UnrealEngineUWP/Engine/Documentation/Source/Programming/Development/VisualStudioSetup/VisualStudioSetup.INT.udn

Availability:Public
Title:Setting Up Visual Studio for UE4
Crumbs: %ROOT%, Programming, Programming\Development
Description:Tips, tricks, and techniques for setting up Visual Studio for development with Unreal Engine 4.
Version: 4.5

[TOC(start:2)]


## Overview

[EXCERPT:Intro]

Unreal Engine 4 is designed to integrate smoothly with Visual Studio 2013. This allows you to quickly and easily make code changes in your projects and see the results immediately upon compilation. 
Setting up Visual Studio to work with Unreal Engine 4 can help to improve efficiency and the overall user experience for developers using Unreal Engine 4.
[/EXCERPT:Intro]

In this document, we will cover the basics for setting up your UE4-to-VS2013 workflow.


## Recommended Settings

The following are recommended settings for developers using Visual Studio with Unreal Engine 4.

[EXCERPT:BasicVSFormat]

1. **Increase the width of the Solution Configurations dropdown menu:**
	1. **Right-click** on the toolbar and select **Customize** at the bottom of the menu that appears.
	1. Click on the **Commands** tab.
	1. Select the **Toolbar** radio button.
	1. In the dropdown next to **Toolbar**, choose **Standard**.
	1. In the **Controls** list at the bottom, select the **Solution Configurations** control.
	1. Click **Modify Selection** on the right.  Set the **Width** to "200".
	1. Click **Close**.  Your toolbar should update immediately.
1. **Add the Solution Platforms dropdown:**
	1. Find the right-most button on the Standard toolbar, which opens a dropdown menu that will allow you to add and remove buttons from the toolbar.
	
		![](menu_dropdown.png)
	1. Click the dropdown button, hover over **Add or Remove Buttons**, and then click on **Solution Platforms** to add the menu to the toolbar.
1. **Turn off the Error List window**. If enabled, the **Error List** window pops up automatically when you get a legitimate error in your code. However, when working with Unreal Engine, the **Error List** can display false error information. It is best to disable this window and use the **Output** window to see your code errors instead. This window will only show your real errors. 
	1. Close the **Error List** window if it is open. 
	1. From the **Tools** menu, open the **Options** dialog.
	1. Select **Projects and Solutions** and uncheck **Always show error list if build finishes with error**.
	1. Click **OK**.

[/EXCERPT:BasicVSFormat]

Other configuration steps you may find useful are:

* Turn off **Show Inactive Blocks**.  If you do not, many chunks of code may appear grayed out in the text editor.  (_Tools > Options > Text Editor > C/C++ > View)_.
* Set **Disable External Dependencies Folders** to _True_ to hide unneeded folders in the **Solution Explorer**.  (**Disable External Dependencies Folder** in _Tools > Options > Text Editor > C/C++ > Advanced_)
* Turn off **Edit & Continue** features, you do not need them.  (_Tools > Options > Debugging > Edit and Continue_)

* Turn on IntelliSense. (See [Intellisense, Live Errors, and Squiggles](#Intellisense))

**If you have Visual Assist X installed:**
* Turn off **Format After Paste**.  It does weird things sometimes.  (_VAssistX > Visual Assist X Options > Advanced > Corrections_)


(#Intellisense)
## Intellisense, Live Errors, and Squiggles

UE4 projects now have proper IntelliSense support, including a live Error List and "squiggles"! 
(See below for how to enable it.)

IntelliSense recompiles C++ as you type. This is a lot more powerful than only VAX's syntax 
checking, as it uses a full C++ compiler that verifies every line of code. It is awesome and it will 
speed up your workflow!

![VC++ Intellisense Squiggles](squiggle.png)

Along with squiggles, you will also see IntelliSense errors in the Error List for any file you are looking at. 
You can turn this on or off in the **right-click** menu in the Error List.

![Error List](error_list.png)

You may have already disabled Squiggles because they did not work with UE4 projects. Make sure to hit the 
C/C++ Advanced tab and use settings similar to below.

![VC++ Advanced Options](intellisense_options.png)

When you open a C++ file, you can see the IntelliSense compiler "working" by looking for this icon:

![Intellisense Progress Indicator](intellisense_progress.png)

### Implementation Details

* It sometimes takes a few seconds for squiggles to appear when you edit code.
    * This is just because we have tons of include files, and IntelliSense does not use PCHs currently.
* Sometimes you will see "false positive" IntelliSense errors.  There are a few possible reasons.
    * The IntelliSense compiler (EDG) is more strict than the MSVC compiler.
    * Some #defines are setup differently for IntelliSense than when building normally.
    * C++ compiled by IntelliSense is always treated as 32-bit. 
* You can wrap code in `#ifdef __INTELLISENSE__` to eliminate squiggles if absolutely necessary.
* The IntelliSense errors are phrased a bit differently than the VC++ compiler's errors.  That is just how it is.
* Squiggles in header files work by compiling the header against a known `.cpp` that includes it.
    * Sometimes IntelliSense screws this up and you will see squiggles in headers.
* There is a **Max Cached Translation Units** setting (shown above) that you can increase if you want.
    * It uses more memory, but might increase responsiveness a bit.
* A few C++ files still are not compatible with IntelliSense yet.
* Unreal Build Tool has a new `-IntelliSense` option.
    * This will spit out IntelliSense property sheets for all of our project files.
    * This only needs to be re-run when new modules are added, or project includes are changed.


## UnrealVS Extension

[INCLUDE:Programming/Development/VisualStudioSetup/UnrealVS#Overview]


See the [](Programming/Development/VisualStudioSetup/UnrealVS) page for information on setting up 
and using the extension.


## Debugging

Visual Studio has support for extending the debugger with visualizers that allow easy inspection of common Unreal types such as FNames and dynamic arrays.


### Visualizer Setup for Visual Studio 2013

[PUBLISH:Licensee]
You can find the file that contains the visualizer logic as part of the UE4 distribution:

	//depot/UE4/Engine/Extras/VisualStudioDebugging/UE4.natvis
[/PUBLISH:Licensee]

[PUBLISH:Rocket]
You can find the file that contains the visualizer logic as part of your installation:

	[UE4Root]/Engine/Extras/VisualStudioDebugging/UE4.natvis
[/PUBLISH:Rocket]

Copy this file to one of the following locations:

	[VSINSTALLDIR]/Common7/Packages/Debugger/Visualizers/UE4.natvis
	[USERPROFILE]/My Documents/Visual Studio 2013/Visualizers/UE4.natvis

[REGION:warning]
Copying the file to your Visual Studio install directory may require administrator permissions.
[/REGION]