Silly question, but what exactly are the “editor symbols for debugging”? I don’t have all that much free space on my SSD (on which I’d rather install UE), and the editor symbols almost double the installation size. They’re most likely used for debugging, but how? And why do they take up that much space? Are they important? Will I regret it if I don’t install them now? Are they connected to the Symbol Debugger?
Thanks in advance!
They are needed to be able to use Visual Studio breakpoints for C++ code you create
All right, thank you for the confirmation. I went and installed UE4 on my HDD, which had plenty of space left. I also installed the editor symbols, but it’s nice to actually know what they’re for. Thanks again!
So do you really need it installed to use it cause i just downloaded it without it? Was that a bad idea or can i download it once i start it up?
If you will be coding in c++, they will come in handy. They allow you to walk through your code. If you code in blueprints, you don’t really need them.
But you can download them whenever you would like. I downloaded the engine without them originally myself. From the Launcher, click the drop down arrow under the version you are using, click the checkmark beside Editor Symbols for Debugging, click apply, and they will install. You will have to restart the engine once finished.
Note that you can always debug you own code, by attaching Visual Studio to your editor & game process or building the editor & game from VS directly, and adding breakpoints in your code. But the engine debugging symbols allow you to debug the the engine source code itself (you should also download the engine source code in the list of modules, but it is much smaller than the rest, and will be available at C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.XX\Engine\Source).
Hey artists who dont speak code! This is a tutorial as to how to install Debug Symbols in your Game.
Trust me, they are not worth it (just for debugging). The same size as the source version of the editor, but can’t actually do any code editing. The source version has debug and editing features. Thankfully, these symbols can easily be removed by unchecking that same box, in Epic Games Launcher, and selecting apply. It’s best to just get the source version from the GitHub repository.
For coding in Blueprints - if you want to know how any node works, you’ll need these symbols. Right click on a node - there’s a an option to read the code, if you have the symbols installed.
True, we can see engine source on GitHub, but we can’t jump to the relevant parts of GitHub directly from a project, and debugging can mean just viewing all the relevant code, not always making changes. Unless I’m missing something…
I would like to add that enable Editor Symbols for Debugging will populate your call stack with meaningful information. Without it being enabled your call stack will contain minimal information that often is not the most helpful.
Installing these “duperation symbols” could help to compile the servers? I know you need the source code of the engine to be able to compile servers. could this help? or do I have to install the moto from GitHub?
