mod.io Unreal Engine Plugin

Welcome to the mod.io Unreal Engine plugin repository. It allows game developers to host and automatically install user-created mods in their Unreal Engine games. It provides a UI for mod discovery, installation and collection management, and a C++ and Blueprint interface around the mod.io SDK, which connects to the mod.io REST API.

Engine & Platform Compatability

The mod.io plugin is generally maintained to support the 3 most recent versions of Unreal Engine. If you are using an older version of the engine, you can access the last supported release of the engine from the Releases page.

Engine compatability

Engine Version	Last Release
UE4.26	2023.11
UE4.27	2023.11
UE5.0	2023.11
UE5.1	2024.6
UE5.2	Current
UE5.3	Current
UE5.4	Current

Platform compatability

The mod.io plugin supports Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS and Android as part of the public release.

For access to Windows (GDK), XBox, Playstation 4, Playstation 5 or Switch, please (Contact Us).

Features

• C++ and Blueprint support

• Permissive MIT/BSL-license

• Async delegate-based interface

• Non-blocking IO

• Automatic downloads and updates

• Email / Steam / EGS / Consoles / Custom SSO authentication

• Mod Browsing / Filtering

Installation

Adding plugin files to your project

As a git submodule

1. Add this repository as a submodule to your repository in your project’s Plugins/Modio directory

   In the directory with your .uproject file: git submodule add https://github.com/modio/modio-ue Plugins/Modio

2. Initialize our submodules with git submodule update --init --recursive

In a non-git project, or without submodules

1. Grab the latest release zip from the Releases section on this page, and extract the contents to your project’s Plugins/Modio directory

Note	The automatically generated zips in on the release page, or the 'Code' dropdown here, will not work! They do not contain our submodule dependencies.

Enabling the plugin

Start the editor, then enable the plugin in the Unreal Engine settings:

Once this is done, you can configure the plugin and get started.

Plugin Configuration

The plugin requires some configuration information to behave correctly. You can access the configuration settings in the Project Settings window:

The settings have the following parameters:

Game Id	Your mod.io-provided Game Id for the target environment
API Key	Your mod.io-provided API key for the target environment
Environment	Your current environment, Live or Test
Log Level	The default logging level to use. Messages with a lower log level will be silently discarded.
Portal	The default portal to use. This usually corresponds to the store your game will be being distributed through.
Use Background Thread	Run the mod.io plugin on a managed background thread.

Note	The Test environment is available for usage in limited circumstances. All games should be setup on the Live environment. If you require access to Test, please contact us.

Setting up your game

Before release, you will be able to setup a "hidden" Live environment that will allow you to perform QA against the production environment before release, without exposing your title to the public. At this stage, only selected accounts are able to see your game page, and mods that are uploaded for your title. Once you are ready, you can change the state from "hidden" to "public" to make a full release of your game’s modding capabilities.

Further reading

To begin using the Plugin, either from Blueprint or from C++, please read our Getting Started Guide for a detailed explanation of initialization and usage.

• SDK initialization and event loop

• Authentication

• Mod Browsing

• Mod Subscription Management

• Content Creation & Upload Tool

User Interface

mod.io also provides a separate plugin for building an in-game UI. This includes a template for mod browsing, searching, collection management etc, as well as a set of components for customizing or building your own in-game UI. You can download that from the Component UI Repository.

Profiling

The mod.io SDK ships with some profiling features that are integrated into Unreal’s stat commands. You can read more about enabling profiling here.

Sample Projects

You can find a sample project demonstrating basic mod.io functionality here.

Game studios and Publishers

If you need assistance with 1st party approvals, or require a private, white-label UGC solution. Contact us to discuss.

Contributions Welcome

Our Unreal Engine plugin is public and open source. Game developers are welcome to utilize it directly, to add support for mods in their games, or fork it for their games customized use. Want to make changes to our plugin? Submit a pull request with your recommended changes to be reviewed.

Other Repositories

Our aim with mod.io, is to provide an open modding API. You are welcome to view, fork and contribute to our other codebases in use.