Just to note , when I update or launch new branch for GameWorks these are the things I test it with:
- I usually start with clean branch with no previously compiled binaries existing there (beyond what gets loaded by dependencies). I usually just do brute force by wiping everything from the root folder but .git and then do hard git reset for the branch, ensures there’s never anything else on the folder than what new users would have when they try to build at the first time.
- I verify that there are no additional warnings when the GenerateProjectFiles runs (some may sometimes slip through but I try to minimize them before pushing to github).
- Then I run Setup and GenerateProjectFiles just like UE4 readme tells one to do
- I open the generated solution using the recommended Visual Studio version by Epic, means the default VS that the solution is prepared for by GenerateProjectFiles script.
- I wait for intellisense/VA to process it, usually need to swap UE4 as default startup project as I usually want to launch the editor immediately after successful build to get the shaders compiled.
- I start building it using “Development Editor” build conf and by hitting that play button (which will launch the editor after successful build with debugger attached).
- Once editor is fine, I open sample projects from the GameWorks tech I’ve just merged, verify it works in the editor and usually on both Shipping and Development Windows 64-bit builds. If I’m verifying an engine update instead of new GameWorks tech, I often verify that it didn’t break anything by opening random GW projects and building them, just to see there are no new issues on them.
What I don’t do:
- I don’t test 32-bit game builds are they’ve randomly failed for me even on stock UE4 + they are not really that widely used anymore.
- I don’t test debug editor or any other than Development Editor builds for the actual editor code (but those game packaging tests do additionally test development and shipping build confs for the actual engine code).
The things I don’t test are mainly due to time constraints, and I already do quite extensive testing on the GW feats not breaking others. For example there was a crash in some older merge I fixed that only happened with combining these techs, there Nvidia Flow and VXGI just crashed the editor when feats were used on the same scene. and some other similar fixes are still on my latest GW merges.