Plugins now accepted - What do you need?

Hi fellows,

I’m a plugin developer and would like to open this thread to hear about your secret desires.
Let´s brainstorm what types of plugin are needed and how we can achieve a good balance of price and function.
As always the development of specialized software makes no sense if the price is low and only a handful customers buy it.
Eager to hear your thoughts. :slight_smile:

Well over the last couple of months we have been working on a UE4 Plugin that greatly increases workflow efficiency in-editor when it comes to using both Source Control & Project Management Software/Services i.e. a tool that does the job quickly & hopefully annoyance free as to allow an artist, designer or other to get back to what he/she does best, which is to create magic :wink:

After all,
Both you & them don’t really want to be paid to fiddle around with Source Control & Project Management Software/Services any longer than is absolutely necessary…

NOTE: We are not ready to properly announce this product but it will be coming ‘soon’

I think some kind of river tool would go a long way

A free Slack & HipChat integration would be interesting. It would remove some distractions for people when they get a message & need to switch between applications while if it was in-editor as a NomadTab with limited functionality than that might be a handy thing to have.

If no one else does it we might, as it does kinda branch off the current plugin we are working off workflow wise but I don’t foresee us making it any time soon if we were to take up the mantle.

Hey guys,

I wanted to chime in what we currently require for plugin submissions.

We’re still working out our requirements, but currently we have the following fairly set:

x We require integration source
x We require a signed seller agreement, and any amendments needed for special cases
x Plugin must be 4.8 compatible
x Provider must be willing to update with each engine updates
x If you have plugins that meet these criteria and are ready to submit for plugin approval, please use our submission form found here:

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/submissions

We don’t actually require the files until we accept your submission, so please be as descriptive as possible, including links to any explanatory videos you may have.

If you have any other questions or concerns about plugins submissions, just contact me or marketplace-support@unrealengine.com . :slight_smile:

A Decent Road Tool!

“Provider must be willing to update with each engine updates” Haha yes funny. What if the author dies? XD this rule is very unstable. Pls explain.

You light a candle for him, and continues using His plugin for free and regretfully, since where he is, he will not receive any more money to upgrade nothing. Maybe his family… perhaps. Very Sad:(

That doesn’t necessarily mean with every engine you have to update your packs too. Just if the new engine update had a change where it breaks your content’s functionality, then people wouldn’t like to download something that’s for example working with 4.7 and previous versions and not 4.8.

i would like to see in plugins:

  • a great AI system
  • a skybox with allot of customizations
  • oceans, rivers etc
  • a great crafting, building system
  • a weather system
    and others

Im just curios how they will actually KNOW if an author has the will… You cant just look “will” up on his papers XD its athing of “giving support” and not “will”. If u have a product for sell u have to watch over it. Who wants make money has a response for his customers and not “will”. Its just that word tom me thats misplaced. g

Correct. If your submission is works with the most recent version of the engine you’re fine. If you do need to update your submission for compatibility we are always here to help but it does have to work for the most recent version of the engine.

A smooth integration of persistent data that could be stored securely server-side for various uses (like inventory, skill trees, other RPG elements)

What does it mean by integration source? Full plugin source code?

Hi ,

I can imagine a provider wants to stop development/updating the plugin if sales are not what they expected. This can happen! Is it an idea to demand a minimum of updates for X engine updates? Say 5 minor version updates(from 4.8 to 4.12 for example). This way the provider knows what he/she is getting in to, and what the exit strategy is. And the buyer knows the at least amount of updates/support it can expect.

And besides the minimum amount of updates or not: how is Epic going to enforce this? What happends if a provider after 6 months decides to stop?

Love the plugins btw, no more manual installing Substance Designer plugin :slight_smile:

Full ODBC + SQL support. Ability to query a DB from blueprints.

No, only the source required for integrating with the engine, so we can work with it ourselves and test it properly. Everything else can remain closed source. We have full respect for code plugin developers wanting to keep their secret sauce secret. :slight_smile: We’re working on clearer guidelines describing how to structure a project to help make that easier. More on that soon.

We don’t have firm guidelines on this yet, but this is what our internal thinking has been:

  1. Most content works fine with new versions without needing to be updated, but Blueprints and code plugins can be tricky, and should be kept up-to-date if possible.

  2. Requiring full backwards compatibility for all versions is a lot to ask for. The vast majority of our users upgrade to the latest engine version, so keeping more than three previous versions up-to-date isn’t really necessary. Likewise, you don’t need to update your content unless it’s actually broken.

  3. If we can’t verify your content works in the latest version, we specify that in the launcher and don’t update the compatibility info until you update the content.

  4. Here’s the big one: If Marketplace content is simply broken, people that paid for it aren’t being helped, and it stays broken for more than 60 days without any updates or progress, we’ll remove that content from the Marketplace until it’s fixed. We’ll exhaust every option we have to contact the seller and work on getting the content fixed, but if it’s just not happening, then that content doesn’t belong on the Marketplace. People that paid for it get to keep it, but sales are suspended and it’s no longer listed on the Marketplace for purchase.

I should note that we have never had to do this. If things ever get serious enough to require a response like this, it will be handled privately, professionally, and with a great deal of advance notice and warning to the content creator. The closest we’ve come to this is when I sent a stern email to an unresponsive seller which was quickly resolved. So far, people have been cool, and I only rarely put on the " has had enough of your shenanigans" hat. :slight_smile: But you’re smart to wonder about what happens, and I hope this helps explain our thinking. Questions and comments welcome!

Things we need the community to implement, in my experience / needs:

  • Voice Attack functionality (I know this is in progress, as I have been in communication with someone looking into it). Basically a “voice to command” infrastructure for the engine. Example: On keyboard, if I press 1, the character will jump. With this, I could say, “Jump”, and the character will jump. Voice as an input control.

  • Omni-Database: A plugin that will enable the engine to provide a connector to various, well used database engines. SQL, NoSQL, Oracle, to name a few. MySQL is already implemented into the engine. DB transactions should also be able to be encrypted for security reasons.

  • Direct Input plugin to allow for DirectInput devices to be used with the engine, for example, a HOTAS. This should also enumerate the devices so that you can use more than 1 device at a time, for example, Pedals, Flight Stick, Throttle

  • Another important engine plugin would be a plugin that “re-wrote” how the engine compiles a project… it automatically copies other plugins to the project folder before it is compiled. Why the engine doesn’t natively do this, well, I have no idea. An example would be substance. You need to have the substance plugin in both the Engine folder as well as the Project folder. If it’s not in the project folder, it will not work when the game is compiled.

Not relating to Epic or the general community at large, but I would like to see Nvidia release their Gameworks stuff as plugins, so rather than having to download the source from github and compile, I can just use a plugin for the feature.

**** Really guys? Why is Comp-ILE filtered? Did I mistype it? Compile compile I guess I did. Oops. My bad.

Question I have is, do Plugins fall under the normal rules for Asset submission. For example, do I need to submit a minimum of five working things to go along with it? Say in my case I submit a Plugin for a hovering movement component, How much additional stuff do I need to provide? At a minimum I’m guessing an example level and asset?

So many ideas… time to work out how to create plugins.

That’s what’s fun – right now it’s a blank slate, and we’re figuring it out as we go. :slight_smile: Community discussion and feedback for this is going to be everything.