Skip to content

Install

Requirements

  • Unreal Engine 5.7+, Windows 64-bit
  • The Niagara and Geometry Cache plugins, both of which ship with the engine and are enabled as dependencies of this one. Niagara carries the particle playback Data Interface; Geometry Cache is the source an Alembic-based bake reads.

Everything runs in the editor, on simulations you already have. There is no round-trip through an external DCC, nothing to export or re-import, and no third-party tool in the pipeline.

What each engine plugin is for

Geometry Cache is read only at bake time, as the source an Alembic bake samples — no playback code touches it. Niagara carries the particle playback Data Interface, so Particle bakes need it at runtime too.

Which plugin to install

There are two, and you install one of them:

Install this
You bake VAT assets Ternary VertexCache Baker (paid)
You only play back assets someone else baked Ternary VertexCache (free)

The Baker is self-contained — it already includes the playback runtime.

Do not install both

Both plugins provide the same runtime modules. With both enabled, the project fails to build with a duplicate-module error. If you own the Baker, you do not need the free plugin as well.

Installing

From Fab — install to the engine from your Epic library, then enable Ternary VertexCache Baker in Edit ▸ Plugins and restart.

Manual — copy the TernaryVertexCacheBaker folder into either:

  • your engine's plugin folder, Engine/Plugins/Marketplace/ — where a Fab install puts it, and where it is available to every project on that engine; or
  • your project's Plugins/ folder (create it if needed), for one project only.

Then enable it in Edit ▸ Plugins and restart.

A manual copy still needs a seat

Copying the folder installs the files; it does not license them. The Baker asks the Epic Games Launcher whether the signed-in account owns the plugin, so sign in with the account that bought it — see the seat status. Each person baking needs their own seat, however the files got onto their machine.

Anything you bake plays back on the free runtime alone, so teammates and build machines never need a Baker seat.