixed simulation step. Tick groups order frame work. Physics may use substepping or async/fixed-step settings configured by the project, and a frame can involve multiple physics substeps/callbacks.

Do not call ordinary Actor Tick “the fixed tick.” If deterministic gameplay needs a fixed logical clock, bind to the project's existing fixed simulation/substep mechanism or add an explicit accumulator with a published rate and ownership boundary.

Per-actor hitstop uses actor/action/animation-local state (for example montage play-rate or authored clock). Global slomo/time dilation is not a substitute for per-actor hitstop, though a separate global-pause design may intentionally use global time controls.

## Bindings

- input: Enhanced Input or project input layer into semantic actions;
- pose: montage/animation state controlled by actor-local logical state;
- hits: authored collision/query volumes with stable logical IDs;
- knockback: CharacterMovement/physics/custom movement according to project ownership;
- camera: SpringArm/sweep or project camera implementing `camera-anti-clip`.

## Lifecycle and resources

The engine-neutral rules live in `audio-feel`, `juice-vfx`, `asset-runtime`, `performance-budget` and `soak-stability`; this section only maps them onto Unreal.

- audio output: Sound Concurrency settings cap retriggered voices and choose the steal rule.
- background: `FCoreDelegates` application deactivate/reactivate and enter-background delegates are the lifecycle points for loops, timers and catch-up.
- release: spawn frequent Niagara systems with a pooling method instead of creating one per hit. Clear `FTimerManager` timers and unbind delegates on teardown. UObjects are garbage-collected once unreferenced, so clear strong references held by caches.
- overlays: the `AddToViewport` ZOrder of UMG widgets orders flashes and overlays against the HUD.

## Accept

Record engine version, enabled Tick groups, physics/substep settings and the callback/mechanism that owns gameplay logic. Test low/high render rates and substepping cases; duplicate physics callbacks must not duplicate gameplay contacts or presentation events.

Record the lifecycle hooks and resource release points used. A burst, teardown and background/resume cycle returns live effect, voice, timer and handle counts to the warm-up baseline; untested platforms remain `not-run`.