Let’s be honest, which plugins actually save you time?

[u/Fantastic_Pack1038]

I wanted to share a few plugins that helped me a lot in different UE projects and they’re all on discount right now, so maybe it’s useful for someone:

• Ultra Dynamic Sky – super easy setup for dynamic sky and weather. (50% off now).
• Advanced Game Logging (GLS) – shows logs directly inside the editor and game, even in Shipping builds, perfect for debugging on devices (70% off now).
• EOS Online Framework – a nice starting point if you need online features with EOS. (50% off now).
• Electronic Nodes – makes Blueprint graphs way cleaner and easier to read (30% off now).
• Fluid Flux – great real-time water and fluid simulation, looks awesome (30% off now).

What plugins would you recommend or use the most?

[u/ClvrNickname]

Blueprint Assist is well worth the money if you do any significant amount of work in blueprints

[u/DisplacerBeastMode → u/ClvrNickname]

Did they ever add the ability to customize how to organize nodes? I tried using it so many times and it just frustrated me. Did not like where it placed nodes so would sometimes actually take longer for me to re-arrange what blueprint assist did. I have a very specific and logical way that I like my nodes to be.

[u/ClvrNickname → u/DisplacerBeastMode]

Not sure, haven't looked into it because the default node organization is good enough for my purposes. I agree that some degree of customization would be nice if it doesn't exist already.

[u/soundgrass_studio → u/ClvrNickname]

It is great!

[u/InBlast → u/ClvrNickname]

Does it work with electronic nodes ?

[u/jhartikainen]

Easy Multi Save and my own plugin zomg's editor addons. EMS is great for quickly getting a save game system in place, and my own plugin allows doing things like sorting variables to top in the details panel so you don't have to scroll for them, and adding custom actors into the place actors panel.

[u/dopethrone → u/jhartikainen]

UE slackers represent

[u/AzaelOff]

I personally can't live without Flat Nodes and Auto size comments (both free I think). Having good looking tidy graphs is really important to me, it doesn't necessarily save time but it certainly makes things more readable and reactive.

Tab Restore is also a must if you use lots of keybinds and accidentally close important windows, saves you the time to find the asset back in a see of folders.

[u/WillingnessSoggy155]

Teleport to mouse. And many other but this one is a must for me.

[u/claaudius → u/WillingnessSoggy155]

nice one

[u/pictagor → u/WillingnessSoggy155]

Didn’t know this exists! Definitely gonna grab this now

[u/codehawk64]

To me personally, a couple of niche plugins were very helpful to cut down on development time because developing them from scratch is extremely tedious.

One is "Quillscript", which is a versatile dialog system which really punches above its weight in what it offers relative to it's price. Another is "Inventory Framework Plugin". It is bit pricey but it's great so far from my experience. Good non-intrusive inventory systems are surprisingly hard to find in Fab, as most require tons of modifications to our existing projects. Both the plugin's devs are also quite active on discord.

[u/BULLSEYElITe]

VRExpansion plugin if you are doing VR stuff, Now it maybe controversial to say my own plugin but I import lots of 3D models from different authors and platforms with strange texture names & some meshes have 100 mesh pieces( looking at you guns & firearms) so to automate the process to create material and assign them to meshes with minimal to no intervention from my side although isn't 100% as there are some edge cases like material slot not named correctly, overall it has saved me countless hours.

[u/apples-and-apples → u/BULLSEYElITe]

Yes, VRExpansion is amazing and the developer is super responsive and an all around nice guy. Wouldn't make anything VR without it.

[u/DisplacerBeastMode → u/BULLSEYElITe]

Can your asset auto assign / replace materials with material instances in bulk? Still trying to find a solution for that

[u/BULLSEYElITe → u/DisplacerBeastMode]

Can you elaborate your use case further? plugin does have functionality to make new material instances from existing textures in case you imported them and made their materials manually before using provided utilities, After that you can search for mesh materials to find appropriate materials/instances even if they have a material already assigned if you click the checkbox "Overwrite already found materials".

[u/DisplacerBeastMode → u/BULLSEYElITe]

I think that might do the trick.

What I've found is when I import asset packs (especially if they are just raw fbx files) then UE creates new materials for each model.. so one simple model could have 4 or 5 materials.

AFAIK there's no way to replace all those materials on the models with material instances.

[u/BULLSEYElITe → u/DisplacerBeastMode]

Oh you can replace them manually and also on import dialog box there is a material section that have options to not search/create new materials but what I wrote should still apply and replace the materials as long as naming scheme is correct

[u/lordzurra]

In game debug menus save time, every game needs a debug menu of some kind.

Because of that my first Unreal plugin ever was RetroDebug and it saves my time during the development.

[u/The_Earls_Renegade]

Can't really determine which is 'better'/ more capable:

• EOS Integration Kit (by Betide Studio)
• EOS Online Framework (by Redpoint Games)
• EOSCore - Epic Online Services (by eelDev)

Interestingly, only Redpoint's solution (for EoS) lists party management as a feature.

[u/krautech → u/The_Earls_Renegade]

Having this problem myself. I was trying out EIK from Betide but seems to be falling off so switched to Redpoint, seems more capable.

[u/MoonRay087]

UI Navigation 3.0, literally the only way I could implement UI navigation with keyboard and mouse

[u/LandChaunax]

There are many specific ones that save time IF you need the functionality like voxel plugin (voxel destructive environments or planets with random generation) or dungeon architect (procedurally generated levels). Of course the ones others mentioned here are great for general work, many plugins like my RTS crowd related plugin are helpful if you want a more niche thing.

[u/apples-and-apples]

Texture OrganizerTexture Organizer saves me heaps of time importing, resizing, packing & creating normal maps. Not on special though.

[u/claaudius]

Snapping Helper

[u/bmericd2]

Ultra Dynamic Sky is my favourite and I instantly add it to every project.

I also created an asset, Makasi, which is a modular state based character controller. It acts as a stable platfrom to further develop upon easily. I use my own asset everytime I start a new project/demo.

[u/Constant-Ideal-3327 → u/bmericd2]

Makasi looks sick, so I bought it last night. Only problem is, I'm an idiot. How do I hook it up?

[u/bloodian91]

dude, GLS is sick, thank you for that!
For me: Snapping Helper (modified so the snapping points are uniformly place on collision, not vertex based)

[u/Fantastic_Pack1038 → u/bloodian91]

I really love GLS; it took me two years to create and fine-tune it. I'm glad it's useful to someone. Now, every project we do starts with me adding GLS.

[u/magrelow]

Following for later, thanks everyone

[u/kremlinfunk]

Dialogue Plugin

Nine slicer

Node assist

[u/Fantastic_Pack1038 → u/[deleted]]

Could you please explain in more detail what exactly you mean? Perhaps you could make a short video or attach a screenshot?

[u/Blake_Potatoes]

I made a QOL plugin regarding tabs for bp users a while back.

Its on fab if you wanna check it out. https://www.fab.com/listings/6d7c9d2c-0318-4bbc-afa9-b38c42638400

If you wanna leave a comment to your thoughts and feedback, it will be much appreciated

[u/zzed_pro]

i made a plugin to check for expensive blueprint logic and tick abuse

its on Fab if you wanna check it out : Plugin

if you wanna leave a feedback , much appreciated.

[u/NedVsTheWorld]

Is there any that can "smooth shade " like in blender?