Here’s the basic scenario. I’d like to install one instance of UE4 on our iMac/macOS for all users to use. I’m admin (parent), and other users are not (children).
Now when I install it (have admin privileges) it works fine. The files are also installed under /Users/Shared/… which is a good start.
Now, when non-admin users (children) start the launcher they see that it claims the Unreal Engine is not installed, and wants to download it again. Even if I allow this (by entering my admin credentials) it fails with a permissions error. Even if I manually reset group ownership and permissions to “staff” and rwx it still fails to run.
So, is there a way to get this working? It should be a simple, shared set of binaries that anyone can run once installed. Yet it seems to not work for some strange reason.
If you have the Launcher installed under Shared users, the subsequent users accounts can launch versions of the editor by double-clicking the app straight from the install directory. (They can make an alias of this to put on the desktop or doc for easy access later.)
I created a test account and was able to launch the editor successfully without having to install a second version:
To explain. the installer creates two folders in /Users/Shared, namely, Epic Games and UnrealEngine. Launcher is the only folder in the latter. That contains an alias to /Applications/Epic Games Launcher.app.
In other words, there is NO mechanism to bypass the Epic Launcher. Consequently, if multiple users want to play this game, they either play as the same user, or have a complete duplicate of the 20GB (YES, TWENTY GIGABYTES) folder hierarchy.
In this day and age of multi-user systems, either of these approaches is appalling. And to avoid disputes between the children I’m far more inclined to remove the application in it’s entirety and discourage others from installing it until Epic Games develop software that is multi-user friendly. That is, unless they are living in the 90’s in the way they administer their computer–as that’s the way Epic Games assume you are.
By the way, adjusting permissions so everyone has write access using standard permissions, or ACLs doesn’t change the behaviour. It’s a one user, or 40GB and up choice.
I found that .'s answer does work. UE4 4.19.1. The only issue is that the EPIC Games Launcher does claim that the Unreal Engine is NOT installed, even though it is. Other users can still launch the Engine, as described by , above, by finding UE4Editor buried in the Binaries directory.
When the Editor launches, it will also launch the Game Launcher, where you can start and save projects, etc, even though it still claims that the Engine is still not installed.
This does need to be addressed by EPIC; I’m not sure why they created two different dirs to store their Launcher and their Engine. This appears to be a new “feature” after version 4.14…?
Using my amazing necromancer powers, I’m reviving this old thread because I got this to work again. It’s not that hard to get working if you don’t need any security. Maybe someone else can tighten it up if you need this to work with student accounts in a Mac Lab. But here is how I did it.
User1 installs the Epic Game Launcher and installs one or more engines. I installed 5.0.3 and 4.27.2.
User1 logs out.
User2 logs in and runs the Epic Game Installer once and then closes it.
User2 opens a terminal window and cd’s in to their $HOME/Library/Application Support directory.
User2 removes the Epic subdir they’ll find there.
From this point, the User doing the work must have sudo access or be root. Let’s assume User2 may sudo.
User2 copies the Epic directory from User1. e.g., sudo cp -R /Users/User1/Library/Application\ Support/Epic /Users/User2/Library/Application\ Support/Epic
User2 makes everything in the Unreal Engine installation fully world read/write/executable: sudo chmod -R go=w /Users/Shared/Epic\ Games/*
When User2 runs the Epic Game Launcher next, they’ll see whatever versions of the engine User1 installed.
It might be safer to instead use the sticky bit instead of giving full rwx perms to every file, but I haven’t tested that.
If User2 installs another version, User1 won’t see it. This won’t stay in sync.
Also, if plugin are installed, they’re available to everyone on the system, but permissions will need to be reset again as seen in step 7.
