Unreal Engine Integrations for Visual Studio Code

Unreal Engine Integrations for Visual Studio Code streamlines Unreal Engine development by connecting its tooling with VS Code and the larger extensions ecosystem. This extension is targeted at developers working with C++ or .NET source code as part of an Unreal project.

Only works with Unreal Engine 5.6 and later.

Unreal Engine for Fortnite is not supported.

Note: Linux and macOS are not currently tested as host platforms. However, some features are expected to work in those environments.

Features

Easy C/C++ IntelliSense using C/C++ extension.
Run UnrealBuildTool as Tasks.
Schema support for known JSON-based Unreal Engine files.
Syntax highlighting for configuration files.

Quickstart

For a project with its own Engine sources, open the the root directory as a workspace folder. Otherwise, open the folder containing the .uproject file.

Note: It is not necessary to generate a VS Code workspace using Unreal Editor, and using a generated workspace will likely interfere with this extension.

Configure C/C++ IntelliSense by opening the C/C++ extension settings file (C/C++: Edit Configurations (JSON) from Command Palette) and addding the following configuration entry. Make sure it is the active configuration if multiple entries are defined.

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "UnrealBuildTool",
            "configurationProvider": "skyboxlabs.unrealengine-tools"
        }
    ]
}

Use the command Unreal (C++): Select Build Configuration... to select the desired project and confguration.

C++ IntelliSense should now activate. Use the contributed tasks under UnrealBuildTool to begin compiling your project, or define your own using the UnrealBuildTool task type; see Customizing Build Tasks.

For C# IntelliSense, generate a minimal Visual Studio solution using the command Unreal (C#): Generate Projects, then open the generated solution with C# Dev Kit using .NET: Open Solution.

Note: While this extension is multi-root workspaces aware, only the first workspace is used for Unreal Engine integrations. It is not possible to work with multiple projects at the same time.

Customizing Build Tasks

Use Tasks to invoke UnrealBuildTool. Some tasks are provided out-of-the-box. See examples below for other useful recipes:

// .vscode/tasks.json
{
    "tasks": [
        {
            // Build LyraEditor for Windows.
            "label": "Unreal (C++): Build LyraEditor Win64 Development",
            "type": "UnrealBuildTool",
            "args": {
                "mode": "Build",
                "target": "LyraEditor",
                "platform": "Win64",
                "configuration": "Development",
            },
            "group": "build",
        },
        {
            // Build the current active configuration.  Most configuration values
            // can be omitted.  The extension will auto-populate values based on the
            // active project and build configuration.
            "label": "Unreal (C++): Build active configuration",
            "type": "UnrealBuildTool",
            "args": {
                "mode": "Build",
            },
            "group": "build",
        },
        {
            // Build only the module containing the currently opened source file for fast
            // iteration.  Module specification has special handling for '${file}'.
            "label": "Unreal (C++): Build current module",
            "type": "UnrealBuildTool",
            "args": {
                "mode": "Build",
                "modules": [
                    "${file}"
                ]
            },
            "group": "build",
        },
        {
            // Execute UBT with arbitrary arguments
            "label": "Run UBT -Help",
            "type": "UnrealBuildTool",
            "args": ["-Help"],
        },
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

C++ Debugging

Command variables are provided to make it easy to launch or attach the appropriate C/C++ debugger:

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch active target with project file",
            "type": "cppvsdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${command:unrealengine.vars.cpp.targetExecutable}",
            "args": [
                "${command:unrealengine.vars.cpp.projectFile}",
            ],
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
        },
        {
            "name": "Attach active target",
            "type": "cppvsdbg",
            "request": "attach",
            "program": "${command:unrealengine.vars.cpp.targetExecutable}",
        }
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

These command variables are currently available:

unrealengine.vars.projectName, unrealengine.vars.projectFile, unrealengine.vars.projectFolder: Name, file path, and folder path of the currently opened project.
unrealengine.vars.cpp.target, unrealengine.vars.cpp.platform, unrealengine.vars.cpp.configuration: Target name, platform, and configuration type of the active configuration.
unrealengine.vars.cpp.targetExecutable: Path to the executable built by the active configuration.
unrealengine.vars.cpp.projectFile, unrealengine.vars.cpp.projectFolder: Name, file path, and folder path of the project for the active configuration. This can differ from the open project if the active target does not use modules from the project.

When using Microsoft's C/C++ extension (cppvsdbg), the .natvis file provided with Unreal Engine is activated automatically.

Extension Configuration

In general, this extension attempts to keep its configuration surface as small as possible, and do not expose settings that are configurable elsewhere. However, a limited number of configuration options are available to facilitate integration.

unrealEngine.tools.environmentVariables: Additional environment variables to use when invoking Unreal Engine's tools. Use this to, for example, configure Linux cross-compiler:
```
// .vscode/settings.json
{
    "unrealEngine.tools.environmentVariables": {
        "LINUX_MULTIARCH_ROOT": "C:\\UnrealToolchains\\v26_clang-20.1.8-rockylinux8",
    },
}
```

The following configurable settings are availble only for the workspace folder's settings.json:

unrealEngine.enginePath: Path to the Engine installation the projects in this workspace. This is used only when the workspace does not contain a valid Engine/ folder at its root. Some commands will update this value automatically.
unrealEngine.defaultProject: Relative path to the .uproject file to open for this workspace, if it's not at the root of the workspace folder. This value is updated by the extension when switching to a new project.

Unreal Engine Integrations