Assets Guide

Older/Work In Progress Page

This page was initially written for an older version of Helix, has not been updated, and may be out of date!
Contributions are more than welcome (see buttons at the top right of the page).

All you need to know about Assets

Assets in HELIX are all objects or content which come from Unreal Engine. For example Maps, StaticMeshes, SkeletalMeshes, Sounds, Particles, Blueprints etc are all types of Assets.

In order to use custom Assets in your servers, for example to spawn a Prop, or a custom Weapon you must have an Asset Pack. Asset Packs are a set of Assets that were exported together from Unreal.

Folder Structure#

All Asset Packs go under Server/Assets/ folder. Each Asset Pack is a folder under that.

Note

Asset Packs downloaded when connecting to servers or downloaded from the vault will be stored in Server/Assets/ folder as well!

This is an example of a server Assets folder:

Server Folder

HELIXGameServer.exe
Assets/
├── my-asset-pack-01/
│   ├── MyAsset_01.uasset
│   ├── MyAsset_02.uasset
│   ├── MyBigMap.umap
│   │    ...
│   └── Assets.toml
├── awesome-weapons/
│   ├── BigFuckingGun.uasset
│   │   ...
│   └── Assets.toml
Packages/
Config.toml

Assets Pack Configuration#

Asset Packs have a configuration file in the root of the Asset Pack folder, called Assets.toml, in this file we can setup all pertinent settings related to the Asset Pack:

# vault configurations
[meta]
    # friendly name
    title =                 "My Awesome Asset Pack"
    # contributors
    author =                "Contributor Names"
    # version
    version =               "0.1.0"

# unreal engine configurations
[unreal]
    # unreal engine folder - the name of the root folder (the one inside UnrealProject/Content/) which the assets will have references to each other
    unreal_folder =     "MyPack"
    # unreal engine version - unreal version this asset pack was compiled on
    unreal_version =    "5.1.0"
    # whether this asset pack was created as a plugin content"
    is_plugin_content =  false

# assets files
[assets]
    # maps
    [assets.maps]
        # MyMap = "MyFolder/MyAwesomeMap"
        # ...

    # static meshes
    [assets.static_meshes]
        # SM_Flower_01 = "MyFolder/SM_Awesome_Flower_01"
        # ...

    # skeletal meshes
    [assets.skeletal_meshes]
        # SK_Better_Man = "Characters/SK_BetterMan_0"
        # ...

    # particles
    [assets.particles]
        # P_Big_Explosion = "Particles/P_Big_Explosion"
        # ...

    # materials
    [assets.materials]
        # M_Red_Textured = "Materials/M_Red_Textured"
        # ...

    # blueprints
    [assets.blueprints]
        # BP_Blueprint = "Blueprints/M_Red_Textured"
        # ...

    # other assets (for not yet categorized ones)
    [assets.others]
        # A_Audio_Rifle_Fire = "Audios/A_Audio_Rifle_Fire_03"
        # ...

Settings Detailed#

See a description of what each setting does:

Setting	Description
`title`	Friendly name
`author`	Contributor(s)
`version`	Version - in the SemVer format `X.Y.Z`
`unreal.unreal_folder`	Name of the root folder in the Unreal Project which exported this Assets. This is important so the Assets can keep the relative references correctly
`unreal.unreal_version`	Version at which this Asset Pack was created
`unreal.is_plugin_content`	If this Asset Pack is Plugin Content
`assets.maps`	List of Maps in this Asset Pack
`assets.static_meshes`	List of Static Meshes in this Asset Pack
`assets.skeletal_meshes`	List of Skeletal Meshes in this Asset Pack
`assets.sounds`	List of Sounds in this Asset Pack
`assets.animations`	List of Animations in this Asset Pack
`assets.particles`	List of Particles in this Asset Pack
`assets.materials`	List of Materials in this Asset Pack
`assets.blueprints`	List of Blueprints in this Asset Pack
`assets.others`	List of other Assets in this Asset Pack

Logo Image#

It is possible to have a custom image to be displayed in the Vault. For that, add a file called Assets.jpg besides the Assets.toml with the image you wish. The recommended size is 300x150.

Referencing Assets in Scripting#

To be able to use Assets in your code, first you have to ensure that the Asset Pack is loaded. An Asset Pack is loaded when:

A map is loaded (this will make it's Asset Pack to be loaded automatically).
A package with it configured in assets_requirements is loaded.
It is manually set in Server's Config.toml at assets to load.

With the Asset Pack loaded, you can refer to it's assets using the following pattern:

"[ASSET_PACK_PATH]::[ASSET_KEY]"

Example:

"my-asset-pack-01::SM_Cube"

Note

[ASSET_PACK_PATH] is the folder name and [ASSET_KEY] is the key defined in the Assets.toml.

Types of Assets#

Some scripting methods require some specific Type of Assets to load. Attempting to load an invalid or wrong type will cause an Error. E.g.: Character:SetMesh() requires an Asset of type Skeletal Mesh.

Here's a list of all supported Asset types:

Type	Description
Map	An Unreal Engine Map/Level
Static Mesh	Unreal Static Meshes can be used to load meshes for Props and StaticMeshes
Skeletal Mesh	Unreal Skeletal Meshes can be used to load meshes
Sound	Unreal Sounds to load Sounds
Particle	Unreal Particles can be used for settings in several entities, including Particle Class itself
Animation	Unreal Animations can be used for settings in Character and Weapons
Material	Unreal Materials can be used for customizing meshes surfaces and used as Post Process
Blueprint	Unreal Actor Blueprints can be used for spawning Blueprint entities

Creating your own Assets#

To create your own Asset Pack, please refer to Custom Assets Guide.

📦 Asset creation

Default Asset Pack#

HELIX provides a default Asset Pack which is already included in the base game. Please refer to the Default Asset Pack page for more information.

📦 Default Asset Pack