Commandlet List

Document Summary: A listing of all Commandlets used by Unreal Engine 3.

Document Changelog: Created; maintained over time.

Overview

Commandlets are command line programs that run inside of the Unreal Engine environment. They are most often used to make bulk changes to content, iterate over content to get information about it, or as a unit testing mechanism.

They are basically little applets that have the engine initialized but are mostly just confined to Windows console output.

The engine automatically tries to see whether a command you passed on the commandline is a commandlet, and if it matches, executes the associated code.

This document containts a listing with description and syntax for the commandlets used by Unreal Engine 3.

Commandlet Listing

help

The help commandlet is used to find out which commandlets are available to run, their purpose, and what those commandlets expect for parameters. To find out which commandlets are available, run:

Syntax

gamename.exe help <list | commandletname | webhelp commandletname>

Parameters

• list - Lists all commandlets that are available.
• commandlet name - Displays help information for the specified commandlet.
• webhelp - Launches a browser with the URL of the web page that documents the specified commandlet.

fixupredirects

Fixupredirects fixes all the Redirectors in all packages, or optionally, a specified package. Self-referencing redirectors are deleted. If no package is specified then all packages required for the game are tested for redirectors.

• Before attempting to save a package, it will attempt to check it out from Source Control (using the same method as the SCC in UnrealEd^?).
• You have to manually check in the packages, however.
• Only saves packages that are necessary (packages with redirectors and the packages that point to them)
• If a package that can't be checked out points to a redirector, that redirector will not be cleaned up
• You can give it a single package name, and it will fixup just the redirectors in the package (ie that package and all other packages that point to that redirector). This is useful if you want to clean up a redirector so that you import on top of it, or so that you can delete an object a redirector is pointing to.
• If it fails to open a package, it brings up a warning letting you continue or stop. If you continue, it's possible that you will lose some object references, because the packages it can't open could contain references to redirectors, but the commandlet assumes it doesn't, because there's no way to know since it can't open the package. If you choose to stop at that point, so other packages have been saved. (Of course, if it crashes opening a package, it will obviously abort the process, leaving all packages untouched)
• You can give it the -nowarn option, which will simply quit if it can't open a package (this would be for scripting or something, but it chooses the safe path if its unattended, which is to stop if it can't open a file).

Syntax

game.exe fixupredirects <package.ext>

Parameters

• package.ext - Name of the package to test for redirectors. (Optional)

batchexport

The BatchExport commandlet is used for exporting resources from Unreal package files to various external file types.

Syntax

gamename.exe gamename.exe BatchExport <package.ext> <classname> <export_ext> [dest_path_name]

Parameters

• package.ext - Name of the package to export resources from. Path name is optional.
• classname - The class of object to export, such as "Class", "Texture", etc.
• export_ext - Extension for the output file. This determines which type of factory is used for exporting the resource.
• dest_path_name - The path to save the output files to. The directory will be created if it doesn't exist.

make

The make commandlet will cause the game to compiles Unrealscript source (.uc files) into Unreal packages (.u files) for any packages that are out of date.

Syntax

gamename.exe make <-switch>

Parameters

• full - Forces all packages to be recompiled, even if they are not out of date.
• nodelete - Do not delete dependent packages which are not out of date. The default behavior is to rebuild any packages which occur after a package that is out of date in the EditPackages^? list.
• debug - Includes debugging information in the compiled binaries. This is required in order to use the UnrealScript^? debugger.
• auto - Automatically checks out any autogenerated headers that need to be updated, without prompting. Suppresses all prompts generated by the script compiler which are related to exporting autogenerated header files.
• unattended - Suppresses all prompts generated during the build by automatically answering "Yes."
• silent - Similar to unattended, except that all build output (logging, etc.) is also suppressed.
• silentbuild - Suppresses all script compiler status messages from being displayed in the console output window.
• noconform - Script packages are normally automatically conformed (see the ConformCommandlet^?) if a package with the same name exists in the auto-conform directory (which can be different for each game).
• WarningsAsErrors - Treats all script compilation warnings as errors, causing the build to fail.
• intermediate - Script preprocessor: outputs the post-processed versions of all unrealscript files to the preprocessor's intermediate directory, as specified by the ProcessedFileDirectory^? value in the preprocessor. Useful for debugging UnrealScript^? macros.
• nopreprocess - Script Preprocessor: prevents the preprocessor from processing any UnrealScript^? macros. This is useful only for debugging, as it will generally cause your script to fail to compile at all.

stripsource

The stripsource commandlet will load the Unreal packages (.u files), iterating through all Classes and set ScriptText^? to a single space, then call SavePackage^?() to save the package.

The problem is that packages like Core.u, Engine.u, Editor.u, etc. will be in use by the executable running the commandlet and can't be overwritten, so saving those packages will fail.

The preferred method to solving this problem is cooking the packages, which strips out the ScriptText^? (and CppText^?). Calling ResetLoaders^?() may solve the problem of the packages being open, if you aren't going to cook your data.

Syntax

gamename.exe stripsource <package.u, ...>

Parameters

conform

The conform commandlet will ensure network compatibility for packages by assigning the same GUID. This needs to be done everytime a package has changed.

Syntax

gamename.exe conform to_package from_package

Parameters

pkginfo

The pkginfo commandlet will display information about the resources contained within one or more packages.

Syntax

gamename.exe pkginfo <package.ext> <-switch>

Parameters

• package.ext - The name of the package/s to display resource information for.
• names - Displays information about the name table for the specified package(s).
• imports - Displays the external resources which are referenced by the objects contained in the specified package(s) (ImportTable^?).
• exports - Displays the resources which are contained in the specified package(s) (ExportTable^?).
• simple - Only relevant when used in combination with the -exports flag. Causes only the name and size to be displayed, rather the full information for each export.
• depends - Shows dependencies for imports or exports, ie what that object references and recursively what its references reference.
• all - Displays all data contained by the packge - essentially the same as specifying all three types on the command-line (-imports -exports -names).
• chunks - Displays information about the compression chunks within the package
• paths - Displays full path names for all the external resources which are referenced (ie. the imports)
• hideoffsets - Does not display serialized offsets to the beginning of the UObjects contained within the package (ie. the exports)
• platform=<ps3,xenon> - Used to specify the platform the package was cooked for

wranglecontent

The wranglecontent commandlet is used for identifying which assets in packages are not being used by any level files.

Syntax

gamename.exe wranglecontent <-switch>

Parameters

• reportunreferenced - dump out the unused content.
• restore - Pick up from after the analyze step. This is useful if the commandlet runs out of memory, or if you ran in one mode but now want to run in another.
• nosave - This just analyzes and can dump out a report, but won't actually do the save.
• nosaveunreferenced - By default, the commandlet will save out unreferenced content into the NFSContent directory (Not For Ship) into NFS_ packages, renaming objects to keep internal pointers intact. This will skip this step (useful if you know you just don't ever want the content again).
• reportunreferenced - Dump out a .csv file with a list of unreferenced content.
• removeeditoronly - While removing unused content, this can also strip out editor only data to make the resulting packages smaller, but not very usable anymore for full content creation.

analyzereferencedcontent

The analyzereferencedcontent commandlet is used for identifying the data being used in packages.

Syntax

gamename.exe analyzereferencedcontent <-switch>

Parameters

• mapsonly - use only level packages.
• excludescript - excludes script packages.
• excludenonnativescript - excludes non native script.
• loadsublevels - load sub levels. You can pass only persistent maps.
• ignorestaticmesh - Do not include StaticMesh^?
• ignoresmc - Do not include StaticMeshComponent^?
• ignorestaticmeshactor - Do not include StaticMeshActor^?
• ignoretexture - Do not include Texture
• ignorematerial - Do not include Material
• ignoreparticle - Do not include ParticleComponent^? and ParticleSystem^?
• ignoreanim - Do not include AnimSets^?/AnimSequences
• ignorelevel - Do not include Levels
• ignoresoundcue - Do not include SoundCue^?
• ignorebrush - Do not include Brush
• ignoreshadowmap - Do not include ShadowMap^?

rebuildmap

The rebuildmap commandlet is used to rebuild a map, including lighting.

NOTE: The commandlet was never fully debugged and may produce undesirable results (like randomly remapping your BSP with all new materials and UVs).

This commandlet is often used to work around running out of memory (OOM) when running the editor. It's best to break down the rebuild process into stages:

1. First... a Build BSP b save c restart
2. Then... a build pathing b save c restart
3. Finally... a build lighting b save

Use the Tools dropdown instead of the quick buttons and you'll have a full host of options that aren't otherwise available.

It's also best to start from a fresh reboot with nothing running in the background until you can debug what's wrong. Internally, we were having massive OOM problems on maps until we (properly!) uninstalled and re-installed the latest video drivers.

Syntax

gamename.exe rebuildmap <levelname>

Parameters

• levelname - name of the level (map) to be rebuilt.

resavepackages

The resavepackages commandlet will cause the game to open and save packages.

Syntax

gamename.exe resavepackages

Parameters

exportloc

The exportloc commandlet will export localized strings in UnrealScript^? packages to a localized text file.

Syntax

gamename.exe exportloc

Parameters

mergepackages

The mergepackages commandlet will put the contents of a package into another package.

Syntax

gamename.exe mergepackages <package> <targetpackage>

Parameters

diffpackages

The diffpackages commandlet will show every property difference for any two given packages.

Syntax

gamename.exe diffpackages <package> <package>

Parameters

cookpackages

The cookpackagescommandlet will process and convert package data into a format that is readable for consoles.

Generally, you will run the cooker with the Unreal Frontend, but if you want to automate cooking or similar, you will want to use the commandline interface.

Syntax

gamename.exe CookPackages [map1 [map2] ... ] -platform=<Platform> [options]

Parameters

• platform=PLATFORM - Sets the platform to cook for. PLATFORM can be one of: pc, ps3, xbox360 or xenon
• full - Forces all of the existing packages to be resaved. If this option is specified, the contents of the CookedYYY^? folder is deleted first.
• recookseekfree - Forces all of seekfree packages to be recooked (startup, standalone seekfree, maps on commandline or .ini). Useful when the default dependency checking doesn't work (standalone seekfree packages in particular, because it won't recook all standalone seekfree packages when any non-seekfree packages change, unlike maps).
• cookallmaps - Cooks all maps in the game.
• mapsonly - Only cooks maps, will not attempt to cook anything else.
• inisonly - Only cook the .ini and localization files (into the Coalesced.ini and Coalesced.int, etc files).
• sha - Generate SHA hashes for the startup and coalesced files, and output to Hashes.sha.
• skipsavingmaps - Cooks, but doesn't save, maps. Useful for cooking LOC data used by maps.
• skipnotrequiredpackages - Skip loading & saving packages not required for cooking process to speed up LOC cooking.
• languageforcooking=LANG - Sets LANG as the language for localized cooking. Defaults to int (English).

showtaggedprops

The showtaggedprops commandlet will aid in identifying what value was actually saved into the package file for an object, as opposed to values inherited from class defaults or archetypes, set at runtime, etc. (because the only alternative would be to either run in debugger or use the OBJ DUMP ObjectName? console command at runtime to see the object's values). You use this commandlet when tracking down anything related to serialization, as it makes it easy to see whether the problem is in the loading or the saving.

Syntax

gamename.exe showtaggedprops <PackageName[.ext]> <ClassPackage.ClassName> [PropertyA[,PropertyB...]]

Parameters

listpackagesreferencing

The listpackagesreferencing commandlet will help find missing resources for a given package.

Syntax

gamename.exe listpackagesreferencing <package.missingresource>

Parameters

setmaterialusage

The setmaterialusage commandlet will identify the material usage for a given package.

Syntax

gamename.exe setmaterialusage <package>

Parameters

dumpshaders

The dumpshaders commandlet dumps out the shaders, all includes, a preprocessed version, the resulting asm and a batch file to recompile using the commandline shader compiler (.fxc) for quick iteration

If a global shader is supplied, only the matching types will be operated on. If a material is supplied, all shaders compiled by that material will be dumped.

See the Shader Home page for more information.

Syntax

gamename.exe DumpShaders platform=<platform> [globalshader=<shadertype>] [material=<materialname>]

Parameters

CheckpointGameAssetDatabase

Please see the documentation for this commandlet on the Content Browser Database page.

CheckLightMapUVs

Scans static meshes and checks for problems with light map texture coordinate sets. Detects the following issues:

• Missing light map texture coordinate sets
• Light map texture coordinates outside the 0.0 - 1.0 range
• Light map texture coordinates that overlap each other

If a problem is found, a detailed warning message will be echoed.

Also, if the editor is configured to connect to a journal server, the commandlet will automatically add assets to a collection so that artists can find them easily. Two collections will be created:

• Missing LightMap UVs: Contains assets that are missing a light map texture coordinate set
• Bad LightMap UVs: Contains assets with light map texture coordinates outside the 0.0 - 1.0 range or with overlapping UVs

Every time you run the commandlet these collections will be destroyed and rebuilt.

By default, all game packages are scanned for static meshes (including map packages.) Alternatively you can specific a set of packages on the command-line to scan.

Syntax

gamename.exe CheckLightMapUVs [package1] [package2] ...

Parameters

None

FindUniqueSpecularTextureMaterials

Generates a content browser collection for all environment materials with UNIQUE specular textures. Environmental materials are determined by having a texture in the diffuse chain that is set to the WORLD LODGroup.

Syntax

gamename.exe FindUniqueSpecularTextureMaterials <-ALLMATERIALS>

Parameters

-ALLMATERIALS This will check all materials, not just environmental, for unique specular textures.

FindDarkDiffuseTextures

Generates a content browser collection for all materials with 'dark' textures in their diffuse property chain.

Syntax

gamename.exe FindDarkDiffuseTextures <MINBRIGHT=###> <-ALLOWBLACK> <-GRAYSCALE> <UPDATE=##>

Parameters

MINBRIGHT=###

Floating point number giving the percentage value of brightness which indicates 'not dark'. This value is assumed to be in GammaSpace and is expected to be [0.0 .. 100.0]. Default value is specified in the editor ini file as well: [DarkTextures],MinimalBrightness.

-ALLOWBLACK

If true, then pure black texels will be taken into account when calculating brightness. Default value is false, and can be specified in the ini file as well: [DarkTextures],bIgnoreBlack (false == allow).

-GRAYSCALE

If true, the brightness calculation will convert each pixel to grayscale using the following formula: GS = R * 0.30 + G * 0.58 + B * 0.11 If false, the brightness calculation will be Max(R, Max(G,B)). The default value is specified in the editor ini file as well: [DarkTextures],bUseGraySCale.

UPDATE=##

Integer indicating that the collection should be updated every ## packages processed.

How to Make a Commandlet

Please refer to the How to Make a Commandlet page.