Installed Build Reference Guide

Developers always look for ways to efficiently deliver build solutions for various hardware profiles and operating systems. An Installed Build is a fully featured Unreal Engine (UE) build that you can redistribute to get your team up and running with the engine quickly. From a technical standpoint, an Installed build contains precompiled binaries for UE and a static library for each target platform in development and shipping configurations.

The Installed Build process automates build packages and tools needed to make an Installed Build version of UE. In summary, making an Installed Build is the process of setting up default target platforms, compiling UE with its tools and editor, running tests, and deploying the Installed Build version of UE to targeted platforms.

In addition to making your build, you should download UE from Launcher; for more information see Downloading Unreal Engine Source Code.

Making an Installed Build

You can create Installed Builds using the BuildGraph scripting system with the Installed Build script located in the folder with your downloaded source code at [UERoot]/Engine/Build/InstalledBuild.xml.

To create an Installed Build:

1. Open Command Prompt on your system.

2. Input command line to run the Installed Build Script by invoking the AutomationTool. This command line may look as follows (replace [PLATFORM] with either Win64, Linux, or Mac, depending on your system):

       C:\EpicSource\UE_5.3\UnrealEngine-5.3\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat BuildGraph -target="Make Installed Build [PLATFORM]" -script="Engine/Build/InstalledEngineBuild.xml" -clean
   
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   C:\EpicSource\UE_5.3\UnrealEngine-5.3\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat BuildGraph -target="Make Installed Build [PLATFORM]" -script="Engine/Build/InstalledEngineBuild.xml" -clean

   Let's get familiar with the parts of this command line:

   • C:\EpicSource\UE_5.3\UnrealEngine-5.3\ - location of downloaded source code (could be different on your PC).
   • Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat - location of Unreal Automation Tool command file, that you use for command of building.
   • -target="Make Installed Build [PLATFORM]" - target platform, you want to build engine (replace [PLATFORM] with either Win64, Linux, or Mac).
   • -script=Engine/Build/InstalledEngineBuild.xml - location of the file, that contain options for installation process.
   • You can also adjust additional Installed Build Script Options.

   If you use additional Installed Build Script Options, your code will look as follows (depends on settings you adjust):

           C:\EpicSource\UE_5.3\UnrealEngine-5.3\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat BuildGraph -target="Make Installed Build [PLATFORM]" -script="Engine/Build/InstalledEngineBuild.xml" -set:WithWin64=true -set:WithMac=true -set:WithTVOS=false -set:WithLinux=false -set:WithHTML5=true
   
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   C:\EpicSource\UE_5.3\UnrealEngine-5.3\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat BuildGraph -target="Make Installed Build [PLATFORM]" -script="Engine/Build/InstalledEngineBuild.xml" -set:WithWin64=true -set:WithMac=true -set:WithTVOS=false -set:WithLinux=false -set:WithHTML5=true

3. By default, your Installed Build should be located in the LocalBuilds/Engine/ folder of your Unreal Engine directory. If you specified a different directory to publish to, navigate to that directory instead.

Installed Build Script Options

The InstalledEngineBuild.xml script creates an Installed Build with all the default options and platforms enabled. However, you can configure it using a set of specified options. These options provide more control, such as targeting which platforms to include and where to publish the build.

You can view a list of available options for customizing the build process (along with a list of nodes built by default) by passing the -listonly option to the script.

The available options are listed in the table below.

The available options are:

Including Additional Files

RuntimeDependencies (set in build.cs files for each module) automatically collate and determine which files are included in an Installed Build. However, some required files cannot be included cannot be included this way, so they're defined in [UERoot]/Engine/Build/InstalledEngineFilters.xml. The InstalledEngineFilters XML file also lists patterns of files that should be excluded from the build, determining the types of files that need to be stripped or signed, and finally, deciding what projects to build the DDC for. If you need to include additional files with the Installed Build, the InstalledEngineFilters XML file is a great place to start.

Registering an Installed Build

UE has the concept of "foreign" projects and "non-foreign" projects. Foreign projects are those stored in a separate directory tree to the engine, while non-foreign projects are stored in sub-directories of the engine root, referenced by the UEGames.uprojectdirs extension.

The "EngineAssociation" field in a .uproject file identifies which Editor version will open the project. For non-foreign projects, it is left blank, because being non-foreign implies the existence of an Editor in a (known) relative location, up from the directory hierarchy of the project. For foreign projects using Engine builds installed by the Launcher, the field will contain the official version number (such as "5.3"), and the Launcher can find the appropriate Editor binary (assuming it has been installed) based on its list of installed applications. For foreign projects using an Engine build distributed by means other than the Launcher, the Engine build's random unique identifier can be used to find the installed directory via a globally-accessible data repository, specifically, the registry on Windows, or a file in the library folder on Mac. If an association with an installed Editor build cannot be found, the user will be prompted to select a version, and the .uproject file will be updated with the selected version.

When distributing an Installed Build to a team, make sure that the build's identifier is common to everyone. This will prevent the Editor from prompting for version selection and then updating the .uproject file with a locally-generated unique identifier. Setting a custom identifier can be done as follows:

• On Windows, add a registry key to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Epic Games\UnrealEngine\Builds that uses your identifier as its key, and the path to the Engine as its value. For example, the key might be MyCustom419 , and the value might be D:\CustomUE.

• On Mac, open /Users/MyName/Library/Application Support/Epic/UnrealEngine/Install.ini and add an entry to the [Installations] section that uses your identifier as the key, and the path to the engine as the value. For example:

          [Installations]
          MyCustom419 = /Users/MyName/CustomUE
  		
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  [Installations] MyCustom419 = /Users/MyName/CustomUE

Choosing this Deployment Method

If you rarely need to change the engine, and if you're looking for a way to quickly (and efficiently) deliver build solutions for a variety of hardware profiles and operating systems, you can deploy an Installed Build of UE (or download the engine from our launcher).

Keep in mind, if you're not looking for a read-only distribution of UE (that can be installed into C:\Program Files), then this method isn't for you, mainly because it's designed to create standalone, read-only engine content, source code, and third-party libraries. Although we provide Installed Engine Builds as a courtesy through the Epic Games Launcher, we don't consume this method for our internal games teams. Furthermore, we treat this as a standalone deployment product in its own right.