Removing plugin dependency

Hello there! I have a project that I’ve been working on for 2 years and especially at the beginning, when I started out with UE4, I did not really understand the C++ API, so I used plugins like Rama’s Victory Plugin to make my life easier and get access to powerful nodes. Upgrading from 4.16 to 4.2 was kind of a hassle, so I just made a new project and migrated everything (this was back in December). Now I am at a fully working state, but I cannot upgrade to 4.23 (I have to, due to the auto-instancing implemented in 4.22 - Huge performance improvement in my project!). I have a 2 plugins that I really need to use, but the other 3 are useless. The problem is that I cannot remove them because they have nodes spread out in a lot of blueprints. I can create those nodes on my own now in C++, and a lot of them were implemented in the engine, so that is not a problem, but I cannot find a tool that will show me all the nodes that a plugin created in my project, so I can remove them before I deactivate the plugin and break everything. After that, I can easily upgrade and enjoy my almost plugin-less life. Any ideas on how to get rid of plugins basically?

Remember kids, don’t fill your project with plugins! It will also decrease your editor performance (same with assets).

There is a probably a better way to do this, but could you possibly make a backup then duplicate your project. In the duplicate delete the plugins, then scour your blueprints for the errors/dead nodes to find all the locations? Write them all down, build your 4.23 project, migrate and re set everything up using the list? It is a bit of a hassle but it should be possible and if you backup along the way, only downside is time.

Thanks for the advice on plugins too, I’ve become addicted to them. Good information to keep in mind when using them.

Yeah, I thought that I would have to do it the “boring” way. Anyway, I got addicted to plugins the same way as you, and now I am in dependency-hell haha. If you can remove stuff, do it early on.

Were you already familiar with C++ or how did you learn. I am also finding that being dependent on plugins in a late-stage project is a hassle and I’d love to get into writing my own C++ classes. How did you learn? Are there any good resources to learn UE4 specific C++ stuff?

Docs, Forums and Youtube are the best sources