Orphan Detection¶

Orphan assets are files in your project that have no inbound references - nothing uses them. Asset Atlas helps you find, review, and clean up these unused assets.

What Are Orphans?¶

An orphan asset is any asset that:

Has no inbound references (nothing depends on it)
Is not referenced by any map, Blueprint, or other asset
Is not directly loaded by code

Why Orphans Matter¶

Impact	Description
Disk Space	Unused assets bloat your project size
Build Time	More assets = longer cooking and packaging
Package Size	Orphans may be accidentally included in builds
Confusion	Hard to know what's actually used

Finding Orphans¶

From Dashboard¶

View the Unused Assets card
Click Delete Unused Assets button
The orphan panel opens in Graph Explorer

From Graph Explorer¶

Click Find Orphans in the header
The graph filters to show only orphan assets
The orphan panel opens on the right

Visual Identification¶

Orphan assets are displayed with an orange/red tint in the dependency graph.

The Orphan Panel¶

When viewing orphans, a side panel displays:

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ ORPHAN ASSETS          [×] │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ ☐ Select All                │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ ☐ /Game/Textures/Old_Logo   │
│ ☐ /Game/Materials/Test_Mat  │
│ ☐ /Game/Meshes/Debug_Cube   │
│ ☐ /Game/BP/Unused_Actor     │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ [Ignore Selected]           │
│ [Delete Selected]           │
└─────────────────────────────┘

Panel Actions¶

Action	Description
Select All	Check all orphans in the list
Ignore Selected	Mark as intentionally unused
Delete Selected	Permanently delete from project

Reviewing Orphans¶

Before deleting, review each asset:

Safe to Delete¶

Test assets created during development
Old versions of assets that were replaced
Imported assets that were never used
Leftover assets from deleted features

Consider Keeping¶

Splash screens - Referenced by project settings, not assets
Localization assets - May be loaded by culture system
Data assets - May be loaded by code/config
Default objects - Referenced by CDO or class defaults

Always Review

Never bulk-delete without reviewing. Some assets are legitimately standalone.

Ignoring Assets¶

For assets that should remain but have no references:

Select the asset(s) in the orphan panel
Click Ignore Selected
The asset is added to the project's ignore list

Ignore List Behavior¶

Ignored orphans are excluded from counts
They remain in your project
They won't appear in the orphan panel
The ignore list is stored per-project

Managing the Ignore List¶

To un-ignore an asset:

Right-click the asset in the graph
Select Remove from Ignore List (if available)
Or reset via Project Settings

Deleting Orphans¶

To delete orphan assets:

Select assets in the orphan panel
Click Delete Selected
Confirm in the deletion dialog
Assets are permanently removed

Permanent Action

Deletion cannot be undone through Asset Atlas. Use version control to recover if needed.

Deletion Best Practices¶

Backup first - Commit to version control before bulk deletion
Review carefully - Check each asset's purpose
Start small - Delete a few, test, then continue
Check references - Use Reference Viewer for detailed info

Orphan Causes¶

Common Causes¶

Cause	Example
Iteration	Created multiple versions, only using latest
Import	Imported assets that weren't needed
Refactoring	Moved to new assets, forgot to delete old
Feature removal	Deleted feature but left assets

False Positives¶

Some assets appear orphaned but are actually used:

Level assets - Referenced by map, may not show as referenced
Dynamically loaded - Loaded via LoadObject or soft references
Engine references - Used by engine systems
Plugin assets - Used by plugins

Tips for Clean Projects¶

Delete as you go - Don't let orphans accumulate
Use prefixes - Name test assets with TEST_ or DEBUG_
Regular scans - Run Asset Atlas weekly during development
Version control - Always commit before cleanup

Circular Dependencies Dashboard