ChannelForge adds native texture channel operations to the Unreal Editor. Right-click any Texture2D

in the Content Browser to pack 1-4 grayscale masks into a single RGBA, split an RGBA back into

its channels, or invert channels in place. No export. No Photoshop trip. No re-import cycle.

🎨 PACK 1-4 SOURCES INTO ONE RGBA

Select your splatmaps, your roughness/metallic/AO/height masks, anything grayscale.
Right-click → ChannelForge → Pack into RGBA. Assign each source to a channel, pick which channel of the source

to read (R / G / B / A / Auto), optionally invert any of them, name the output, click Pack.

The new Texture2D lands in the Content Browser one folder over, with TC_Masks compression and

sRGB off, the correct defaults for shader masks. Empty slots default to 0 for RGB and 255 for

alpha. Slot left empty on alpha? Output is fully opaque. Done.

✂ UNPACK RGBA INTO 4 GRAYSCALES IN ONE CLICK

Select an RGBA texture, right-click → Unpack to 4 grayscales. Four fresh G8 textures land in the

same folder, named TexName_R, TexName_G, TexName_B, TexName_A. Compression auto-set to

TC_Grayscale. Perfect when you need to re-edit a single channel of an already-packed texture and

forgot where the source files live.

🔄 INVERT WITHOUT A REIMPORT

Alpha exported backwards by your art tool? One menu click. ChannelForge generates a new

*_Inverted asset next to the source. Your original stays untouched.

🛠 RIGHT-CLICK INTEGRATION, NOTHING MORE

ChannelForge hooks the Texture2D context menu via UToolMenus, the modern UE5 idiomatic API.

No new toolbar, no new dock tab, no startup modal. The editor stays exactly how you set it up.

The submenu only enables actions that match your selection: Pack lights up for 1-4 selected

textures, Unpack and Invert require exactly one.

🛡 SAFE BY DESIGN

• Source textures are read-only. ChannelForge never mutates an input.

• New assets are auto-named with conflict-free suffixes via IAssetTools::CreateUniqueAssetName —

pack the same textures twice, get T_Splat_Packed and T_Splat_Packed_1.

• Compression settings, sRGB flag, and mip generation are set per-operation to UE5 conventions,

inherited from the source for invert.

• Editor-only module. Zero footprint on your packaged game. Zero runtime cost. Zero shaders.

• 100% native C++, no Python, no external binary, no internet call.

🎯 BUILT FOR

• Terrain artists wrangling splatmaps from World Creator, Houdini, Substance, or Photoshop

• Tech artists prepping ARMH textures (R=AO, G=Roughness, B=Metallic, A=Height) for materials

• Anyone tired of the export → Photoshop → flip channel → re-import loop

📦 SOURCE FORMAT SUPPORT

Reads G8, G16, BGRA8, and RGBA16 source data. Outputs BGRA8 for RGBA results and G8 for

grayscale extraction. 16-bit sources are downsampled to 8-bit on output (V1).

⚙ REQUIREMENTS

• Unreal Engine 5.7+, editor-only

• Windows or Mac

📚 Documentation: [Link]

✉ Support: [email protected] or Discord