Introduction
This document describes how to build a plugin to be compatible with Aximmetry DE and how to install it either as an engine plugin or as a project plugin.
NOTE: Building the plugin this way is only necessary if the source code of the plugin will not be published. Plugins that contain source code can be published as a regular Unreal plugin and users can install it by following the instructions at How to Install Third-Party Code Plugins for Unreal Editor for Aximmetry.
Building with Unreal Engine compiled from source
Prerequisites:
- Unreal Engine compiled from the release branch source code in any configuration (e.g. Development Editor). (This is to make sure UnrealBuildTool is built.)
The engine version of the source must be the same as the targeted engine version of Unreal Editor for Aximmetry. Only the first two components of the version number are relevant (e.g. 5.1).
- Visual Studio:
- "Game Development with C++" workload
- Windows SDK 10.0.19041.0
- The plugin you want to build.
Steps:
1. Download this package and unzip it. The extracted "BuildPluginForAximmetryDE.bat" and "UnrealCooked.Target.cs" files are necessary for the next steps.
2. Copy "BuildPluginForAximmetryDE.bat" and "UnrealCooked.Target.cs" to the "UnrealEngine\Engine\Source" directory.
3. Copy the plugin to be built from the development location to any other directory. Use this copy for the next steps. (This is to avoid conflicts with the regular development process.)
4. Run the build script in the Command Prompt: "BuildPluginForAximmetryDE.bat {UnrealVersion} {PluginPath}"
{UnrealVersion}: The targeted engine version of Unreal Editor for Aximmetry (e.g. 5.1).
{PluginPath}: Full path to the .uplugin file of the plugin to be built. If the path includes spaces, the path must be quoted.
5. Remove the source and other files not intended for release (e.g. the "Intermediate" folder) and publish the plugin.
Installing the plugin
To install it as an engine plugin: Copy the plugin to the "Engine\Plugins" directory of Unreal Editor for Aximmetry and enable it after (re)starting the editor.
To install it as a project plugin: Copy the plugin to the "Plugins" directory of the project.
In both cases, the plugin may be placed into any subfolder inside the "Plugins" directory.
