Opening an Unreal C++ project

Hey folks,

This may seem like a silly question but after generating a C++ project in Unreal, what’s the best way to actually open and work on said project… there seem to be a multitude of options:

  • Opening the project’s VS2015 solution and run from there
  • Opening the Unreal executable (created when building the engine for the first time), and from there open the C++ project
  • Opening the editor .exe built by the C++ project
  • Opening the project file in the project directory

Thanks!

Hi Orangeatang,

This often comes down to personal preference. For me, it typically depends on what, if anything, I am currently doing with the project and what I want to begin working on.

If nothing is currently open and I want to start working with code right away, I will generally open the project’s solution to bring up Visual Studio and start digging in. If I instead want to open the Editor, I generally open it by double-clicking on the project’s .UPROJECT file. I will typically only open the Project Browser window (the window you get when you run the UE4Editor.exe file) if I want to find any existing project made with that Engine version (I have numerous different Engines installed, and even more projects sitting around made with those Engines, so this is often the fastest way to find an existing project for a specific version if I don’t care what project I open), or if I am upgrading a project to a newer Engine version.

If the Editor is currently open and I want to dive into the code for the project, I typically use the File -> Open Visual Studio option in the Editor. If I have Visual Studio open and want to go into the Editor I will either launch the Editor by double-clicking the .UPROJECT file (as mentioned above) or use Visual Studio’s debugger to run the project (this is usually only when I am trying to track down some problem I am experiencing).

There really is no “right” or “wrong” way to open the Editor and/or Visual Studio to get back to work on your project. Just experiment with a few different methods and you will soon find yourself settling into using a few methods more often then others.

Perfect answer, thanks!