Installation

Craftwright is a C++ plugin for Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.8. It has three runtime modules (Win64, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS) and an editor module (Win64, Mac and Linux editor).

Module	Type	What it contains
TACraftwright	Runtime	Items, recipes, recipe books, the crafter, station and inventory components, conditions, effects, the UI base classes and the save structs
TACraftwrightGAS	Runtime	The optional Gameplay Ability System conditions, effects, crafter and station
TACraftwrightExamples	Runtime	The example player controller, character, HUD, stations, chest and resource nodes
TACraftwrightEditor	Editor	The panel, the checks, Data Validation, import and export, the commandlet and the Python API

Note

Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.2 can’t change a property’s replication per component (that needs 5.3), so there Owner Only of the built-in inventory comes from the class default: Craftwright Player Inventory, or your own subclass with it ticked. Ticking it on a single component takes effect from 5.3. See Multiplayer.

Install from Fab

1. Open ta Craftwright on Fab, choose the license that applies to you (Personal or Professional) and add it to your library.

2. In the Epic Games Launcher, open Fab Library, find ta Craftwright and click Install to Engine for each engine version you use (5.0 to 5.8).

3. Open your project, go to Edit > Plugins, search for Craftwright and enable ta Craftwright. Restart the editor when prompted.

4. Open Tools > ta Craftwright (in the tridiART section of the Tools menu) to check that the editor tools are there.

Installed this way, the plugin lives in the engine and is available to every project. To keep it with one project (for example so the whole team gets it from source control, or to change its source), install it manually instead.

Install manually

1. Close the Unreal Editor.

2. Copy the TACraftwright folder into your project’s Plugins folder. Create the Plugins folder next to your .uproject file if it doesn’t exist yet. The result should look like this:

   MyGame/
     MyGame.uproject
     Plugins/
       TACraftwright/
         TACraftwright.uplugin
         Config/
         Content/
         Docs/
         Resources/
         Source/

3. Open the project. If the plugin hasn’t been compiled for your engine version yet, see Build from source below.

4. Open Edit > Plugins, search for Craftwright and make sure ta Craftwright is enabled. If you had to enable it, restart the editor when prompted.

5. Open Tools > ta Craftwright (in the tridiART section of the Tools menu) to check that the editor tools are there.

Plugins it enables

Craftwright enables two engine plugins:

Plugin	Why
Gameplay Abilities	Used by the optional TACraftwrightGAS module. Crafting works without GAS; nothing changes in your project unless you use the GAS classes.
Data Validation	Lets the recipe checks run in Validate Assets and validate on save. See Data Validation.

Build from source

The plugin ships with its full C++ source code. If the copy you installed doesn’t contain compiled binaries for your engine version, the plugin has to be built:

• C++ projects: build the project in your IDE (for example Visual Studio 2022 on Windows), or let the editor rebuild the missing modules when it asks on startup.

• Blueprint-only projects: the editor can’t compile plugin code for you. Either add a C++ class to the project (which turns it into a C++ project) and build it, or build the plugin once with Unreal Automation Tool and copy the packaged result into your Plugins folder:

  "C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.6\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat" BuildPlugin -Plugin="C:\Path\TACraftwright\TACraftwright.uplugin" -Package="C:\Build\TACraftwright" -TargetPlatforms=Win64

  Use the RunUAT script of the engine version you want to build for, and add the platforms you ship on to -TargetPlatforms (separated by +).

To use Craftwright’s classes from your own C++ code, add "TACraftwright" (and "TACraftwrightGAS" for the GAS classes) to the dependencies in your module’s .Build.cs.

The example map

The plugin’s content folder holds a playable example. To see plugin content in the Content Browser, turn on Settings > Show Plugin Content in the Content Browser.

1. Open /TACraftwright/Examples/Maps/L_CraftwrightExample.

2. Click Play.

Keyboard and mouse	Gamepad	Action
W A S D	Left stick	Move
Mouse	Right stick	Look
Space		Jump
E	A	Use what you look at: open a station’s crafting menu, gather from a resource node or take everything from a chest
Tab	Y	Open or close the hand-crafting menu
Esc	B	Close the menu

In the menu, the keyboard and the gamepad select, count, craft, switch category tabs, track and salvage; see Keyboard and gamepad.

The top left of the screen lists your inventory, the top right shows recent messages (“Made 4 × Stick”, “New recipe: Iron Sword”), the bottom center shows what E does for the thing you look at, and the bottom lists the controls. The HUD tracker shows the recipes you track with the menu’s Track button and what is still missing for them.

What is in the map

Thing	What it shows
Workbench	A station without fuel: Planks (10 % lucky crafts), Hammer, Iron Nails (the hammer is a tool), Pickaxe (crafting it teaches the Iron Sword). Hammers and Pickaxes can be salvaged here.
Forge	A station with fuel (Coal 12 s, Oak Log 5 s, Pine Log 4 s per item) and 3 Coal in its storage. Its 500 cm pull radius reaches the Ore Chest, so Iron Ingots (15 % lucky crafts) use ore from the chest. Also crafts the Iron Sword once learned, and salvages it.
Campfire	A station with fuel (Pine Log 6 s, Oak Log 8 s) and 3 Pine Logs in its storage: Cooked Meat, with a 10 % chance to burn
Ore Chest	A shared chest with 16 Iron Ore and 6 Coal (Share With Nearby Crafting on)
Oak Tree, Pine Tree, Iron Vein, Fiber Bush	Resource nodes: E gives 2 Oak Logs, 2 Pine Logs, 2 Iron Ore or 3 Plant Fiber
Hand crafting (Tab)	Sticks (any wood, a tag ingredient), Rope (discovered), Torch (instant)

You start with 8 Oak Logs, 4 Pine Logs, 9 Plant Fiber, 3 Raw Meat and 2 Coal. Because you carry Plant Fiber, the Rope recipe is discovered as soon as the game starts. See Items, recipes and books for every example recipe.

The example player keeps the Craftwright Crafter and a 30-slot Craftwright Player Inventory (owner-only) on its Player Controller. Its crafter has a Nearby Container Radius of 600 cm, so hand crafting near the Ore Chest can use its contents too.

The example content uses gameplay tags under Craftwright.Example, which the TACraftwrightExamples module registers from the plugin’s Config/Tags folder. Your own tags can be anything.

Example asset	Where
Items, icons	/TACraftwright/Examples/Items, /TACraftwright/Examples/Icons
Recipes and Book_Example	/TACraftwright/Examples/Recipes
Crafting menu widgets	/TACraftwright/Examples/UI (WBP_CraftingMenu, WBP_CraftingRecipeEntry, WBP_CraftingStack, WBP_CraftingOutput, WBP_CraftingJob, WBP_CraftingCategoryTab, WBP_CraftingKeyHint)
HUD tracker widgets	/TACraftwright/Examples/UI (WBP_CraftingTracker, WBP_CraftingTrackedRecipe, WBP_CraftingTrackerLine)
Game mode and player controller	/TACraftwright/Examples/Blueprints (BP_ExampleGameMode, BP_ExamplePlayerController)

Removing the examples from a shipped game

The example content and the TACraftwrightExamples module are only there to learn from. To leave them out of your game:

1. If you use the example widgets or icons, duplicate them into your project’s own Content folder first, and point your copies at each other (the menu’s Recipe Entry Class, Stack Class, Output Stack Class, Job Entry Class, Category Tab Class and Key Hint Class, and the tracker’s Tracked Recipe Class and Stack Class).

2. Close the editor.

3. Delete the plugin’s Content/Examples folder.

4. Open TACraftwright.uplugin in a text editor and remove the TACraftwrightExamples entry from the Modules list. You can also delete Source/TACraftwrightExamples.

5. Open the project and rebuild if asked.

Caution

The Craftwright.Example gameplay tags are registered by the examples module. After you remove it, recipes and items that still use those tags lose them. Use your own tags (Project Settings > Gameplay Tags) for your content.

Updating and removing

To update, close the editor and replace the TACraftwright folder with the new version. Your items, recipes and books are assets in your project, and your editor settings are in Config/DefaultEditor.ini, so they are kept.

To remove the plugin, close the editor and delete the TACraftwright folder. Your Craftwright items, recipes and books and every Blueprint with a Craftwright component need the plugin’s classes, so remove or replace them first. Reports are files, by default in Saved/Craftwright/Reports, that you can delete.