Use the Unreal binary builderto create a binary build.
Compress the results with 7-zip, minus intermediates etc.
MakeBuild.bat:
set "Bin=C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe"
set "Target=<Some Directory>\SomeFIle.7z"
set "Source=<Where your source built engine is>"
set "Switches=-r -x!*.pdb -xr!Intermediate -xr!Marketplace -xr!FeaturePacks -xr!Samples -xr!Templates -xr!Extras -xr!Documentation -xr!Source"
"%Bin%" a -t7z "%Target%" "%Source%\LocalBuilds\Engine\Windows\*.*" %Switches%
pause
Note the “-xr!Marketplace” makes it exclude Marketplace plugins.
Makes it easier to update them, since you don’t have to re-do the entire engine.
The result is a build suitable for artists and Blueprint only programming.
For any C++ work, you will still need to include source, intermediates and so on.
Using the above setup, the compressed version we distribute via Perforce is ~2GB.
Uncompressed it is ~4.55GB, minus marketplace plugins that is.
A lot better then 40+GB that the standard binary build you get via Epic launcher takes up.