Unreal Engine 5 Python Automation

Unreal Engine settings setup for Python automation. Which toggles to switch and which plugins to enable.

IDE specific setup will be covered in separate tutorials.

How to set up Intellisense autocompletion in Visual Studio Code for Unreal Python API scripting.

How to add auto generated Unreal Python API stubs to PyCharm and enable autocompletion and error highlighting.

How to use type hints in Python.

While this lecture does not directly focus on Unreal Engine, it may be helpful to many of you.

In this course, I do my best to keep the code readable and typing is one of my favorite coding practices that boosts readability, limits space for error and is also helpful for generating documentation with tools like Sphinx.

You will learn how to make your scripts discoverable so they can be imported in Unreal Log or in other scripts you have created just like any Python module you would normally create outside of UE.

How to run Python scripts in editor using Output Log window.

Run your Python scripts with command line without even starting Unreal editor interface.

Create startup scripts that execute as Unreal editor starts. They can be used to initialize tools, register validators and more.

What is a difference between Asset and Actor? How to list them, how to get user selection, how to list all assets from a given directory and more.

There’s no need to write your own utils for filtering assets or actors by class, name, tag or selection. You can use a built in library.

You will learn accessing editor properties, checking if your texture uses optimal compression settings and batch fixing those settings.

If you are interested in Asset Validation, check out Asset Validation section in the course - this topic deserved a separate section!

Debug, fix and avoid bugs related to setting editor properties not refreshing/recalculating other related properties.

Editing Material Instance parameters with MaterialEditingLibrary.

What is asset validation and how it helps you find issues in you assets even before you submit them to the project.

Implement naming convention validator in Python. The validator will detect incorrect name prefixes.

It will expect T_ prefix for Textures, BP_ for Blueprints, M_ for Materials and MI_ for Material Instances.

Non square textures (ex. 1024px x 512px) are completely justified in some cases like tall grass textures but in majority of applications it's unnecessary and may cause a tiny performance loss.

A simple validator can help you detect those cases with just few clicks.

Non-power-of-two textures have been not supported by many GPUs for years. They were either causing crashes or required rendering workarounds that lower game performance.

They are considered a bad practice but let's be honest: when working on many files for months, it's easy to export some wrongly sized textures and it would be nice to have a simple tool to help us find and fix such issues.

Validate asset triangle count.

Do you have a set limit of triangles for environment, misc or maybe character meshes? Now you can warn user if it is exceeded.

Example application of combining our knowledge on Remote Control API and on importing FBX meshes from code.

Treat this video as an inspiration for creating tools that give users smooth experience.

In Unreal 5.5, names of Python objects changed slightly and your old code may not work.

Watching this tutorial will help you resolve this issue.

Reason behind the change is explained in fix report: https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-247331