Everytime Live edit switches to the yellow icon (what I call a desync), that’s 2 minutes of development lost. 2 minutes is the minimum time btw, because this time scales with larger projects. Also the reason why this time is lost is because when you push changes, you can’t touch UEFN or it will desync again, then another 2 minutes lost.
Few of the ways live edit can desync:
-Changing device settings (like guard device, or day sequence device)
-Changing island settings
-Building in live edit
-Multiselecting actors and moving them in UEFN
-Moving an attached actor in UEFN
-Adding anything from the add new actor menu in UEFN
And this is only scratching the surface. I initially thought live edit would be faster than having to render, build, cook, etc., but if it desyncs so easily then it’s slower than the traditional Gamedev workflows where you press play and it loads the game.
Did another project break with an update? You are completely doomed time-wise because to publish now, you switch from the project you are working on, then upload the entire project into the cloud, and that’s 20 mins (min) for medium projects (I’ve had a project that would time out the upload and not let me upload at all due to filesize - 5gb). And then say you fix what you want, 30 minutes have passed, another 10 mins to submit to the creator portal, now you have to go back to the project you were working on, and you have to upload the entire project AGAIN into the server to continue using live edit. Same if a moderator decides you have something wrong in your level description, in creator portal. Do it all again, from the beginning. Like wtf? Back in Creative, I could maintain 20 maps at a time but now I am struggling with 2 on UEFN!
Because the process is not respective of the user’s time at all. And this includes changing minor things in creator portal about the map, like a tag or thumbnail. I need a new build from UEFN to do that and it makes no sense. Also, did I tell you that publishing sometimes doesn’t create a version in creator portal? That’s because you need to change something in the map for it to do that.
To put all this into perspective, to change a tag in a map you have already published, you need to spend 1 hr of waiting minimum (for medium sized projects).
Saving anything in UEFN lags the editor if you have the verse explorer open, it also lags if you have URC enabled, then you also can spend sooo much time waiting if your upload connection is not Optical Fiber ready (when live edit opens). Then 1 in 4 times you push changes, a network error happens and you have waited longer than normal and for nothing, because you have to wait again now. Why so many gatekeepers to build what will turn out to be a simple game? Why is this process so convoluted for no reason? UEFN is a mediator that acts as a wizard to speed up the process, while providing with you with services that you don’t have to handle yourself. If those systems that I mention improve, it will truly allow it to shine and let us build good content. I can’t in my right mind not get frustrated with all this waiting, when I have 2 hrs to build and 1 is spent waiting. That’s so much productivity lost its insanity for even 2005 gamedev standards.
If you make a typo when publishing a map in the creator portal, that’s it, you have to waste half a day to fix it.
Is there a role in Epic that specializes in the agility of development and is willing to help make the process faster by advising different teams on usage?
Seems to me that many times one looks to reinvent the wheel and ends up not working, if proper guidance on usage was given from the beginning it would have saved development time in those features, because now there needs to be many iterations of those systems to improve on agility. I am open (and many other creators) to do as many meetings as possible to help provide feedback on anything you wish, just let DevRel know.
Anyway, these are the goals that would take away frustration and bring the engine to today’s iteration standards:
Goals:
-Test the game without waiting more than 15 secs (currently comparing to Creative)
-Ability to edit in both UEFN/Live edit without additional waiting, excluding cooking (cooking can also start working asynchronously when you add the asset into the map, no need to press live edit for it to happen, then you do press it, it is ready and the process is again fast)
-Creator portal to allow edits, moderation submissions to be cancelled, edited and resubmitted. Also ability to resubmit with one button if submission times out. Any edits that are not map-related should not require us to get a new build from inside UEFN.