Where to get the engine

1. get the binary builds https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/linux
2. compile from source https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine

• follow instructions on the repo. don't do as root. (Clone, ./Setup.sh, ./GenerateProjectFiles.sh, make, wait. done.)

How good does it works?

Depens on your needs. It's usable, stable and production ready. There are some features that don't work as well (or at all) compared to windows. (TODO make a list)

What editor?

• Rider is the most feature complete. Now it's free for opensource and education. They also have free options for a range of other things. https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2024/10/24/webstorm-and-rider-are-now-free-for-non-commercial-use/
• any editor will do actually if you are ok with compiling from the terminal.
• vs code has some issues.

Distros in which it works

• k/ubuntu, gentoo, arch, fedora, others. stability varies. depends on each person. ubuntu is the default used by epic.

Wayland/X11

X11 has the best support. Wayland has some issues, it's not recommended.

Drivers

nVidia drivers 555/560/565 have known issues with Unreal Engine on Linux, 550 is recommended. 565.77 (the .77 release specifically) has been reported to work well. check the official nVidia forum threads for more informations and updates [555] [560] [565]

amd haven't been mentioned much. potentially works just fine.

But, depending on your workflow and distro they might just work fine. Some bugs affect only Wayland, others only X11.

Windows packaging: Can i package to windows?

Not directly. Licence issue with MS includes (afaik).

You can by using a virtual machine. Does not need to have gpu access. Virtualbox or QEmu/KVM works fine.

With QEmu you can use passthrough PCI to have a dedicated gpu, but you'll need an extra gpu card on your machine.

You trigger the packaging via command line. Something like this on a bat file works.

pushd %UNREAL_ENGINE_ROOT% || exit /b 1
call ./Engine/Build/BatchFiles/RunUAT.bat BuildCookRun -project="%WORKSPACE%/%PROJECT_NAME%.uproject" -noP4 -platform=Win64 -clientconfig=%CONFIG% -serverconfig=%CONFIG% -clean -cook -allmaps -build -stage -pak -stage -stagingdirectory="%WORKSPACE%/Build/" -AdditionalCookerOptions="-cookprocesscount=4"
popd

Test

To test the build you can use Proton through steam, or bottles.

Launcher

There are two replacement for the ue launcher.

• https://github.com/AchetaGames/Epic-Asset-Manager
• https://assetmanager.studio/

When installing from source, you get context-menu actions on kde.

Associations

You can edit a config file, with the version number instead of the UUID, and projects will open normally. (TODO expand)

Fab

• Can be installed from source (TODO)
• Binaries are here https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/linux This potentially superseedes Bridge.

Discord

Unreal Source's Linux channel : https://discord.com/channels/187217643009212416/375022233875382274

UI Scale and HighDPI

When running on high dpi (4k), the ui might look tiny. Here are some options:

• On 5.4 (at least, but not on 5.2) There's a functionality on the engine. Editor Preferences> Appearance > UI Scale (TODO find the actual name)
• There are a few plugins around that do what 5.4 has. On github they are free. (TODO Link)

Others

Projects

if you put this in ~/.config/Unreal Engine/UnrealBuildTool/ you can control which project files get generated, i have mine set for MakeFiles and Rider to keep things a little cleaner.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Configuration xmlns="https://www.unrealengine.com/BuildConfiguration">
    <ProjectFileGenerator>
        <Format>Make+Rider</Format>
    </ProjectFileGenerator>
</Configuration>