Distribution Licenses

How to install and manage the Distribution license which allows you to distribute our plugin in your game or app

Last updated 4 days ago

Overview

  • Distribution Licenses allow you to distribute our plugin in games/ apps/ projects that you want to distribute to 3rd parties.

  • Your users don’t need to install a license to use our software, it will just work automatically when they open your app.

Limited and Unlimited Distribution Licenses

There are two types of Distribution License:

  1. Limited: You purchase a number of installs in bundles of 100, which are used over time as you share your app with others.

  2. Unlimited: You pay a recurring monthly fee and can distribute to an infinite number of end users without restriction.

Limited Explained

Limited Distribution Licenses are installed via an API code before packaging your application (using the steps below).

Limited Distribution Licenses do not work on cloud machines.
If you want to use our software in a cloud machine, please use a Machine License or an Unlimited Distribution License.

The first time a user opens your app, a message is sent to our server counting a single install:

  • This communication is only sent once and never again. There is no ongoing communication between our plugin in your app and our servers.

  • If your user isn’t connected to the internet when they first open the app, our plugin will still work (no watermark will show). It will just wait for a connection to the internet to send its message to our server.

You can send the same user unlimited updates to your app and they won’t count as a new install so long as:

  1. Your app is on the same version of Unreal Engine.

  2. Your app is using the same name.

A new install will be counted if:

  1. A new user opens your app on any machine

  2. An existing user opens your app on a new machine.

Unlimited Explained

Unlimited Distribution Licenses are installed as a Machine License, normally to your Build Server or Continuous Integration machine.

When you package your app on that machine with our plugin, that app can be distributed on an unlimited basis to your end users:

  • There is never any communication with our servers from your users and we do not and cannot collect any data at all from your users.

  • You do not need to include an API code or anything else. The license is just automatically installed so long as you have the correct Machine License on the machine that is packaging your app.

Managing your Limited Distribution license

This is only for Limited Distribution Licenses. Unlimited Distribution Licenses are managed on the Machine License page.

  • On the Distribution License Account Page of our website you can manage all your licenses:

  1. At the top-left are the API keys:

    1. You can add as many of these as you need for your different releases.

    2. For example, you can associate a new code with an application upgrade.

    3. You can also disable codes in order to de-activate older applications.

  2. At the top-right, you can see the list of machines that have installed your app/s listed by: Executable name, Unreal Engine version, time/ date, API code, machine name, IP Address.

  3. In the bottom-left you can top-up more installs if you need them:

Managing your Unlimited Distribution license

You can manage your Unlimited Distribution License on the Machine Licenses Account Page using the License Utility. Please see the Machine License knowledge page for more info:

Install your Limited License to your app

  1. In Unreal Editor, with the Off World Live plugin installed, go to Project Settings> Plugins> Off World Live and tick Enable application licenses:

    1. This will automatically add a line to the Config folder of your Project in Config> DefaultGame.ini which you can check in Text Editor:

    2. In the DefaultGame.ini file you should see this line [/Script/OffWorldLive] bUseApplicationLicense=1 like below:

  2. Open your Project and right-click in the Content Drawer to create a new Blueprint Class:

  3. In the list of available Parent classes type in and select Game Instance:

  4. Rename your Blueprint something like 'AppLicense':

  5. Double-click to open the Blueprint and then copy-paste the Blueprint below inside (you can copy it direct from below):

  6. In the Application API Code box, insert your license code:

  7. You can find this license code either in your purchase email or on your Account page:

     

  8. Press Compile in the top left hand corner to see the green tick show:

  9. Go to Project Settings and search for Game Instance and in your Game Instance Class ensure that your Game Instance blueprint is selected:

  10. Now when you package your project, the license will automatically activate and when you share your app with a 3rd party they can use our plugin without a watermark.

Trouble-shooting your Limited Distribution license

Problems with the Distribution license are rare, but if you open your app on an unlicensed machine and a watermark appears then your license has not been installed correctly.

  1. First repeat the steps above to check if you have missed anything.

  2. You can package your app in Development mode to check the log.

    1. Go to your packaged app

    2. Click on the app name

    3. Go to Saved> Logs

    4. Inside seach ‘owlauth’ and check if the license is initialised.

  3. Check in your Project> Config> default.ini to see if the line [/Script/OffWorldLive] bUseApplicationLicense=1 is included.

  4. If none of the steps above work then contact us.