{ "schema": "aiblocks-page/1", "id": "agency-unreal-technical-artist", "type": "agent", "name": "Unreal technical artist", "summary": "Plan Unreal Engine 5 materials, Niagara effects and PCG graphs that fit your frame budget, with Low to High presets and a cost check.", "headline": "Unreal technical artist", "subhead": "Give it your visual goal, target platform and frame budget. It plans the material setup, the Niagara effect and the PCG graph. You get a build plan, quality presets and a performance check list.", "job": { "id": "design-work", "name": "Design things people love" }, "level": "intermediate", "thinking": "high", "tested": true, "updated": "2026-11-03", "first_published": "2026-10-26", "inputs": [ { "type": "question", "required": true, "label": "Question", "what": "the problem, decision or piece of work you want help with, and what a good outcome looks like" }, { "type": "source_text", "required": false, "label": "Source text", "what": "a long source in full: an article, a video or talk transcript, or notes from a book, with its title, author and link" } ], "outputs": [ { "type": "plan", "required": true, "label": "Plan", "what": "a dated plan: what to do, in what order, with a decision rule for each step" }, { "type": "audit_report", "required": true, "label": "Audit report", "what": "findings with evidence, severity, missing inputs and next actions" } ], "you_give": [ "Your Unreal Engine 5 version and target platforms", "Your frame rate target and the weakest hardware you support", "The visual goal, as reference images or a plain description", "What to plan: a landscape material, an impact effect or a forest, for example", "A Material Stats screenshot or an existing graph (optional)" ], "you_get": [ "A material plan with Material Functions, instances and a Static Switch count", "A Niagara plan with CPU or GPU choice, particle cap and Low, Medium and High presets", "A PCG graph plan with steps, keep-out zones and designer settings", "A cost check for instructions, texture samples and shader versions", "A profiling plan for Unreal Insights and the GPU profiler" ], "use_when": [ "You need a master material and instances for landscape, rock or props, and want the plan first.", "A Niagara effect drops frames on console and you want to rebuild it with limits.", "You want a PCG graph for trees or rocks that designers can tune.", "A material looks good, but its instruction count keeps climbing." ], "skip_when": [ "You need World Partition, landscape layers or HLOD for an open world. Use the Unreal world designer.", "You need gameplay code or systems in C++. Use the Unreal gameplay systems engineer.", "You use Unity. Use the Unity Shader Graph artist.", "You need art budgets that work in any engine. Use the Art pipeline planner." ], "output_sample": { "input": [ "Your Unreal Engine 5 version and target platforms", "Your frame rate target and weakest hardware", "The visual goal, as references or a description", "A Material Stats screenshot or existing graph (optional)" ], "prerequisites": [ "An AI chat such as Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini", "Unreal Engine 5, to build and measure the plan (the AI does not open it)" ], "output": [ { "name": "Material plan", "contains": "Master material, Material Functions, instance parameters, Static Switches and quality tiers." }, { "name": "Niagara plan", "contains": "CPU or GPU choice, particle cap, modules and Low, Medium and High presets for each system." }, { "name": "PCG graph plan", "contains": "Each step from sampling to spawning, keep-out zones and settings designers can tune." }, { "name": "LOD and Nanite notes", "contains": "Which meshes use Nanite, which need manual LODs and the cull distances." }, { "name": "Cost check", "contains": "Instructions, texture samples and shader versions against a budget, with a status for each." }, { "name": "Profiling plan", "contains": "What to measure in Unreal Insights and the GPU profiler, and where." } ] }, "output_shape": "VISUAL TECH BRIEF\n Goal <> | Platform <> | Frame rate target <> | Quality tiers <>\nMATERIAL PLAN\n | | | | \nNIAGARA PLAN\n | | | | \n Scalability: High <> | Medium <> | Low <>\nPCG GRAPH PLAN\n | | | \n Keep-out zones <> | Settings exposed to designers <>\nLOD AND NANITE NOTES\n | | \nCOST CHECK\n | | | \nPROFILING PLAN\n | | | \nOPEN QUESTIONS AND CHECKS NOT RUN", "how_to_use": [ "Download the pack and add it to your AI as a skill. If you cannot, paste SKILL.md, then references/source-agent.md, then your brief into a new chat. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini all work.", "Paste your engine version, platform and frame rate target first. Then add the goal and what you want planned.", "Say \"Plan this. Show the budget for each part and mark any number you cannot tie to my target.\"", "Read the cost check first. If a part is over, ask for a cheaper version before you build.", "Build in Unreal in this order: Material Functions, then master materials, then Niagara presets, then PCG.", "Check Material Stats and Unreal Insights in the editor. Paste the results back to review them." ], "checks": [ "The result addresses your actual task and cites the evidence used.", "Examples, role-play experience and targets are kept separate from verified results.", "Claims of tests, memory, tool access or completed actions match what actually happened." ], "next": [ { "name": "UI designer agent", "url": "https://useaiblocks.com/skills/agency-design-ui-designer", "why": "Design it" } ], "source": { "by": "Michael Sitarzewski and Agency Agents contributors", "repo": "msitarzewski/agency-agents", "url": "https://github.com/msitarzewski/agency-agents/blob/b37b5bb33b78f2c1d6567d98e25ca818e3259219/game-development/unreal-engine/unreal-technical-artist.md", "licence": "MIT", "original_name": "Unreal Technical Artist", "commit": "b37b5bb33b78f2c1d6567d98e25ca818e3259219" }, "credits": [ { "title": "Unreal Technical Artist", "by": "Michael Sitarzewski and Agency Agents contributors", "url": "https://github.com/msitarzewski/agency-agents/blob/b37b5bb33b78f2c1d6567d98e25ca818e3259219/game-development/unreal-engine/unreal-technical-artist.md", "used": "Original agent profile, preserved in references/source-agent.md; AI Blocks adds setup and review instructions." } ], "files": [ "LICENSE", "references/source-agent.md", "SETUP.md", "source.json" ], "links": { "page": "https://useaiblocks.com/agents/agency-unreal-technical-artist", "markdown": "https://useaiblocks.com/agents/agency-unreal-technical-artist.md", "json": "https://useaiblocks.com/agents/agency-unreal-technical-artist.json", "instructions": "https://useaiblocks.com/skills/agency-unreal-technical-artist/SKILL.md", "download": "https://useaiblocks.com/skills/agency-unreal-technical-artist.zip", "api_item": "https://useaiblocks.com/api/v1/items/agency-unreal-technical-artist", "api_document": "https://useaiblocks.com/api/v1/documents/agent/agency-unreal-technical-artist", "mcp": "https://useaiblocks.com/mcp" } }