Xdecal Painter – Viewport Decal Painting Made Simple
Bring your environments to life with Xdecal Painter, an Unreal Engine editor-only plugin that lets you paint decals directly in the viewport, just like using the Foliage tool. No more dragging decals from the Content Browser or wrestling with Outliner clutter — simply select as many decal materials as you wish, set your brush, and paint.
🎨 Key Features
Brush-based painting – place decals with adjustable radius, spacing, scatter, and density.
Live previews – see ghost decals, brush rings, and spacing guides before committing.
Smart erasing – hold Shift + LMB to remove decals within a brush radius.
Randomization – add variation in scale, rotation, and weighted materials for natural results.
Advanced filters – control placement by height, slope, and edge detection for precise art direction.
Overlap prevention – avoid clutter and stacking with automatic spacing safeguards.
Grouping system – automatically parent decals under named group actors for organized Outliners.
🚀 Why Xdecal Painter?
Work faster – paint dozens of decals in seconds instead of manual placement.
Stay organized – group decals logically and reduce Outliner chaos.
Achieve better visuals – randomization and filters make scenes look more natural and polished.
Artist-friendly – intuitive, non-destructive workflow designed for environment art.
📦 Notes
Supports Unreal Engine 5.6+.
Works on Windows, Mac, and Linux editors.
Editor-only plugin (not included in packaged builds).
⚡ Perfect for environment artists, level designers, and technical artists who want speed, control, and flexibility when working with decals.
💡 Pro Tip: Use Xdecal Painter in combination with the powerful Xdecal Tri-Projection Decal Material to unlock a formidable environment workflow — paint non-stretching decals across complex surfaces and direct your art like never before.
Allow Hidden Surfaces→ switch to allow for decals to be placed on hidden actors.
Fixed pre-rotation→ Never worry about misaligned decals again! Apply a fixed rotation in local decal space (X = projection axis, Y/Z = footprint axes) before any randomization. Perfect for locking decals to the correct angle while still keeping natural variation.
Angle Snap on Path (Alt) → Clean, repeatable path runs snapped to angle increments (user defined) in the projection plane. Perfect for roads, seams, and straight labels.
Vertex Magnet Snap (V) → Anchor endpoints snap to nearest mesh vertex with a sticky “magnetic” feel, crosshair feedback, and brush-scaled radius. Great for landing precisely on edges and corners without pixel hunting.
Path Layout Upgrades → Added Path angle Snap Step Deg (to use with alt shortcut) and Vertex snapping on/off switch. (Shortcut V)
Expanded anchor options: Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, plus Top Center, Bottom Center, Left, Right, and Center.
Anchor Scaling →Pin decals to Center/Top/Bottom/Left/Right so they scale from a stable anchor. Great for random leaks and other directional decals across any surface; works with both single and Path placement.
Path Layouts → Path Layouts → place decals from A→B with live preview, spacing or count control, parallel lanes, jitter, and chained segments for multi-run layouts.
Decals in Level Counter → You can now see exactly how many decals are being painted at any time in your level. The feature respects the level that you are in making sure it gives you an accurate decal count even when you close and revisit another level.
Max decal limits → set overall scene limits and per-stroke caps for precise optimization.
Projection axis dropdown → when Project to Normal is off, easily choose X, Y, or Z axis for flexible placement on any surface.
Binary Yaw Rotation & Binary Scale → Lets you alternate between two random numbers (ex -90/90 or 0/180, 1,-1) in binary form giving you random states for placing certain types of decals like leaks or continuous lines were you need some variation but cannot have full rotational variation.
Very impressive stuff - this makes working with decals in Editor feel like a first-class workflow.
In combination with XDecalMaterial it feels pretty revolutionary compared with Unreal’s built-in decal features. I already use XDecal and Extile so this complements my existing setup perfectly.
Even using normal Unreal decal materials though, the XDecalPainter editor tooling is great. I’m still experimenting as there are approaches the tooling makes possible that I’d have avoided previously due to them being too fiddly or time consuming.
But overall, after using it for an hour I’ll never go back.
What’s New in v1.8.0