I have a number of things not working properly with my FBX imports and I would like to understand how FBX imports work internally. Now, I am noob in software development, so how do I debug the internal C++ code of Unreal? I want to set a breakpoint in Visual Studio Code and explore variables / memory etc. I have found some sources, but for my level of knowledge, they explain nothing to me To make it clearer: I need to debug internal code, for fbx imports, like not the code that I am writing for my game objects. Basically, I want the engine to stop at the break point once it starts importing fbx (I have found functions seemingly responsible for that)
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1\$\begingroup\$ You'll need to build the engine from source in the debug editor configuration. (You can get debug symbols off the epic launcher, but I don't really think they're particularly useful. Especially for drilling into the engine, as you would be running against optimised code.) \$\endgroup\$– GeorgeJun 19, 2020 at 8:12
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\$\begingroup\$ @George thanks for the answer. do I understand correctly that there are two options: either to get those 'symbols' or to build from source? \$\endgroup\$– SerhiiJun 19, 2020 at 17:59
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\$\begingroup\$ Yep, though I'd highly recommend building from source in your case :). \$\endgroup\$– GeorgeJun 19, 2020 at 18:42
1 Answer
The binary distribution of the engine you get from the epic launcher is a Development build from the engine, so it will have the typical "release config" issues of debugging, with jumping around in execution and not having all local vars. Getting debug symbols from the launcher helps with call stacks and such but still won't let you go line by line
If you want to completely debug it you will have to download the source version from github and compile it in a debug configuration and run your project on that engine.