Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B_-DrkeW4g&lc=UgzsKsAPc18tSkV21d94AaABAg

This is a "texture browser" utility widget for UE5.5 that presents materials in the style you'd expect from a level editor in the 90s: as square thumbnails.

Unreal normally presents materials in the content browser as lit and mapped to a sphere. This isn't useful for much. When you're making a level, you want to actually see the images you're working with. So this tool presents them that way. It looks like Hammer's texture browser.

Cool features include:

• Click on a texture to select it in the content browser

• Recently-clicked textures are kept in a Recent panel for quick access

• You can search the entire project or limit the browser to a specific folder

• You can search the browser, and save favourite searches

• You can change the size of the thumbnails

• Non-square textures are fit to the thumbnail size without stretching, or they zoom to fill it (cropped) when you mouseover 'em

• Texture names are displayed on the tile

• Hover over a texture to reveal its resolution

• Optionally, only display material instances, not base materials

• You can specify which material parameter names you want to use to represent your material in the thumbnails

• Preferences are saved between sessions

How's it work?

First, it gathers all the materials in a folder (or in your whole project). The first time in a session, this can cause the editor to hang briefly.

Then, it tries to find the right texture to show you from each material: either the first texture it finds, or one that matches one of the parameter names you specify (eg you could enter: basecolor,diffuse,albedo and it would use the first texture it found in a parameter slot containing one of those names).

Then, it makes a thumbnail for each of these in a scrollable grid. If you click on one, it selects that material in the content browser. Easy!

If a material does not contain any textures, for now it just shows up purple, with a note saying so.

Will you add support for an earlier version than 5.5?

Probably not! That'd be annoying to do. 

What if I have a bunch of textures I want to generate materials for automatically?

I have a tool for that too: https://impromptu-games.itch.io/auto-material-instance-maker-tool