Why large build size?

Development Platform & Builds
1

Hi!

I need help understanding how Unreal packaging works (i am Unity developer learning Unreal).

(all builds are in Shipping mode in Unreal 5.6 on windows)

  1. I made new empty project with very basic level. Removed couple of plugins and my package size was around 280 MB (by default, with all default plugins enabled, i think it is around 500MB).
  2. Than i added 4 metahuman characters to the scene. If i check “Size map” for the level, i can see each character is around 800 MB, and ofcourse my build size increased to around 3.5 GB.
  3. But than i removed all characters from the scene, and my Size map shows that whole level iz around 467 kB, but when i build, size of build is around 1 GB!

what is happening? does Unreal not clean everything? does it not know what to include? is there some garbage (some settings) remained from previous builds. I dont mean in build folder, because i always delete build folder, and do a clean build, but are there some settings left behind the scenes that unreal doesnt know how to clean?

Thank you

2

From what I understand it’s going to include all assets in the project in the build wether in use or not, removing unused assets/classes is a good start. Also if you project includes engine “starter” content I’ve heard that can add a decent bit to build size.

3

I dont have starter content… it is clean project.

I understand that deleting unused assets is a good start, but not good in actual production :slight_smile: … There will be tons of assets in bigger projects, and you cant just clean it, and you dont even want to clean it, because you never know what you will need.

It is just weird coming from Unity where you absolutely dont need to care about that. If it is not in scene it wont affect the size. Not even when you put tons of assets in scene but than you delete them. Build size goes back to original size.