Environment queries (EQS)

Build Environment Query System assets: generators, tests and contexts.

What it’s for

The Environment Query System (EQS) is how Unreal AI answers spatial questions during play: "where is the nearest cover?", "which of these points can see the player?", "where can I stand that is close but not too close?". Each answer comes from an EQS Query asset that generates candidate points or actors, then filters and scores them. Your assistant builds those assets for you, so you describe the query in plain language instead of clicking through the EQS editor.

Ask it to create a query, choose where the candidates come from, and add tests that filter and rank them. It can also point a query at the right reference, such as the AI itself or a target actor, and tune how harshly each test rejects items and how it weights the rest.

This area covers the query assets only. To make an AI actually run a finished query as part of its decisions, see Behavior trees.

Things you can ask

Create a query that prefers nearby points

You get a new query that scans a grid around the AI and ranks points by how close they are.

You: Make an EQS query that scans a grid around the AI and prefers nearby points.

Created EQS_FindNearby in /Game/AI/EQS. It generates a grid of points and scores them by distance.

Tune how a distance test weights results

Closer points win, and the score stays inside the range you set.

You: On that distance test, prefer closer points and cap the score range.

Nearer points now score higher, with the score clamped to 0–2000. The query is saved.

Filter out points outside a range

Points that are too close or too far are thrown away before scoring.

You: Reject any point closer than 200 or farther than 1500 units.

Added a distance filter. Points outside 200–1500 units are now discarded.