Unreal Python Recipe Book
  • About
  • Getting Started
  • Dev Conveniences
    • Python Command Line
    • Modifier Keys (alt, ctrl shift)
    • Convenience Modules
    • Abstraction Layer
  • Assets
    • Loading Assets
    • New Asset Instances
    • Getting the Default Object
    • Get / Set Editor Properties
    • Calling BP Graph Functions
    • Asset Path ↔ File Path
    • Python Module Example
  • Actors
    • Get Asset from Actor
      • [c++] Get Asset List For Actor
    • Spawning Actors
    • Get All Actors in 3D Level
    • Walking The Actor Hierarchy
    • Walking Components
    • On Selection Changed Callback
    • Python Module Example
  • Metadata
    • Epic Documentation
    • [c++] Registering Metadata Tags
    • Setting Metadata
    • Getting Metadata
    • Find Assets By Metadata
    • Python Module Example
  • Calling Python From Blueprint
    • The Execute Python Script Node
    • Blueprint Function Libraries
      • Python Module Example
      • Making BP Function Libraries Safer
    • Subsystems (Don't Use)
  • Editor Menus
    • Discovering Menus to Extend
    • Getting a Reference to a Menu
    • Adding a Drop Down Menu
    • Python Menu Class
      • Insert Position
      • Menu Icons
      • Toggled Menu Entries
      • Editor Utility Widget Launcher
    • Python Module Example
  • Startup & Shutdown Scripts
    • Treat init_unreal like __init__
    • Startup Script Management
    • Shutdown Script Management
    • Python Module Example
  • Using Engine-Version Specific Code
  • UE5 Demo Plugin (GitHub)
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  1. Assets

Loading Assets

Loading assets from the Content browser

A common operation is to load an asset from the Content Browser. Unreal provides a few different options here:

# Python-only convenience method:
asset_path = "/Game/some/asset/path"
asset = unreal.load_asset(asset_path)
# Function Library method:
asset_path = "/Game/some/asset/path"
asset = unreal.EditorAssetLibrary.load_asset(asset_path)
# Subsystem method:
asset_path = "/Game/some/asset/path"
EditorAssetSubsystem = unreal.get_editor_subsystem(unreal.EditorAssetSubsystem)
asset = EditorAssetSubsystem.load_asset(asset_path)

While it doesn't really matter which option is used, unreal.load_asset() is a rare instance of a Python convenience function provided by Epic

Note: This isn't too uncommon in Unreal's API to see multiple options for the same thing, a general rule of thumb to be aware of is:

  • If it's available from a Subsystem class, those are usually the newer / forward-facing implementations

  • If it's available from a Library class, those are usually from UE4 implementations and it's usually recommended to see if the same function is available from a Subsystem.

  • If it's available as unreal.* , those are usually conveniences that Epic provided intentionally to the Python API

Last updated 1 month ago