Building Unreal Engine from Source

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Read about Hardware and Software Specifications, and make sure that Microsoft Visual Studio is installed prior to building Unreal Engine (UE) from source. Also, depending on your system's specifications, it may take between 10 and 40 minutes to compile the Engine.

Inside the root directory, where you downloaded and adjusted the UE Source Code run GenerateProjectFiles.bat to set-up your project files.
All project files are intermediate ([UERoot]\Engine\Intermediate\ProjectFiles). You must generate project files each time you sync a new build to ensure they are up to date. If you delete your Intermediate folder, you must regenerate project files using the GenerateProjectFiles batch file.
Load the project into Visual Studio by double-clicking UE5.sln.
Set your solution configuration to Development Editor.
Set your solution platform to Win64.
Right-click the UE5 target and select Build.

Running the Editor

Set your startup project by right-clicking the UE5 target and selecting Set as StartUp Project.
Right-click the UE5 project, then select Debug > Start New Instance to launch the Editor.
Alternatively, you can press the F5 key on your keyboard to start a new instance of the Editor.
Congratulations! You've compiled and launched the Engine from source.

Getting Started with Unreal Engine

Learn how to use Unreal Engine by referring to the Understanding the Basics documentation!

If you're looking to quickly get started with UE, refer to the following tutorials:

UE's in-editor help features are a great way to get your questions answered.

Prerequisite topics