A little light.
A lot of control.

Install from Fab

Follow these steps to install Christmas Lights from your Fab library, enable it in your project, and place your first light string.

1. Purchase with your Epic account

   Sign in to Fab, open the Christmas Lights listing, select the applicable license, and complete checkout. Use the same Epic account in the Epic Games Launcher. Your purchase appears in your Fab library.

2. Install for your engine version

   Save and close Unreal Editor. In the Launcher, open Unreal Engine → Library → Fab Library, find Christmas Lights, and select Install to Engine. Choose the compatible engine version used by your project and wait for installation to finish.

3. Enable it in your project

   Open your project with that engine version. Go to Edit → Plugins, search for Christmas Lights or ChristmasLights, and enable it. Save your work and restart the editor when prompted.

4. Create your project Blueprint

   Create a folder in your project’s Content, then create a BP_ChristmasLights Blueprint there using the plugin’s supplied BP_ChristmasLights as its parent. Follow Your first light string below to select the parent from All Classes and place your lights.

Epic’s instructions: purchasing on Fab, installing plugins for an engine version, and enabling plugins and displaying their content.

Finding plugin assets (optional)

An engine installation stores the plugin beneath <UE installation>/Engine/Plugins/. Its assets are inside the ChristmasLights/Content folder; the Launcher may place the plugin in an intermediate folder such as Marketplace. The Content Browser shows a virtual plugin folder, so its labels can differ from the disk path.

To browse the supplied assets, enable Show Plugin Content and, if needed, Show Engine Content in Content Browser Settings. This is optional for the parent-class workflow below.

Using another project or engine version

Enable Christmas Lights separately in each project that needs it. For a different installed engine version, install its compatible plugin build through the Launcher first. The version picker only offers supported, installed versions; check Installed Plugins under the engine tile if that version already has it.

Keep your custom work in your project

Save levels and generated cord bakes in your project’s Content folder. For reusable custom defaults, create a child Blueprint in your project; duplicate materials there before editing them. Treat the installed plugin assets as the supplied originals so reinstalling or updating the plugin does not overwrite your changes.

Your first light string

Start with Christmas Lights installed and enabled in your project. Create your own reusable Blueprint directly in project Content; you can select its parent without browsing the engine’s plugin folders. If you have just purchased it, follow Install from Fab first.

1. Create a folder in your project

   In the Content Browser, open your project’s Content folder and create a folder named ChristmasLights. Open that folder.

2. Create a Blueprint with the plugin parent

   Right-click inside the folder and choose Blueprint Class. In Pick Parent Class, expand All Classes, search for BP_ChristmasLights, select the plugin’s supplied Blueprint, and click Select. Name your new Blueprint BP_ChristmasLights.

   The parent is the Blueprint supplied at /ChristmasLights/Blueprints/BP_ChristmasLights. It provides the meshes, materials, components, and defaults. The native ChristmasLights C++ class alone does not include those Blueprint asset assignments.

3. Save and place your Blueprint

   Open your new Blueprint, compile and save it, then drag it from your project folder into the level. No extra construction-script nodes or manual mesh assignments are needed.

4. Make the lights visible

   Select the actor and click Build Lights for a manual preview. For interactive spline edits, enable Real Time Geometry; it can make the editor laggy, so read the performance warning before using it. The default optimized workflow can defer geometry until Play.

5. Shape and space the string

   Edit the spline points. Choose the light family and cord in Christmas Lights → Setup. Open Optimization → Light Spacing Preset and choose Wide (50 cm) for a more open string.

6. Choose a look and animation

   Select the actor’s Light Controller component for pattern, color, and glow settings. Enable its editor pattern preview to see animation before Play.

7. Build, then save

   When the shape is ready, click Build Lights and save the level. Test in Play. Save preserves completed geometry; it is not a substitute for building missing deferred geometry.

Bulbs and cord styles

Bulb family, bulb appearance, cord construction, and spacing are separate controls.

Size Preset changes physical bulb/socket size and cord thickness. It does not replace the spacing control. Selecting either family applies Wide (50 cm) spacing, Classic appearance, and Strong glow; subsequent manual settings remain editable.

Changing C9 between Classic and Detailed appearance also reapplies its geometry shortcuts. Set custom size, cord, and spacing after choosing the family and appearance.

Light spacing

Find Light Spacing Preset under the actor’s Optimization category. A preset fills both the Classic and Wired numeric spacing fields.

After changing spacing, let Real Time Geometry rebuild the preview or click Build Lights. Larger bulbs and tight curves may need more space to avoid overlap.

LIGHT SPACING

Editing and baking

Editable splines are the source of the string’s shape. A cord bake combines finished cord geometry into a reusable mesh, while bulbs and sockets remain instanced and animated.

Rotate one light

Use Edit Individual Lights to turn a bulb away from a wall or adjust one light without changing its neighbors. Select one light-string actor, then choose Optimization → Edit Individual Lights.

1. Click the bulb, socket, or its blue marker. Markers remain visible when scenery hides the light.
2. Drag the red rotation ring to turn the selected light around the cord's axis. On Wired cords, its socket and junction turn with it.
3. Press R to reset that light to its normal orientation. Use Unreal's Undo and Redo to reverse or restore a drag.
4. Press Esc or click Finish Editing Lights when finished. Click Build Lights if needed, then save the level to keep the adjustment and completed bake.

INDIVIDUAL LIGHT ROTATION

The mode supports both bulb families with Classic cords and the supplied Wired meshes. Custom Wired meshes that replace entire cord sections do not support individual rotation. Stop Play or Simulate before editing.

Adjustments stay with the same light number on each spline. Review them after changing spacing or path length. Shortening a path retains adjustments for removed light numbers; they return if the path grows again. Duplicating a spline or light-string actor copies its adjustments.

Version check: Plugin version 1.0.1 does not include Edit Individual Lights. Check that your installed build includes the control before following these steps.

Real Time Geometry

Enable Optimization → Real Time Geometry to rebuild the light string as you edit its spline. The demonstration below shows enabling the setting and reshaping the cord.

REAL TIME GEOMETRY

Reuse and changes

Moving or rotating a valid baked actor, toggling Real Time Geometry, and saving unchanged geometry can reuse its cord mesh. Spline-shape or geometry-setting changes can require a new bake. After changing geometry settings, click Build Lights and save the level.

If the bulbs appear but the cord stays missing after Build Lights, follow Recover a missing cord.

Moving a level to another project

Keep generated cord meshes with their levels in your project’s Content folder. Install and enable a compatible Christmas Lights plugin in the destination project, then use Unreal’s migration tools for your project-owned maps and referenced assets. A level migration does not install the plugin’s native code.

Preview animation pauses during interactive dragging and resumes afterward. Other light strings keep their own timing.

Patterns and colors

Select the Light Controller component. Geometry controls stay on the actor; animation controls are on the controller.

Watch the patterns

Click a pattern to open its demonstration. Open another to switch, or use the play/pause button. Combination cycles through its configured patterns.

In Waves29.7 sec demo

IN WAVES

Sequential25.3 sec demo

SEQUENTIAL

Slow Glow23.6 sec demo

SLOW GLOW

Chasing / Flash19.7 sec demo

CHASING / FLASH

Slow Fade25.6 sec demo

SLOW FADE

Twinkle / Flash32.4 sec demo

TWINKLE / FLASH

Steady On11.2 sec demo

STEADY ON

Festival Mix57.3 sec demo

FESTIVAL MIX

Adjust pattern speed and the controls exposed for the selected pattern. Chasing / Flash offers Classic Chase, Flashing Chase, Mixed, and Alternating Chase. Combination cycles through its configured patterns.

Festival Mix

A colorful, fast-moving show that repeats every 75 seconds. Select Light Controller → Patterns → Current Pattern → Festival Mix, then enable editor preview or play your level.

Every 15-second pattern cycles through Blue → Purple → Red → Yellow → Green → Pink → Multicolor, spending about 2.14 seconds on each. Multicolor uses your saved palette. Each effect completes its cycles before the next begins; Sequential and Chasing / Flash are excluded.

Pattern Speed and Color Preset are disabled while Festival Mix is selected because the show controls both. Your previous choices are retained and return when you choose another pattern. Glow controls remain available.

Color presets

Choose Multicolor, Blue, Purple, Red, Yellow, Green, or Pink. Multicolor uses the saved Bulb Colors palette. Solid-color presets preserve that palette so you can switch back later.

Color and glow adjustments do not require a cord rebake. Changing color keeps the current animation phase. Enable editor pattern preview to animate in the viewport; test the animation in Play to see it in gameplay.

Appearance and glow

Bulb Appearance is under Optimization on the actor. Glow controls are on its Light Controller.

Glow Strength stays manually editable after selecting a preset. Zero disables emission. The visible halo also depends on exposure, bloom, and the scene’s rendering settings.

For Detailed bulbs, Glass Glow Strength controls shell emission, and Inner Emitter Intensity controls the inner emitter. These controls are hidden for Classic appearance. C9 Detailed selection applies glass strength 0.01 and inner intensity 1.0.

Cast Shadows is off by default and affects the string’s bulbs, sockets, and cord. Enabling it does not change emissive intensity. Emissive bulbs do not imply a separate point-light component per bulb.

Control lights in gameplay

Use the supplied Blueprint setters to update geometry or controller state. Keep an actor reference for geometry settings and a Light Controller reference for animation.

Actor reference → Set Light Type Preset → Set Light Spacing Preset → Wide

Apply family selection before custom geometry settings because family shortcuts can change them. Use Steady On for a constant glow or choose an animated pattern for changing light effects.

Optimization

Start with Classic appearance, completed cord bakes, and an appropriate light spacing. Measure your actual scene before setting a production budget.

• Increase spacing to reduce bulb and socket instances.
• Use baked cord geometry for fixed shapes and save completed bakes before packaging.
• Disable editor animation and Real Time Geometry when they are not needed. Live rebuilding can cause significant editor lag; use manual Build Lights updates if the scene slows down.
• Keep shadows off unless the shot benefits from them.
• Use Detailed bulbs intentionally: their translucent pass and inner geometry remain at distance.

Optimization presets

Maximum favors a deferred editor workflow, Classic bulbs, no shadows or editor animation, and 20 Hz pattern updates. Minimum favors live geometry, Detailed bulbs, shadows, and approximately 60 Hz updates. Both presets apply Wide (50 cm) spacing; choose a different spacing afterward if needed. Manual settings can make the preset display Custom.

Ray tracing

Ray-tracing presets control participation in ray tracing; they do not switch visible lights off. Hardware RT requires compatible hardware and project rendering settings, including the required skin-cache support. Check these settings in the project where you use the plugin.

Check performance in your scene on your target hardware. Adjust bulb spacing, appearance, and shadows to suit your frame-rate budget.

Troubleshooting

Compatibility and help

Check the Christmas Lights listing on Fab for supported Unreal Engine versions and platforms. Install the plugin build that matches the engine version used by your project.

For installation or product support, use the contact information on the Fab listing. Include your Unreal Engine version, plugin version, and any relevant error messages. For corrections to this guide, use the documentation feedback link below.

Christmas Lights and its meshes and materials were created by David Salamanca. Existing actors keep their saved settings; use the controls described in this guide to adjust them.