How do I #include plugin source files in my custom Unreal Engine module? - c++

Question

I'm working with a C++ Unreal Engine project and made my own custom module called MyActor, Unreal Engine automatically created the .cpp and .h files for me. That much appears to be working.
So now I want to include classes or methods from the AppleARKit plugin then override and call them from my custom MyActor module.
First I tried using #include AppleARKitLiveLinkSourceFactory.h because it has theIARKitBlendShapePublisher::PublishBlendshapes method which I want to modify and use.
It didn't work at first with this error: E1696 Cannot open source file AppleARKitLiveLinkSourceFactory.h but I found out I could include them in Visual Studio using the "Include Directories" under Properties like this:
The AppleARKitLiveLinkSourceFactory.h lives in the Public folder but I included the Private folder as well, I don't know if I need to do that. This appeared to work at first but then I got the same error as before for every dependency inside the AppleARKitLiveLinkSourceFactory.h file.
Do I have to include the individual directories for every dependency down the entire chain? Is there an easier way?

Answer 1

When I ran into the issue of including files from a plugin, in my case LidarPointCloud, the following steps worked for me:
1) In my <project-name>.Build.cs file, I added the module name I wished to use (LidarPointCloudRuntime) to the public dependency list
PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { "LidarPointCloudRuntime", "Core", "CoreUObject", "Engine", "InputCore" });
I determined the module name by opening the .uplugin file in the plugin's folder, and looked at the Modules section. If multiple module names are listed, you should pick the one that contains the source for the classes you care about.
2) I then rebuilt the project, closed my editor, then right clicked my <project-name>.uproject file and regenerated project files.
After that, I was able to access the .h files in my code.
-Update-
It seems that AppleARKitFaceSupport has dependencies on other plugins that may need to be included. For example, ARSystems.h lives in AugmentedReality. When I add that to PublicDependencyModuleNames and perform the same steps, it can find ARSystem.h.