Actors versus pawns

In this chapter, we will discuss actors and pawns. Although it sounds as if pawns will be a more basic class than actors, it is actually the other way around. A UE4 actor (the Actor class) object is the basic type of the things that can be placed in the UE4 game world. In order to place anything in the UE4 world, you must derive from the Actor class.

A Pawn is an object that represents something that you or the computer's Artificial Intelligence (AI) can control on the screen. The Pawn class derives from the Actor class, with the additional ability to be controlled by the player directly or by an AI script. When a pawn or actor is controlled by a controller or AI, it is said to be possessed by that controller or AI.

Think of the Actor class as a character in a play. Your game world is going to be composed of a bunch of actors, all acting together to make the gameplay work. The game characters, Non-player Characters (NPCs), and even treasure chests will be actors.