Generic Browser Reference

Document Summary: A reference for the Generic Browser in the Unreal Editor.

Document Changelog: Created by Warren Marshall. Maintained by Richard Nalezynski.

Introduction

The Generic Browser allows you to view your assets in a thumbnail-centric manner. Assets are grouped into packages, each of which can contain various kinds of assets, without having a unique file extension for each type.

Opening the Generic Browser

To open the Generic Browser window simply click the blue and white-checked icon at the top right in the Unreal Editor.

You can also find it under the Browser Windows option on the View menu, located on the main menu bar.

Generic Browser Overview

Browser Layout

The Generic Browser is split into a list of packages on the left and a field on the right. Clicking on one of the Packages will reveal the contents of that package. Right-clicking on any of these contents will bring up a menu and clicking on "Properties" at the top will bring up a new browser window to help navigate and edit that item's properties.

1. - Menu Bar
2. - Tool Bar
3. - Resources List
4. - Packages List
5. - Preview Pane

Menu Bar

File

• New... - Create a new asset from a list of factory types.
• Open... - Open a package.
• Save... - Save the currently-selected package.
• Save As.. - Save the currently-selected package with the option of choosing a new name for the package.
• Import... - Import files into a package.
• Export... - Export the currently-selected asset.
• Recent - List of recently-opened packages.

View

• Refresh - Refresh the Preview Pane.
• Show Resource Memory Usage - Whether or not to show the amount of memory the assets in a package are using.

Source Control

The Source Control menu will appear if you have a source control system installed on your computer that UnrealEd can communicate with (like Perforce). This menu contains options for things like checking packages out, checking packages in and seeing the revision history of a package.

Resources List

In the top left corner is a check list that allows you to select which kind of assets you want to look at. So if you check "Material" and "Font" in that control you'll only be shown materials and fonts when you click on the various packages. You can display all asset types by checking "Show All Resource Types"

Packages List

Below the check list is a tree control that shows you all of the packages that are loaded into the editor at this point in time. Packages are only completely loaded in UnrealEngine3 if opened via open from the file menu. Otherwise only the referenced objects are loaded (objects can be referenced from engine, script, other packages or maps). The tree control allows you to select mutiple packages at one time so you can view multiple packages worth of objects on the right hand side.

The icons beside the package names are from the Source Code Control integration, which will be explained a little later on.

Preview Pane

At the top of the preview viewport is a toolbar that contains many useful controls.

Changes the view mode of the preview window. The right most option is the default, "thumbnail". The other two give you columns with the object names in them allowing you to deal with your objects in a text based manner (clicking on the object names will cause their thumbnail to draw on the right side). If you have a slower computer, these alternate modes may provide a faster browsing experience.

Pushing this button down will cause objects in the preview viewport to be sorted not only by name, but also by type. Meaning that all static meshes will be together, all materials together, etc.

These buttons change the type of primitive that material thumbnails are drawn using.

Pops up a search dialog that lets you use more advanced filtering methods than the simple one provided by the 'Filter' field on this toolbar.

This controls the size of the thumbnails that are drawn in the preview window. If you choose one of the ones ending in a % sign, the thumbnail is drawn as a percentage of the original size of the objects normal thumbnail. If you choose one of the #x# options, all thumbnails will draw at that fixed size.

Allows simple filtering based on a text string. For example, entering 'rocket' into this field causes the preview window to only show objects which have 'rocket' appearing somewhere in their name. For more advanced searching use the search dialog.

Context Menu

• Save...

Save the selected package. If the package is not fully loaded, a dialog will pop up prompting to load the entire package or cancel saving.

* Fully Load

When the editor loads objects, packages are no longer loaded in their entirety. Only the needed objects are loaded (as happens in game). This results in a package being considered 'not fully loaded', and the package appears greyed-out in the Generic Browser package tree, indicating to the user some assets in the package file on disk may not yet be in memory.

There are several operations that can be performed against a package that require the package to be fully loaded before the operation can safely proceed. These include creating a new object in a package, saving the package, deleting/renaming objects in a package, and so on. These operations will warn the user that the package must be fully loaded before the operation can be performed.

A user can manually load the full package using the 'Fully Load' context menu option.

Opening a package via the Generic Browser's 'File' menu will also fully load the package.

• Unload...

Unload the package from memory.

• Import...

Import files into a package.

• Bulk Export...

Export the entire contents of the package.

* Full Loc Export

This is a simple tool for exporting localization data in bulk to disk, as well as optionally exporting assets to disk using the most appropriate Uexporter-derived type. This was added for Gears of War, which used this tool to bulk export localization data and .wavs for all the localized audio in the game, which localization teams then duplicated and translated/re-recorded/re-imported for each localized language.

The bulk exporter attempts to select the most relevant exporter for each asset type. In the case of animations, there is no exporter which sepcifically handles exporters, and thus the .copy export type is selected. Types which do have significant export formats include:

• SoundNodeWave (.wav)
• Textures (.pcx, .tga, .bmp)
• BSP (.obj)
• UnrealScript classes (.uc)

* Check For Errors...

Check the package for errors (bad references, etc.).

* Set Folder...

Sets a sub-folder within the Package List for the package.

* Batch Process Sound Groups

Set all sounds to the seleced Group.

* Cluster Sounds

Group sounds into a SoundCue and connect them to a Random node within that SoundCue.

* Cluster Sounds With Attenuation

Group sounds into a SoundCue and connect them to a Random node; and add an Attenuation node within that SoundCue.

* Texture Groups

Set all textures in the package to a group.

Searching

This dialog offers a quick way to find an object if you know what the name is (or have some idea what the name is, anyway). For example, if you know that the object has 'rocket' in its name somewhere, enter 'rocket' into the top edit control and select the 'Containing' radio button. The list below will update to show you all objects with 'rocket' in the name (this is case insensitive).

Double clicking a line in the results list will synchronize the browser to that package/group and select the object on that line. This is a quick way to figure out where an object is in the package hierarchy.

Source Control Integration

If you have a source code control client installed that UnrealEd can talk to (i.e. Perforce), the packages on the left side will have icons beside them rather than a generic folder graphic. The meanings of these icons are as follows:

Icon	Means
	Read Only. This package isn't checked out to you, so you won't be able to save any changes you make to it.
	Checked Out Other. Someone else has this package checked out. You won't be able to check it out until they are finished.
	Checked Out. You have this package checked out. You can freely edit and save this package until you check it in.
	Not Current. You don't have the current version of this package on your hard drive. This means if you want to check it out, you're going to have to exit UnrealEd and use your source control system to get a current copy first.
	Not In Depot. This package isn't part of the source control system. You'll have to add it (using the 'Source Control' menu at the top of the browser) before it will be tracked properly.