I have a project requirement where, our ultimate goal is to present our users with an extremely stripped down version of the Unreal Editor. For example, our users come from a general flock of people who find even the most basic of things like browsing for assets using the dock “too technical and game dev-y”. However, they do see the power of the Editor for their vertical and what they want to achieve.
Now I have two options here:
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Make a simple packaged game with a complete UMG skin on top which can load up USD stages at runtime (spoiler alert: doesn’t work in a packaged build as the plugin requires the editor only modeling modules)
1.1 Integrate a format like gltf which can do this apart from USDs, but then the rest of the user’s workflows are heavily dependent on USDs -
Make an engine module like the UnrealEditor, called, say the misfitEd, which can generate its own exe and sits beside the main editor (I don’t want the UnrealEditor itself to go away). This misfitEd can essentially function like an editor of sorts, without the full complexity of the engine, but with enough controls so that our users are comfortable with it. Essentially, the idea is to keep one viewport with some basic UI buttons surrounding it. At least that would be a great starting point/POC.
Has anyone pulled something like this off before?