Should Marketplace Content be added directly to my game project, or use migrate instead?

[Eludium]

I’m not exactly sure if this is an age old debate or not. Some sources I read have suggested that Marketplace content should always be added to a separate “container” project and only the files you need from there should be migrated to your game project. Most people I’ve seen working with Unreal, however, simply download the Marketplace content directly into their game project.

The sources which advise against placing that content into your game project often mention the problem of performance: they claim “bloating” your Content folder with files will kill your performance inside the editor. But I’m not sure if this is legit or a myth… I’ve never seen Epic address this problem or advise using the migrate option exclusively, so I’m taking those sources with a grain of salt. They were also bringing up the problem of huge shader compilation when adding an entire Marketplace asset, which, to my knowledge, should not be a serious problem, as the engine starts working normally again after all of the Asset shaders are compiled.

So what does the Unreal Engine community think? Do you guys add Marketplace content to your game, using the “Add to Project” system? If not, and you migrate from a container project instead, then what is your reason for doing so? I would love to hear all your different opinions on this matter, as I think it’s something that should be brought to light in the event that performance indeed has a role in all this.

[ClockworkOcean]

Most of the time, you can add it directly, sometimes you’re forced to migrate it, because the downloaded asset is another project.

Naturally, it will make your project bigger, and when you come to package it, you won’t want to include everything. But it won’t slow the editor down.

[Eludium]

Hi @ClockworkOcean , thanks for the reply. This is indeed how I’m managing my Marketplace assets at the moment. For everything that is not a project on its own, I tend to simply add it to my active project. However, I was wondering if there is any kind of bad practice in doing this? As my OP stated, I’ve seen a couple of individuals suggesting we don’t add entire packs to our main project because they may “break” the editor. They suggest we always use the Migrate functionality, and have some sort of template empty projects that we use solely for storing Marketplace stuff inside them (stuff that is later taken piece by piece and migrated to our main project).

[ClockworkOcean]

No, they do not break the editor