Obviously there is pirating, but that is not what I am asking, and I am sure that’s against these forums rules anyway.
So here’s the thing. I am trying to follow this:
Tutorial on making a simple game in UE4. In it she uses Visual Studio. I had it on my computer (I had only recently downloaded it, for one other tutorial I finished), when I tried to use the VS file with the code in it, at some point I got an error,and it told me to check and see if I installed a certain option when I originally installed VS. I ended up uninstalling VS, and reinstalling, and when I tried to open it, it said my trial had expired.
So, I was under the impression there was a legal free version. If so, how do I download that? There are a bunch of possibilities to download, which ones work when coding in UE4? If there isn’t a free version, first of all their website is pretty F’ing misleading if that’s the case, and also are there free alternatives?
Under Visual Studio Community it says: Free for students, open-source contributors, and small teams
You should use Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition. It’s a free version within certain usage limitations. You’ll need to consult the licensing information for your exact details but basically, if it is just for you to develop with, you’re good to go.
I downloaded that at least once and I got the expiration message. But Ill look into it some more.
I uninstalled VS completely and reinstalled it like three times, so yeah, I’m frustrated.
For the record, I am just looking to learn how to use UE4 and VS at this time. I’m not in actual classes or anything so I’m not a “student” in that sense. But yeah, its just me, I am not trying to sell any product what so ever anytime soon. I wont take anything you say as legal advice either.
So as far as you are aware, I SHOULD be able to just go to the VS website, install the Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition without like submitting an application or formally contacting them to ask for a free version or anything? And it SHOULD continue to work after one month has passed?
Can anyone confirm they have legally downloaded Visual Studio 2015 for free and it continued to work for well after a month without any errors or license expirations?
Not trying to make it sound like I’m “yelling”, I just wanted that question to catch the eye the most.
This works good for UE4 and I find it actually crashes less than Ultimate version.
If you want or need the Professional or Ultimate versions you can also get those free for a couple years by signing up for Microsoft BizSpark or DreamSpark depending on if your a Student or Small Business owner.
Free yes, but as far as I know you have to create a Microsoft account (possibly after some sort of 30-day trial runs out). That’s what I had to do with the 2013 version at least.
So you may argue it’s not entirely free if you have to give your personal information in order to continue using it.
I can confirm that I’ve been using VS 2015 Community Edition for about 4 or 5 months now. As long as you sign up and sign in to it, you won’t get any sort of expiration notice. Signing up for a developer account comes at no monetary cost (the other costs associated with these sorts of things is best left to another discussion).
Oh ok, I do remember them asking me to sign in with an account. I’m fine with that, I would have made one if I knew that. Thank you, Ill make one and hopefully that solves my issue!
-Thank you also MikePurvis! Nope, I don’t need anything special, I’m a complete noob and not a programmer either, I just want to be able to use the basics.
EDIT: I think that worked, I got in the program. Much simpler than I thought it was going to be
