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Use Pixotope without internet access

Pixotope can run in environments that are offline or fully air-gapped. Running without internet requires some additional actions.

License a machine for offline use

Learn more about how to Get a license for an offline machine (air-gapped)

Prepare for first time engine launch

Python plugin

When the Editor/Engine launches, the Unreal Engine’s Python plugin checks for and installs the Python package dependencies required by the enabled plugins.

  • On a machine with internet access this happens in the background

  • On an offline machine, the engine waits for the download to time out before continuing

    • To avoid this delay, disable Run pip install on startup. See Recommended settings below

Make sure dependencies are present if needed

Because the required Python packages depend on which plugins a project uses and the Python version, there is no single fixed set that applies to every project.

  1. Before taking a machine offline, open the project at least once while the machine still has internet access so the required packages are installed locally

  2. Apply the Recommended settings below so the engine no longer tries to fetch them on each launch

  3. Create a .pxignore file in Synced Storage/Projects/[Project folder]/ and push the changes

    # Default ignores
Config/MotionDesignBroadcastConfig.json
DerivedDataCache/
Intermediate/*
Saved/

# Unignore PipInstall
!Intermediate/PipInstall/

  4. OR Manually copy the Intermediate/PipInstall folder to the other machines

Open Project Settings > Plugins > Python and configure the following:

Setting

Recommended value

Why

Run pip install on startup

Off

Stops the engine from attempting to download/install Python packages each time it launches, which is what causes the wait on an offline machine.

Offline Only

On

Forces pip to use only locally available packages and never reach out to the internet.

Pip Strict Hash Check

Off (if package installs fail offline)

Strict hash checking can cause local installs to fail if the cached package hashes don't match what is expected. Relax this only if you see install failures offline.