The Alchemy Fox Blog
Unreal Engine — for beginners, by a developer.
Weekly posts on common stumbling blocks, plugin walkthroughs, and engine-version updates. Pick the topics you want to read about.
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Welcome to the Alchemy Fox Blog
A new weekly blog covering the Unreal Engine stumbling blocks beginners actually hit. Vote on next week's topic.
Read post →Instanced Static Meshes — 10× performance for free
You placed 800 rocks as individual actors and your draw calls exploded. Instancing fixes that — but ISM, HISM and Nanite each solve a different part of it.
Read post →Runtime Virtual Textures — seamless landscapes
RVT blends meshes into your landscape and caches expensive landscape materials. Two wins, one setup, and a handful of ways to get it wrong on the first try.
Read post →Foliage painting — settings that actually matter
Foliage mode has forty settings and about six that decide whether your forest runs. Here's the six, plus what changed now that Nanite is in the picture.
Read post →Level Streaming basics — large worlds without the lag
Unreal loads your entire level into memory at once. That's fine at 200 metres and fatal at 5 kilometres. Here's how to pick the right streaming approach before you've placed 10,000 actors.
Read post →Building a game settings menu from scratch
A settings menu looks like a weekend. It isn't. Most of the pain comes from rebuilding things UE already ships — GameUserSettings, Sound Classes, and since 5.3, key rebinding.
Read post →Abilities & cooldowns without GAS — a beginner-friendly alternative
The Gameplay Ability System is powerful, networked, and battle-tested. It also costs you a week before your first fireball works. Here's what you actually need for a single-player game — and when to switch.
Read post →A dialogue system that scales — branching, conditions, localisation
Your first dialogue Blueprint works for three lines. At thirty it's unreadable, and translating it means touching every node. Here's the data-driven structure that avoids both.
Read post →DataTable vs DataAsset vs Primary DataAsset
Items, enemies, dialogue, abilities — they all need a home. DataTable, DataAsset and Primary DataAsset each fit a different shape of data. Here's how to choose before you commit.
Read post →Save/Load done right — beyond SaveGame objects
The default SaveGame tutorial gets you one slot and a hitch. Real games need slots, metadata, versioning and async. Here's the shape that survives contact with a shipping build.
Read post →Reading JSON & CSV in Blueprints — no plugins needed (and one that helps)
UE5 added native JSON nodes to Blueprints — most beginners don't know they exist. Runtime CSV is still a gap. Here's what ships, what doesn't, and exactly where the line is.
Read post →Spawning actors — the patterns that don't crash your game
Your Spawn Actor node runs, no error, and nothing appears. Or it appears but ignores the values you set a node later. Both have the same handful of causes — here they are.
Read post →Event Dispatchers — the missing link
Direct references couple everything to everything. Interfaces help, but you still need a reference. Event Dispatchers let one actor shout 'this happened' and walk away — and that changes how you wire a game.
Read post →Blueprint Interfaces — stop casting everything
Casting to Blueprints is the #1 source of hidden hard references and load-time bloat. Interfaces let you call functions without dragging whole classes into memory — here's when to switch.
Read post →Blueprint or C++? A pragmatic guide
The honest answer to the BP-vs-C++ debate. When Blueprints win (even at runtime), when C++ is unavoidable, and the hybrid pattern that lets you avoid choosing.
Read post →Enhanced Input System — the new way, simplified
Input Actions, Input Mapping Contexts, Modifiers, Triggers. Most beginners get confused by the four-concept stack. Here's the mental model that makes it actually click.
Read post →10 Blueprint errors every beginner hits — and how to fix them
Accessed None. Cast Failed. Infinite Loop Detected. The first wall every new Blueprint dev hits. Ten errors, what they actually mean, and the pattern that prevents each.
Read post →Your first Unreal Engine project — the right way
Folder structure, project settings, version control, naming. The unsexy decisions you make on day one quietly determine whether month six is fun or a refactoring hell.
Read post →Async loading in Blueprints — no more loading freezes
You made your references soft. Good. Now your game freezes for half a second every time the player opens a chest. Here's the pattern that fixes it.
Read post →Soft references vs hard references — when to use which
Hard references load everything they touch. Soft references don't. Get this one concept right and your memory usage drops in half.
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