I was wondering if there was a way to link all my projects content folders to one in order to save disk space.
so that you eventually get something like a shortcut such as the one for applications or files but then for a folder (i know that part can be accomplished)
but the trick needed to be done is to link them in such a way unreal sees it as a normal folder, because if it is a shortcut a program will see that and not use the shortcut.
so you get that a program sees it as a file. it is eventually still a shortcut…
but is there any way around this???
any help would be really much appreciated and seen the limited amount of space on my hard drive very helpful as well.
Yes, symbolic links work, though you need to be careful which type to use. I believe Junctions work best and most reliably. I have a project that has the “Content” directory as a symbolic link, with the actual folder placed somewhere else. This way, whatever asset I add, remove, or modify in Unreal will do so in the linked folder, and not the project directory.
so would you be able to link up all your projects to one and the same content folder with all content in is? (ultimately saving heaps of hard disk space) because i am quite low om HDD space…
just did some research and there are three types of such links:
-hard link
-symbolic link
-junction
yet they serve nearly the same.
while doing my research i stumbled on this sentence i did not fully understand:
“In addition, if any of the hard links or the original file(s) is/are deleted, the data will not be deleted and
the rest of the other links will still be able to access it. Changes made to the data contents via any of the
hard links or the original will be propagated to the rest of the other items automatically.”
this says that if you delete the files through the hard link or in the source itself will not be deleted. and in the next sentence: when a change is made to one of the files through the hard link or in the source files the change will be applied to content in all hard links as well.
explanation please???
nevermind, asked too quickly…
text wasn’t that clear. But my conclusion:
hard link: if data in one of the hard links or source is deleted it will be moved to the other hard link’s directory. in such way a useful way for data you dont wanna lose, yet only works with files.
junction: links to folders (probably one most suitable)
symbolic link: primarily used in cases where your data is on network server. yet is supporting both files and folders. could be used as well
got it working after some troubleshooting, for the ones that want to know how you need to do this:
place the junction of all folders INSIDE of your content folder, so
you have: C:/Users/[Username]/Documents/Unreal Projects/[Projectname]/Content/[the Junction links: InfinityBlade, Starter content etc.]
the program needed to create such a link is Link Shell Extension.
takes a bit of time to get set up but will save you HEAPS of storage space…
and use all content folders as target source: select all content in file explorer, [RMB] and pick link source. now go to your new project and drop as… Junction. ignore the errors given and delete the junctions from the folders which were there already.
ive been using this for quite a while now. yet i noticed that i used some hierachy issues. quite unfortunate but still able to fix. nothing to worry about when you do it right but the mistake i made was that for example i put the atlantis content into a separate atlantis folder. dont do that because it will completely ruin the hierachy and the materials and such will have no idea at all where to find their textures…
