Plugin Creator/Wizard

UPDATE
This feature was integrated into Engine in 4.8 preview version so I wont be updating my repo anymore!

Hi everyone!

As a programmer I must say I was kinda confused when I first tried to create my own Plugin for UE. I was told that best place to start would be a ‘BlankPlugin’ delivered with engine source.
So I copied all the files to ‘MyPlugin’ folder and renamed each file. Then I went into changing actual code in build.cs, .h and .cpp files.
It was ok at first as you could learn a lot during this copy-pasta, however, if you already knew what you’re doing, it was just a waste of time.

To speed things up I decided to create a simple plugin that would help other programmers get started with their own plugin creation - PluginCreator. It works like Project Wizard (most of the code was heavily based on it) - you choose a plugin name, set up parameters, choose a build template and click “Create” button. If everything goes well, next time you start the editor you should be able to see your new plugin on Editor’s plugin list and/or level editor’s toolbar.

Make sure to check out the video!

It was built using version 4.6.1-0+UE4.

Download source (.zip) here or clone it from git.

Please keep in mind that if you’re on a different engine version you will have to rebuild your project before using this plugin!

Cheers!

This is very cool.

This is szyszek! You should contact Epic and see if they can integrate by default into Editor.

Looks pretty cool, will try this out for the next plugin :slight_smile:

plugin ! This is a big time-saver! Thank you!

Wow that will help out a lot, thanks for this.

Glad you guys will find it useful (or already did;) I’ve created a pull request so I’m also looking forward to positive feedback from Epic;)

Good news is I’ve tested my plugin on latest master branch and it worked as expected so, hopefully, there wont be any problem to run it on 4.7.

Cheers!

! Look forward to checking this out!

Extremely useful, I’ll forward this to our programmers who would make great use of such a setup wizard (we have many internal & commercial plugins planned)

Great idea! I was doing it manually. Very cool!

Just came across this. Thank you sir !

Edit: I tried to get this to work with 4.7 but it requires a plugin rebuild according to the error. Any advice on how to do this?

Hi there!

Version on git was updated to support 4.7 and it works just fine, however .rar version from first post still has old files. Try this one or just download it from git: http://www.michalorzelek.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/PluginCreator-master.zip .

I received a positive feedback from Epic guys so hopefully, after some tweaks, we can get the plugin integrated with engine in version 4.8 ; )

If you’re interested you can follow latest pull request https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/pull/865

Cheers!

Dear szyszek

  1. I download this file “PluginCreator-master.zip” and put it into my project(4.7) still miss .dll file and need to rebuild.

  2. I want to get the Vertex Snap plugin to work with 4.7, it requires to rebuild the plugin. What I need to do?

Thanks!

Files you downloaded using this link should be put in Engine/Plugins not in your game project. Also, this zip does not include .dll files so you have to rebuild your project now.

The thing is, plugins are code based right now, so if you want to create your own plugin you will have to rebuild your project at some point. My plugin only helps you to get started by setting up basic plugin files structure. My plugin WONT rebuild your project for you so you have to do it manually.

Have you tried rebuilding your project?; ) Get your project solution (or engine solution), start it in Visual Studio and rebuild it, so the .dll’s get updated.

Cheers

Thnk you sir !

Ok, added to engine/project … opened up the sln for the main engine build. Am doing a build, but when I look in the directories of the UE4 solution it doesn’t show up.

Does VS somehow find and pick it up and add it in automatically during the build?

use GenerateProjectFiles.bat to regenerate .sln file.

It looks like you’re new to UE programming so I’d suggest going through some basic tutorials and documentation. Here are some links that may help you:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Programming/UnrealBuildSystem/ProjectFileGenerator/index.html

If you’re still having trouble, start a new thread on a forum or post a question on answerhub.

Cheers!

Yeah, it’s been a couple decades since I last messed with C code… We are talking Borland Turbo C and Objective C … :wink:

Seems the thing I was missing was simply that when you add a new piece of code in the tree, you need to rerun the generateprojectfiles.bat …

Thanks very much. Giving it a go now.

Thanks for your reply!

I have no vs solution of the Vertex Snap plugin, below is the plugin it has source file, but don’t know how to rebuild it to work with 4.7?:
Plugin.PNG

Thanks!

Plugins does not have a solution file. You must first GenerateProjectFiles(.bat) and then hit rebuild either on your project or engine, UBT should discover new plugin and rebuild its .dll’s.

So if you want to rebuild the plugin you have to build your project OR engine. Project building is recommended here.

I dont know if vertex snap plugin already supports 4.7 since I’m not the one who created it, feel free to begin another thread or ask Rama himself about it ; )

Cheers