Legacy:Texture Browser

The Texture Browser is one of several Resource Browsers in the UnrealEd Interface. By default it is docked in the Master Browser.

Uses of the browser:

• displays currently loaded Materials
• allows further packages to be opened
• Texture Import And Export
• inspect or set Texture Properties
• select textures to:
  • apply them to surfaces
  • Set The Resource Property of an actor.

Opening

The Texture Browser is accessed either of two ways:

• Do UnrealEd Main Menu -> View -> Texture Browser
• Press the texture browser button in the middle of the toolbar at the top of the Editor window. It looks like a little scenic display, to the left of the eye.

The Interface

In the screenshot above, from top to bottom:

• highlighted: the texture browser toolbar button
• the Texture Browser Menu
• Texture browser toolbar
• Three tabs: Full, In Use, MRU (Most Recently Used)
• right-clicking on a material pops up the Material Context Menu

Browser Toolbar Buttons

• Dock / undock from browser window
• Open Package
• Save Package
• Texture Properties
• Load Entire Package
• Previous Group
• Next Group

Full Tab

• List of loaded (or partially-loaded) packages: select one
• Second row:
  • The exclamation mark animates textures
  • Either push the "All" button to show the textures from all groups in this package, or pick one group from the drop-down box

Textures

The browser doesn't list only textures (big change from UnrealEd 2). The text below each item shows:

Type Name(*) [format and black magic codes] (dimensions)

Type

Type is one of:

• CubeMap
• Shader, marked with a red box
• TexEnvMap, blue
• Texture
• Final Blend, yellow
• ... and others

Texture Browser Menu -> Filter determines which are shown.

Formats

DXT1 

DXT1 compressed texture

DXT3 

DXT3 compressed texture

DXT5 

DXT5 compressed texture

G16 

16 bit grayscale texture (for heightmaps)

L8 

 ?

NODATA 

no data (?)

P8 

8 bit palettized texture

RGB16 

three channels (red, green, blue) with 16 bits per channel (?)

RGB8 

three channels (red, green, blue) with 8 bits per channel

RGBA7 

four channels (red, green, blue, alpha) with 7 bits per channel

RGBA8 

four channels (red, green, blue, alpha) with 8 bits per channel

RRRGGGBBB 

 ?

See Texture Format for more information.

Packages

Textures are stored in files called packages. The Texture Package gives a full list & a summary of their contents.

Because loaded packages use up system memory, it's advisable to use UTX-Viewer. This is an external package browser, which allows you to quickly look for textures without loading them into UnrealEd.

External Links

• Blacksway's UEd2 Texture Browser Tutorial – An excellent introductory tour of the Texture Browser

Related Topics

• Right-click a texture to open the Texture Properties.
• Texture Browser Menu
• Texture Topics

Tutorials

• Import The Texture
• Create a texture

Other browsers in the UnrealEd Interface

• previous: Sound Browser
• next: Mesh Browser