Which version of microsoft visual studio should i install ?

anonymous_user_268af9b6 · April 30, 2014, 9:09am

Hi everyone,

Before i commit myself to UE4 i would like to know which version of microsoft visual studio to install ?, does it have to be 64-bit and also can i download a free version ? i am new at this and would like to learn to built my own games as a hobby. i have gone through some of the issues that people are facing with visual studio and it seems to be kind of problematic so i am walking in the dark on the subject. Help and quick response would be very appreciated.

Thanks

anonymous_user_8943aceb · April 30, 2014, 9:24am

First of all, you don’t need Visual Studio, if you don’t intend to compile the engine yourself or write C++ code. You can start experimenting with Blueprints only in the beginning.

If you want to code, Visual Studio Express is enough. You can do anything with that. (You could probably just use notepad for that matter). One of the main benefits of the professional version are plugins. Because VS doesn’t have any C++ refactoring out of the box, if you want to do any serious programming, you’ll probably want to use a plugin or an other.

P.S. If you’re enrolled at a university, you might be able to get VS professional from DreamSpark for free (for non commercial projects).

anonymous_user_ad35926e · April 30, 2014, 2:44pm

Officially they say only VS2013 is supported AFAIR, however in the setup batch files it checks for VS2012 also and I don’t see why you couldn’t amend it to work with VS2010, however, both VS2012 and VS2013 will work and that includes the free Express Editions.

There is only a 32bit version of VS however it runs on 64bit OS’s and can obviously compile 64bit apps, you just have to set the option in the IDE whether you are creating a 32bit or 64bit app.