The BP_LightDetector component is used by the BP_SolarPanel to determine if that Solar Panel is receiving light from a Directional Light actor. These components have settings to determine how the light detectors work, you can go to the BP_SolarPanel and in the Component panel select the BP_LightDetector component then in the Details panel you can find the Detection Settings category.

Detect Type – This is the detection type used, basic only checks if above the detector is blocked, advanced checks if there is a line of sight to the directional light from the detector. If the detector doesn’t detect anything blocking it then the device will receive the Directional Light.

Debug Mode – If enabled the light detect trace will be visible in game and will also print the name of any actor that blocks it.

Light Collision Channel – This is the collision trace channel that the light trace uses, any object that has this channel set to block will block the light detection.

Basic Check Distance – This is how long the line trace will go up from the light detectors location, if it doesnt hit anything along this trace length then the light detector will return that it has received light from the direction light. This distance is used when the Detect Type is set to Basic.

Advanced Check Distance – This is how long the line trace will go toward the direction light actor, if it doesn’t hit anything along that distance the light detector will return that it has light. This distance is used when the Detect Type is set to Advanced.

The solar panel has 2 light detector components, so if you change the settings for one of them you will likely want to change the settings to the same values on the other as well.

Power Generated

---

When a device like the BP_SolarPanel has 2 light detectors its generated power is determined by how many of its light detectors have light, for example if the solar panel generates 100 power and has 2 light detectors, if one doesn’t receive light then the solar panel will only generate 50 power, If both light detectors do not receive light then it will generate 0 power.