Ok as the title says this is my personal opinion but i hope it points out one of the biggist gripes i have about marketplace content.
the issue i have is UPDATING, i like to keep the engine in its newest form so that i get all the new shinny stuff, this causes an issue if your project relies on MP content, as you can only install the content on a correct install version, to put it plain if you MP content hasn’t been updated for a few builds then your stuck, yes you can migrate to a newer build but you still have to have the older version of the engine installed just in case you need to replace the older mp content.
now just imagine you have MP content since the start of the Marketplace that hasn’t been updated and you decide you what to use it in a new project, how many versions of the engine do you want to dl/install or are you happy to migrate if you still have a project with the content in.
Thankfully UE4 is just a hobby so i can say sod it, and wasted my cash.
the option would be to allow the end user to re-validate the content for the current engine build
The compatibility issues is an Epic Games design problem that can be solved by them only. At this point maybe Unreal Engine 5 when it will happen maybe will have some automatic compatibility layers conversions to ensure that any asset could keep working on any engine version. Until Epic Games does anything like that there is no real way to fix the compatibility problem.
Many free UE4 assets don’t get updated too but with some effort they can still be used on the newest engine release, still it requires some work. Not buying MarketPlace content is not a real option for anyone developing a game or something else with the engine that is not a large software house with its own employees for everything. Most indie games made with Unity and Unreal Engine are using assets bought on the respective stores and other stores too. Otherwise single freelancers and very small software houses wouldn’t be able to deliver games in a few months or a few years released on Steam or elsewhere.
I believe a lot of problems come from the idea of having a separate team of programmers working on the Launcher only.
They aren’t involved with engine development at all.
If there’s a product that was released since the start of the marketplace, and it hasn’t been updated then that product should no longer be available on the store as that’s against the terms.
That being said, a lot of content (particularly when it comes to environments, music, materials and textures) do not require any special work, simply a checkbox on the seller portal. But in those cases it shouldn’t take long to have them marked for compatibility.
I am sorry to hear this has been your experience with the marketplace though. =/
@BlackFangTech interesting but the content i use is a base project eg i can’t add it to another project, i have to build the base and add my stuff to it, in my case the author said he uploaded a 4.19 version a month ago but still no show on the launcher, yes i’ve asked on his discord channel but waiting for Epic !!!.
tbh not to bothered as my project is pretty much on hold till i can be bothered, but if this happens with a reknown author how do people deal with the not so good guys.
i just wish we had an option to self authorise older content with newer engine builds
I don’t understand why you have to reimport something instead of simply upgrading existing project.
Even plugins can be easily manually rebuilt for different major engine version, if you have visual studio and C++ Compiler, instead of waiting for Marketplace team to update it.
