Custom Unreal Editor

The PAYDAY 3 modkit requires the custom Unreal Engine 5.5.4 editor from:

UnrealEngine-PD3Compatibility

A stock Unreal Engine installation does not include the PAYDAY-specific cooked-content and compatibility changes used by this modkit.

For installation instructions, see Install the Custom Editor.

Why a custom editor is required

PAYDAY 3 ships cooked game content intended for the retail runtime, not editable source assets intended for the Unreal Editor.

The custom editor adds the compatibility work needed to make supported retail PAYDAY 3 content useful in the modkit.

The exact patch set changes as compatibility work develops. The engine repository and its commit history are the source of truth for the current implementation.

Current areas of custom-engine work include:

  • loading cooked content in the editor,

  • loading PAYDAY 3’s external containers,

  • mounting the retail game content,

  • using a premade PAYDAY 3 AssetRegistry.bin,

  • preserving mounted assets during Asset Registry refresh,

  • populating dependencies for cooked PAYDAY 3 assets,

  • opening supported cooked levels,

  • showing thumbnails for loaded cooked assets,

  • support for cooked Blueprint class references and actions,

  • transient inspection/editing support for mounted cooked assets,

  • cooked material instance support,

  • cooked skeleton and animation support,

  • cooked font support,

  • mesh uncooking,

  • Blueprint uncooking/replacement workflows,

  • reflection and unversioned-property compatibility work,

  • packaging fixes for uncooked replacement assets,

  • and experimental cooked material baking work.

Not every cooked asset type is fully supported.

The compatibility layer is actively improved as unsupported assets and crashes are discovered.

Game configuration

The editor needs the local PAYDAY 3 game path and AES key configured in Project Settings.

Together with the current AssetRegistry.bin and JMAP/Suzie setup, this allows supported cooked game assets to appear under their original /Game/…​ paths.

Cooked audio assets additionally require the modkit’s modified Wwise plugin to have the matching Audiokinetic ThirdParty SDK files installed. See Set Up Wwise.

Installed content remains external

The custom editor reads the game content from the user’s own PAYDAY 3 installation.

It does not turn the modkit into a redistributable copy of PAYDAY 3’s source project.

Base-game cooked assets remain game-owned content and should not be committed to the modkit repository or shipped inside community mods.