How to reliably test code plugins before submitting?

Hello UE Devs,

I’m facing very weird issues with my first code plugin released. It looks like the plugin behaves differently depending on how I add it to the project:

  • Adding by UE Marketplace (and EG Launcher) - my plugin doesn’t work at all (although it passed all UE test and it’s released), some ptrs are null, even though I set them correctly
  • Building by command provided in https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/marketplace-guidelines#263b and replacing it in the Engine makes it works better, but still some issues are present
  • If I just copy it from Engine/Plugins/Marketplace into the project - the plugin works as expected
  • Adding the plugin to project and building locally works as expected

I don’t provide any errors as they are specific to my code, but I’m wondering how I could reliably test the plugin, so I don’t need to do fake releases to see the result.

Also size of dll in Binaries is slightly different when plugin is added to the engine by Epic Launcher - like it’s built differently.

If it helps, my plugin uses an UGameInstanceSubsystem and some FRunnable threads, if it matters.

Thank you very much for all the hints as I really didn’t expect such issues.