Variable groups

Variable group is a group of variables. You can add them by clicking on the Add button in the Layer Layout window.

Private variable groups

Every Layer Variable group has an option to designate it as a Private.

If a Layer Variable group is Private, it will not be visible in the Properties window.

Good to know: Private Layer Variable groups are useful for variables that you use in your Layout but don't need to have exposed in the Properties.

Creating Variable groups from nodes

To facilitate a faster creation of Layer templates, we created 2 ways of creating Variable groups and Variables themselves directly from the nodes.

Creating static Variable groups from nodes

You can create a Variable group by right clicking on a header of a node and then on Create variable group.

This will create a:

1. a Variable group in the Layer variables section with the same name as the name of the node you clicked on

2. in this group, LightAct will create appropriate variables for every input pin of that node

3. and Reference nodes will be created for every newly created variable and connected to the appropriate pins of the node.

Good to know: once created this variable group doesn't retain any connection to the node you created it from.

Dynamic variable groups

There are some nodes in LightAct whose input pins can change. An example of that would be Play Notch node. When you change the Notch asset it references, the node's input pins adapt according to Notch's Exposed parameters.

If we want to always have all the input parameters of Notch exposed in Layer variables, we need to create a Dynamic Variable Group.

Dynamic Variable group looks similar to a standard Variable group, except that it retains the connection between the original node it was created from.

This means that if you change Notch asset, the variables in this group are going to adapt according to Exposed parameters of the new Notch block.