I have problems using the Github version of 4.8 in conjunction with the Launcher version.
If I save any asset while using the Github 4.8.1 engine, then try running that asset with the Launcher 4.8.1 engine. I receive these warnings in my log file.
“Asset XXXXX has been saved with empty engine version. The asset will be loaded but may be incompatible.”
Its really annoying as it will flood the log files in some cases. Also, the reverse works fine. If I use the Launcher asset version with the Github version, no error.
GitHub releases of the engine have a 0 listed in their Engine_Version in the Version.h file. This is to allow for more custom version control with Source Compiled Projects. The Launcher version however has a hard coded Changelist number in the same place. So when you open the project in the Launcher the assets are registered with the Zero Engine Version number which will spam you log but not keep you from opening or working on the asset.
There is two ways of fixing this, one is to go into the Launcher BaseEngine.ini under [Core.System] and set the ZeroEngineVersionWarning=false. Otherwise you can copy the Version number from the launcher into your Github Version.h file and recompile the engine.
The way I handle this is to only make changes to assets from a Launcher Build. I only use source builds for certain debugging tasks and producing shipping clients and servers. That way, I never end up with a 0 Changelist written to an asset. If/when I ever need to customize the editor and cannot do it with a plugin, I will produce an Installed Build that has the Changelist version set correctly so that assets to not end up with a 0 change list.
Engine Versions with Changelist 0 are considered compatible with all other Engine Versions. This facilitates engine development by engineers, but should not be used to save Assets to disk. Instead, content creators should use a distributed, binary build of the Editor, so that they can work with Assets that carry accurate Engine Version data and take advantage of the protections against data loss that it provides.
When following this method, if you accidentally make a mistake and save and checkin assets that have a 0 version number, you can fix them by opening them up with the Launcher Build/Installed Build and then resaving the asset. If you have a lot of assets this might be a pain, and you can batch fix them with the ResavePackages commandlet with the -OnlyUnversioned flag set:
