I am currently reading Marketplace Guideline as I’d like to put my plugin there, but from the formulation it’s very unclear to me if I can upload a plugin without uncompiled source code:
Based on this text, it seems like when uploading plugin, Epic will compile the plugin on their side before distributing it, but it’s absolutely unclear if they distribute just the dll or also source code?
Does anyone know? I assumed I’d just upload .uplugin, .module and .dll and that would be it, but now I am very confused
You only have to include source code of the bits required for an Unreal build process to succeed.
They build and distribute all the Source folder you provide.
One reason why studios buy my plugins is that I provide ALL sources open for modifications.
You can wrap “your secrets” into static libraries, but all you will get from that is emails from developers asking where is the source code.
It’s your right to close whatever sources you want, but then you must build and provide pre-compiled binaries for each platform you target…
If you do it correctly you can manage to publish it without open source.
I don’t think there are many secrets. I just wanted to distribute it with as little bloat as possible. But it’s fine otherwise as long as someone doesn’t resell or redistribute for free only slightly modifier version of the plugin.
To get the plugin approved, it needs to meet the guidelines. The guidelines state uplugin descriptor must contain MarketplaceURL which I won’t get before I send the plugin for the approval, which won’t happen if it doesn’t have the URL…
I had a luck saving it as a draft, where it had some ID generated, so I used that one and updated the links before I sent the same draft for an approval. Fingers crossed
