Installation

Where to get it

You can get Metadata Tags Editor on Fab.

Installation from Fab

Up-to-date general guide for Working with plugins in Unreal Engine.

Manual build

Users who are using Source Code distribution from Gumroad will get plugin without prebuilt binaries. Unreal should rebuild them on project startup but if it does not happen, please refer to official tutorial.

Plugin location

If by any reason, you are installing the plugin manually, unpack it to

{PROJECT_DIRECTORY/Plugins}

You can also unpack it to you main Unreal installation which is located under

• C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_[version]\Engine\Plugins on Windows
• /Users/Shared/Epic Games/UE_[version]/Engine/Plugins on macOS

Enabling the plugin

Navigate to editor top bar and open Edit -> Plugins.

Search for Metadata Editor and toggle the plugin.

Remember to restart Unreal.

User Guide

Metadata Editor User Guide

It’s main purpose is to make metadata editing simple and thus this guide also will be simple.

Key information

Editor works best with one asset at a time but you can use it to apply same metadata to multiple assets as well.

Edit metadata of an asset

1. Opening the editor.

1. Pick an asset of choice in Content Browser and Right Mouse Button on it.
2. Navigate to Asset Actions -> Metadata Editor

2. Editing.

Add, remove and edit metadata rows as you wish. You changes will only take place if you save them with Apply button.

3. Multiple assets.

If you selected multiple assets before opening the editor, the editor will show only one main asset in the view.

You can still choose to apply your changes to all selected assets though. Choose one of two modes:

• Append - It will not remove any tags. It may overwrite tags if selected asset had same tag names as the ones that you are applying.
• Overwrite - Will remove all tags from assets before applying changes from editor. This way all assets will end up with same metadata.

4. Additional features.

Undo

Undo / Redo is fully supported in rows editor. However, setting metadata tags is not undoable. The good news is that all edited assets will be marked as Dirty in the editor and you can always revert the changes by reloading asset from drive or version control system.

Copy as JSON

You can copy all tags visible in editor to clipboard as JSON.

Basic validation

The editor has basic validation that makes sure you don’t:

• Leave any values without tag assigned
• Have any duplicate tag names
• Exceed tag length limit (1023 characters)

Why Metadata

Why use asset Metadata at all?

Metadata describes an asset

Basic metadata like asset type, mesh poly count or program of origin can be extremely useful.
Such information, if easily accessible can be a helpful guide for anyone looking for asset that matches (or doesn’t) certain criteria.

It can help you in daily situations like looking for an author of an asset.
Of course, this case should be already taken cared by a Version Control System but in that case,
it’s the VCS that stores the metadate because metadata can be stored in multiple places - assets itself, VCS systems, external files or databases.

It helps you find assets

Imagine a situation where all assets exported with Animation Exporter 1.3 are broken.
What if it has been in use for a whole month? What if artists were using different versions of exporter at the same time?

We should be able to find all those broken assets and either re-export them or apply some kind, of a fix.
Supposing that all assets store software of origin, exporter and their versions in metadata, finding broken assets can be automated and done in few minutes even if thera are hundreds of assets to filter.

That may sound like an extreme case, but using metadata to find assets to be processed in such or other way is common and the bigger the project, the more often it will be needed.
Saving metadata is not that hard to implement and can really save your day in such situations.

It may drive automation behaviour

Some metadata is not primarily meant for describing or finding assets.
Sometimes some helper variable is meant for a tool.
Maybe this variable will decide what kind of settings will be applied after importing.
Or maybe, it will help you distinguish mesh that is being re-imported from a mesh that is being imported for a first time because import system that you are extending does not do it for you

Better to have it, than not to

Metadata may not come handy on your first day of work. You may start storing it and forget about it for some time without having a need to use it.
It’s alright.
But it may get really bad when you finally need it but don’t have.
It’s one of those things that are easy to start gathering and don’t require sophisticated solutions at the beginning.
That little extra effort at the beginning can save you a lot of time and money when something goes sideways.\

Tech Art Corner

This plugin has been brought to you by Tech Art Corner.

I hope it will serve you well,

And you will no longer be irritated by lack of some simple metadata editor that does not require scripting or creating a node graph to just add a simple tag to an asset.

I’m open to feedback and if by any chance, this plugin gets popular, I’m looking forward to making it better.

Unreal Engine Automation Courses

If you, by any chance are a current or aspiring Technical Artist who is interested in automating even more and making great Unreal tools, I would love to advertise my courses on:

Unreal Engine 5 Python Automation Course

Unreal Engine 5 Blueprint Automation Course

YouTube Channel

For those who prefer free content, I also have a YouTube Channel which I’m trying to fill with Unreal tutorials.

Support

Discord

You can contact me on Discord. It may be easier to use than email and will let us have a more realtime conversation.

Email

techartcorner@gmail.com