Github Actions And Unreal
I am learning more and more about Unreal Engine, and it is truly an astonishing piece of software. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that it conflicted with my approach to software development when it comes to build systems. I was making a concerted effort to integrate it with GitHub Actions, but the proposed solutions on the Internet seem absurd to me. Disclaimer: my case is not a regular Unreal one—I am not part of a AAA company using Perforce repos with a local build machine. I am trying to create a workflow for a source-available plugin for Unreal hosted on GitHub.Attempts
I was required to create a Windows Dockerfile container with Unreal, but it kept failing during the build process. I eventually managed to build version 5.3.2 using the great helper tool ue4-docker. I learned that Unreal does not support building Windows builds from Linux, so I needed to learn about Windows Docker containers. It took some time, but eventually I was able to create an image that could be used for building a test Unreal project with our plugin. This was a solution that seemed to make sense, at least at that moment. Time passed, and Unreal released version 5.4, so I went back to update our build system. However, when I tried to build version 5.4.2 with the same command, it failed, citing a missing C++ toolchain:Visual Studio 2022 is installed, but is missing the C++ toolchain. Please verify that the "MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest)" component is selected in the Visual Studio 2022 installation options. Total execution time: 13.78 seconds UnrealBuildTool has banned the MSVC 14.39.33519-14.39.99999 toolchains due to compiler issues. Please install a different toolchain such as 14.38.33130 by opening the generated solution and installing recommended components or from the Visual Studio installer. Took 13.88s to run dotnet.exe, ExitCode=6
I struggled with this issue for some time and tried to search for help, but without success.I did get a response a few weeks later, but it would require applying specific patches to version 5.4.2. For me, it was a no-go since I wanted to build against the released version, not my own variation of it.
