Local assets browser

An asset browser for local assets

Usage

1. Click the folder icon in the top right and select the folder that all your assets are in.
2. Wait for all the assets to appear.
3. Find the asset you want and click import.
4. The assets will be in res://Assets/{asset_name}.

Asset Discovery

The addon uses a Rust GDExtension with SQLite database for fast asset management. Assets are discovered by:

1. Asset.json files - Explicitly define an asset with metadata (name, path, preview image, tags)
2. Preview file names - Searches for images matching configured patterns (supports regex)
3. Folder name matching - Falls back to using the folder name and first image found
4. First image fallback - If enabled, uses the first image in a directory when no preview matches

When a directory contains an asset, subdirectories are skipped to avoid nested assets.

Settings

Editor Setting	Description
Local_Assets/asset_dir	Directory to look for the assets. Mainly used to keep the same directory across projects.
Local_Assets/File_preview_names	An array of preview file patterns. Supports literal prefixes (e.g., "Preview" matches "Preview.png", "Preview1.png") and regex patterns (e.g., "^preview.*\.png$"). Patterns are case-insensitive.
Local_Assets/use_first_image_found	If a file does not match any pattern in Local_Assets/File_preview_names and no Asset.json file is found, it will use the first image file it finds.
Local_Assets/page_size	Number of assets to load per page (default: 50). Adjust for performance vs. convenience.
Local_Assets/use_uniform_image_size	Force all images to be a uniform size.
Local_Assets/uniform_image_size	Overrides all image sizes. Requires Local_Assets/use_uniform_image_size to be on.

Troubleshooting

Assets Don't Show Up

If assets don't appear, the addon may not be finding matching preview images. Solutions:

1. Add preview file patterns in EditorSettings -> Local_Assets -> File_preview_names:

   • Literal prefixes: ["Preview", "Thumbnail", "Asset"] matches Preview.png, Preview1.png, Thumbnail_alt.jpg, etc.
   • Regex patterns: ["^preview.*\\.png$", "thumb(nail)?.*"] for more complex matching

2. Enable first image fallback in EditorSettings -> Local_Assets -> use_first_image_found

3. Create an Asset.json file in the asset folder to explicitly define it:

   {
     "path": "/path/to/asset/files",
     "name": "My Asset Name",
     "image_path": "/path/to/preview.png",
     "tags": ["2D", "platformer", "sprites"]
   }

   Required properties:

   • path - Base path for the asset (everything in this directory will be copied)
   • name - Asset name displayed in the browser

   Optional properties:

   • image_path - Custom preview image path
   • tags - Array of tag strings for searching/filtering

   

Database Issues

The addon uses an SQLite database (user://local_assets.db) to cache asset information. If you experience issues:

1. Reset the database using the command palette: Ctrl+Shift+P → "Reset_db"
2. The database will be automatically recreated and assets rescanned

Performance

• Adjust Local_Assets/page_size if loading many assets feels slow or you want to see more at once
• The database makes subsequent loads much faster than the initial scan

Upcoming Features

• Customizable install directory.

Have an idea? suggest it here.

Known Issues

None. 😃