How to distribute UE4 builds for teams. (v4.4)

Question

Hello,

 

I've managed to install and build the Wwise-integrated engine on my own machine, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a simple way to distribute the build to others in a team (we have around 15 people on the team at the moment, and only 3 of us really use any code).  I'd like to package a binary to make a distribution that will avoid us having to recompile code on everyone's computer, as on my machine using an AMD A8, it takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to build, and most others would have similar issues getting things set up.

 

However, when deleting all pdb files, either a) the build doesn't work on its own, or b) the whole engine has to be rebuilt when building our game itself, defeating the purpose of packaging it.

 

My two main concerns are:

 

Is there a simple way for our non-engineer team members to set this up and get to working with audio/modelling?

 

Is there a way to package a moderately-sized binary (yes they all have licenses, don't worry :) ) without having it contain the pdb files?

 

Thank you

Answer 1

You have the right idea, but maybe you are missing some content in your package. As a test, I deleted all .pdb files from my UE4 working directory, and I could launch the Editor without issues.

To test the build/rebuild issue you are having, I tried the following:

1. Edit > Project Settings > Packaging
2. Click the expand arrow under the "Project" category, and uncheck "Full Rebuild"
3. File > Package > Windows > 64-bit. This is the first time I build the game, so it rebuilds everything (including the Engine)
4. Repeat step 3. This time, it does not rebuild anything

I think the non-engineer members of your team won't be able to escape the first-time full rebuild, but then they shouldn't need to do a full rebuild after that.