Reusable Templates

A template captures a configured look as a single reusable asset so several actors can share it, and every linked actor updates live when the template is edited. Change the asset once, and every actor using it follows.

What a template carries

A template stores an opt-in subset of the configuration, ticked at creation time, grouped into four payload groups:

Group	What it captures
Spline Shape	The spline curve, closed-loop flag, default up-vector. Seeds only (see below).
Animation & Timing	Auto-play, loop, duration, the timing curve.
Deformation Tuning	Forward axis, follow-rotation, preserve-volume, the stretch + size curves, sample count, auto-smooth.
Assembly	The assembly tuning plus a re-bake recipe (split mode, lattice resolution, UV-channel override).

A template carries config only. It never captures per-actor references: your target meshes, material bindings, and material name contract stay local to each actor. Linking a template changes how an actor looks and moves, not what it’s made of.

Assembly is a recipe, not geometry

The Assembly group stores a re-bake recipe, never the baked pieces geometry (that’s per-mesh). Linking an assembly-enabled template re-bakes pieces from the target’s own mesh using the recipe.

The workflow

All template actions live in the panel header (and are disabled during Play / Simulate):

• Save as Template…: tick the groups to capture, name it, and save. The asset lands under /Game/SplineJuiceTemplates and the actor is linked to it.
• Template dropdown: None plus every template in the project. Picking one links the selected actor(s); picking None unlinks and freezes the last driven values in place.
• Edit the template in the panel: when an actor is linked, the driven groups’ fields go read-only on the actor. The Tuning / Behavior views rebind to the template asset, with an “Editing template” banner naming how many actors it affects. A curve or scalar edit there updates every linked actor live.

Linking overwrites local values

Linking a template is destructive to the local values of its included groups; a one-line confirm warns you when it would overwrite non-default settings. The actor adopts the template’s values for those groups.

Spline shape is seed-only

The Spline Shape group behaves differently from the other three. It seeds, it doesn’t perpetually drive:

• A linked template applies its shape to an un-arranged spline.
• The moment you arrange the spline yourself (an in-viewport point drag, or a Common Centroid aim) that per-actor shape becomes authoritative, and the template no longer overwrites it.

So per-actor arrangements survive Play-In-Editor and later template edits. The other three groups always keep driving every linked actor.

Tip

To re-seed every linked actor from a shared shape, edit the template before arranging individual splines.