Cooking, inclusion, and validation

Define roots

Cook inclusion comes from maps, hard dependencies, Asset Manager rules, Primary Asset Labels, explicitly configured directories/assets, plugins, or command-line/profile selections. A soft path alone does not prove inclusion.

1. Set Game Default Map and required maps explicitly.
2. Identify every on-demand asset's owning Primary Asset/rule or other cook root.
3. Run Data Validation and Map Check; use cook validation options when appropriate.
4. Cook the exact target platform By the Book.
5. Inspect Asset Audit, cook/staging manifests, Asset Registry, container listing, and warnings.
6. Run the cold path with no editor content or cook server.

Useful documented cook diagnostics include -verbosecookerwarnings, -RunAssetValidation, -RunMapValidation, and -ValidationErrorsAreFatal. Confirm support against the installed 5.8 engine.

Avoid masking the cause

• -cookall and Cook Everything increase size and can hide missing ownership.
• broad Additional Asset Directories to Cook create implicit contracts that are hard to audit.
• skipping soft/hard references is diagnostic and can create unloadable content.
• iterative cooks accelerate iteration but can retain stale evidence; require a clean cook for release.
• Exclude Editor Content can expose an improper runtime dependency on editor content; fix the edge.

Treat warnings about unknown assets, redirectors, missing packages, shader formats, serialization, or never-cook conflicts as build defects until dispositioned.