These steps are ONLY for if the plugin fails to load correctly

Before attempting these steps, I recommend you take a backup of your entire project to prevent risking data loss.

1) Rebuild Binaries and Intermediate for the main project

If the newly downloaded project fails to load, the first step should be to delete the Binaries and Intermediate directories in the project folder, and re-run the installer.bat file, then try to open the project again in your desired UE version to see if that fixes the issue.

Please note that the installer.bat copies pre-built Binaries for the plugin for Windows. If you're on Mac or Linux, you'll need to compile (build) the code plugin yourself.

2) Build the Code Plugin yourself

If not, you may want to rebuild the plugin manually. This will re-create the Binaries and Intermediate folders in the Plugins/XandraCharacterCreator directory.

To do this:

• First, delete Binaries and Intermediate for the main project as above
• Then, delete Plugins/XandraCharacterCreator/Binaries and Plugins/XandraCharacterCreator/Intermediate to clear out any old binaries.
• Follow Epic Games’ instructions for setting up Visual Studio for Unreal Engine (This will be different if you are on macOS or Linux)
• Add a C++ project to your Unreal Engine project by selecting Tools > New C++ Class… (For more info see managing-game-code-in-unreal-engine)
• Build the C++ project in Visual Studio by right clicking your project name (XCC) and selecting Build. This will also build the plugin. For more info see compiling-game-projects-in-unreal-engine-using-cplusplus
• If it succeeds, the last line should say ‘Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed’ and the uproject can be opened. If it failed, there may be more detail if you scroll up in the text. Send us a screenshot of the errors in the ‘Output’ window if there are any problems and we can help you resolve it.

Please note that simply opening the .uproject while the Binaries are out of date will prompt you to rebuild the plugin, and you can say Yes to let unreal attempt to build it without needing to do it through Visual Studio (you still need to have it installed). However, it's easier to debug issues from inside visual studio. If you're using this .uproject compilation and it fails, you can find details about any failures/errors it has in Saved/Logs.

Common Issues

The project fails to open, and I'm not sure how to check the reason why or find the exact error message?

Search for the log file in Saved/Logs directory. Open the latest file and search the log file for 'Error' or 'Exception' to find the issues. You can send us a copy of the log if you're having trouble.

The error says 'unable to find valid toolchain for VisualStudio' (When trying to compile the plugin)

The plugin will not compile unless the specific C++ toolchain version matching the Unreal Engine installation is installed through the Visual Studio installer. Specific unreal versions require specific toolchains. This is more likely to come up if you’re trying to compile in an old UE version that requires an older C++ toolchain, or if your VS2022 installation has not been updated recently.

For example, as of writing unreal engine 5.4 requires the C++ toolchain 14.36 (which is not installed by default with VS2022 any more) – and when I compile it without this installed the compile error in Saved/Logs says “Unable to find valid 14.36.32532 C++ toolchain for VisualStudio2022 x64”

To install a specific toolchain,

• Open the Visual Studio Installer
• Select Modify on your VS2022 installation (or the VS version compatible with the version of unreal engine you’re building the plugin for)
• Select the Individual Components tab
• Select the C++ build tools corresponding to the error message that unreal log showed you.

Legacy Issues - <= UE 5.0

(Legacy) When trying to Compile for UE 5.0 it fails with errors to do with StringConv.h and the Output log mentions that the Visual Studio compiler is newer than expected

Note this workaround is NOT necessary for UE 5.1+

Try the steps above to install the valid toolchain (14.36) for UE 5.0 – check if there are any warnings in Saved/Logs that tell you which specific toolchain version needs to be installed.

If that still doesnt’ work, try adding the following to %AppDataRoaming%/Unreal Engine/UnrealBuildTool/BuildConfiguration.xml to force it to use the correct compiler version while you are compiling for UE 5.0 (Edit ‘CompilerVersion’ to the MSVC version you want to use.

I strongly recommend backing up the file first then resetting it to the original after compiling so that it doesn’t impact anything else – otherwise it could cause builds to fail later from using incorrect toolset down the line.