Unreal Engine Plugin

We have an available plugin for Unreal projects that allows you to prepare your game server for deployment automatically. This makes it possible to test your game with a remote, deployed server within minutes while requiring only minimal configuration!

The plugin takes care of the following steps:

• Create an app on our platform

• Package your game server for Linux

• Build the container

• Push the game server container to your private registry

• Create a new app version for the pushed container

This is a great alternative to CICD pipelines that can make your server development process much faster and easier and lets you focus on your game while we handle the boring parts.

Heads up! Free Tier deployments have a 1-hour runtime limit. If you need longer deployment, consider upgrading to the Pay-as-you-go Tier for flexible usage. View Tiers

To host the Epic Lyra Starter Game template, please upgrade to pay as you go tier. This sample requires 1.5 vCPU, whereas Free Tier's limit is 1 vCPU.

Prerequisites

For the plugin to work correctly, a few things need to be done, most of which would need to be done anyway to package a game server for production.

• In order for the plugin to create a dedicated server image, you will need to have an Unreal Engine built from source,

  • we highly recommend to use a Solid State Drive (SSD) to speed up your build process (from ~12+ hours to ~2+ hours),

  • we also recommend using a specific release branch instead of main to ensure you work with a stable version of Unreal Engine.

• You will need to install the Unreal Cross-Compiling Toolchain that matches your Unreal Engine version to be able to package your game server for Linux. Follow the instructions on the linked page, and make sure to restart your computer after the installation. If everything goes well, you should be able to build your game server for Linux from the editor manually.

• Install Docker on your machine. Please ensure Docker is running prior to building your server using the Edgegap Unreal Engine Plugin. Refer to our documentation on Docker if you want to know more about it, but you won't be using it manually when using the plugin.

• You must have an API token. See this page if you don't have one already. We recommend creating a dedicated API token for the plugin.

• You will need access to our container repository. See the documentation on our container registry for more information.

Installing the plugin

1. First, download the plugin from our GitHub. You may see all available plugin versions inside the src folder.

2. To install our plugin, simply copy the appropriate Edgegap folder for your Unreal Engine version to your plugins folder, located at the root of your project.

3. After launching the editor, open the Edit > Plugins menu, and you should see the Edgegap plugin under the other section. Make sure the plugin is enabled.

If you receive an error stating The following modules are missing or built with a different engine version: Edgegap, UCMDHelper please follow this unofficial guide to rebuild the Edgegap plugin for your custom Unreal Engine version.

Configuration

Open the Edit > Project Settings menu, and scroll all the way down to the Plugins category to find the Edgegap section.

There, you will need to fill in some information before you can use the plugin:

General information

Field	Description
API Token	The API token to use for the plugin. Make sure to include the token keyword at the start of it.

When you input your token, make sure to press enter to save it correctly in the plugin. Otherwise, the plugin may erase it, making it impossible to perform other operations.

Application Info

Field	Description
Application name	The name you want to give to the application for your game server within the platform.
Image path	You can select an icon to use for your game server app within the platform. There is a maximum file size of 200KB.

After entering the information above, use the Create Application button to create the app on our platform. You should then be able to see the App on the Dashboard.

Version

Field	Description
Version Name	The name to give to your application version within the platform. This will allow you to find your version easily.

Container

Field	Description
Registry	The host of the container registry to use for your game serve container.
Image Repository	The repository to use within the provided registry for your container. It should be based on the following template: {registry-project-name}/{image-name}
Tag	The image tag for your container. This acts as the "version" of the container.
Private Registry Username	The username used to push images to your private registry.
Private Regitry Token	The password used to push images to your private registry.

When you have filled in all the required information and created your app using the button above, use the Build & Push button to start the packaging process. This will create a new version for your application.

Current Deployments

This section displays your current deployments on our platform.

Use the Deploy Application button after creating at least one version to deploy an instance of the latest version of your game server on our platform and the Refresh button to update the list.

You will be able to see the host, port, and status of your active deployments. You will also be able to stop an active deployment from there.

Standard workflow

1. Complete the initial configuration and use the button to create your application.

2. Set up a working game server.

3. Use the Build & Push button to package and push your game server container.

4. Using the Deploy Application button, deploy an instance of your game server on our platform.

5. Connect to the deployed game server using the host and port shown in the plugin window.