How to improve my code iteration process?

Hi,

I have experience with Unity, but i would really like to be able to use UE4. I tried several times without managing to get into it.

The main issue is that it takes me too long to iterate my code:
-Every time i changes the source code, it takes several minutes to compile and hot reload in the editor, while with Unity, it takes a few seconds
-When i want to create a class, it takes nearly one minute for the editor to create it and update the VS project
-When i add a #include before the .generated.h, it breaks intellisence, and i have to change the configuration, wait for intellisence to update, then change back to my previous iteration, which is really slow

I tried to create a BuildConfiguration.xml file with “<bUseUnityBuild>false</bUseUnityBuild>” inside it. I think it helped, but the compilation is still slow, in my opinion.
Can anyone please give me some advices to improve the points i mentioned?

Thanks in advance.

Did you try using Blueprints?

You must be doing something wrong, or your pc is insanely slow. Compiling a change in my project takes under 5 seconds.

This is going to be fixed in a future version: Make UObject macros not wreck intellisense - Feedback & Requests - Epic Developer Community Forums

Hi,

Thanks for your answers.

I don’t feel like using Blueprints for the bulk of the coding, i feel more comfortable using C++.

I used a stopwatch to time how long it takes to hot reload, it actually takes around 15 seconds. I think i must have felt worse than it was because of the include issue.
However, on my PC, Unity is still much faster to hot reload, it takes around 2 seconds to recompile the same kind of change that takes 15 seconds in UE4.
Is your source code on a SSD?

I will look into your solution, it looks good.

Whether you are by yourself or part of a larger team, I highly recommend learning Blueprints.
Almost every UE4 game is a mixture of BP and c++.
You can still augment your existing c++ skills with Blueprints - think of BP as the runtime glue code that is often done in Lua or other scripting languages in other engines.

The only reason I bring it up is the iteration time during development with BP is so much faster.

It is a great way to begin to familiarize yourself with the API and the engine and in no way does it prevent you from still working in c++.

Oh, I missed the hot reload. I don’t use that often because it has a tendency to not work… timed it just now, it took 12 seconds.
Unity will probably always hot reload faster. Compiling C# code is simply faster than C++ code.

Yeah, everything is. I got one of these fancy 1TB m.2 ssds (no hard drives come any where near this pc :D)

Hi,

Thanks both of you for your answers. I will keep the BP advices in mind.
About the compile time, i think i’ll have to get used to it.