Prerequisite Setup

Before implementing Stacks integration in your own Unreal Engine project, ensure you have the following environment and dependencies configured:

  • Unreal Engine 5 (v5.0 or higher source build required) Cryptonauts is built on UE5 and Stacks. Because our integration stack relies on low-level HTTP and socket communication (via BlueprintHttpServer), you’ll need to compile Unreal Engine 5 from source using the Epic Games GitHub repository. This ensures full compatibility with networking, CORS handling, and custom HTTP callbacks used in the Stacks authentication flow. Blueprint and Networking modules must be enabled in your build.

  • Required UE5 Plugins

    • BlueprintHttpServer – Hosts a lightweight local HTTP server inside the game client, handling wallet authentication callbacks and OPTIONS preflight requests from the user’s browser.

    • VaRest – Used for JSON parsing and serialization, translating external API responses and wallet payloads into Blueprint-accessible variables.

  • Stacks Wallet A Stacks-compatible browser wallet used for authentication, signing messages, and verifying ownership of on-chain assets. Both Leather and Xverse support the necessary methods for message signing and principal verification on mainnet or testnet.

  • BNS Identity (.btc / .stx / .id) Each player’s Cryptonauts profile is tied to a Bitcoin Name System (BNS) identity, enabling readable usernames, social identity resolution, and verifiable on-chain ownership of in-game assets.

  • UE5 Stacks bridge (Self-Hosted)

    • Fork the UE5 Stacks bridge repo

    • Spin up your UE5 Stacks bridge repo (for example deploy it on Netlify) (during documentation we refer to this as your "Bridge app") Note: Each game should have its own UE5 Stacks bridge to support its players. This helps for handling scalability concerns, avoid breaking changes, and to obviously handle game specific use cases (This repo provides reference code and a working example starting point for common use cases)

Important: All UE5 projects using Stacks authentication and operations through this method will need to compile Unreal Engine from source to enable the required plugin stack and network modules for local HTTP callback handling.