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This documentation is provided with the HEAT environment and describes this HEAT instance.
DevelopersHEAT CaptureCapture pluginsHCP UnrealInstall HCP Unreal

Install HCP Unreal

Before you start

  • Unreal Engine 5.7 (Win64) installed.
  • A C++ Unreal project - hcp_unreal_plugin requires a C++ project, since Unreal only compiles plugin code when the host project itself has a C++ target.
  • HEAT Capture running and reachable from the Unreal workstation.

VRAI distributes HCP Unreal to customers as a built plugin package (produced by the repository’s own Package-Plugin.ps1, using Unreal’s BuildPlugin packaging step); it is not published as a GitHub release. The package contains only hcp_unreal_plugin - the runtime plugin, with all of its generated components already baked in. hcp_codegen_plugin (the editor-only code generator) is not part of the customer package; it is how VRAI regenerates the runtime plugin’s components when HEAT ProtoLib changes, and there is nothing for a customer to generate after install.

Install the supplied package

  1. Close the Unreal Editor if it is running.

  2. Obtain the HCP Unreal plugin package from VRAI for the hcp-unreal version you are deploying.

  3. Copy the packaged hcp_unreal_plugin folder into your project’s Plugins/ directory (create the directory if it doesn’t exist):

    YourProject/
├── Plugins/
│   └── hcp_unreal_plugin/
└── YourProject.uproject

  4. Open YourProject.uproject in a text editor and add the plugin to its Plugins array:

    "Plugins": [
  { "Name": "hcp_unreal_plugin", "Enabled": true }
]

  5. Right-click YourProject.uproject and select Generate Visual Studio project files, then open the project in Unreal Editor.

  6. Configure the server hostname and port - see Configure.

Verify the install

  1. Press Play in the editor.

  2. Open Window → Developer Tools → Output Log and filter for LogHEATCapture.

  3. Call StartSession() (see Data produced for how). With HEAT Capture running and a user signed in, confirm you see:

    HEAT Capture subsystem initialized (target <hostname>:<port>)
Started a new HEAT Capture session
WebSocket connected

    Started a new HEAT Capture session may instead read Adopted existing HEAT Capture session if one was already active - both are success.

⚠️

Both lines only appear after StartSession() succeeds - the WebSocket no longer connects independently at level start. If you see neither, check Troubleshooting; a HEAT Capture instance that is unreachable or has no signed-in user produces repeated retry log lines instead, not a single failure.

Build from source

Only needed for development against hcp-unreal itself, not for deploying the VRAI-supplied package above. Building from source requires both plugins - hcp_codegen_plugin is what produces the runtime plugin’s generated components.

  1. Copy both hcp_unreal_plugin and hcp_codegen_plugin into your project’s Plugins/ directory, and add both to the .uproject file’s Plugins array.

  2. Right-click the .uproject file and select Generate Visual Studio project files.

  3. In Visual Studio, build the solution (Build → Rebuild Solution).

  4. Open the project in Unreal Editor - it compiles the plugins on first launch.

Uninstall

Remove the hcp_unreal_plugin folder (and hcp_codegen_plugin, if present) from the project’s Plugins/ directory, and remove their entries from the .uproject file’s Plugins array. No credentials or session data are stored outside the plugin folder itself; settings live in the project’s own Config/DefaultGame.ini, under the [/Script/hcp_unreal_plugin.HEATSettings] section.

HEAT Capture team. Last updated 2 October 2026.

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