Hello!

We are interested in learning which versions of UE4 people are using. This could help us prioritize development / support of certain UE4 branches (at the moment we support 4.6 and 4.7 and are planning to support 4.8). But as Epic keeps changing some of the UE4 API it becomes harder for us to support multiple versions and backport changes.

So we'd like to ask:

Which versions are you interested in?
Do you typically migrate to a newer version of UE4 right away?
Do people use preview versions?
Are any of you locked to a specific older UE4 version?

Thank you very much!

I typically jump from version to version early on because I like to experiment with the new features. I don't work on big projects so I have no reason not to upgrade my engine version. I don't bother much with the preview versions though, I like to stick to the full releases.

4.8 is a big release, and it deprecates a lot of old code at the same time. So I doubt it and a lot of other plugins will compile without a fair number of changes. But hopefully things, at least API wise, start stabilizing after 4.8.

I think you guys should strive to support each major revision like 4.8, 4.9 etc, but not worry so much about the minor releases in between. Most of the time the source code should still compile on newer minor versions.

Forget about preview versions.

I think that even for major versions you could stick to supporting every second version and focus on polishing HEngine features, if it would help you manage resources better. First year (or even two) of HEngine for UE4 should priority HEngine expansion and polishing, not sticking to every UE4 version.

Maybe versions between every second UE4 treat as Preview version of new things in HEngine. So for example:

- 4.8 will have full HEngine support
- 4.9 will have only preview support of new things that are coming to HEngine, that means that some things may not work as expected or at all
- 5.0 will have full HEngine support
- 5.1 will have only preview support of new things that are coming to HEngine, that means that some things may not work as expected or at all

and so on…

We're always running the latest version and typically run the preview versions once they're stable. Each dot release of Unreal Engine has a lot of good features, just like the dot releases of Houdini (and Houdini Engine).

We always keep a copy of latest master branch build for testing new features and we working on latest 4.8 branch once it's in preview stage. (We pull latest commits from 4.8 branch daily to ensure always get the latest bug fixes)

I think Houdini Engine should always provide the integration for preview build, since the api of preview build is stable enough to port over.

BTW, 4.8 is just released.

4.8 is the first version to support plugins downloading from the store. With this change, they are starting to flesh out how they plan to distribute these plugins, and their requirement for sellers.

They are suggesting as a best practice a layer that interfaces with the UE and your specific plugin, in this case, Houdini Engine. They would like to have the source code to this layer, at minimum, to ensure long term support for those that buy the plugin to have the ability to modify it for later versions of the Engine.

Of course, with Houdini, I don't think that is such a big issue, but it would be nice to be able to include support for highly customized versions of the Engines, rather than just the stock engines.

There are a lot of developers that back port needed functionality when they get close to release, rather than upgrade the engine. They back
port both features, and fixes. And they run the risk of plugins not working anymore in this situation.

I personally just stick with the stock engine for small projects, but create custom engines from master for testing things such as Hairworks. (By the way, it would be great to be able to turn Houdini Fur into Hairworks inside Houdini, hint hint.)

For now, since we're mostly experimenting, and trying to get the hold of the whole UE4/Houdini Engine thing, we're using the latest version.
Which would be 4.9 if HEngine would be available for it

It's coming.

Hi Damian, do you have an ETA on the 4.9 build? I just updated today without realising there was no current 4.9 support and I'd like to avoid reverting back if possible, but if it will be more than a couple of days away I can go back down a version.

Thanks,
Gary

Yea, when do we get 4.9?

NOW! As in, 15.0.233.

So now the question is, when can we get Houdini 15??

Haha, ya, forgot I see more builds than are publicly available.

I don't know how much of a secret it so to be safe I'm just going to say “sooner rather than later”.

I just saw that. Now I just need my 15.0 indie key.