Local Blackboard Component

The local blackboard component contains a blackboard. The component itself doesn't have any notable functionality. Instead it is used as the central storage, through which other systems can share their data and communicate.

If a system requires a blackboard, it will typically search for a blackboard component by traversing its own object structure upwards (in C++ you can use ezBlackboardComponent::FindBlackboard() to do so).

For example the animation graph is controlled by modifying blackboard entries, which the controller reads. You can modify the entries through custom code. For this, the blackboard component has to be attached either to the same object, or a parent object.

Component Properties

• Template: The blackboard template to use for configuring the blackboard. This is often much more convenient, than to add a all the entries one by one on each component. It also makes changing a configuration later easier.

• BlackboardName: The name for the blackboard. This could be used to search for a specific blackboard, if multiple are available in the same hierarchy.

• ShowDebugInfo: If enabled, the component will draw a debug text overlay with the current entries and their values at the position of the game object.

• SendEntryChangedMessage: If enabled, all changes to blackboard entries will be broadcast as an event message of type ezMsgBlackboardEntryChanged. This allows other systems to react to every change, but also has a small performance cost.

• Entries: Entries that will be added at start with their initial values. Some systems will add their own entries, others expect an entry to already exist. For example the input component may write input state into a blackboard, but it will only do so for entries that already exist. Therefore, you need to add all entries that you want to receive from the input system here.

See Also

• Blackboards
• Blackboard Template Asset
• Global Blackboard Component
• Animation Graph