So I opened up the project file and there is a .sln file already there. I deleted it anyway and generated a new one. I opened it directly via the .sln file and could see the cpp files I’ve been creating.
Visual studio prompted me to install the “Visual Studio Integration Tool” so I did that and activated the plugin in my project via Edit>Plugins.
I then made a new C++ class in the unreal editor and visual studio prompted me. Something like reload the project because of external changes. I then saw the new class I created in the project. So great! Now things are fast, however…
Unreal is still trying to open visual studio even though I’ve already started it. I also always missed this message before but at the end of the attempt it displays this briefly. After this it opens up the files without a project like in my first post.
Like if the Unreal Editor could just stop trying to open Visual studio I can just open it manually and it looks like everything will work fine.