Hi mattis, I don’t have a perfect solution for you as I have been getting the same problems with compiling in VS and the changes not showing up in the editor.
A few things I’ve noticed:
When I compile by right clicking on the solution (not the project) and choosing “Rebuild Solution” it seems to work more often. This will remove the binaries and the “hot reload” files for the editor and completely rebuild the project. Educated guess as to why this works better: I think the “hot reload” files are there to help the editor function more quickly, like a cache of your project, and sometimes a normal compile won’t replace these… that’s why there appear to be no changes in the editor. Then, after you open your project in the editor, compile it there too.
This method seems to work more consistently as compared to compiling the project any other way. It doesn’t always work, but it does work more often.
I think you’re asking a great question and I hope a developer can reproduce and report it.
When building my C++ in Visual Studio, the new Epic C++ tutorials use the “Debug - Start new instance” and after compiling it starts the Editor and it all works. No problems here. However, most tutorials (like the official doc ones) say you should use the Visual Studio “Build” option. So I’ve tried both.
The problem
I can’t seem to start the versions I compile using the different “Build” options.
(My testing is done by changing a AddOnScreenDebugMessage and see if it changes.)
What I’m trying
Using: Build Solution
Start the game via the Launcher and Unreal Project Browser: No changes were made
Start the game via MyProject.uproject: No changes were made
Using: Build MyProject
Start the game via the Launcher and Unreal Project Browser: No changes were made
Start the game via MyProject.uproject: No changes were made
Using: Debug - Start new instance
The game is automatically opened in the Editor: My changes were made, yay!
Could someone please explain the following?
What am I missing?
What should be used when?
How do I start a project that I compiled using “Build”?
Thank you for your time, even though you’re only reading the question
A kind person (enlight) on IRC just told me that it might be because I’m building in “DebugGame” mode, and not “Development” mode. He believes that DebugGame mode must be started from Visual Studio, while starting from the Project Browser or a .uproject file uses the latest Development build I made. I’m trying some stuff out.
Ah yes. DebugGame Editor can also update your project. It will show you the error log if the editor crashes. It’s helpful for debugging, hence the name.
I apologize if I misunderstood your request for clarification on the build types.
Also if you want to work with different built version, what I do to help is batch file
For example, the development editor is not debug, its NDEBUG so you can trace but cannot watch values. Instead for me I run in 100% Debug with batch file
