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hxhb/HotPatcher

★ 1,497 · C++ · MIT · updated Jan 2026

Unreal Engine hot update manage and package plugin.

HotPatcher is an Unreal Engine plugin that handles the full hot-update pipeline: version diffing, asset cooking, pak packaging, and patch delivery, all from inside the editor or via commandlets. It targets studios shipping live UE4/UE5 games on mobile or PC who need to push content updates without a full client rebuild. The production references are real — Apex Legends Mobile and QQ are listed, and the fork count suggests it's actually used.

The commandlet support is the most practically useful part: you can wire the entire cook-and-patch pipeline into CI/CD without touching the editor. The modular submodule structure (HDiffPatch, ShaderPatcher, MultiCooker as separate repos) lets you pull only what you need rather than swallowing the whole thing. Version diffing tracks asset-level changes between releases rather than just file timestamps, which is the right approach for UE's cooked asset format. ZSTD dictionary compression for shaders is a genuine size win that Epic doesn't give you out of the box.

The primary README is Chinese-only; the English README exists but is thinner and sometimes lags behind. Documentation for the modular submodule dependencies is sparse — you'll spend time untangling which Mods/ submodules are required vs optional for a given feature. The last push was January 2026 and UE5.4/5.5 compatibility isn't confirmed anywhere visible, which is a real concern for anyone targeting current engine versions. There's also a custom license clause banning third-party resale that you need to read carefully before using it in commercial work, since it's not a standard OSS license.

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