Unreal Engine (UE) supports debugging with the Android Game Development Extension (AGDE) Plugin for Visual Studio, which provides debugging and profiling tools for Android projects in Visual Studio without the need to switch environments to Android Studio. This is the recommended debugging environment for Android projects in UE for Windows users.
This guide will walk you through the process of downloading and enabling this plugin, and provide links to helpful resources for using it.
Downloading and Installing the AGDE
To install the AGDE plugin and set up your project’s solution to work with it, follow these steps:
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Make sure you have installed Visual Studio 2019 and are using it as your default Visual Studio version for Unreal Engine.
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Download the AGDE plugin from the Android Developer page.
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Install the AGDE Plugin to Visual Studio.
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Locate the .uproject file for your project, right-click it to open the context menu, then click Generate Project Files to regenerate your Visual Studio solution.
The newly regenerated solution will have the plugin enabled by default.
Using the AGDE Plugin
Once you have enabled AGDE, the plugin will detect your connected Android devices directly in Visual Studio. You need to build and stage your project as an APK prior to debugging with AGDE, as it does not initiate the cooking process. For more information on cooking and staging, refer to the Build Operations guide. Once you have created a build, you can launch and debug it with AGDE.
If you encounter a SIGILL error, press F5 to skip through the error and continue running AGDE. This issue will be fixed in future versions of Unreal Engine.
For more information on AGDE’s features, refer to the following documentation:
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Overview: https://developer.android.com/games/agde
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Project Configuration: https://developer.android.com/games/agde/adapt-existing-project
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Debugger Guide: https://developer.android.com/games/agde/debugger