Introduction

What is the EventDispatcher plugin?

EventDispatcher is a lightweight global event system for Unreal Engine. It lets Blueprints and C++ classes communicate through events without holding direct references to each other.

Register a listener for an event in one place, for example a UMG Widget, and invoke the event from anywhere else: a GameMode, GameInstance, Level Blueprint, Actor or Component. The sender never needs to know who is listening.

Sender  →  Invoke Event (Event.Quest.Completed + struct)  →  Listener(s)

How it works

Every event is identified by a Gameplay Tag and can carry any struct as payload. Three nodes cover almost everything:

Node	What it does
Register Event	Listens for a tag and runs a callback. Returns a handle.
Invoke Event	Sends the tag with an optional struct payload.
Wait For Event	Async node that waits for a tag directly in the graph.

See Using Events for a first example and Gameplay Tag Events for the full guide.

Features

• Global events that can be invoked from anything with a world context (Actors, Components, Widgets, UObjects).
• Gameplay Tag identifiers: typo-safe, picked from the tag list, and organized in a hierarchy.
• Any struct as payload with Instanced Structs, so one pair of nodes covers every kind of data.
• Child-tag listening: a listener on Event.Quest can also receive Event.Quest.Completed.
• Handles to unregister exactly one listener, and Unregister All Events For Object for cleanup.
• Targeted invokes that reach a single listener instead of everyone. See Targeting a Listener.
• Automatic cleanup of listeners whose objects have been destroyed.
• Blueprint and C++ support. Every node is also a static C++ function.

Event Identifiers and named events are deprecated

The older Event Identifier (Data Asset) and Name nodes, with their typed variants (Simple, Int, Float, String, …), are deprecated since 2.0 and will be removed in a future major version. They still work, but show a warning when the Blueprint is compiled. See Migrating to Gameplay Tag Events.

Common use cases

UI and HUD updates, quest and inventory changes, game state changes, global notifications and any other communication between systems that should not reference each other directly.

Requirements

Unreal Engine	5.1 – 5.8 (versions up to 1.6.8 also support 4.27 and 5.0)
Target platforms	Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS (see the Fab listing for the full list)
Networking	Events are local to one game instance and are not replicated

Where to go next

1. Install the plugin
2. Register and invoke your first event
3. Read the Gameplay Tag Events guide
4. Read Dispatching and Timing. Callbacks do not run immediately by default.