Here is an incomplete list of unreal engine plugins that I like
Mesh Tool by Nate Mary is a general modeling tool and the best way to do level design in the editor, though UE5’s CubeGrid tool is really good too (but has fewer functions than this). You can use both together, both just output meshes. I asked Nate to add Hotspot Texturing like Source 2 has, and the madman did it. The pictures above are all of MeshTool stuff, all of it whipped up real quick.
HammUEr is a map importert that @turfster made for me like 6 years ago, which lets you import maps, models, textures, materials, etc, from the Source Engine, Quake 1-3 and Doom 3 engines, etc. It even handles pulling assets out of WADs, or exporting your textures from Unreal into Source Engine format so you can do your mapping in Hammer and import back in. It’s wild and Turfster’s great.
Nvidia’s DLSS plugin is ridiculously easy to set up. You just drop it in and bam, you’ve got DLSS like all the new AAA games, ain’t gotta do anything. AMD FSR is the same deal apparently but I haven’t used it.
Accumulation-Based Motion Blur by @TheEnbyWitch is a really good Accumulation Motion Blur plugin. What that is is basically the motion blur from Metal Gear Solid and games like that. You know the one. It’s really well-integrated, even with Sequencer, so you can use it for cutscenes and stuff as well as gameplay. Super worth it.
UIWS (Unified Interactive Water System) and UIPF (Unified Interactive Foliage System by @elliotgraytho are really good water and foliage interaction systems. UE5 has built-in ripply reactive water now, but depending on what you want to do this can be easier to work with. The foliage plugin is pretty unmatched, even if you only use the shader interaction (eg: the ball in #influxredux rolling through the grass flattens it). Used both of these in Weird West!
Voxel Plugin is an absolutely massive project that lets you make voxel-based games, whether that’s a Minecraft or a Teardown or a No Man’s Sky or a Valheim or what. Everything you’d want to be supported is in there, plus a bunch of stuff you never would have thought of. I always hear that Epic are super impressed with it too, and support seems great.
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