PackCraft
Zip, Tar and compressed Tar archives at runtime

Overview

PackCraft packs and unpacks archives while your game or tool is running: export and import save games, mods, user content, logs or downloaded data packs. Pick an archiver class, then create or open an archive in a file or in memory, add entries from files or byte arrays, list them and extract them. One-node async actions archive or extract whole directories with progress reporting.

• Zip (Zip64 for archives written to disk), Tar, Tar + GZip, Tar + LZ4 and Tar + Oodle (UE 5) archivers sharing one set of nodes.
• Archives in files or entirely in memory; append entries to existing zip files.
• Async Archive Directory / Archive Files / Unarchive Directory / Unarchive Files nodes with success, progress and failure pins.
• Entry listing by index or name with sizes, directory flag and creation time.
• Compression levels 0–10 per entry.
• Raw GZip, LZ4 and Oodle buffer compression on a background thread.
• Central error event on an engine subsystem plus a dedicated log category.

Requirements

Installation

1. Close the editor and copy the PackCraft folder into your project's Plugins/ folder (create it if needed), or install the plugin from Fab into your engine.
2. Open the project. For a C++ project, let the editor rebuild the plugin module when prompted, or build the project from your IDE.
3. Enable PackCraft in Edit > Plugins (search for “PackCraft”) and restart the editor.
4. C++ only: add "PackCraft" to PublicDependencyModuleNames in your module's .Build.cs.

Quick start

Blueprint — one node

1. Add Archive Directory (category PackCraft|Async).
2. Set Archiver Class to Pack Craft Zip, Archive Path to the zip to create, Directory Path to the folder to pack.
3. Handle the On Success, On Progress and On Fail pins.
4. Use Unarchive Directory or Unarchive Files to extract again.

Blueprint — step by step

1. Create Archiver with the archiver class you need, and keep the result in a variable.
2. Create Archive in Storage (or Create Archive in Memory / Open Archive from Storage).
3. Add Entry from Storage for each file, or Add Entry from Memory for a byte array.
4. Close Archive to write the archive.

C++

#include "PackCraftBase.h"
#include "ArchiverZip/PackCraftZip.h"
#include "Misc/Paths.h"

void UMySaveExporter::ExportSlot()
{
    const FString ArchivePath = FPaths::ProjectSavedDir() / TEXT("Backup.zip");

    UPackCraftBase* Writer = UPackCraftBase::CreateArchiver(this, UPackCraftZip::StaticClass());
    if (Writer->CreateArchiveInStorage(ArchivePath))
    {
        Writer->AddEntryFromStorage(TEXT("SaveGames/Slot1.sav"), FPaths::ProjectSavedDir() / TEXT("SaveGames/Slot1.sav"));
        Writer->CloseArchive();
    }

    UPackCraftBase* Reader = UPackCraftBase::CreateArchiver(this, UPackCraftZip::StaticClass());
    if (Reader->OpenArchiveFromStorage(ArchivePath))
    {
        FPackCraftEntry Entry;
        TArray64<uint8> Data;
        if (Reader->GetArchiveEntryInfoByName(TEXT("SaveGames/Slot1.sav"), Entry) && Reader->ExtractEntryToMemory(Entry, Data))
        {
            UE_LOG(LogTemp, Log, TEXT("Extracted %lld bytes"), Data.Num());
        }
        Reader->CloseArchive();
    }
}

Archiver classes

Async archive nodes

Latent nodes in PackCraft|Async. Each takes an Archiver Class and keeps its archiver alive until it finishes.

Archive nodes

Callable on an archiver created with Create Archiver (categories PackCraft|Create, Open, Close, Get, Add, Extract). Most return a success flag. Asynchronous variants run on a background thread and call their delegates on the game thread.

Raw compression, utilities and errors

Types

Troubleshooting

Credits

© 2026 Alpha XP — alphaxp.net · Support: support@alphaxp.net. Built and verified for Unreal Engine 4.27 and 5.8.