WBP Materials Walkthroughs

WBP Materials Walkthroughs

These walkthroughs cover common Material Library and Material Editor workflows: cataloging materials, organizing parameters and reviewing graph findings.

If you arrived here from Animation Workbench or Anim Tools, the animation tools help you find the widget, clip, or track that references a material. WBP Materials helps you inspect, document, preview, and clean up the material asset itself.

Walkthrough 1: Catalog A UI Material

Goal: Add readable metadata to a material without renaming the asset.

1. Open the Material Library from UI Foundry.
2. Filter to the User Interface material domain.
3. Select the material you want to document.
4. In the inspector, set a Display Name.
5. Add a short description that explains where the material is used.
6. Add tags such as button, sdf, theme, or animated.
7. Set status, owner, and version if your team uses those fields.

The material asset name stays unchanged. The catalog shows the display name where useful and keeps the asset name available for technical identification.

Walkthrough 2: Add A Custom Thumbnail

Goal: Give a material a clearer preview than its native Unreal thumbnail.

1. Select a material in the Material Library.
2. Use Set Custom Thumbnail.
3. Pick a supported image or preview media file from disk.
4. Confirm the imported preview appears in the card, table row, and inspector.
5. Hover the thumbnail to check the larger preview tooltip.

The imported preview is stored in the configured catalog preview path and assigned as the material’s preview override. Replacing it later reuses the managed preview asset instead of creating duplicate numbered assets.

Walkthrough 3: Build A Collection From Search Results

Goal: Turn a filtered material review into a reusable collection.

1. Open the Material Library.
2. Search for a shared term, such as button, health, or hud.
3. Apply any useful sidebar filters, such as domain, tags, favorites, or recently used.
4. Create a collection from the visible material set.
5. Rename the collection.
6. Add a short description explaining the collection’s purpose.
7. Select the collection from the sidebar to return to it later.

This is useful for review passes, UI style kits, feature-specific materials, or preparing a focused material list for another teammate.

Walkthrough 4: Edit Metadata Inside The Material Editor

Goal: Document a material without leaving the graph you are editing.

1. Open a material in the Material Editor.
2. Use UI Foundry -> Material -> Catalog Metadata.
3. Edit the same catalog fields you would edit in the Material Library: display name, description, tags, category, status, owner, version, and configured schema fields.
4. Return to the Material Library and select the same material.
5. Confirm the library inspector reflects the updated metadata.

The panel is scoped to the open Material Editor instance. If you open two materials, each editor has its own UI Foundry material panel context.

Walkthrough 5: Inspect Named Reroutes

Goal: Find and navigate named reroutes in a busy material graph.

1. Open a material in the Material Editor.
2. Use UI Foundry -> Material -> Named Reroutes.
3. Review the list of named reroute declarations.
4. Use inline rename to clean up unclear names.
5. Adjust a reroute color when color is part of your graph convention.
6. Use Go To to focus the declaration in the graph.
7. Use child-output selection when you need to see where a reroute is consumed.
8. Place a usage when you need another graph node to consume the same named reroute.

Rows resolve graph references when you click them, so the panel remains safer during graph edits, node deletion, and renames.

Walkthrough 6: Review Graph Health

Goal: Quickly inspect common risks before a material is shared.

1. Open a material.
2. Open Texture Usage to check texture sample/object usage, size, format, sampler type, sRGB state, and risk notes.
3. Open Function Dependencies to review direct and transitive material-function dependencies.
4. Open Custom Node Validator if the graph contains Custom nodes.
5. Open Graph Heuristics to review advisory graph findings and any supported repairs.
6. Open UI Compliance to check UI material expectations such as skeletal mesh usage, Niagara sprite usage, Pixel Depth Offset, and Scene Texture lookups.

Follow findings to the relevant graph source and review a proposed repair before applying it. Custom Node Validator and Graph Heuristics do not establish shader compilation success or GPU cost; validate those with Unreal’s compiler and appropriate profiling tools.

Walkthrough 7: Follow A Material Parameter Issue From Anim Tools

Goal: Move from a suspicious animated material parameter track to the material asset that should own the parameter.

1. Open a Widget Blueprint.
2. Open Anim Tools.
3. Run the Animation Material Parameter Checker or Material Parameter Remapper.
4. Use the finding details to identify the animated parameter name and affected widget or track.
5. Open the material assigned to that widget in the Material Editor.
6. Open Parameters+ from the Material Editor’s UI Foundry tools to inspect the material’s parameter list.
7. If the parameter is missing, decide whether the animation track should be remapped in Anim Tools or the material should be updated.
8. If the material needs better documentation, open Catalog Metadata and add notes, tags, status, or owner information.

This keeps the repair split clean: Anim Tools changes Widget Blueprint animation tracks, while WBP Materials helps validate and document the material graph those tracks were trying to drive.

Walkthrough 8: Tune The Catalog View

Goal: Make the Material Library comfortable for either scanning or preview-heavy review.

1. Switch between table and card views.
2. Adjust card size from compact scanning cards to larger preview-focused cards.
3. Use Auto, Docked, or Expanded layout depending on available space.
4. Sort and filter until the visible set matches your task.
5. Select a material and verify that the inspector updates without disrupting the current view.

The library persists view mode, layout, sort, card size, and active sidebar filters between editor sessions.

Walkthrough 9: Filter A Library Review By Ownership Or Issues

Goal: Review only the materials that need a specific team action.

1. Open the Material Library.
2. Open the Filters menu.
3. Enable the issue filter to show materials with current review findings.
4. Add a Status, Owner, or Version filter if you need to narrow the list to one release lane or person.
5. Remove any active filter chip when that part of the review is complete.
6. Open the inspector References tab for a selected material to see issue groups and graph references without leaving the library.

This is the fastest path for team review passes: start broad, filter down to the action owner, then jump into the Material Editor only when the selected material needs graph work.

Walkthrough 10: Repair Catalog Metadata Storage

Goal: Clean up catalog records after materials, preview assets, or schema fields have moved.

1. Open the Material Library.
2. Use the library utilities menu and choose Repair Metadata.
3. Review the health report before applying changes.
4. Look for stale index entries, orphaned per-material records, missing custom preview assets, legacy records, or removed custom-field ids.
5. Apply repair when the examples match expected cleanup.
6. Re-select affected materials and confirm their inspector details, preview state, and custom fields look correct.

Repair is meant for catalog storage hygiene. It does not rewrite the material graph, and it does not remove user-owned preview assets outside the managed preview root.

Walkthrough 11: Organize Material Parameters

Goal: Make a material’s public parameter surface easier to animate, review, and reuse.

1. Open a material in the Material Editor.
2. Open Parameters+ from the Material Editor’s UI Foundry tools.
3. Search or filter to the parameter you want to edit.
4. Rename the parameter if the graph should own the new name.
5. Set or adjust the parameter group.
6. Move parameters or groups until the exposed order matches the team’s convention.
7. Use auto-index when you want the current visual order written back as sort priorities.
8. Set default values where the panel exposes a supported value editor.

If an animation track still references an old parameter name, review the supported remapping tools in Anim Tools. Use Parameters+ when the material graph itself is the source of truth that should change.

Walkthrough 12: Configure UI Compliance For A Domain

Goal: Match compliance severity to your project’s material rules.

1. Open the Material Library.
2. Open Metadata Settings.
3. Select the material domain you want to govern, such as User Interface.
4. Review the compliance rule settings for that domain.
5. Disable rules that do not apply to your project.
6. Change severity to Info, Warning, or Error based on how strongly the team should treat each finding.
7. Save settings.
8. Open a material and run UI Compliance again to confirm the panel reflects the updated profile.

Use this when the same technical pattern has different meaning across domains. A rule can be strict for UI materials and advisory for another material domain.

Walkthrough 13: Use Inspector History And References

Goal: Understand why a library entry looks the way it does before editing it.

1. Select a material in the Material Library.
2. Open the inspector History tab.
3. Check the metadata file path, file state, modified timestamp, read-only state, source-control state, and legacy metadata path.
4. Open the References tab.
5. Review parameter, named-reroute, function, texture, and issue summaries.
6. Use Go To on a reference row when the source graph expression is available.

This gives reviewers a quick answer to two common questions: where the catalog data is stored, and which material graph facts are currently driving the library’s warnings or reference counts.

Walkthrough 14: Configure Node Shortcuts

Goal: Keep useful node choices available while editing a material graph.

1. Open Common Nodes to configure a palette of node types you use frequently.
2. Open Node Bindings+ from the Material Editor’s Window > UI Foundry group or material-tools menu.
3. Select a key, configure its chord, and add the node types you want it to offer.
4. Choose the default node for that key and order the remaining choices.
5. In a focused, editable graph, hold the configured key and click empty graph space, or drag from a connector and then press the key.
6. Release the key before the configured hold delay to place the default node. Keep holding to open the chooser, select a row, and release the spawn key to place it.
7. Press Escape or right-click to cancel without changing the graph.

Node Bindings+ supports Material and Material Function graphs. Uncheck Manage node-spawn keys to return the gestures to Unreal’s native behavior.

Additional Material Workflows

• Use the material-function input/output tools to manage a reusable function’s interface, then inspect its direct and transitive dependencies through Function Dependencies.
• Use Particle Preview to supply synthetic particle values while testing a material. Check the real effect separately; these values do not reproduce a particle simulation.

Common Problems

A Material Shows The Asset Name Instead Of A Friendly Name

Set Display Name in the inspector or Catalog Metadata panel. Display names are optional by design.

A Custom Thumbnail Moved When The Material Moved

Catalog-managed previews are kept in sync with material rename/move operations. Preview assets outside the managed preview root are treated as shared or user-owned and are not moved.

A Material Editor Panel Does Not Target The Material I Expected

Open the panel from the Material Editor that owns the material. UI Foundry material panels are per-editor contexts, not one global active-material window.

A Field Is Missing From The Inspector

Check Metadata Settings. Schema visibility controls whether a field appears in details panels and on cards or entries for each material domain.

A Compliance Finding Has The Wrong Severity

Open Metadata Settings and adjust the per-domain compliance rule. If no override exists, the UI Compliance panel uses UI Foundry’s default severity for that check.