teak421
January 29, 2017, 6:40pm
10
Here’s one tip around tweaking the Unreal Build Tool parameters that has actually made working with C++ bearable for me - previously, similar to what you’ve mentioned, I’d have to wait anywhere from 1 to 5+ minutes to compile ANY change, no matter small. Using the tip below build time is now 4-5 seconds(!) if I’m only editing a CPP file (e.g. changing logic within existing class methods), and about 50 seconds if I change a header file. So the workflow now is flesh out the class structure as much as possible first, then implementing and testing logic within each function is now VERY quick.
No guarantees you’ll get similar results, but worth a go.
Steps:
You need to create a file (if it doesn’t exist) - C:\Users<your user>\Documents\Unreal Engine\UnrealBuildTool\BuildConfiguration.xml
Paste the following in to the file above:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Configuration xmlns="https://www.unrealengine.com/BuildConfiguration">
<BuildConfiguration>
<bUseUnityBuild>false</bUseUnityBuild>
<MinFilesUsingPrecompiledHeader>1</MinFilesUsingPrecompiledHeader>
</BuildConfiguration>
</Configuration>
Save file, try build again. Then try just changing code in .cpp files (leave headers alone) and build again (just bulid, not rebuild) and fingers crossed it only takes a few seconds.
Note, I trigger my builds from within visual studio, but it should work from the editor too as they both use the same build tool anyway.
Also, regarding intellisense, I’ve tried both Visual Assist and Resharper C++ a fair bit, and although Resharper takes a longer to scan all the files the first time through, in my experience I’ve found it then provides much better info than Visual Assist. It’s only in a fairly recent version that they’ve got it working properly with UE4 though, so just in case you’ve tried it some time back, it’s worth having another go.
Thanks for the excellent info! My sub for VAX is almost up, I think I will try Resharper! – Also, I believe 4.15 will help with compile times, at least that’s what I’ve heard… not tried the preview yet.
teak