IMPOSSIBLE to package a plugin in 5.3.2? Please help!!

Development Programming & Scripting
,
1

Hi all,

I’m suffering another Unreal nightmare. Are you able to package a C++ plugin from Unrel 5.3.2?

I have tried almost everything even with an empty project and an empty plugin: installing VS community (last version and Preview one), installing VS Pro 7.8 and 7.6. Installing and changing the toolset to 14.38 and 14.36, trying in a Windows 11 PC and a Windows 10 one, with native packaging and with Plugin Builder… but nothing works. It always ends with error code 6.

Even I have tried with UE5.4 and UE5.2, but it works with these two engine versions!!

Why the hell is so complicated to package a plugin with/for UE5.3.2?!

PLEASE, if you are able to do it, could you share all you config, like VS installed packages?

Thank you very very much!

Message log:

LogMonitoredProcess: Running Serialized UAT: [ cmd.exe /c ““C:/Program Files/Epic Games/UE_5.3/Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunUAT.bat” BuildPlugin -Plugin=“C:/Users/MAR/Documents/Unreal Projects/Cplus_test/Plugins/MyEmptyPlugin/MyEmptyPlugin.uplugin” -Package=“C:/Users/MAR/Downloads/MyEmptyPlugin” -CreateSubFolder” -nocompile -nocompileuat ]
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Running AutomationTool…
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Using bundled DotNet SDK version: 6.0.302
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Starting AutomationTool…
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Parsing command line: BuildPlugin -Plugin=“C:/Users/MAR/Documents/Unreal Projects/Cplus_test/Plugins/MyEmptyPlugin/MyEmptyPlugin.uplugin” -Package=C:/Users/MAR/Downloads/MyEmptyPlugin -CreateSubFolder -nocompile -nocompileuat
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Initializing script modules…
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Total script module initialization time: 0.18 s.
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Executing commands…
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Copying 28 file(s) using max 64 thread(s)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Reading plugin from C:\Users\MAR\Downloads\MyEmptyPlugin\HostProject\Plugins\MyEmptyPlugin\MyEmptyPlugin.uplugin…
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Building plugin for host platforms: Win64
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Running: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.3\Engine\Binaries\ThirdParty\DotNet\6.0.302\windows\dotnet.exe “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.3\Engine\Binaries\DotNET\UnrealBuildTool\UnrealBuildTool.dll” UnrealEditor Win64 Development -Project=“C:\Users\MAR\Downloads\MyEmptyPlugin\HostProject\HostProject.uproject” -plugin=“C:\Users\MAR\Downloads\MyEmptyPlugin\HostProject\Plugins\MyEmptyPlugin\MyEmptyPlugin.uplugin” -noubtmakefiles -manifest=“C:\Users\MAR\Downloads\MyEmptyPlugin\HostProject\Saved\Manifest-UnrealEditor-Win64-Development.xml” -nohotreload -l
og=“C:\Users\MAR\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\C+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_5.3\UBT-UnrealEditor-Win64-Development.txt”
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Log file: C:\Users\MAR\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\C+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_5.3\UBT-UnrealEditor-Win64-Development.txt
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Total execution time: 2.95 seconds
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Unhandled exception: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. (Parameter ‘element’)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at System.Attribute.GetCustomAttributes(MemberInfo element, Type attributeType, Boolean inherit)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at System.Reflection.CustomAttributeExtensions.GetCustomAttributes[T](MemberInfo element)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.ModuleRules.IsValidForTarget(Type ModuleType, ReadOnlyTargetRules TargetRules, String& InvalidReason) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Configuration\ModuleRules.cs:line 1623
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.UEBuildTarget.AddAllValidModulesToTarget(ILogger Logger) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Configuration\UEBuildTarget.cs:line 3886
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.UEBuildTarget.PreBuildSetup(ILogger Logger) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Configuration\UEBuildTarget.cs:line 3354
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.UEBuildTarget.Create(TargetDescriptor Descriptor, Boolean bSkipRulesCompile, Boolean bForceRulesCompile, Boolean bUsePrecompiled, UnrealIntermediateEnvironment IntermediateEnvironment, ILogger Logger) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Configuration\UEBuildTarget.cs:line 1366
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.BuildMode.CreateMakefileAsync(BuildConfiguration BuildConfiguration, TargetDescriptor TargetDescriptor, ISourceFileWorkingSet WorkingSet, ILogger Logger) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Modes\BuildMode.cs:line 1114
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.BuildMode.BuildAsync(List`1 TargetDescriptors, BuildConfiguration BuildConfiguration, ISourceFileWorkingSet WorkingSet, BuildOptions Options, FileReference WriteOutdatedActionsFile, ILogger Logger, Boolean bSkipPreBuildTargets) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Modes\BuildMode.cs:line 396
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.BuildMode.ExecuteAsync(CommandLineArguments Arguments, ILogger Logger) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\Modes\BuildMode.cs:line 252
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): at UnrealBuildTool.UnrealBuildTool.Main(String ArgumentsArray) in D:\build++UE5\Sync\Engine\Saved\CsTools\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTool\UnrealBuildTool.cs:line 659
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): Took 3,11s to run dotnet.exe, ExitCode=6
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): UnrealBuildTool failed. See log for more details. (C:\Users\MAR\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\C+Program+Files+Epic+Games+UE_5.3\UBT-UnrealEditor-Win64-Development.txt)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): AutomationTool executed for 0h 0m 3s
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=6 (6)
UATHelper: Package Plugin Task (Windows): BUILD FAILED

2

Hey Miguel,

looking at your UAT log it shows the following exception:

The line referenced in the exception (ModuleRules.cs:1623) is trying to access the ModuleType for a module, most likely the module defined in your plugin. It is possible that the module definition inside your example plugin is missing something or contains some invalid syntax.
Could you share your .uplugin file for that plugin?

3

Hi @UE_Seb.Tho ,

Thank you very much for looking into!

Finally it was a problem with a plugin installed into the engine (even if disabled in the project). The plugin is the 3DConnexion’s one, identified as TDxUnrealEditor.

How I noticed it? I needed to create my own .bat files to compile plugins, and I got a more detailed error where it was mentioning it.

Per fortune, as the linked plugin is working fine in 5.4 without interfering when packaging plugins, I recompiled that 5.4 plugin for 5.3 and I’m using now that ‘converted’ plugin, without interfering too.

Thank you again!!