Tips’n’Tricks to Run Unreal Engine 4

on a low(er) end computer

Engine Scalability Settings

• Click on the Settings button on the toolbar, go to Engine Scalability Settings section• Check Monitor Editor Performance; in case of poor editor performance, it will

decrease your quality settings so you can work with it• Click on Auto

• You can also experiment with • Material Quality Level • Preview Rendering Level

• Make sure you run the LATEST available release of Unreal Engine 4!• Unless other reasons, ALWAYS use the latest release. Usually the team is

optimizing for performance, hence newer versions usually run with equal or faster performance than the older versions.

Switch View Modes

• View modes can be enabled and disabled in the editor from the menus or with shortcuts. • For example, for fast rendering, you can use an unlit view

mode. • Many other modes are available. Read more at:

• https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/UI/LevelEditor/Viewports/ViewModes/

Fine Tune the Antivirus

• If you don’t use your work computer for anything else, disable all antivirus protection.• However, if you do use it for browsing the web and other casual

activities, like most of us do, you should exclude from scanning:• the Epic Games folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games)• the Unreal Projects folder (usually %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Unreal

Projects) or any other location where you keep project files• DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the performance impact the antivirus

has on your computer when you work with Unreal Engine 4 and Visual Studio.

Use SSD! If not possible, use ReadyBoost

• The SSD will have a great impact on the speed of your system. • Even a small 120G SSD is enough to host your operating system,

Unreal Engine 4 and your project (in this order!) and it is fairly cheap.• However, if installing a SSD is very hard (for example in a laptop) you

can use ReadyBoost in Windows to optimize the spinning disk performance.

• Actually, with Unreal Engine 4 and Visual Studio, if you have a classical spinning disk hard drive in your laptop, attaching a good quality USB stick on your fastest USB port is a must!

• PRO Tip: Buy the most EXPENSIVE 4GB USB stick you can find and attach it to your USB 3 port and dedicate it to ReadyBoost in Windows.

What if you do have a SSD?

• In order to make the most out of your SSD, you should:• Install the operating system on it• Install Unreal Engine 4 on it with the vault• Install Visual Studio on it• Set your virtual memory paging file to ONLY use the SSD• Keep all your projects on it (if you still have space)

Keep your drivers up to date

• An outdated graphics card driver can cause problems, especially for newer (AMD!) cards.• Always make sure you have the latest available stable

drivers installed. • They will be marketed as “optimized” for the latest games,

which usually means they are also optimized for the kind of technology Unreal Engine 4 uses in its editor.

Keep an Eye on the Temperature

• Monitoring the temperature is especially important if you have a regular, non-gaming laptop or even an office desktop computer. • Most of the regular computers are built under the assumption that they will sit idle most of

the time and will not sustain long periods of load unless additional cooling is provided!• If using a laptop, make sure it can cool properly.

• Don’t keep it on nonconductive surfaces (like beds) and don’t block the air vents.• If necessary, install a laptop cooler pad.

• If you are using a desktop:• check the power saving options in BIOS and make sure they are not set to “economic”;• make sure all the fans are working and replace any faulty ones;• install the maximum number of fans your case allows.

• Vacuum the dust inside your computer on a regular basis (e.g. once in 3 months)

Consider Buying a Desktop Computer

• If everything else fails and you are still not satisfied, you should seriously consider buying a new computer.• A gaming laptop can be (very) expensive, but you can

easily build a desktop from components for a fraction of the price.• Professional work is mostly done sitting at a desk, so

investing in an expensive laptop to use it at your desk might not be the best investment if you are not having the means.• You can also stream/remote access your powerful desktop

remotely from any cheap laptop over the Internet if necessary…

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