Overview
This page contains a brief overview of the tools and features in Unreal Engine that can be used for multi-platform development. Unity developers transitioning to Unreal Engine can use this document to explore options for optimizing, deploying, and profiling projects, along with references to equivalent systems within Unreal Engine.
Many features on this page make use of the Unreal Automation Tool (UAT), which is a host program and a set of utility libraries used to script unattended processes related to Unreal Engine (UE) using C#. Internally, Epic uses the Automation Tool for a variety of tasks, including building, cooking, and running games, running automation tests, and scripting other operations to be executed on our build farm. For more information, see the Automation Tool Overview.
Build Operations
Build Operations in Unreal Engine are the processes required to compile, package, and optimize content to run on different platforms. These operations ensure that assets, code, and settings are compatible with their intended target platforms. Each build operation is intended to ensure you can cook, package, deploy, and run your game project on different target platforms making distribution across multiple platforms simpler.
Unreal Engine provides several key Build Operations:
Cook: Converts assets into platform-specific content, optimizing them for faster load times and improved runtime performance. You can learn more about Cooking on the Content Cooking page.
Package: Packages the project into a platform’s native distribution format.
Deploy: Installs the build to a target device.
Run: Starts the packaged project on the target platform.
For more information about build operations in Unreal, see the Build Operations page.
Device Manager
The Device Manager is an interface where you can connect to and remotely control devices such as other PCs, smartphones, and game consoles directly from the Unreal Editor. You can use it to deploy and launch packaged builds on these devices.
You can open the Device Manager by going to Platforms > Device Manager.
With the Device Manager, you can do the following:
Add and connect to new devices.
View details about any listed device.
Perform actions such as powering on, off, and rebooting devices.
The Device List shows all of the devices connected to the same local area network (LAN) as your computer. You can also connect to devices outside of your LAN, but you will need a stable IP address for the device to be able to find it. For more about the Device Manager and how to add new devices, see Device Manager.
For Unity developers, you might be familiar with Unity Remote. Unreal Engine’s Device Manager can be used to perform similar tasks without requiring additional downloads on the target device.
Unreal Turnkey
Unreal Turnkey is a system for managing platform support and software development kit (SDK) installation for a project. It automates most of the steps required for setting up platform support, including locating required files, installing SDKs, and flashing development kits. Turnkey can be used over the lifecycle of a project to set up requirements based on platforms you decide to target.
For larger teams, Turnkey helps maintain consistent build environments by providing a one-click setup for individual team members once a centralized file source repository is configured.
To learn more about Unreal Turnkey, see the Unreal Turnkey page.
Unreal Insights
Unreal Insights is a profiling suite designed to capture events from your project and display performance data. It can either display live traces during runtime, or record them so you can analyze them later.
You can use Unreal Insights to capture traces from packaged games running on a target device as well, like a PC, console, or smartphone, so you can profile your game and capture performance data in your project’s target environment.
For Unity developers who are familiar with the Profiler tool, Unreal Insights is the profiling tool in the Unreal Editor. You can use the Trace button in the bottom toolbar of the Level Editor to start and stop tracing, view a previous trace’s performance data, and select an option such as opening Unreal Insights right after a trace stops recording.
For more information about Unreal Insights and how to set it up, see Unreal Insights.
Platform Settings
The Platforms section of the Project Settings contains several categories of options for distributing to different platforms. Some options are unique to each category while others, like the Game Icon, are shared across different categories.
For more information, see the Platform page.
Building mobile games
Building games for mobile platforms involves additional considerations for performance and platform-specific limitations. In addition to the features and tools covered on this page, Unreal Engine includes a range of tools and systems that support performance optimization for mobile projects.
To learn more about building games for mobile platforms, see Mobile Development in Unreal Engine for Unity Developers.