# Single asset cooking

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/single-asset-cooking/459122>\
**Category:** Platform & Builds\
**Tags:** Cooking, unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [December 4, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/single-asset-cooking/459122 "2019-12-04T13:14:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MrMcKvarz](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@MrMcKvarz](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MrMcKvarz)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/single-asset-cooking/459122/1 "2019-12-04T13:14:55Z")

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I know that unreal doesn’t support this feature right now but it would be great if you can point me to a place to start. I only need this to work for uobject/aactor derived blueprints.

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**Author:** ![TinyLabGo](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/tinylabgo/32/1053544_2.png) [@TinyLabGo](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/TinyLabGo)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/single-asset-cooking/459122/2 "2026-07-02T13:30:50Z")

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Cooking a single asset in C++ is essentially calling `SavePackage` with a specific cook context. To build this custom pipeline, you need to:

1. Call `BeginCacheForCookedPlatformData` on the asset for your target platform.

2. Wait for all asynchronous shader compilations and UE5 `AssetCompile` tasks to finish.

3. Call `SavePackage` using the correct `PackageWriter` to serialize the cooked data.

4. **Finally, invoke `UnrealPak`** to compress and package those saved files into an actual `.pak` or `IoStore` (`.utoc`/`.ucas`) container so the engine can mount it at runtime.

If you don’t want to build and maintain this boilerplate C++ pipeline just to update a live game, I developed a plugin called **Runtime Details** that handles this exact low-level process under the hood.

Our **Asset Hot Update** feature automatically runs this full cook pipeline for the specific asset you select, packages it, and pushes it directly to your running Packaged Build over the network.

> **[Runtime Details - Remote Inspect, Debug & Hot Update for Packaged Builds](https://www.fab.com/listings/d79875b6-ae10-4e77-9621-14b7ad957a76)**
>
> Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSqwU8sbczQo1e00cj1814WUMoAeGSjYZ(For any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. I'm always happy to help!)Support: Join our \[Discord\] https://discord.gg/HvXDQCFkya Email:...

[![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/9/a/1/9a103aaad8848dcfb3b7cc9251abae325d71d19b.jpeg "How to Hot Update Assets in Packaged Builds | Unreal Engine | Runtime Details v1.3 Update") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0OLLLdQPK0)
