Disclaimer!

This page assumes you have already imported and linked all the assets in your project, and you are ready to create the final .pak file. Make sure all your assets in unreal editor are saved before continuing!

Changing How UE4 Packages Files

• Before we can package our project, we need to change some settings in the Unreal Engine Editor.
• With your project open in the editor, find the _**Settings **_drop-down menu in the main window and select Project Settings...

• This will open a new window where you will navigate to the Packaging tab and find the Use Pak File setting. By default, this item is checked, we will uncheck this box so that it is blank.

• Now we can close out of that sub-window, and package our project from the main window.

Packaging Assets

• From the File drop-down menu of the main window, mouse over Package Project and then Windows to open the final menu, and select Windows (64-bit)

• A folder dialog will pop up for you to select the location of where you want the packaged files. We recommend creating a new folder to keep these files separate. Remember this location for a future step.
• After pressing OK at the folder dialog, Unreal Engine will begin packaging your project files into .uassets. A popup will be displayed in the lower-right of the window while this is happening. Do not make changes to the project until this is complete.

• When the process is complete, a new popup will be displayed in place of the old one telling you packaging is complete.

Prepping Folders for the .pak

• Create a new folder somewhere safe and separate, name it with the name you want your .pak file to be, for example, MyIronPipeMod.
• Inside this folder, create a new folder named CodeVein.

• Now, navigate to the folder you selected for packaging from the previous step in your file browser.
• Unreal Engine Editor will have generated a WindowsNoEditor folder here, and several folders and files inside that. *One of the folders there has the same name as your Unreal Engine project, and contains a Content folder.
• Copy that Content folder from the project folder to inside the CodeVein folder you just created elsewhere.

• Now, here you will have to make note of the files you actually want changed. The Content folder you just copied over has all of the files in your unreal project, the important ones, and the dummy-placeholder-reference ones.
• Unless you want to overwrite the game's version of a file with a non functional dummy one, you will need to delete those files from your Content folder.
• Say you have a mod that only changes something's model, but doesn't change the materials or textures. You will want to delete everything from the Content folder except for that model so nothing else gets replaced. That means delete all the materials, material instances, skeletons, textures, and physics assets that may be in those folders. They've done their job, Unreal Engine Editor created all the linking when you packaged the files, and they are no longer needed and will cause problems if left.
• A single file may have turned into two or three files with different extensions. Treat them as if they were one file. If you want to keep SK_IronPipe and it turned into SK_IronPipe.uasset and SK_IronPipe.uexp, keep both files.
• Seriously, delete anything you don't want replaced.

Creating the .pak

• For the final step, you will need unrealpak-bundle.zip, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
• Unpack the unrealpak-bundle.zip archive you downloaded anywhere you want.
• Now, drag the folder you created with your mod name onto Create-Pak.bat.

• A .pak file with the same name as your folder will be created. This final .pak is your mod.