Smart Asset Finder

FAQ

Common questions and answers about Smart Asset Finder.

General Questions

What is Smart Asset Finder?

Smart Asset Finder is an AI-powered semantic search plugin for Unreal Engine 5.5+. It uses CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training) models to understand the visual content of your assets, allowing you to search using natural language descriptions instead of filenames.

How is this different from Content Browser search?

FeatureContent BrowserSmart Asset Finder
Search methodFilename matchingSemantic understanding
Query typeExact textNatural language
LanguagesEnglish onlyMultilingual
Visual matchingNoYes (AI-based)

Example: Content Browser requires knowing the filename. Smart Asset Finder lets you search “red sword” and find T_WeaponBlade_Crimson.uasset.

What languages are supported?

Smart Asset Finder supports the following languages (fully tested with Unreal Editor):

  • English
  • Chinese (Simplified/Traditional)
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • German
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Russian

The underlying AI model (XLM-RoBERTa) supports additional languages, but only the above are tested with UE’s input system and fonts.

Does it require an internet connection?

No. All AI models run locally on your machine. No data is sent to external servers.

What’s the performance impact?

  • During search: < 100ms latency (1000 assets)
  • During index build: Varies — dominated by UE thumbnail generation (see below)
  • Idle: Zero overhead when not in use
  • Memory: ~100MB per 1000 indexed assets + 337MB for models

Installation & Setup

Which Unreal Engine versions are supported?

  • UE 5.5+ (5.5, 5.6, 5.7)
  • UE 5.3, 5.4 - 🚧 Coming soon
  • UE 5.2 and earlier are not supported

Why Windows only?

The current version uses ONNX Runtime compiled for Windows x64. macOS and Linux support is planned for future releases.

How much disk space does it need?

  • Plugin: ~1.5GB (includes AI models)
  • Index: ~100MB per 1000 assets

The plugin doesn’t appear after installation

  1. Verify the folder structure: YourProject/Plugins/SmartAssetFinder/SmartAssetFinder.uplugin
  2. Check Edit → Plugins and enable the plugin
  3. Restart the editor completely
  4. Check Output Log for error messages

Index Building

How long does indexing take?

Indexing time depends primarily on thumbnail generation — Unreal Engine must load each asset into memory and render a 224x224 preview image. This is the most time-consuming step, especially for meshes and materials that require shader compilation.

Estimated initial indexing times (will vary based on asset types and hardware):

  • 500 assets: ~1-3 minutes
  • 1,000 assets: ~3-8 minutes
  • 5,000 assets: ~15-30 minutes
  • 10,000 assets: ~30-60 minutes
  • 10,000+ assets: 60+ minutes

Why the variation? Textures index faster than meshes or materials, because meshes require UE to compile shaders and render 3D previews. Projects with many complex materials will take longer.

After initial indexing, the index is cached on disk. Subsequent startups load the index in seconds, and only new/modified assets need re-indexing.

Can I use the editor while indexing?

Yes, but with caveats. The AI feature extraction runs on background threads, but thumbnail generation requires the Game Thread (an Unreal Engine limitation). During indexing, you may experience periodic editor hitching as UE loads and renders asset thumbnails. The plugin processes assets in small batches (configurable) to minimize disruption, and you can cancel indexing at any time.

Why is my index build slow?

The primary bottleneck is thumbnail generation, not AI inference. For each asset, Unreal Engine must:

  1. Load the asset into memory
  2. Compile shaders (for materials/meshes)
  3. Render a 224x224 preview image

This process is controlled by UE and cannot be bypassed.

Tips to improve indexing speed:

  1. Increase RebuildBatchSize (default 10, try 20-50 for fast CPUs with enough RAM)
  2. Increase OnnxInferenceThreads to 4-8 for faster AI feature extraction
  3. Close other CPU-intensive applications
  4. Use SSD storage for faster asset loading
  5. Exclude unnecessary folders in ExcludePaths setting

How do I rebuild the index?

  1. Open Smart Asset Finder (Window → Smart Asset Finder)
  2. Click Index Assets button
  3. Wait for completion

Where is the index stored?

YourProject/Saved/SmartAssetFinder/

  • metadata.json - Index metadata
  • index_data.bin - Feature vectors

You can delete this folder to force a fresh rebuild.

Searching

Why doesn’t my search return expected results?

Try these improvements:

  1. Be more specific: “rusty metal armor” instead of “armor”
  2. Try synonyms: “fire” vs “flame” vs “burning”
  3. Check filters: Ensure the asset type filter is enabled
  4. Verify indexing: Make sure the asset is in an indexed folder

Why are some assets missing from results?

Possible reasons:

  1. Not indexed: Asset was added after last index build. Enable auto-update or rebuild.
  2. Excluded path: Check ExcludePaths in settings
  3. Wrong asset type: Only visual assets (textures, meshes, materials) are indexed
  4. Filter disabled: Check sidebar filters

How does similarity scoring work?

Scores range from 0-100%:

  • 80%+: Very strong match
  • 60-80%: Good match
  • 40-60%: Moderate match
  • < 40%: Weak match

Scores are relative—a “100%” score means “best match in your project,” not “perfect match.”

Can I search by filename too?

Smart Asset Finder is designed for semantic search. For filename search, use Content Browser’s built-in search.

Auto-Update

What does auto-update do?

Monitors your project for asset changes and updates the index automatically:

  • New assets: Added to index
  • Modified assets: Re-indexed
  • Deleted assets: Removed from index
  • Renamed assets: Treated as delete + add

Why does auto-update pause during PIE?

To avoid performance impact during gameplay testing. Auto-update resumes when you exit Play-In-Editor.

How do I disable auto-update?

  1. Go to Edit → Editor Preferences → Plugins → Smart Asset Finder
  2. Uncheck Enable Auto-Update

Or click the Auto-Update button in the Smart Asset Finder window.

What if I import 100+ assets at once?

  1. Disable auto-update before bulk import
  2. Import your assets
  3. Re-enable auto-update OR click Index Assets for immediate rebuild

The queue limit (default: 100) prevents memory issues during bulk operations.

Troubleshooting

”ONNX Runtime failed to initialize”

Causes:

  • Missing Visual C++ Redistributable
  • Incompatible UE version

Solutions:

  1. Install Visual C++ Redistributable 2019+
  2. Verify UE 5.5+ is installed
  3. Restart the editor

”Out of memory” during index build

Solutions:

  1. Reduce RebuildBatchSize to 3-5
  2. Close other applications
  3. Increase virtual memory
  4. Exclude large asset folders

”Index is corrupted” error

Solution: Delete the index folder and rebuild:

  1. Close the editor
  2. Delete YourProject/Saved/SmartAssetFinder/
  3. Reopen the editor
  4. Click Index Assets

Search returns no results

Checklist:

  1. Index has been built (check status bar)
  2. At least one filter is enabled in sidebar
  3. Assets exist in indexed paths
  4. Try a simpler query like “texture” or “mesh”

Plugin crashes on startup

Solutions:

  1. Delete YourProject/Saved/SmartAssetFinder/ (corrupted index)
  2. Verify UE 5.5+ is installed
  3. Check Output Log for specific errors
  4. Reinstall the plugin

Performance Optimization

How do I make indexing faster?

  1. Increase RebuildBatchSize (20-50 for fast CPUs)
  2. Increase OnnxInferenceThreads (4-8 cores)
  3. Close other CPU-intensive applications
  4. Use SSD storage

How do I reduce memory usage?

  1. Decrease RebuildBatchSize to 5
  2. Decrease AutoUpdateBatchSize to 3
  3. Limit ScanPaths to necessary folders
  4. Exclude development/test folders

How do I reduce CPU usage during development?

  1. Disable auto-update during heavy work
  2. Increase AutoUpdateDebounceTime to 10+ seconds
  3. Enable PauseDuringPIE (default: true)

Feature Requests

Will GPU acceleration be added?

GPU acceleration via CUDA/DirectML is planned for a future release.

Will macOS/Linux be supported?

Yes, planned for a future release.

Audio assets don’t have visual thumbnails, so they’re outside the scope of this plugin. Consider using metadata-based search tools for audio.

Blueprint classes typically don’t have meaningful visual thumbnails. This may be explored in future versions.

Contact & Support

How do I report bugs?

Email pixelglimmerstudio@gmail.com with:

  • UE version
  • Plugin version
  • Steps to reproduce
  • Output Log errors

How do I request features?

Email pixelglimmerstudio@gmail.com with your use case and feature description.

See Also