For a client we need to keep our packaged file size below a certain amount.
This was possible for a while but they want to include more content and it will not
be possible to keep the final package below this size with the new content that is requested.
What we would like to do is just package the game with the neccesary files to run it, but without any additional content.
When the user opens the app they can select what content they want to download to the device.
For example the user wants to work with only tables, it will download all table meshes and table textures from a cloud to the app on the ipad.
Is this possible out of the box? Or is there another way to do this?
What you want is called On-Demand Resources and is available on iOS from version 9.0 onwards. As far as I know there is no implementation of that inside UE4. Setting it up requires changing the project settings in Xcode also. You can find out more about it here On-Demand Resources Guide: On-Demand Resources Essentials.
One thing that may help is the Mobile Packaging Wizard, which allows you to package the bare minimum requirements to upload a built app to the App Store, and then the rest of the content is downloaded separately. Here’s the docs on it: General Mobile Development for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.1 Documentation. I haven’t used it for any projects yet, but am eyeing it for a current project.
