Hotreloading and similar unseen Traps

22u_79
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 17:07:56 +0000
C++

Hi,
I have been using ue4 for a year now, but because of a mix of real-world distractions, second guesses on how good a game-idea is, and numerous bugs that ruined projects I haven’t come very far with my ideas yet. I am completely self-though on ue4. What I am tying to say is, that I, while I do have some theoretical knowledge, don’t have a lot of practical experience and my know-how comes mainly from forums and online-tutorials. I recently came across the information, that hotreloades, which apparently occur whenever the ue4 editor compiles vs-files (Probably very simplified description), can cause a lot of damage, which would explain many of the bugs I encountered (In fact I know that it was the reason for my most recent sequence of crashes). As I said, I spend the last year browsing a high number of tutorials, but I never came across the information, that they can be dangerous, with some even going as far as to suggest using the in-editor compile button to avoid other problems (In my case C++ Properties not showing without a restart).

So now I am very unsure of which in-editor options are safe to use and which aren’t. Firstly, I read, that the class wizard initiates hotreloades, and while the alternative to compiling in-editor is simply to close it and use the vs-compiler, creating every class by itself from outside the editor is 1. Very tedious and inefficient an 2. Predetermined to cause problems (I recently tried to do that for a file only storing a UStruct, and I wasn’t able to make it show in the editor). Secondly, now I am afraid of other hidden “traps” in the editor. Is for example “launching” safe? Or can I build a project safely through the editor?

Long Story short, my question is how safe the class wizard is specifically (And how to avoid problems when creating classes without the ue4-class wizard), and if there are any other problems or “traps” like this an amateur like me has to look out for. I know this is a lot, but I would be very thankful if someone could help me out here. Thank you in advance.

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