Can't set directory to scan assets in game feature asset

Development Programming & Scripting
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1

When I try to edit a directory property in a game feature asset, it doesn’t show the Plugin folder to set a path under it.

The temporary fix for this is going to any Content Browser, unticking the Plugin Content and ticking it again. After that, the game feature asset will correctly show the Plugin folder when clicking on the three dots.

This needs fixing.

2

Steps to Reproduce

  1. In the editor, create a new game feature and activate it.
  2. In the game feature asset, add an entry to `Game Feature.Asset Manager.Primary Asset Types to Scan`.
  3. In `Directories`, select the three dots.

The Plugin folder might not show up.

3

Hi sd_julenpuertas,

Thank you for reporting this issue. I was able to reproduce it on all recent versions of UE.

What’s happening is that the Directory Picker spawned by the Property Editor uses a global “Default” value of the “Show Plugin Folders” editor setting, which is initially False. The Content Browser tabs, on the other hand, can each have its own override of that setting. This means that it is possible to see the “Plugins” folder appear in one or more Content Browser tabs, while not seeing it on other Content Browser tabs and on the Directory Picker. Interestingly, when you click the Settings button on a Content Browser and change its “Show Plugin Content” value, this updates both the per-instance and the global editor default value, which is what made your workaround possible.

The easiest way to fix the Editor behavior so that this does not happen anymore is to ensure that the global default value of the “Show Plugin Folders” editor setting starts at True. You can do this by editing an ini file (see below) and adding the following:

[/Script/UnrealEd.ContentBrowserSettings]
; Whether to display the game project plugins in the Content Browser
DisplayPluginFolders=True

The lines above should be added to one of the following ini files:

  • <PROJECT_PATH>/Config/DefaultEditorSettings.ini - This will set the default on a project-level. Each one of your projects will need to have this file, but the main advantage is that it can be added to version control and easily propagated to all team members, so this is what I would recommend.
  • <%LOCALAPPDATA%>/UnrealEngine/<VERSION>/Saved/Config/WindowsEditor/EditorSettings.ini - This is the file that gets updated when you change the value of “Show Plugin Content” on the Settings button of a Content Browser tab. It will affect all projects of a given engine version on the current machine, but it cannot be added to version control, and it will get overwritten when the setting is changed inside the Editor.
  • <ENGINE_PATH>/Engine/Config/BaseEditorSettings.ini - This is the file that sets the default settings for an engine installation on a machine. It is similar to the last option, except that it won’t be overriden by changing a setting inside the Editor. Note that this file already contains a line “DisplayPluginFolder=True”. This is unfortunately a typo and you can simply add an ‘s’ to the end of the key name and it should work. I just filed a bug report UE-348447 about this, by the way.

As a final note, I understand that, since Game Features are always Plugins, the Directory Picker spawned by the Property Editor of the “Game Feature Data” asset should really always show plugin folders, regardless of any Editor setting. This would require source code changes to the Engine, though. Interestingly, a recent CL 44672854 from August 2025 (not included in the 5.6 release) allowed the customization of the “FDirectoryPath” structure to respect the “ForceShowPluginContent” property meta tag, which seems to match this need perfectly. So, in the newer source code versions of the engine, fixing this could be as simple as adding that meta tag to the “GameFeatureData.PrimaryAssetTypesToScan.Directories” property. I also filed a bug report UE-348448 about this.

I hope this is helpful. The bug report links I added above should become accessible if and when the engine devs mark them as public trackable. While they look into it, you can try the ini file setting I mentioned earlier, and keep using your workaround if at all still necessary. Feel free to ask if you need any further assistance.

Best regards,

Vitor