Why it exists
Binary asset review needs more context
UE4 assets often move through Perforce as opaque binary files, which makes it hard to understand what changed before accepting a changelist or comparing revisions.
Utility Toolkit
ue4-uasset-tools
A small standalone Python toolkit for inspecting Unreal Engine 4.27 .uasset package metadata as readable JSON, compact UMG summaries, and reviewable diffs.
Core idea
Expose the package metadata layer
The toolkit reads UE4.27 package tables directly and turns them into deterministic text output for inspection, diffing, and visual comparison workflows.
What it does
Readable views for .uasset files
The tools focus on making the structure inside a UE4 asset visible without opening Unreal Editor.
- Metadata JSON Converts package summary, name, import, export, dependency, and soft reference data into readable JSON.
- UMG summaries Prints compact WidgetTree summaries for WidgetBlueprint assets, including widget names and types.
- Review diffs Provides 2-way and 3-way metadata diffs, plus a P4Merge launcher for visual comparison.
Design boundary
Inspection first, editing out of scope
The generated JSON is meant for review and analysis. It is not a round-trippable editing format, and saved merge results do not modify the original .uasset files.
Workflow
A text layer for reviewing UE4 assets.
The useful result is not that binary assets become magically mergeable. It is that imports, exports, dependencies, soft references, and UMG hierarchy changes become visible enough to reason about before the editor is involved.