For Windows: The project must be built from source. Right clicking on the .uproject is only the first step in achieving a correct build.
The way the Launcher currently functions is that it always looks for where it installed the non source version of the engine. At this point in time I really do not see a point in fighting the Launcher even if you have already built UE4 from source.
Yes, it stinks for people with limited space, but until we can set hard paths to our own builds of the engine in the Launcher it’s not worth the hassle of trying to stop it from installing a second non source copy of the engine.
Here is how to get the Shooter project to run in your own compiled version of the engine:
- Right Click on the .uproject file and select, “Generate Visual Studio Files.”
- Open the Visual Studio Solution
- Make sure your project is set to build for, “Development Editor” in the Solution Configurations drop-down.
- Select the project container (Not the Solution Container) in the Solution Explorer, right click on it and select, “Properties.”
- Under Configuration Properties select, “NMake.”
- Find and replace everywhere that the project is looking for the Launcher installed version of the engine and replace those path with the correct paths to your source built version of UE4.
- Clean the Solution.
- Build the Solution.
The project should now open without errors in your source built version of the Editor.
Just wanted to update this as Adric from Epic has posted in a similar thread how to fix the paths problem in a much simpler way than point 6 above:
"If you run the RegisterShellCommands.bat from the GitHub source version before generating the project files, you should be able to skip the manual build path fixups entirely. "
That bat file is located in Engine\Build\BatchFiles\