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> Understanding the Basics > Unreal Editor Interface > Editor Preferences

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Editor Preferences

Settings for configuring general editor behavior for controls, viewports, source control, and much more.

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Level Editor Preferences - Viewports

The Editor Preferences window is used to modify settings that control the behavior of Unreal Editor with respect to controls, viewports, source control, auto-saving, and more.

To open the Editor Preferences window, click Edit > Editor Preferences .

Level Editor Preferences - Viewports

Controls

Option

Description

Flight Camera Control type

This setting determines whether the flight camera is used and how it is accessed. The flight camera uses the W, A, S, and D keys to dolly and pan the camera, similar to how standard FPS controls work. W and S dolly the camera in and out, while A and D pan, or strafe, the camera side to side. When active, this overrides any hotkeys using these controls, including toggling show flags.


Option	Description
Use WASD for Camera Controls	The flight camera and WASD controls are always active.
Use WASD Only When Right Mouse Button is Held	The flight camera and WASD controls are only active when the RMB is pressed.
Never Use WASD for Camera Controls	The flight camera and WASD controls are never active.

Grab and Drag to Move Orthographic Cameras

If enabled, clicking the Left or Right Mouse Buttons and dragging the mouse in an orthographic viewport will scroll the camera. Essentially what this means in practice is when you click and drag, the scene will move with the mouse. With this disabled, the scene moves opposite of the mouse.

Orthographic Zoom to Cursor Position

If enabled, zooming in the orthographic viewports will be centered around the mouse cursor. When disabled, zooming is centered on the center of the viewport.

Link Orthographic Viewport Movement

If enabled, all orthographic viewports will be linked to focus on the same position. So moving the camera in one orthographic viewport will cause the other orthographic viewports to follow. When disabled, all viewports can be navigated independently.

Aspect Ratio Axis Constraint

Determines which axis of the perspective viewport is used to control the field of view (FOV) to maintain the aspect ratio when resizing.


Option	Description
Maintain Y-Axis FOV	The Y-Axis (vertical) is used to determine the FOV.
Maintain X-Axis FOV	The X-Axis (horizontal) is used to determine the FOV.
Maintain Major Axis FOV	The larger of the two axes is used to determine the FOV.

Mouse Scroll Camera Speed

Determines the speed at which the perspective camera moves when navigating with the mouse.

Viewport Look and Feel


Option	Description
Highlight Objects Under Mouse Cursor	If enabled, objects will be highlighted using a transparent overlay in viewports while hovering over them with the mouse cursor.

Editor Look and Feel

Option

Description

Use Small Tool Bar Icons

If enabled, toolbar icons across the whole editor will be smaller and without labels.



Normal	Small

Level Editing


Option	Description
Enable Combined Translate/Rotate Widget	[INCLUDE:Shared/Types/ULevelEditorViewportSettings#ballowtranslaterotatezwidget]
Clicking BSP Enables Brush	If enabled, clicking on a Brush surface selects the brush and Ctrl + Shift + Click selects the surface. When disabled, the opposite is true; clicking selects the surface and Ctrl + Shift + Click selects the brush.
Update BSP Automatically	If enabled, Brush geometry rebuilds automatically when brushes are moved or modified in the viewport. When disabled, geometry must be rebuilt to see the changes.
Preserve Actor Scale on Replace	If enabled, replacing Actors will respect the scale of the original Actor. Otherwise, the replaced Actors will have a scale of 1.0.

Source Control


Option	Description
Prompt for Checkout on Package Modification	If enabled, the editor will automatically prompt for SCC checkout on package modification.
Allow Source Control	If enabled, the editor source control integration for packages and maps is used.
Add New Files when Modified	If enabled, new files are automatically added to source control.
Host	The host and port for your source control server. Example: `hostname:1234`
Username	The user name to sue when connecting to source control.
Workspace	The clientspec for source control.

Particles


Option	Description
Use Curves for Distributions	If enabled, Distributions will use the curves in place of the baked lookup tables when being rendered in the editor.

Content Browser


Option	Description
Auto Reimport Textures	If enabled, source files for textures are monitored and textures are automatically re-imported when the source file is modified.
Assets to Load at Once before Warning	The number of objects to load at once in the Content Browser before displaying a warning about loading many assets.

Privacy

The Editor in Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) collects usage data to help Epic continually improve UE4. There are three types of data that the Editor can collect:

Crash reports - generated when an error causes the Engine to crash.
Bug reports (also known as ensures) - generated when an issue causes the the project to reach a certain unforeseen state, but does not cause a crash.
Usage data (also known as analytics) - a collection of data about the user.

When the Engine crashes, a crash report is generated. Crash reports automatically offer you a choice of whether or not to send crash data to Epic.

Disable Bug Reports

For bug reports, you can disable data collection in the Privacy category of Editor Preferences. Follow these steps to disable bug reports.

In the menu bar, click Edit > Editor Preferences .
In the Editor Preferences dialog, scroll down to the Privacy category.
Click Bug Reports . In the right pane, under Options , the default setting is Send unattended bug reports .
If you do not want bug reports sent to Epic, click Don't Send .

Disable Usage Data

Usage data primarily consists of aggregated or anonymized information that does not directly identify you as an individual user. However, this usage data may also include the following:

User's IP address
User's Internet Service Provider (ISP)
User's Continent, Country and City
User's Epic Account ID
User's project name

If you are concerned about privacy and want to opt out of usage data collection, you can change the setting in the Privacy category of Editor Preferences. Follow these steps to disable usage data collection.

In the Editor Preferences dialog, scroll down to the Privacy category.
Click Usage Data . In the right pane, under Options , the default setting is Send Usage Data .
If you do not want usage data sent to Epic, click Don't Send .

Auto Save


Option	Description
Enable AutoSave	If enabled, the editor will automatically perform a save operation at specified intervals.
Save Maps	If enabled, the auto-save procedure will attempt to save modified, loaded maps.
Save Packages	If enabled, the auto-save procedure will attempt to save modified content packages.
Frequency in Minutes	The time interval in minutes to wait between auto-saves.
Warning in Seconds	The number of seconds the warning is displayed before an auto-save is performed.

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