Visual Studio Express 2013 with UE4.xx?

Development Programming & Scripting C++
1

So I could use VS Express 2013 with UE 4.xx to build games and do NOT need the FULL version of VS 2013 (Pro or higher) correct? Someone please confirm.

Also, do I need anything else (such as Maya) beside VS and UE 4.xx to build 3D games?

Thanks!

2

Google brought me to this page:
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/topics/visual+studio+2013.html
It seems that you can use VS 2013 Express but you may have to wrestle with it a little…

3

Thank you. I found some of those after I posted it too =)
Do you know if I need something like Maya to create games? I’m planning to create educational games first while learning UE4.xx.

4

It looks like you can get free VS Pro or higher for three years: http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/about/default.aspx

5

If you want to create good 3D models to use them in your UE4 project, you will need a 3D modeling software like Blender, Maya, 3ds max and so on.
The free version of VS 2013 is enough.

6

I’ve compiled the engine from source using Visual Studio Express. It works fine.

What you don’t get is some of the plugins. Unreal has one for running common build operations with command line options straight from VS. There is also “Visual Assist” which is very popular to improve intellisense with UE4, but I haven’t used it (I’m still stuck with Express).

You can also check out BizSpark. Microsoft gives development startups a free MSDN Ultimate subscription for 3 years. That should give you access to Visual Studio Ultimate. I just discovered this myself, and am probably going to apply.

Edit: Ha, had this tab open for a while before replying and it looks like you beat me to the BizSpark info.

7

Thank you. Are you using the express version?
I’m just starting to learn about UE4.xx and never had any experience with UE3. UE4 would be good enough for basic 3D models? I will try UE4 with VS Express Desktop 2013 version.

8

I use the VS express version, yeah.
You should use a third party software for creating 3D models, like I said earlier.
I don’t know if simple models can be made in UE4, I personally would use Blender for that, haha :smiley:
You have to save your models as *.fbx file and then you can simply import them into your project.