Allow us to download plugins even if we can't "Install" them

Distribution UE Marketplace
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15

New Solution:
I made a simple python tool that fakes UE version for EGS, so you and I don’t need to do the steps below manually. Github link.
Current problem: It requires admin access. I will fix it as soon as possible.
UPD: Added UE4 support

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Old solution:
Ok. I found the hack how to get the plugin of older version without installing old UE.

  1. Close the Epic Ggame Store

  2. Open Epic Games Store manifests directory (for me it is C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests). Idk is it different for other users or not, but if yes you can use Registry Editor and look for ModSdkMetadataDir and it should be located somewhere in …\SOFTWARE\Epic Games\EOS tree.
    image

  3. Make the backup of this directory

  4. Open all .item files via text editor (I use VSCode)

  5. Look for the file that relates to your UE. The file should contain such fields: "LaunchExecutable": "Engine/Binaries/Win64/UnrealEditor.exe", "AppName": "UE_5.1", "MainGameAppName": "UE_5.1",

  6. Now change UE_5.1 to UE_[version] in AppName and MainGameAppName. I set mine to UE_5.0

  7. Save the file

  8. Go to your UE installation directory. If you don’t know where it is, you can find the path in Registry Editor by key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EpicGames\Unreal Engine

  9. Open .egstore folder

  10. Find the *.mancpn file that relates to your UE. It contains the field like: "AppName": "UE_5.1"

  11. Do backup of the file

  12. Change the value to your UE version as we did before. I set it to "AppName": "UE_5.0"

  13. Save the file

  14. Open Epic Games Store

  15. Download the plugin

  16. When downloading finished, EGS probably will crash, heh. Make sure you completely close the EGS.

  17. Back to your edited files and restore their initial state by backup files.

  18. Go to your UE installation directory and you will find your plugin in Engine\Plugins directory.

  19. Copy it to where you want.

  20. Open EGS and make sure that engine installation is correct.

  21. Congrats! You downloaded outdated plugin without downloading the whole Unreal Engine

Probably I will make the tiny script for that stuff so we don’t need to do it manually.

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