Working with trueSKY from GitHub

Full Integration with Custom Unreal Source Code

Our unreal plugin is now per-project for trueSKY 4.4, and as such requires no changes to the Unreal Source Code. You can install this to your custom Unreal source versions and build against it without issue. If an issue does occur please get in touch.

Most of the information below is not revelent anymore but has been left for compatibility purposes.

1: Access to Repository

  1. Make sure you have created a Simul account. If not, register an account now.

  2. On your Account Page, there is a GitHub Username section. Input your GitHub Username and select Request Access. This needs to be the same username connected to your Unreal Engine account at https://www.unrealengine.com/account/connected

  3. You will receive an email from github.com with an invitation to join the Simul UnrealEngine group. Click the link in the email and accept the invitation.

  4. You should now have access to our Unreal Repo at https://github.com/simul/UnrealEngine.

  5. Fork or clone our Unreal Repository. If you are not sure how to do this, GitHub has helpful information. Alternatively, if you are using a different Unreal codebase, pull changes from the Simul fork, and merge.

2: Setup

  1. Follow the Unreal ReadME (in the root UnrealEngine directory), making sure you:

    • Run Setup.bat to download all complementary Unreal dependencies.

    • Run GenerateProjectFiles.bat from the Unreal root directory; this will generate projects and the solution file (Unreal.sln).

  2. The trueSKY binary libraries are not kept in the repository. This is because multiple trueSKY versions can work with the same Unreal version. So, to get the binary libraries, you can either:

    • Run the batch file located in Engine/Plugins/TrueSkyPlugin/GetBinaries.bat, passing in the required trueSKY version as a parameter, for example as: GetBinaries.bat 4.2.

    • Or, go to our downloads page and get the appropriate TrueSkyUnrealBinaries installer. Make sure to choose the correct Unreal Engine install directory.

  3. In both cases this will auto-extract (upon your permission) trueSKY binaries (DLLs/LIBs) into [Unreal]/Engine/Binaries/ThirdParty/Simul. Binaries are then put into their platform-respective paths, while the trueSKY shader files will go into your TrueSkyPlugin directory under the shaderbin subfolder (these are also separated based on platform).

  4. Use Unreal.sln to open the project in Visual Studio.The UE4 project contains the “TrueSkyPlugin” folder in Engine/Unreal/Plugins (whether you installed via the installer or downloaded the source from GitHub). There are two trueSKY modules in the Unreal project – TrueSkyPlugin and TrueSkyEditorPlugin. TrueSkyEditorPlugin is only built alongside an editor build of UE4.

  5. Build the Unreal project in the “Development Editor” configuration. Once this has compiled trueSKY will be present in your Unreal build.