Uobject ustruct serialization

Serialize Struct:

C++

Ar << ObjectClass;

uStruct->SerializeItem(Ar, Allocation, nullptr);

if (Ar.ArIsLoading)
Object = NewObject<UObject>(ObjectClass, ...);

if (Ar.WantBinaryPropertySerialization())
ObjectClass->SerializeBin(Ar, Object);
else
ObjectClass->SerializeTaggedProperties(Ar,Object,...);

Serialize Enum:

C++

FORCEINLINE friend FArchive& operator<<(FArchive& Ar, EnumType& Value)
{
  return Ar << (\_\_underlying_type(EnumType)&)Value;
}

UObject

ObjectReader/ObjectWriter only to be able to serialize the actual objects into byte arrays. We have not found any other archives that do this for us in a good way.

Reference From https://udn.unrealengine.com/questions/299982/serialize-objects-for-loadsave.html

These will iterate through the UProperties in the class and either write binary (fast but difficult or impossible to save delta properties during development) or tagged properties (slower but allows delta properties). So the idea is to first serialize the object class using Ar << ObjectClass; then spawn an instance of that class (if loading), then serialize the properties using the class and instance.

Reference From https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/1374656-how-to-load-an-object-from-binary-without-knowing-its-exact-class

ArIsSaveGame = True

the super undocumented secret to serializing any data to or from an object based on whether the CPF_SaveGame flag is set, is super simple: When you are creating your FMemoryWriter, you MUST have the ArIsSaveGame flag set to true. By default, it's false. IF you forget to set this flag, the Memory Writer will try to serialize your ENTIRE object, and it will loop through EVERY property and try to serialize it.

Reference From https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/88477-spawning-actors-from-serialized-data?116235-Spawning-Actors-from-Serialized-Data=&viewfull=1

Saving data to file

Archive to bytearray to File

C++

FActorSaveData ActorRecord;
ActorRecord.ActorName = FName(*Actor->GetName());
ActorRecord.ActorClass = Actor->GetClass()->GetPathName();
ActorRecord.ActorTransform = Actor->GetTransform();

FMemoryWriter MemoryWriter(ActorRecord.ActorData, true);
FSaveGameArchive Ar(MemoryWriter);
Actor->Serialize(Ar);

 SavedActors.Add(ActorRecord);
 ISaveableActorInterface::Execute_ActorSaveDataSaved(Actor);

After all the actor records are saved, we can create the final save game.

C++

FSaveGameData SaveGameData;

SaveGameData.GameID = "1234";
SaveGameData.Timestamp = FDateTime::Now();
SaveGameData.SavedActors = SavedActors;

FBufferArchive BinaryData;

BinaryData << SaveGameData;

After we have created the final save file and serialized it, we can store the byte array to a file.

C++

if (FFileHelper::SaveArrayToFile(BinaryData, *FString("TestSave.sav")))

{

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Save Success! %s"), FPlatformProcess::BaseDir());

}

else

{

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Save Failed!"));

}

BinaryData.FlushCache();

BinaryData.Empty();

Reference From http://runedegroot.com/saving-and-loading-actor-data-in-unreal-engine-4

Alternate way to do it directly with proxy archive:

C++

FArchive* FileWriter = IFileManager::Get().CreateFileWriter(*ProfileFileName);

if(FileWriter != nullptr)

{

FCollisionAnalyzerProxyArchive Ar(*FileWriter);

int32 Magic = COLLISION_ANALYZER_MAGIC;

int32 Version = COLLISION_ANALYZER_VERSION;

Ar << Magic;

Ar << Version;

Ar << Queries;

FileWriter->Close();

delete FileWriter;

FileWriter = NULL;

UE_LOG(LogCollisionAnalyzer, Log, TEXT("Saved collision analyzer data to file '%s'."), *ProfileFileName);

}

Loading Actors

Loading the data from file

To load the binary data

C++

TArray<uint8>BinaryData;

if (!FFileHelper::LoadFileToArray(BinaryData, *FString("TestSave.sav")))
{
UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Load Failed!"));
return;
}
else
{
UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Load Succeeded!"));
}

Extracting data from binary

C++

FMemoryReader FromBinary = FMemoryReader(BinaryData, true);
FromBinary.Seek(0);

FSaveGameData SaveGameData;
FromBinary << SaveGameData;

FromBinary.FlushCache();
BinaryData.Empty();
FromBinary.Close();

Reference From http://runedegroot.com/saving-and-loading-actor-data-in-unreal-engine-4

Serialize Objects & Names as strings:

C++

struct FSaveGameArchive : public FObjectAndNameAsStringProxyArchive

{

FSaveGameArchive(FArchive& InInnerArchive)

: FObjectAndNameAsStringProxyArchive(InInnerArchive, true)

{

ArIsSaveGame = true;

}

};

Reference From http://runedegroot.com/saving-and-loading-actor-data-in-unreal-engine-4

PostFixupReferences

• Fixup actor/object references after serialization

Reference From https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/c-gameplay-programming/88477-spawning-actors-from-serialized-data?116235-Spawning-Actors-from-Serialized-Data=&viewfull=1

Useful Array Serialization

void BulkSerialize(FArchive& Ar, bool bForcePerElementSerialization = false)

The BulkSerialize function is a serialization function that can be used as an alternative operator<< in order to serialize the array as a block of raw bytes, rather than doing per-element serialization. This can improve performance with trivial elements, like a built-in type or a plain data struct.