When is VS2017 required?

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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1

Can you all help with a clear answer as to when Unreal requires VS2017 in order to package please?

The documentation states there is a requirement for VS2017, however, I know VS is not required to package basic projects for Windows 64bit. So I am trying to identify which features of a project and which plugins might trigger the requirement for VS2017. I guess a list would be the perfect outcome to me asking.

You might ask why I don’t just install VS2017 and not be worried. Firstly, I am an IT Technician for a Game Art course which is primarily focused on the artistic content, but it helps for them to have an understanding of some technical elements when they go into industry. As I am surrounded by artists running the course, I need to call upon your knowledge and experience with this technical question. Secondly, are also considerations for other areas of the university and they want to use VS2015 rather than VS2017 and I need to justify why I need 2017, or indeed IF I need 2017.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

You can use 2015. I am. I work exclusively with the Github source so I don’t have any experience with the launcher version.

Did you see this?

3

Thanks for the answer Jin_VE. Thanks for confirming 2015 still works, in case it comes to that. I hadn’t seen the article you linked, but thanks for doing so. The two suggested routes are to install in a “fat” image (quite an old an inflexible method now), or run the installation manually (on 170 computers? Pah!). I have asked Epic for more consideration for the academic environment over in the forum under a separate question.

I am still very interested to hear of when Visual Studio is actually needed for packaging if people wouldn’t mind sharing their experience/expertise.