kevinpbuckley/engine-settings

Engine Settings Skill

Critical Rules

⚠️ CVars vs Settings

• CVars (console variables) use get_console_variable / set_console_variable
• Settings use get_setting / set_setting with category

# CVars (names like r.ReflectionMethod)
value = unreal.EngineSettingsService.get_console_variable("r.ReflectionMethod")
unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_console_variable("r.ReflectionMethod", "1")

# Settings (category-based)
value = unreal.EngineSettingsService.get_setting("rendering", "bEnableRayTracing")

⚠️ Check Read-Only Before Setting CVars

info = unreal.ConsoleVariableInfo()
if unreal.EngineSettingsService.get_console_variable_info("r.MaxQualityMode", info):
    if not info.is_read_only:
        unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_console_variable(info.name, "1")

⚠️ Some Settings Require Restart

Check requires_restart in FEngineSettingInfo before expecting immediate changes.

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Categories

| Category | Description | |----------|-------------| | rendering | Graphics, shaders, ray tracing | | physics | Physics simulation, collision | | audio | Sound, spatialization | | gc | Garbage collection, memory | | network | Networking, replication | | collision | Collision channels and profiles | | ai | AI module, navigation | | input | Input bindings |

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Workflows

List Categories and Settings

import unreal

categories = unreal.EngineSettingsService.list_categories()
for cat in categories:
    print(f"{cat.category_id}: {cat.display_name}")

settings = unreal.EngineSettingsService.list_settings("rendering")
for s in settings:
    print(f"{s.key} = {s.value}")

Enable Ray Tracing

import unreal
import json

rt_settings = {
    "r.RayTracing": "1",
    "r.RayTracing.Shadows": "1",
    "r.RayTracing.Reflections": "1",
    "r.ReflectionMethod": "1"
}
result = unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_console_variables_from_json(json.dumps(rt_settings))
unreal.EngineSettingsService.save_all_engine_config()

Optimize for Performance

import unreal
import json

# Set overall scalability to Low (0)
unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_overall_scalability_level(0)

# Disable expensive features
perf_settings = {
    "r.RayTracing": "0",
    "r.VolumetricFog": "0",
    "r.MotionBlurQuality": "0",
    "r.Shadow.MaxResolution": "512"
}
unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_console_variables_from_json(json.dumps(perf_settings))

Search CVars

import unreal

shadows = unreal.EngineSettingsService.search_console_variables("shadow", 100)
for cvar in shadows:
    print(f"{cvar.name}: {cvar.value} ({cvar.type})")

Set Engine INI Values

import unreal

result = unreal.EngineSettingsService.set_engine_ini_value(
    "/Script/EngineSettings.GameMapsSettings",
    "GameDefaultMap",
    "/Game/Maps/Lvl_Main.Lvl_Main",
    "DefaultEngine.ini"
)

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Data Structures

Python Naming Convention: C++ types like FEngineSettingInfo are exposed as EngineSettingInfo in Python (no F prefix).

EngineSettingInfo

• key, display_name, description
• type, value, default_value
• requires_restart, read_only, is_console_variable

ConsoleVariableInfo

• name, value, default_value, description

• type, flags, is_read_only

• Rendering optimization: Adjust r.* cvars, ray tracing, shadows

• Physics tuning: Configure collision profiles, physics simulation

• Audio configuration: Sample rates, channels, spatialization

• Performance profiling: GC settings, streaming, scalability

• Platform settings: Windows graphics API, shader formats

• Quality presets: Apply overall or per-group scalability levels