Agentic Atmos — Quick Start Guide

A text walkthrough for a level with one sky actor, one day cycle, and one clock.

Step 1: Install the Plugin

From Fab: Install Agentic Atmos for Unreal Engine 5.8. An engine-wide installation lives in Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/AgenticAtmosphere/; a project-local installation lives in YourProject/Plugins/AgenticAtmosphere/.

From source: Copy the plugin into YourProject/Plugins/AgenticAtmosphere/, regenerate project files, and compile your project's editor target with the matching Unreal C++ toolchain.

In Edit → Plugins, enable AgenticAtmosphere, Niagara, and ToolsetRegistry. Restart the editor when prompted. ToolsetRegistry is an Experimental engine plugin; the editor toolsets depend on it.

Step 2: Show the Shipped Content

In the Content Browser's settings, enable Show Plugin Content. The plugin's assets use the /AgenticAtmosphere/ mount.

The plugin registers its own gameplay-tag table at startup:

/AgenticAtmosphere/Core/Data/DT_AtmosphereTags

A normal installation does not need tag rows copied into the project's configuration. If the picker has no Atmos tags, restart the editor and see Troubleshooting.

Step 3: Give One Actor Ownership of the Sky

Open a map with visible ground. Place Atmos Sky Actor (AAtmosSkyActor) and make it the level's only sky/fog producer.

Disable competing sky rigs and their sun, skylight, sky-atmosphere, cloud, and fog components. Check streamed level instances and any project-specific level-visuals actors as well.

Step 4: Assign a Day Cycle

On the sky actor, set Day Cycle (DayCycle) to:

/AgenticAtmosphere/DayCycles/DA_DayCycle_Default

DA_DayCycle_RealSky and DA_DayCycle_Woodland are alternatives in the same folder. Each supplied cycle has six timed slots. A slot references a look preset; the preset holds authored per-category modifiers.

Read the actor's actual assigned asset before editing. A similarly named cycle elsewhere is not necessarily the active one. With no assigned cycle—or at a time no slot covers—the actor uses its default layer instead.

Step 5: Hold Time and Inspect

Open the Unreal console and run these commands in order:

AT.Time.Pause 1
AT.Time.Set 12:00

Let the viewport and exposure settle, then inspect daylight. Check evening and night separately before retuning the looks:

AT.Time.Set 18:30
AT.Time.Set 02:00

To resume:

AT.Time.Pause 0

AT.Time.Set accepts HH:MM[:SS] within the current day. AT.Time.Advance 3600 advances one in-game hour; negative values move backward. AT.Time.Dilation 10.0 changes the clock rate, and AT.Time.Dump prints the full state. Gameplay code can use UAtmosClockSubsystem instead. See the complete command reference.

If a preset edit does not update a paused frame, click Refresh Now (RefreshNow) on the sky actor after confirming the active slot references your edited preset.

Step 6: Open the Showcase

With Show Plugin Content enabled, open:

/AgenticAtmosphere/Showcase/MAP_AtmosWeatherShowcase

Use the supplied showcase as a rendered example, not as a replacement for checking your own level's sky ownership and exposure. For weather failures, inspect the active weather type and renderer instead of inferring the effect from a preset's name.

Step 7: Save and Extend

Save the level and edited data assets. Reopen the map and confirm the intended cycle is still assigned. Duplicate supplied cycles and their looks into your own project content before creating variants, so a plugin update does not overwrite your work.

Extend a fresh map in order: sky actor first, optional fog-manager wiring next, then region volumes and region assets, followed by resolver and weather checks. Inspect a rendered frame after each addition; the sky actor plus a cycle is your baseline.

Native ground fog requires placed banks and a terrain bake—it does not appear merely because a day cycle is assigned. Save all placed actors and edited assets before checking in a standalone process.

Next Steps

• Day Cycles — Author slots and reusable looks
• Ground Fog — Place banks and bake the terrain
• Exposure — Meter the frame before changing light intensity
• Troubleshooting — Diagnose setup problems first