If you're new to using Visual Studio with Unreal Engine, you want to read this extended version of the official guide.

Start by reading the official pages.

• Setting Up Visual Studio for Unreal Engine - installation and basic setup

• UnrealVS Extension - it's a useful extension made by Epic, lets you easily add launch parameters and build many configurations at once

Perforce plug-in

Grab the official P4VS if you're using Perforce as your source control. It can be also installed with a Visual Studio extension manager. This plug-in automatically checks out (marked as edited) every source file you're starting to edit. This way working with Perforce is convenient for programmers.

You gonna be a slow turtle without one of these extensions

Unreal Engine 4 codebase contains a few millions of lines of code. It's too much for clean Visual Studio to handle such an enormous codebase, so nearly every programmer needs a supporting plugin.

You can choose one of these two described below. Both are paid, but definitely worth it.

• You need this to quickly find specific file or symbol (class, struct, function) defined somewhere among millions of lines of text.

• You need this to make common editing operations much faster.

Visual Assist

Know also as VAX or "tomato". It was the only choice for programmers for a long time. Not only for Unreal Engine programmers but also for devs working on in-house engines. VAX includes exclusive features for working with Unreal Engine. It's available at WholeTomato.com. Simply learn these top features. These few shortcuts are priceless time-savers.

Resharper C++

This is a pretty new plugin, developed by JetBrains company. Known for their excellent C\\\\# tools and continuous integration called TeamCity. They're working hard on supporting C++. Recent versions of Resharper C++ add more and more features exclusive for Unreal Engine. You'll find this plugin at JetBrains.com.

• Features

• Working with UE4 Projects

• Coding Assistance in C++ - take a closer look at dot/arrow completion helpers. This works a way better with UE4's smart pointers than good old VAX, by converting dot to arrow after you choose what should follow it.

• Default Keymap

Smarter Macro Indenting

UE4 Smarter Macro Indenting properly handles the indentation of the next line after UE4 macros. Thanks to this your code will look closer to the engine's Coding Standard and gonna be a bit easier to read.