Glossary for Unreal Editor for Fortnite | Unreal Editor for Fortnite Documentation

This glossary contains terms specific to Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).

For Fortnite Creative terminology, see the Fortnite Creative Glossary.

For terms related to the Verse programming language, see the Verse Glossary. For those who are interested, the Verse Glossary also contains a number of basic programming terms with definitions designed for those who are learning programming for the first time.

Numbers and Symbols

0 dB: A 0 dB does not represent no sound. Think of 0 dB as maximum volume. For example, if your receiver reads -25 dB, it means that the volume of the signal has been attenuated by 25 dB (made 25 dB more quiet than the loudest it could possibly be) before being output to your speakers.

2D audio: Sound that plays without spatialization. This means that the sound does not change as a player moves through the game. Compare to 3D audio.

3D audio: Sounds that are spatialized, or located audibly in three-dimensional or virtual space.

A

actor: An actor is any object that can be placed on a level. This is a generic class of objects that supports 3D transformations such as translation, rotation and scale. Actors can be created (spawned) and destroyed through gameplay code.

adaptive music: In video games, adaptive music (also called interactive or dynamic music) is background music that changes in volume, rhythm, or tune based on player behavior or other influencing factors. The two primary approaches to adaptive music are horizontal composition and vertical composition. These approaches can be used together to create game soundtracks.

air dodge: In Rocket Racing, you can use an air dodge to transition from driving on the ground to driving on the wall or the ceiling, or to land more quickly on the ground. This maneuver basically flips the car over.

albedo: The base color of an object with no shadows or highlights.

aliasing: A digital image distortion that can appear as a jagged or saw-toothed outline in a low-resolution monitor.

alpha channel: The alpha channel controls the transparency or opacity of a color. The alpha channel is what you use to remove the background from an image. A PNG image, for example, has an alpha channel that lets you set the background to be transparent.

ambient lighting: The amount of light in scene that has no source and no real direction. Ambient lighting illuminates the entire area evenly. Changing the color value on an ambient light can change the mood of the scene.

angle pitch: With camera devices, this measures how much the camera points up or down while framing its target.

angle yaw: With camera devices, this measures how much the camera turns left or right while framing its target.

Animation Blueprint: A node-based interface that captures the animations of the MetaHuman character.

articulate: When sections of something are connected by joints that can bend, they articulate. For example, think of an arm. It articulates at the elbow, and again at the wrist. sections connected by joints.

asset: An element used to build a game. Examples include content imported into or created in the Content Browser, such as materials, Static Meshes, textures, particle systems, and sound cues. Each asset is saved in an individual .uAsset file.

asset reflection: You can expose your UEFN assets in Verse to use them from your Verse code. This is called asset reflection, and you can use it to insert images in your custom UI or change meshes for your custom props in Verse.

attack: The time it takes from the start of a sound for it to reach maximum volume. Compare to release.

attenuation: A change in the strength or volume of a sound. Attenuation is usually tied in to proximity of the listener to the source of the sound, or how close the listener is.

audio effect: Any device that takes audio input and modifies it.

audio envelope: In audio, an envelope describes how a sound changes over time. The most common stages of an audio envelope are known as ADSR: attack, decay, sustain, and release. While attack, decay, and release refer to time, sustain refers to volume.

audio file

An audio file is a file in which sounds are saved. A sound is an audio asset.

You can import an audio file into UEFN as a .wav .slac, .ogg, or .aif. The editor can recognize and use any of these files directly, or you can save them as sound cues, which give additional functionality.

audio signal processing: An audio signal is an electronic representation of a sound. Audio signal processing is how these signals are manipulated.

Automatic Bounding Box: When this field is enabled under the World Settings tab in UEFN, the editor automatically sets collision bounds based on the collision primitives applied to the Static Mesh shape.

axis: Fortnite takes place in three dimensions, so to locate something in the space, you need three points of reference. These points are called the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis. Imagine you are looking over a flat plane. Place a dot in the center of the plane. This is your 0 point for all dimensions. Draw a line from north to south (toward you and away from you) and make sure it goes through the 0 point. This is X. Now draw a line that crosses at the 0 point, but goes east to west, (left to right). This is Y. Draw a third line that also goes through the 0 point, crossing where the other two lines cross, but going straight up and down. This is Z. Using those three lines, you can position any object in a three-dimensional space.

B

back-solve: A backward solve has to do with the control rig driving a character's animation. When a control is manipulated, it looks at how the movement will affect the controls down the chain (a forward solve) and well as how its movement affects controls higher in the chain (backward solve), basically double-checking the work. Some animations and features rely on the forward or backward solve in order to add effects or motion to the character at runtime.

backface: The back side of a mesh. This side doesn't face the camera, so it can be discarded to save memory.

bake: To embed pre-computed information into an asset to optimize rendering.

bark: You can use the Audio Player device to set use dialog lines from guards. In game development, these lines are often referred to as barks.

barn door: In photograph or film lighting, barn doors are hinged metal flaps you can add to a light to adjust where and how much light illuminates the camera subject. In UEFN, the same principle can be applied to lights to control a light source from the light's Details panel.

base-16: Hexadecimal (from hexa-, meaning six, and decimal, meaning ten), base-16 (often shortened to hex), is a numbering system that uses 16 symbols, instead of the more familiar 10 symbols in base-10.

BGM: You can use background music (BGM) to create or shift a mood in your UEFN experience.

bidirectional: Functioning in two directions.

bind: Binding is associating a function with an event. For example, if you bind a function to a button's InteractedWithEvent, it means that each time a player interacts with that button, the bound function is called. This can refer to the association of a variable with a value or object, or to the association of a handler with an event.

bit: A unit of computer information based on a binary choice: 0 or 1, yes or no, on or off. Also see byte.

bitmap: A bitmap is an image file format used to create and store computer graphics. A bitmap file displays the image in small dots that create an overall image. It is abbreviated as BMP, and a bitmap file has the extension .bmp.

bloom: The level of reflection off a surface that makes a glow appear around an object.

Boolean operation: In 3D modeling, a Boolean operation refers to the creation of intersections and unions of objects, and the subtraction of one object from another. For example, if you wanted to make a round disk with a hole in the middle, you could overlap a smaller disk with a larger one, then subtract the smaller disk with a Boolean operation.

boom collision: In film, a boom jib is an apparatus that holds the camera. Boom operators can move and orient the camera with levers and wheels to get the shot they desire. You can use the Boom Collision properties for a fixed-angle camera device to determine the behavior of that camera when an object in the scene gets between the camera and its target.

bound: See bind.

bounding box: A container for all collision properties that can be set on a Static Mesh. When you import a Static Mesh into UEFN, the editor generates collisionprimitives to control how that mesh will render and interact with physics. Bounding boxes are used for things like rendering, culling, lighting, and physics.

bpm: Short for beats per minute, this is the tempo that music plays at. For example, 60 bpm is a slow, relaxing tempo, while 150 bpm is much more lively.

brand

In Fortnite Creative, this is the identity that represents an island creator. The creator's brand could be an image, a tag, or a name that immediately identifes the creator to their followers, but is most often the creator's name. For example, MustardPlays is a well-known YouTuber whose brand is familiar to hundreds of thousands of followers.

The term originally comes from the practice of using a hot iron to burn a symbol (brand) on livestock to identify ownership, and later, on crates to identify manufacturing. Using marks to brand everything from ceramics to jewelry also goes back for centuries.

bug: Incorrect or unexpected behavior in a program.

byte: A unit of computer information made up of eight bits.

C

call: In a computer program, when an instruction is requested by the program, it is called. The call invokes (activates) a specific function. Calls can happen because of player interactions with objects, or because of time parameters.

camera offset: With a camera device, the camera view normally centers on its target. The offset is how far from the center the camera view is. The camera can have an offset amount on the X-, Y-, or Z- axis, and on more than one axis at a time.

camera transition

When you're using multiple camera devices, a transition controls the image change as you move from one camera view to another. Different transition types influence the shift between keyframes:

Linear The camera view shifts cleanly from one camera to the next, at a constant pace between frames.
Ease In Makes the transition start slowly then gain speed.
Ease Out This option slows down the transition before it stops.
Ease In-Out Slows down the start of the transition, then speeds it up.

canvas: A canvas is a container widget that holds other widgets. You can position other widgets within the canvas using canvas slots to design a custom UI for a player. When a canvas widget is at the top of the UI hierarchy, it represents the whole screen.

cell: A subdivision in the World Partition that is loaded and unloaded based on the location of the streaming source. Cells are based on grid size.

chamfered edge: A transitional edge between two surfaces to ease the appearance of a sharp line or edge. A type of bevel, it uses a 45° angle where the surfaces meet.

character: A type of Pawn that includes the ability to walk around. A character is a subclass of a Pawn Actor that is intended to be used as a player character. The character subclass includes a collision setup, input bindings for bipedal movement, and additional code for movement controlled by the player.

child entity: An entity that is nested under another entity (its parent entity) in the entity hierarchy.

chord progression: A chord is typically a group of three or more notes played together. Many songs progress through a series of chords to support a melody. The order in which chords are played is called a chord progression.

chromatic aberration: Refraction is when light bends as it passes from one transparent substance into another, and affects how objects are perceived. Fpr example. rainbows are the result of refraction. Chromatic aberration is the effect from refraction when different wavelengths of light pass through slightly different angles, resulting in a failure to focus. Depending on the amount of chromatic aberration used in a post-process volume, you will either end up with some blurring around the edges of the scene, or with blurring throughout the entire scene.

chromatic scale

In Western music, most instruments are designed to play twelve notes in an octave. These notes are represented as A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, and G#/Ab, where the # indicates the note is played higher than normal, and the b indicates it is played lower. For example, A# would be the same note as Bb, as the note falls between A and B in a 12-note chromatic scale. A chromatic scale can start at any note, but will follow the same pattern.

Compare to diatonic scale.

cinematic sequence: A sequence is a series of shots that are edited together. A cinematic sequence tells a short story or glimpse into a story much like a movie would.

class: A class defines the behaviors and properties of a particular object used in the creation of a UEFN game. Classes are hierarchical, which means that a class inherits information from its parent class, and passes that information to its children (subclasses).

client: The Fortnite client runs on your local device and connects to the UEFN server.

collision: If an asset has collision enabled, this means it is solid to the player's character and the character cannot pass through it. For example, if you place a Barrier around the edge of an island, players are blocked and can't fall off the edge. You can also use collision settings for things you want a player or character to interact with. You can't attack something that doesn't have collision enabled, for example. You can't pick up something that doesn't have collision either — a character's hand just passes through it.

collision primitive: A simple, primitive shape, such as a box or sphere, that can be used to set collision boundaries and other object behaviors.

color channel: Digital images are composed of combinations of the primary light colors red, green, and blue (RGB). Each of these colors can be viewed separately on a channel. A black and white image has only one channel.

color grading: Color grading is an effect that you can use to create a mood by subtly altering the appearance of colors. Color grading differs from color correction, which attempts to adjust images to real life colors.

color space: A way of defining how RGB colors are represented on a monitor or device. The color space used can determine how vibrant the colors are, how deep the darks are and how bright the lights and whites are. Compare to gamut.

color temperature: In light, color temperature is measured in Kelvins (K). The higher the number, the cooler (whiter or bluer) the light appears. The lower the number, the warmer (more yellow) it appears. Cooler light can appear brighter, even though Kelvins don't measure actual light output.

command line interface: A way of bypassing a GUI (graphical user interface) and sending a command directly to a program from a command line prompt. Some applications (UEFN is one) also have a command line interface that accepts command lines. Command lines are most often used by programmers, where it's faster to enter a command directly than to navigate through one or more GUIs.

commit: A commit is when you record a set of changes in code to a version control system.

communication framework: A way of sharing data between different components. In UEFN, this is a communication framework that passes or shares data between components, including a Fortnite DS, a PC game client, an uncooked editor server, and the Fortnite Editor.

competitive race: In Rocket Racing, a competitive race is where all players are on the track at the same time, doing the same number of laps, and the player whose vehicle crosses the finish line first is the winner.

compile: To convert programs from a human-readable language into computer-executable instructions.

component

1. A self-contained tile for rendering a piece of terrain. Sometimes components are called cells. Also see World Partition.

2. Components are what provide data and behavior to the entities in Scene Graph. Components define what an entity is supposed to be doing in the scene.

Components have editable properties that can be physical, like a static mesh and particle system, or logical, like a gameplay tag or custom Verse code that defines the movement of a platform. By default, all entities have a transform component to specify where the entity exists in the world.

container: A class that contains properties that can be applied to multiple objects.

Content Browser

The primary area of UEFN used for creating, importing, organizing, viewing, and modifying content assets within the editor. The Content Browser provides a way to manage content folders.

You can also perform other useful operations on assets, such as renaming, moving, copying, and viewing references. The Content Browser can search for and interact with all assets in the game.

In the Content Browser, you can search and sort assets by type, and you can filter your view of the assets either by choosing specific types of assets in the Filters dropdown list, or by typing text in the Search Assets box.

Content Drawer: The Content Drawer is a special instance of the Content Browser that automatically minimizes when it loses focus (that is, when you click away from it). To keep it open, click the Dock in Layout button in the top-right corner of the Content Drawer. This creates a new instance of the Content Browser, but you can still open a new Content Drawer.

Content Drawer button: This button opens the Content Drawer, from which you can access all of the assets in your project. This button is located in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Content Library: A plugin in UEFN with third-party assets that you can download for free.

content service: The feature that makes it possible to import content from UEFN into Creative.

contrast: In lighting, contrast describes how highlights transition into shadows. The brightest areas of the image are the highlights. The darkest areas are the shadows. In between, the image will have lights, midtones, and darks.

control bus: A modulation source that can be added to an audio source or effect. Assets sent to the same control bus can be modulated as a group by using a control bus mix. In UEFN, the control bus is a way to control certain parameters for one or more sounds.

control bus mix: A mix used to drive values utilized by control buses. In UEFN, can be used to control the volume of groups of sounds when added to an Audio Mixer device.

Control Rig: A suite of animation tools you can use to rig and animate characters directly in UEFN

cook

To convert data to a format that can be used on a specific platform. Cooked data is data that is basically ready to ship.

A final build is run through a process where the data is organized, and combined into large chunks, compressed, and so on, so that it loads fast. Editor and debug data is not included when data is cooked.

cooked editor: The editor in UEFN where you can create, import and edit props. This is called a "cooked" editor because it uses cooked data, or data that has been converted to run in real time.

cosmetic track: Cosmetic tracks in Rocket Racing island templates can be alternate tracks, like secondary tracks, or used just to achieve a particular cosmetic look. Players do not spawn on cosmetic tracks, and travel on a cosmetic track doesn't determine play position through a lap. There is no limit to how many cosmetic tracks you use. In Edit mode, these are identified by their color, white.

Creative Edit: Creative Edit the act of playtesting your project in Fortnite Creative without leaving UEFN. You can use all of your tools to edit your island. You do this by clicking Launch Session, then Play. This is the equivalent of Create mode in Fortnite Creative in that any edits made to the project are automatically saved.

Creative Play: To start the game in the Fortnite client so you can test the player version of an island. This is done by pressing START GAME in Creative. This is the equivalent of Play mode in Fortnite Creative in that no edits are saved.

Creator Portal: A place where you as an island creator or developer can submit, publish and manage island projects, set up and manage collaborative teams, and view analytic information. For more info, see Join the Fortnite Island Creator & Engagement Program.

cubemap: A cubemap is a simple method of environment mapping, in which distant scenery, such as sckies and surrounding environments, is mapped to a panoramic texture.

cull: To increase performance by reducing the number of objects of any kind from the current view. The bounds of an object are used to test whether it is currently rendered within the frame. Objects that are removed include objects made of polygons, along with their materials, lights, and shadows.

cutscene: A cutscene, also called a cinematic, is a sequence in a video game that plays without your interaction. Cutscenes usually move a storyline forward. For example, at the beginning of every season in Battle Royale, a cutscene plays that updates you on the background of what the new season is about.

CVar: Console variables, or CVars, are variables that can be set in an .ini file.

D

dB: Short for decibel, a unit used to measure relative loudness of sound. Also see 0dB.

DCC: Digital content creation, or DCC, refers to applications like 3ds Max, Maya, or Blender that you can use to create 3D content.

deadlock: A deadlock is when computer programs sharing the same resource prevent each other from accessing the resource, causing the programs to stop functioning.

deadzone: When you're using a camera device, this is the area where the target can move without affecting the camera. When the target moves to the edge of the deadzone, the camera will start following the target into the new area.

debugging: The process of identifying and resolving errors in your code.

decay: The time it takes from a sound reaching its maximum volume until it reaches its sustain volume.

delay: A time interval that controls how long a device will wait before producing a sound or other output.

deleted island: Deleted Islands are islands that have been deleted.

depot: Where files are stored when revision control is used.

Details panel: The Details panel in the level editor contains information about the properties for various elements. This includes transform edit boxes for moving, rotating, and scaling Actors, editable properties for the selected Actors, and quick access to additional editing functionality (depending on the types of Actors selected in the viewport).

developer: In UEFN and Verse, users are called developers. This term includes Fortnite island creators, artists, and architects.

device: The basic building blocks used in UEFN to construct game mechanics. A device is used to drive player interactions that control gameplay.

diatonic scale: In music, a diatonic scale uses seven notes, instead of the twelve notes used in a chromatic scale.

diffuse: Diffuse reflection scatters light when reflecting off an object. Compare to specular and normal.

diffuse shadows: In UEFN, the premise is that a small but intense light source will provide sharp edges on a shadow, while a larger area light source will have smoother, softer edges.

direct event binding: Direct event binding is a system that allows a device to communicate directly with one or more other devices. It is used for creating connections between multiple devices to trigger actions, define player attributes, and customize gameplay. It is the connection of a function that instigates an event.

disabled island: Disabled islands are islands that cannot be played, opened, or playtested.

distortion: An audio effect that can simulate the warm sound of a signal being overdriven through an analog tube amp, or an unsettling digital processing and warping.

draw call: A draw call tells the graphics API what to draw and how to draw it. Each draw call contains all the information the graphics API needs to draw on the screen, such as information about textures, shaders, and buffers. Draw calls can be resource-intensive, but often the preparation for a draw call is more resource-intensive than the draw call itself.

draw distance

In computer graphics, draw distance (sometimes called render or view distance) is the maximum distance of objects in a three-dimensional scene that the rendering engine will draw. Polygons that lie beyond the draw distance will not be drawn on the screen.

Draw distance requires a limit because a processor that's expected to render objects to an infinite distance would slow the application to an unacceptable speed because of the computing power it uses.

drift: See oversteer.

drive: When an amp is pushed past the point of clean sound by increasing the gain.

dry: In audio, a dry signal or sound refers to a sound before any effects are applied. Compare to wet.

E

echo: In audio signal processing, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives to the listener with a delay after the source sound.

edge: A line, or two connected vertices.

Edit mode: In UEFN, when you playtest an island, the views of each are distinguished by Edit mode (the view of the UEFN viewport where you make changes, or edits) and Play mode (where the island appears in the Creative client).

editor: An editor is an interface used by a developer to create program code that makes a program work. In UEFN, a tool is a dialog or panel used to perform a specific set of actions or to display information about one or more actors or assets, and an editor is a collection of tools used to edit one or more specific types of assets.

emissive material: A self-illuminated material. Material emission is a material property that is written directly into the scene color buffer.

emitter: A key component in a visual effects system, an emitter defines the properties for what will be used to emit (simulate) certain kinds of visual phenomena, like smoke, rain, or explosions.

empty emitter: An emitter that has not yet had its properties defined.

entity: An entity is the base object present in Scene Graph. This is a lightweight class containing two key elements: components and child entities.

entity hierarchy: Grouping entities under one parent entity creates a hierarchical structure with child entities under the parent entity, and causes the parent entity to control the lifetime of all the entities nested beneath it.

Environment Lighting Rig device: A device in UEFN that that you can use for individual lighting rig sets to create custom lighting, volumetric clouds, time of day lighting, and so on.

event: An event is the execution of an action on a single object. Compare to function.

event handler: An event handler is what responds to a bound event. For example, binding a function to a Button device's InteractedWithEvent will call the event handler every time the button is interacted with.

ExperienceSettings: See Island Settings.

exposure compensation: A way to control how dark or light a scene is.

extrude: When you extrude a model, you are extending the top face in a direction.

F

face: A surface comprised of three or more connected edges. The side of a cube can contain a single face, or multiple faces. Each face can be extruded.

falloff: A gradual reduction in something over space or time. This term could apply to lighting, terrain, or sound, for example.

FBX: FBX (Filmbox) is a proprietary file format (.fbx) developed by Kaydara and owned by Autodesk since 2006. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications. FBX is also part of Autodesk Gameware, a series of video game middleware.

field of view

Field of view, or FOV for short, this is how much of the world a player can see at any given moment.

With a camera device, field of view refers to what the camera (and the player) can actually see. The field of view is represented as an angle, and is measured in degrees. Angles are two lines that join at a point called the vertex. With cameras, the vertex is the lens (virtual in this case) of the camera. The arms of the angle spread up and down (the vertical axis) from that vertex. The higher the number of degrees, the wider the angle, and the more the camera can see.

fill light: A secondary source of light in a scene that doesn't change the character of the key light. Fill lights are used primarily to lighten shadows.

film grain: A visual effect that simulates old stock film for a more cinematic look.

filter: In audio signal processing, a filter determines which sound frequencies are heard. Different filters process audio in different ways. For example, a low-pass filter allows lower frequencies to be heard while reducing or eliminating higher frequencies.

Fixed Angle Camera: A camera device that follows the player around the world, without rotation like the Fixed Point Camera. This camera type is useful for players exploring an open area.

Fixed Point Camera: A device that positions a camera from a fixed position. You can place the camera on a stationary spot and the camera won't move from that spot. However, it can pivot towards a look-at point. This camera is useful when a player is inside a building or in conversation with an NPC.

FK rigging: FK (Forward Kinematics) is how the positions for different parts of a model at specified times are calculated for both position and orientation. FK refers to the effect on the child nodes as the parent moves or rotates. Compare to IK rigging.

float value: A float value is a value based on a floating point number. This is a positive or negative whole number with a decimal point. For example, 5.1, 0.25, and -122.333 are all floating point numbers, but 76 and 0 are not. These are called floating point numbers because the decimal point can "float" to any position necessary.

Foley: Sound effects created in post for film, video, or gaming. It's capitalized out of respect for Jack Foley, the man who invented many of the techniques still used.

Fortnite creation tools: The expanded resources available to Fortnite island creators. These include the Creative toolset, Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and the programming language Verse. These tools integrate to help creators build customized games and other island experiences.

Fortnite creator community: This community includes all of the people involved in making experiences in Fortnite — creators. developers, and the hard-working, game-loving people at Epic Games.

Fortnite DS: A Fortnite-dedicated server is a technical component for UEFN. Downloading projects directly from Creative is possible when a dedicated server is live with the project.

FOV: See field of view.

function: In UEFN, a function is the performance of a device action or condition triggered by an event from another device.

G

gain: While gain and volume are closely related, there are differences. Volume is how loud something is, while gain is how much an audio signal is increased by an amplifier. Adjusting the volume does not affect the waveform. However, increasing the gain does, and this can cause distortion.

Game Data folder: Game data includes any game or user info that's generated through use. The Game Data folder is where this info is stored.

gameboard: The surface on which a game is played. Traditionally, the term gameboard has applied to tabletop games. However, it is becoming more common to use it to describe video game levels. In video game development, gameboard levels can be split into different areas or zones, with different shapes, arrangements or terrains. As with tabletop gameboards, players can move characters or objects around the board (level) to progress through the game.

gameplay tag

Gameplay tags are conceptual, hierarchical labels with user-defined names. These tags can have any number of hierarchical levels, separated by the "." character; for example, a gameplay tag with three levels would take the form of "Family.Genus.Species", with "Family" being the broadest identifier in the hierarchy, and "Species" being the most specific.

For more info, see Gameplay Tags.

gamut: Color gamut is a way of describing a range of colors that can be used within a color space. Available gamuts are determined in part by the number of colors a monitor can display. A wide gamut is a larger color space.

geometry: See level geometry.

glide: Glide determines how long it takes to blend to a new pitch when a note is played.

global illumination: Provides more realistic lighting in your scene by using algorithms that account for both light originating from a light source and reflections off of nearby objects.

glTF: This file format name comes from Graphics Language Transmission Format. It is a standard file format for 3D scenes and models. A glTF file uses one of two possible file extensions: .gltf (JSON/ASCII) or .glb (binary). Both .gltf and .glb files can reference external binary and texture resources. Alternatively, both formats may be self-contained by directly embedding binary data buffers (as base64-encoded strings in .gltf files or as raw byte arrays in .glb files). This is an open standard developed and maintained by the Khronos Group, and it supports 3D model geometry, appearance, scene graph hierarchy, and animation.

golden path

A golden path is a procedure that doesn't go off in unexpected directions. Think of it as the straightest line from point A to point B.

Another definition for golden path is playing or testing a game using cooked data with a dedicated server and client running separately, not via play-in-editor (PIE). This is the closest you can get to testing exactly what will happen in-game.

grayboxing: Grayboxing (also known as blockout) is the process of making a playable rough draft of a level to get a sense of its gameplay before polishing its look. It's common for level designers to graybox a game environment to test its layout for gameplay purposes.

greyboxing: See grayboxing.

grid: A level is marked with lines in a grid pattern. You can use these grid lines to position props and devices, and to measure distances. Each grid area is called a tile. Grids are measured in UUs, and one tile equals 512 UU.

grid plane: A grid plane is an area that cannot be edited, but that you can place objects on. If you're going to create custom terrains, you need to remove the grid plane(s) in your project before you can do this. To select a grid plane, make sure you're in Selections Mode, then click on the grid. It will now have a yellow border. To remove the selected grid plane, press the Delete key. Also see Landscape Streaming Proxy.

grid snap

UEFN inherits its grid-snapping values, known as Unreal Units (UU), from Unreal Engine (UE) for all actors. Inside UE, 1 UU is equal to 1 centimeter (CM). This means smaller snap values cause the actor to snap in smaller increments, or alternatively, larger snap values cause actors to snap in larger increments. This is the opposite of how grid snapping works in Fortnite, where the smaller the grid-snapping value, the larger the incremental snap.

However, Building Actors do use the Fortnite grid snapping values. You can enable and disable Fortnite grid-snapping properties in World Settings by toggling Editor Cell Snap on and off for Building Actors. Changing your grid snapping levels does not affect non-Building Actors.

H

harmony: A combination of notes played at the same time that make up a chord. Compare to melody.

heightmap: A raster image (two dimensional) used for elevation modeling. Each pixel stores values, such as surface elevation data, for display in 3D computer graphics. Heightmaps are widely used in terrain rendering software and modern video games, and are ideal for storing digital terrain elevations; compared to a regular polygonal mesh, they require substantially less memory for a given level of detail.

hierarchical: Having clear levels or hierarchies of rank, importance, or control. Common hierarchical relationships are parent/child or superclass/subclass.

Hierarchical Level of Detail: Hierarchical Level of Detail (HLOD) decreases the amount of detail on assets as the player camera moves further away from them. This contributes to managing memory more effectively. Also see LOD.

hitbox: The geometry that indicates collision boundaries. In Fortnite, a hitbox registers damage and drops a resource to the player that damages it.

HLOD: Hierarchical Level of Detail (HLOD) decreases the amount of detail on assets as the player camera moves further away from them. This contributes to managing memory more effectively. Also see LOD.

horizontal composition: In adaptive music, horizontal composition, or resequencing, is where segments of music can be resequenced based on player actions or other triggers. Unlike vertical composition, where a basic music track plays continuously while other elements are added to or removed from it, the musical segments used in horizontal composition are separate from each other.

hotfix: A small piece of code that can be replaced directly in a live game or playtest. These are usually things like CVars.

HUD: The heads-up display, or HUD, is a status bar that shows the player information during a game, such as the character’s health and possessions, ammunition indicator, and the score or game progression. It's a heads up because you can see the info on your screen without looking away from the game. It also gives you a heads-up or warning when certain player resources are running low.

HUD message: A customized message that displays on the HUD at a specific point in the game.

I

IK rigging: Kinematics is the study of motion. Inverse Kinematics, or IK, is the process in 3D animation that uses joint articulation to create both poses and movement. Rigging is how these poses and movements are mapped to a skeletal mesh.

in-game resolution: Resolution is the number of pixels per inch that display on a monitor. While different consoles have different resolution settings, a video game runs at its own in-game resolution regardless of console settings. What this means is that the in-game resolution directly affects performance. Higher in-game resolution causes the GPU to work harder to render more pixels, resulting in lower frame rates. Console resolution does not affect gaming performance.

INI file: A file that contains configuration information for computer software. INI is short for initialization, which is the assignment of an initial value when a program launches.

instance: Think of an instance as a unique copy of an asset. The original asset determines the default properties of any new instance you create. Changes you make to the properties for an instance don't affect the original asset. For example, you can change a material to have a different appearance without changing the master material. This would be a material instance.

instantiate: To create an instance of something.

interval: The difference in pitch between two notes. From C to D would be a step interval, or one step up in the scale. From C to E would be a skip interval, skipping a step from one note to the next.

island: In Unreal Editor for Fortnite, you are building islands. IUn UEFN, these islands are sometimes called levels.

Island Settings: A utility in UEFN that you can use to define settings in the Creative My Island menu. This utility is treated in UEFN like a placeable device, and can be dragged onto a level from the Content Browser then modified. It is useful if you're creating gameplay devices for Creative.

island template: In Unreal Editor for Fortnite, an island template is basically an empty island with terrain or other environmental features, much like the starter islands available in Fortnite. These templates are available on the Project Browser screen in UEFN.

J

jump: In Rocket Racing, the jump button causes the vehicle to jump off the ground.

K

K-DOP: K-DOP is a type of bounding volume where K is the number of axis-aligned planes, and DOP stands for discrete oriented polytope. It takes K axis-aligned planes and pushes them as close to the mesh as possible.

Kelvin scale: The Kelvin (K) scale is used in lighting to measure the color temperature of light. Lower K numbers mean yellower (warmer) light. Higher numbers mean whiter or bluer (cooler) light.

key: The first note in an octave. For example, the key of C starts with the C note, while the key of G starts with the G note.

key light: The key light is the primary light source. It's called this because it's usually the main light source, and the point around which other lighting can be designed. This can apply to both interior and exterior lighting.

keyframe: In animation, a key or keyframe is a record of a given value or values at a point on an audio or video timeline. Keyframes are used to mark the beginning or end of a transition.

L

Landscape Mode: A set of tools in UEFN used specifically for editing terrain. You can use this toolset to add mountains and hills, bodies of water, caves and tunnels, and foliage.

Landscape Streaming Proxy: When you delete a grid plane, you're left with a proxy (substitute) for the grid plane. The primary difference between a grid plane and a proxy is that you can use the Landscape Mode tools on a proxy to build custom terrains.

LEGO Elements: These are any of the LEGO Fortnite assets that look like they're built with real-life bricks from your LEGO sets, and that are for use exclusively on LEGO Islands. This includes prefabs, devices, tools, and so on. All LEGO assets, from Minifigures to prefabricated buildings (prefabs), are scaled at half the size of Fortnite assets to match the Minifigure scale. Unlike Fortnite assets, LEGO assets cannot be scaled or resized in any way. Tiny but mighty!

LEGO Island: A LEGO Island uses LEGO assets and Minifigures. Templates for these islands can be found when you interact with the console on the Creative hub, click Create New, and select the LEGO tab, or in the Project Browser when launching UEFN. Dream big, build small!

LEGO llama: A llama that works just like a Fortnite loot llama, but is scaled down and skinned to match the LEGO environment. LEGO llamas can also be used as piñatas. ¡Dale, Dale, Dale!

LEGO Styles: The LEGO Minifiguresversion of a Fortnite outfit.

lerp: Short for linear interpolation. Interpolation is the creation of new values that lie between known values. Linear interpolation is the most simple form of interpolation, based on the assumption of a straight line between two points.

level

In UEFN, a level is a user-defined area of gameplay. Levels are created, viewed, and modified by placing, transforming, and editing the properties of the actors it contains. Multiple levels can be saved within a single project. You can also think of a level as a container that can have a dedicated landscape, and can hold actors (devices, props, custom assets, and so on).

The term level is synonymous with island.

level design: Level design is another way of saying game design.

Level Editor: When you launch a project, it opens in the Level Editor. Different content editors become available based on the mode you choose to work in.

level geometry: When a designer talks about geometry, they are talking about what the computer uses to define objects in three dimensions. Level geometry includes not only location and size of objects, but also colors and textures. Also see polygon.

level instance: If an instance is a unique copy of an asset, then a level instance would be a unique copy of a level (a collection of assets) that can be modified without changing the original level. New level instances can be generated from selected Actors in the viewport. Also see packed level instance and level instance device.

Level Save Record: The save file for the Creative island file, which specifies all the data necessary to recreate a customized island. This is a collection of template records that hold actor class and specific property settings, and instance records that hold a reference to a template record, including the location and rotation for where an actor was placed. A LSR will have some template records and many instance records.

lifetime management: Nested entities exist as long as the parent entity exists. If the parent entity is destroyed, then so are all the child entities below it.

Link Code: See Project Link Code.

live build: The version of Fortnite Creative or UEFN that is in release and available without requiring any special permissions.

Live Edit: A feature in UEFN that provides a live connection between UEFN and an island in Edit mode. Changes you make in the editor automatically update in Creative.

local exposure: Local exposure is an effect in post processing that automatically applies adjustments to exposure within user-controlled parameters to preserve both highlight and shadow detail on top of existing global exposure. This is useful for projects with challenging high dynamic range scenes using dynamic lighting, in which applying a single global exposure adjustment is not enough to avoid blown out highlights and completely dark shadows.

local position: The position of a pixel or vertex relative to an object.

local space: This is the space that is relative to an object with no rotation or transformation.

LOD: Short for level of detail. This refers to the level of detail that shows in a Static Mesh based on distance away from it. If a player is close to a complex mesh, you would want more detail viewable, but this can slow performance. If a player is further away, the LOD can be reduced to improve performance.

LOD bias: A setting in UEFN that affects level of detail (LOD) with a bias toward less detail but improved performance.

logic: Logic is a set of principles that form a foundation for how things work in a software program. Every programming language has a logic, and understanding the underlying logic increases the programmer's ability to write good program code.

look-at location: Where the camera is looking at any time. It might be something other than the player.

loose property: A loose property is a placeholder value for previous property values that are created during code refactoring and stored by the editor.

LSR: See Level Save Record.

LTM: Short for limited time mode, meaning there is a time limit to how long the game lasts.

Lumen: A dynamic global illumination and reflections system designed for next-generation consoles.

M

map: See level.

map template: See island template.

material

A material is an asset that can be applied to a mesh to control the visual look of the scene. At a high level, it is easiest to think of a material as the “paint” that’s applied to an object. But even that can be misleading, since a material literally defines the type of surface from which your object appears to be made. You can define its color, shininess, transparency, and much more. In more technical terms, when light from the scene hits the surface, a material is used to calculate how that light interacts with that surface. These calculations use incoming data that is input to the material from a variety of images (textures) and math expressions, as well as from various property settings inherent to the material itself.

Unreal Engine utilizes a physically based shading model. This means that rather than defining a material using arbitrary properties (such as diffuse color and specular power), you instead use properties more easily relatable to the real world. These include base color, metallic, specular, and roughness.

material function

A way of grouping a node graph so that it can be used as a single node. Material functions are little snippets of material graphs that can be saved in packages and reused across multiple materials.

applying complex math to define how a texture appears on a material.

material graph: A material graph is used for the configuration of material nodes used to make a material.

melody: A sequence of single notes grouped together. The melody is the main concept in a musical composition, and usually the most memorable aspect of a song. It's the tune that plays or repeats that you can use to identify that song. Compare to harmony.

mesh: A set of locations, or vertices that are connected at their edges. There are different types of mesh. Static Mesh, used to map the surface of an unanimated 3D object, and Skeletal Mesh, used to map the surface of an animated object, are most common.

mesh surface integrity: An asset should be watertight, with no holes in the mesh that show a backface. This increases the prop's usefulness, as variation can be introduced by rotating and scaling a single prop, or placing the prop different ways. However, if the asset is meant to be stationary, or there are other reasons to allow holes, this is acceptable.

metadata: Data that provides information about other data. Special sets of metadata, or tags, are used in digital searches to find specific objects or text. Search engines use metadata to match a user's search with what they're looking for.

MetaHuman: A complete framework that gives to the power to create and use fully rigged, photorealistic humans. Also see Animation Blueprint.

metaverse: The metaverse is an online social entertainment experience in real time, where people play and connect in a 3D world.

Minifigure: The player character that shows when building or playing a LEGO Island in Fortnite. Minifigures are half the size of the usual Fortnite character, so everything on a LEGO Island is scaled down to half size to match. Half the size but twice the cute!

Minifigure-compatible: This can apply to props, items, tools, devices, and any other assets. It means that the asset has been scaled down to match the Minifigures used on a LEGO Island.

mode: UEFN has a number of editing modes for specific types of assets. For example, Landscape Mode is used specifically for quickly editing terrain.

moderation: When you submit your island for publishing, the island goes through a review process, after which it either gets approved and published, or rejected. This process is called moderation.

modularity

If an asset imported into UEFN includes elements that could be used separately, it should be modular. For example, an asset could be a market stall with baskets and fruit. It could be one complete unit, or you could make the baskets and fruit as separate meshes that could be used on their own.

This term also refers to architectural assets that can be used together to create a building and rooms within the building.

modulation: To modulate means to change or control. In audio, modulation usually refers to sound elements like volume and pitch, which can be adjusted with a modulator.

modulation parameter: A modulation parameter provides the context for how a value associated with a control bus is displayed, mixed, and transformed. In UEFN, only the volume modulation p;arameter is supported on control buses.

modulation source: Any source that modulates a parameter. In UEFN, this is limited to control buses.

N

News menu: A menu screen that appears when you first launch UEFN. This screen contains links to info on what's new for the UEFN community, and other relevant UEFN info.

Niagara: Niagara is the visual effects system in Unreal Engine used for creating and previewing particle effects in real time. Niagara is also included in UEFN.

normal

A normal vector is a type of texture which is used to add significant physical detail to a surface without adding additional polygons to a mesh. This is achieved by modifying the "normal" or facing direction of each pixel.

Compare to specular and diffuse.

O

OBJ: A file format developed by Wavefront Technologies and now available as an open format used by many 3D graphics application vendors. The format supports geometry elements like points, lines, and texture vertices, but does not support animation or lighting information.

object: In UEFN, an object is another word for asset.

octave: A range of musical notes in the interval between (and including) two notes, where the first note has twice the frequency of vibration of the other. It's called an octave because it includes eight notes, represented by C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. An octave can start at any note. Also see pitch.

octave offset: The shift of a scale to a different key.

offline progression: With offline progression, some aspect of a game will continue to progress while closed as though the player were still in the game. For example, in a farming game that uses this mechanic, crops would continue to grow while the player is logged out of the game. There is usually a time limit for how long offline progression continues. Also see persistence.

orthographic: A 2D representation of a 3D object or space. In an orthographic view, all objects appear at the same scale, unlike a perspective view, where distant objects are scaled smaller.

Outliner panel: The Outliner panel, or Outliner for short, displays all actors within a scene in a hierarchical tree view. In the panel, you also have an option to search for an actor element in the level, and to create folders to group actor elements together.

overdrive: A type of distortion usually caused by pushing an amp past what it can produce as a clean tone.

oversteer: When a vehicle steers into sharper turn than expected, which can have the effect of shoving the rear of the vehicle to the outside of the curve. This effect, where the back wheels slide while the driver maintains control of the front wheels is called drifting.

owner: The user that owns or controls a team or project in the Creator Portal.

P

packed level instance: This is a level instance where a compact collection of Actors are grouped together into a single Actor. You can move, copy, and paste it as a single asset, but you can also open it and edit the parts inside individually. This is roughly the equivalent of a prefab in Fortnite.

panel: In Unreal Editor for Fortnite, a panel is one or more areas on the screen that contain information about your level. A panel can be moved, docked, or dragged into a separate window. Examples include the Details panel and the Content Browser.

parent entity: An entity that has at least one other entity nested under it (its child entity) in the entity hierarchy.

particle system: Particle systems use lots of tiny sprites to generate special effects that don't have well-defined shapes — dust, smoke, moving water, explosions, and so on.

Pawn

A Pawn is a subclass of Actor, and serves as an in-game avatar or persona such as a character in a game. Pawns can be controlled by a player or by the game's AI in the form of non-player characters (NPCs).

When a Pawn is controlled by a human or AI player, it is considered possessed. When a Pawn is not controlled by a human or AI player, it is considered unpossessed.

Perforce: Perforce (P4) is a software tool that provides revision control (also known as source code control or version control), which is a way to track and manage changes to software code. This is useful when you have teams of programmers working on the same project. If someone makes a mistake, version control makes it possible to compare earlier versions of the code to find and correct the problem without interrupting everyone else’s work.

persistence: When player data is saved from a session and reloaded into the next session for that game, this is called persistence.

persistence: When player data is saved from a session and reloaded into the next session for that game, this is called persistence.

perspective: In a perspective view, objects that are far away are smaller than those nearby while in orthographic view, all objects appear in the same scale.

photobashing: Photobashing is a technique where artists merge & blend photographs or 3D assets together while painting and compositing them into one finished piece.

physics: Physics is important in game development, simulating things like collisions, explosions, and the effects of gravity add reality (or in some cases, an intentional unreality) that makes the game more exciting. Physics covers things like how fast something accelerates when falling, how one object interacts with another when they collide, and how something like a vehicle handles while you are in control of it.

ping pong: To reverse direction back and forth.

PingPong animation mode: To reverse the direction of an animation when the final keyframe is reached, and to play again in the opposite direction.

pitch: In music, pitch is the frequency of a tone that determines how high or low, or what note it is. For example, a middle C note on a piano keyboard has a frequency (pitch) of 256 Hz, while the A above it is 440 Hz. If you move up an octave, the frequencies are doubled — the next C note has 512 Hz, while the A above that is 880 Hz.

pitch-yaw-roll

Pitch, yaw and roll are terms originating in aviation. They refer to the three different types of rotation a plane can perform when moving. These terms were adopted into 3D design and game development to more precisely define a virtual 3D environment and how things are moved in that virtual space. Pitch is the up and down movement of an object relative to its original position. Yaw is the horizontal left or right movement relative to its original position. Roll is a left or right tilt relative to its original position.

Note that the axis of rotation is different from the direction of the movement. For example, if a plane pitches, the nose of the plane moves up or down; but the plane is rotating on the Y axis (which is the left-right or east-west horizontal axis). Also see X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis.

These terms are also used with camera devices to describe movements of the camera.

pivot point: The point that controls how an object rotates and scales. Any transformation of size or orientation for an object is relative to the object's pivot point.

pixel: A unit of graphic information based on two dimensions. From picture element, or pix and el. Compare to voxel.

platform: A platform is a computer operating system. Fortnite runs on different platforms. These platforms fall into one of three categories: desktop (Microsoft Windows or macOS), mobile (such as a phone or tablet), or console (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo).

Play button: The Play button on the Level Editor toolbar opens a Fortnite client where you can playtest your island.

Play mode: In UEFN, you can playtest an island directly in the client when using Live Edit. Changes made in Edit mode appear immediately in Play mode on the island.

play-in-editor: Play-in-editor, or PIE, is running a game from the editor. PIE does not use cooked data.

playhead: When editing audio or video, the playhead is a vertical line in the timeline that represents the position, or frame, of the track.

playtest: To test a new game or version of software for bugs and design flaws by getting users to play it before it is released.

playtest build: A prerelease build that can only be accessed with special permission. Compare to live build.

playtest code: A private code for use by the individuals in a playtest group.

playtest group: A set of users defined in the Creator Portal that can recieve a private playtest code

plugin: Plugins provide tools to add entirely new features, and to modify built-in functionality without modifying the engine code directly. A plugin might add new menu items and toolbar commands to the editor, or even add entirely new features.

point light: A point light sends light in all directions equally from a single point.

polygon: Triangles are used in 3D graphics to build three-dimensional things. While polygon actually means many angles, the most common polygon in gaming graphics is a triangle, because it is the simplest shape that still fits the definition of a plane with multiple sides and angles, and with no lines crossing other lines.

populate: To add content to something.

post process volume: Post-processing refers to customizable filters that you can use to improve visual effects. Post-processing filters primarily affect lighting.

post processing: Post-processing effects are customizable filters that allow you to quickly enrich the visuals of your island or level. Using the post-processing effect objects in lighting or a camera, you can simulate a camera viewing a bright light and exaggerate its glow (bloom).

power of two: Powers of two are based on a binary numeral system, which is what computer machine language uses. This basically means successive doublings, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and so on. One practical application of this concept is when working with textures in UEFN. Graphics hardware across platforms works best with textures that conform to the power of two in their original dimensions. This results in graphics that perform better and are easier to render

prefab: A prefab is a collection of one or more entities and components that can be instantiated as a unit. Using prefabs, users can construct a simple object, such as a tree, all the way through to an enormous object, like a whole level for a game.

primary track: In Rocket Racing island templates, this is the main track for a race. It is also the track on which players spawn. In Edit mode, these are identified by their color, green.

primitives: For a LEGO Island, primitives refers to a collection of basic geometrical shapes that look like real-life LEGO bricks. These props can be used with other elements to build just about anything you can imagine. Start simple, then build an empire!

priority system: When using camera devices, if multiple cameras are assigned to a player, the camera's priority determines which camera is active at any point in time. Priorities can be set in the device options. If two cameras are tied for the highest priority, the most recently added camera will become active, or take priority.

project

A project contains a collection of assets and the data needed for sharing and testing those assets. Users can edit a project and its assets in UEFN and in Creative Create mode where applicable.

A project can have multiple assets. It can also have multiple levels (or no levels), and meshes, textures, sounds, and other characteristics, depending on the needs and intent of the project the user is building.

You could also say that a project is a single source of truth for a game or content library.

project content: Island content developed in or imported to UEFN.

Project ID: See Project Link Code.

Project Link Code: UEFN creates a Project Link Code when you share a project for playtesting. You may need this code to access the project into Creative if it doesn't automatically show up in your Downloads tab.

project template

Any template in UEFN that can be used to start a project.

A project template contains devices that can demonstrate various types of game mechanics available in UEFN. These templates are available on the Project Browser screen in UEFN.

prop: A prop is a mesh Actor with parameters that are not exposed, or shown, to the user in Creative. Because of this, you cannot change the behavior of a prop, but only its size (scale), location (coordinates), or rotation (axis). Props are placed in the environment to make it more interesting visually.

Props folder: A folder in UEFN where props are stored, and from where they can be accessed.

publish: Any project, asset, object, or prop that's available to the broad public is published. The word public means exposed to general view, and publish, which comes from the same root, means to make public. In UEFN, it's possible to share a project, or some aspect of the project, with specific developers or players for testing purposes without fully publishing the project.

Q

(# quantize)

quantize: In music, quantization is like snapping notes to the beat. If a note is played a little early or late, quantization moves it to the nearest beat or rhythm spot, making the timing more exact. It helps the music sound more on time and organized.Quantization in music is like snapping notes to the beat. If a note is played a little early or late, quantization moves it to the nearest beat or rhythm spot, making the timing more exact. It helps the music sound more on time and organized.

R

ragdoll physics: A type of limp and lifeless animation applied to a character after a fall from a great height or after being knocked out by another character or object.

raise: When a function sends a signal, it raises an event. Interested parties are notified that an event occurred, such as interacting with a button, and all the event handlers are called.

rarity: In UEFN, the way to tell a weapon's rarity is by the naming convention with _C, _UC, _R, _VR, _SR for Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Super Rare.

raycasting: Raycasting draws an invisible line in space from an object to find out if anything collides with it.

rectangle light: A rectangular light (RectLight) provides a way to light a large area evenly and generate diffuse shadows based on the area it covers. RectLights are great for imitating fluorescent ceiling lights and for studio lighting setups.

refraction: The bending of a wave when it moves at an angle from one medium into another in which its speed is different. For example, when light passes from air into water, it refracts.

release: If attack is the time it takes from the start of a sound for it to reach maximum volume, then release is the time it takes for the sound to no longer be heard after it stops being generated.

render: Rendering is the process of using a computer program to make a 2D or 3D image. The result of rendering is called a render. A rendered image contains a number of different elements, including texture, lighting, shading, and one or more points from which it can be viewed. The complexity of the render determines how much of your computer's resources will be used.

reverse camera: In Rocket Racing, this vehicle action reverses the camera view so you can see what your competitors are doing behind you.

revert: With revision control to revert means to discard recent changes on assets that have been checked out but not submitted.

revision: In UEFN, this refs to a specific version of a file. Also see revision control.

revision control: Revision control (also known as source code control or version control), is a way to track and manage changes to software code. This is useful when you have teams of programmers working on the same project. If someone makes a mistake, version control makes it possible to compare earlier versions of the code to find and correct the problem without interrupting everyone else’s work.

RGB: The colors in light that make up other colors. RGB stands for red, green, and blue.

rigging: A technique used in skeletal animation for a 3D character model using a series of interconnected digital bones. Rigging is the process of creating the bone structure of a 3D model, which can then be used to animate the character the way you would a puppet.

rocket drift: In Rocket Racing, a rocket drift happens when you turn very sharply and accelerate, causing the back tires to slide. Also see oversteer.

runtime

Refers to the time spent running the game, simulation, or application. Compare to compile time, which refers to the time spent compiling, or development time, which refers to the time spent developing, compiling, and debugging.

It's common to differentiate between things that happen at runtime and things that happen at compile time.

runtime error: An error that occurs while a program is running. Runtime errors are informally called bugs.

runtime session: When you click the Launch Session button in UEFN, this launches the server that runs Fortnite Creative on top of UEFN.

S

sample library: A sample library is a collection of sounds stored in a file.

sample rate

Sampling is when you turn an audio source into a digital file. This is done by taking samples of the audio source. How often these samples are taken determines the sample rate.

Sample rates are measured per second, using kilohertz (kHz) per second. CDs are usually recorded at 44.1kHz — with 44,100 samples taken every second.

sandbox game: A sandbox game is one that is isolated from a larger game to let users modify or experiment with aspects of the game. Fortnite Creative is a sandbox game, which is why you can make changes, save them, and share with other players. These sandbox areas are called islands.

saturation

The level of color intensity. High saturation provides bright colors, while low saturation appears more muted.

In lighting, saturation describes the amount of brightness a color appears to have on an island. In Contrast, lightness tells how dark or light a specific color is. Color saturation can mute colors which yields a grayscale or black-and-white appearance, or it can over-saturate a specific color or range of colors making them more vivid.

scale: The size of something compared to something else. For example, if you have a box that is one unit in every direction, if you scale it up to twice the size, it will be two units in every direction.

scale: In music, a scale is a graduated sequence of notes that divides an octave.

scale degree: The scale degree represents the relative relationships between notes in an octave. These are called the first, second, and so on, through seventh, and are represented by Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII. A basic chord is made up of I, III, and V, regardless of the key used. For example, a chord in the key of C would use C, D, and F, while a chord in the key of F would use F, A, and C.

scalloping: Scalloping is a pattern of convex curves that look like the edge of a scallop shell as it repeats. A scalloped effect can be created with a series of spot lights placed at intervals along a wall or similar surface. This effect can be an intentional or unintentional, but either way, it can add visual interest to a space. The more diffuse the light source is, the softer the scallop will be.

Scene Graph: Scene Graph is a unified structure that connects all of the objects in a world.

Screen Size Value: The Screen Size Value determines how much space an asset should occupy on the screen before the asset drops to a lower level of detail. As you move away from an asset, its screen size value shrinks.

secondary track: A secondary track in Rocket Racing is an alternate path or route along the primary track. There's no limit to how many secondary tracks you can use. In Edit mode, these are identified by their color, green.

section: The size of a single Landscape Steaming Proxy. A section is made up of components. A camera can only render a limited number of components within a section at a time.

Sequencer: Sequencer is a multi-track editor in Unreal Engine and UEFN that you can use to create and preview cinematic sequences in real time.

serialization: The process of reading or writing data to or from the save file. A loose property gets created with the same file being read has a property that the class/struct doesn't.

server: UEFN is accessed through a dedicated server that connects Fortnite clients for editing and playtesting.

shading path switch: A type of material node you can use to select between different behaviors within a single material. This is commonly used to combine behaviors for low end and high end platforms within a material.

simulation entity: The simulation entity is the entity that sits at the root of your project to represent the simulation.

Skeletal Mesh: A Skeletal Mesh Actor is a special type of actor that is used to display complex animation data that was created in a 3D content creation software. Skeletal Meshes are made up of two parts: A set of polygons composed to make up the surface of the Skeletal Mesh, and a hierarchical set of interconnected bones which can be used to animate the vertices of the polygons. Skeletal Meshes are often used in Unreal Engine to represent characters or other animating objects. The 3D models, rigging and animations are created in an external modeling and animation application (3DSMax, Maya, Softimage, etc), and are then imported into Unreal Engine 4 and saved into packages by using the Unreal Editor Content Browser.

Sketchfab: The leading platform for web-based 3D and augmented reality (AR). You can use Sketchfab to create and manage 3D assets.

snapshot: A snapshot captures all of the information for your project in the instant that you submit changes for revision control.

socket: A socket is a point where something connects with something else. Sockets can be used on a Static Mesh or a Skeletal Mesh to attach lights, particle effects or even other meshes.

(#softdeadzone )

soft deadzone: The area inside of the deadzone where the camera starts to accelerate to follow the player. This area blends the look-at location between remaining stationary and following the target.

soft source radius: You can use this effect to blur a shadow edge that is too sharp. See source radius for more info.

sound: See audio file.

sound cue

A sound cue is an audio object that encapsulates complex sound design tasks in a sound graph.

You can use a sound cue to modify an existing audio file by using audio nodes on the graph. Some of the things you can do with a sound cue include creating audio loops, fading sounds based on player distance from the source, and creating an audio sequence by using multiple sounds in a single cue.

UEFN provides a number of sound cues, but you can also create your own.

sound graph: An sound graph is used to configure sounds using nodes.

sound source: What you hear in-game when the audio engine renders a sound.

sound wave: An audio file that can be imported into UEFN.

source length: Source length is the distance over which a light projects. The length runs down the X-axis for the light source.

source radius: This simulates the size of a small light source, such as LEDs, throwing off sharp shadows. This is especially apparent when the light source is close to a surface.

spatial values: A concrete measurement of a spatial metric in a 3D location. Spatial values are composed of three spatial coordinate values {X, Y, X}, and a measurement result value {V}. Spatial values are aggregated in a Spatial Metric Sample.

spatialization: An audio effect that gives a listener the impression that a sound is coming from a specific direction or location.

spatialized: Sound that has been recorded and/or processed to create an impression of spherical (3D) sound.

specular: Specular reflection uses the same angle to reflect light off an object as the angle the light strikes the object with. Compare to diffuse and normal.

speed run race: In Rocket Racing, a speed run can be played solo or with multiple players, but instead of racing against others, the player is racing to beat their own best time in a session, with the result logged against global learderboards.

spline: In computer graphics, a spline is a smooth curve that runs through a series of given points.

spline node: A point on a path, track, or rail that controls its placement. These nodes can be used to shape, reshape or extend the path, track or rail.

sprite: A sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that's used in computer graphics. The term goes all the way back to the first arcade video games from the early Seventies.

spriting: Creating sprites by hand is a form of pixel art and is sometimes called spriting.

sRGB: sRGB stands for Standard Red Green Blue. This is a color space, or a set of specific colors, that sets a standard for the colors on electronic displays. sRGB is the most popular color space used today and the default used in games. Also see RGB.

starter content: Content provided for use in a template to get a project going quickly.

Static Mesh: A Static Mesh is a 3D object drawn inside a level without animations. At most, it can have a transform modification that applies to the whole object.

stinger: A stinger (also called bumper or sounder) is a short audio clip used to introduce, link, or end other audio clips. In addition to music, stingers can also incorporate voiceover or sound effects.

streaming proxy: A part of the Landscape that can be loaded and unloaded independently, based on distance from player.

streaming source: Streaming sources are components that define a position in the world and trigger the loading of cells around them. Player Controllers are a streaming source. Other streaming sources can be added to the world using the World Partition Streaming Source component. For example, a streaming source component can be activated at the location that a player will teleport to, so it can load the cells there. Once the grid cells are loaded, the player teleports to the location and the streaming source component is deactivated. Since there is no longer a streaming source at the player's previous location, those grid cells would be unloaded. UEFN currently has the player as the only streaming source.

sustain: The steady volume level of a held note following its attack and decay. How long a note holds a steady volume.

sync content: A way of ensuring in UEFN that your project files are the most current when using revision control.

T

tame: Taming is a way of filtering distortion in Patchwork that reduces or increases the distortion. A higher tame value increases the filter, which reduces the distortion.

target: When using camera devices, the target is the player the camera is following or focused on.

team: A group of users defined in Creator Portal that have shared access to one or more projects.

team member: A user who's been added to a team in the Creator Portal for the purpose of collaboration on a project.

template: See project template.

tempo: How fast or slow something plays. Also known as beats per minute, or bpm. Different tempos can create different moods. For example, a 60-bpm tempo is a slow, relaxing tempo, while a 150-bpm tempo is much more energetic.

texel: Short for tex-ture el-ement, a texel is the smallest unit of a texture map. Texels are similar to pixels but they are the smallest units in texture space, compared to pixels in screen space.

texture: A texture is an image that is mapped to the surface that a material is applied to. A texture can be applied directly, or the values of the texture's pixels (called texels) can be used within the material as masks or for other calculations. For the most part, textures are created in an image-editing application, such as Photoshop, then imported into UEFN through the Content Browser.

texture mapping: Texture mapping is a method for defining the appearance of a 3D model. This reduces the number of polygons needed to define surface color, texture or other details, which improves performance.

texture mask: A texture mask is a grayscale texture, or a single R, G, B or Alpha channel of a texture, used to limit the area of an effect inside of a material.

title screen: A screen that displays while an item is loading.

TODM: Time of Day Manager

tool: In UEFN, a tool is a dialog or panel used to perform a specific set of actions or to display information about one or more Actors or Assets, and an editor is a collection of tools used to edit one or more specific types of Assets.

transact: An action that is transacted can be reversed in the editor.

transform: References moving (translating), scaling, and rotating collectively.

transform gizmo: A viewport icon that you can use to quickly choose an axis or combination of axes when transforming a selected object.

translate: To move an object from one place to another in three dimensions.

translation: Translation is when you move an object from one position to another in a three-dimensional space.

transpose: To shift a sequence of notes to a different key without changing the note pattern.

turbo: In Rocket Racing, the turbo button gives a vehicle a burst of speed.

U

UMG: Unreal Motion Graphics, or UMG, is a feature that provides a way to create interactive user-interface widgets for a project.

uncooked editor server: A server dedicated to validating, processing, and cooking data. The uncooked editor server is currently on the same machine as the dedicated server.

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a PC application for designing, developing and publishing games directly into Fortnite.

It is an Unreal Engine-powered editor that features the Verse programming language, a gameplay framework API, user account integration with the editor for iteration, content publishing, and more.

Unreal Engine: A complete suite of integrated tools for anyone working with real-time technology. In addition to the Unreal Editor interface for creating and editing content, this is the engine that runs the games and other experiences you create in the Unreal Editor.

Unreal Units: An Unreal Unit (UU, or unit) is the basic unit of length in Creative. The grid is based on UUs. On a Creative island, one meter equals 100 UU, and a grid tile is 512 UU.

USD: USD stands for Universal Scene Description.The .usd file format is used for passing data between digital content creation applications. Developed by Pixar, it can interchange elemental assets like models or animation.

user: An account holder. This can be an individual or an organization.

UV island: A group of connected polygons in a UV map.

UV mapping: A way to project a 2D texture onto a 3D model. U and V name the axes used for the texture since X, Y and Z are used to name the axes of the 3D model.

V

validation: The checks run over the project content to verify it conforms to the rules of UEFN.

variable: A value that can be changed while a program is running. It's called a variable because it can vary.

Verse: A programming language that supports Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and also looks toward future games and how they are built. games created in UEFN are inherently online, and Verse is designed with this in mind to scale with and safely power these online experiences.

Verse file: A file in UEFN that contains Verse code.

Verse-authored device: A device for use in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) that is programmed directly using Verse.

version control: See revision control.

vertex: A single point. Also see vertices.

vertical composition

In adaptive music, vertical composition, or reorchestration, is a technique in which a track continues to play throughout a section of a game, but as game parameters change, individual elements of the music track are added and removed.

For example, it is common in games to have a simple orchestral track that plays while the player explores an island, but with additional percussion that plays only when the player is in combat. The combat-triggered percussion is added in dynamically when the player enters combat, and is removed when combat is finished, all while the original track continues to play.

Compare to horizontal composition.

vertices: In 3D graphics, models are usually represented by an array of triangles called vertex sets, or vertices. A vertex can have coordinates that represent its position, color, texture, and other attributes.

verts: See vertices.

VFX: Short for visual effects, VFX is digital art that is used for things that are not characters or objects. This includes things like, explosions, dust, water, and so on. A VFX object would be an object that includes visual effects.

vibrato: Small, rapid variations in pitch. Vibrato gives extra warmth and expression to a vocal or instrumental tone.

vibrato rate: The speed with which a vibrato tone varies.

viewport

The viewport is a visual representation of your level in the editor. While working on your level, you can use a 3D viewport, 2D viewports, or a combination.

THe viewport contains a variety of tools to help you see the exact data you need. Viewports are your windows into the things you create. They can be navigated just as you would in a game, or used in a more schematic design sense as you would for an architectural blueprint.

vignette: An effect that simulates darkening in a real-world camera lenses. High-quality lens try to compensate for this effect. Vignetting is mostly noticeable near the edges of the image.

Virtual Shadow Map: Virtual Shadow Map (VSM) is a shadow-mapping method that delivers consistent, high-resolution shadowing.

volume: The space that fills a three-dimensional area is called a volume.

voxel: A unit of graphic information based on three dimensions. From vo lume and el ement. Compare to pixel and texel.

W

waveform: A graphical representation of a signal. A waveform shows changes of intensity over time.

weight map: A weight map is a way to paint varying strengths on a texture that is mapped to terrain. This, in turn, can be used by a material to control how the terrain appears.

wet: In audio, a wet signal or sound has effects added to it, such as reverb. This refers to any effects you can apply to sound. Compare to dry.

white balance: A setting that tells the camera how to register color temperature by adjusting the value of the whites in an image so the whites actually appear white.

white balance: White balance acts to balance the color temperature in a game environment by adding the opposite color to the image in an attempt to bring the color temperature back to a natural-looking neutral. Instead of whites appearing blue (cool) or orange (warm), they should appear white after correct white balancing.

wireframe: A model created by vertices to represent a single object, character, or a piece of terrain. A wireframe is typically three-dimensional and is un-textured, exposing all vertices in a see-through fashion.

World Partition: The magic behind building large experiences, the World Partition feature in UEFN automatically divides the world into cells, and streams only the necessary cells based on player location and HLOD.

world position: World position is the location where a vertex or pixel is being rendered.

world position offset: This is the additional offset applied to a vertex position from its base position, and is controlled by the material.

World Settings: Each level can have unique settings applied to it from the World Settings panel that override other settings.

world space: World space is relative to the world origin, with a position of 0, 0, and 0 across the X-, Y- and Z-axes.

X

X-axis: In a 3D space (real or virtual), the X- axis represents horizontal forward/backward (or north/south) movement. Also see axis.

Y

Y-axis: In a 3D space (real or virtual), the Y- axis represents horizontal left/right (or east/west) movement. Also see axis.

Z

Z-axis: In a 3D space (real or virtual), the Z- axis represents vertical up/down movement. Also see axis.