Farming Simulator - UE5 Project Setup

🎮 Farming Simulation Game | Unreal Engine 5 | PC

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📋 Quick Status

Current Phase: Phase 2 - Prototype & Core Systems (Week 5)

✅ Completed

• Phase 1 Pre-Production (All design documents)
• Project planning and architecture
• C++ class headers
• Git repository setup

⏳ In Progress

• UE5 Project Setup ← YOU ARE HERE

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🚀 START HERE

Choose your IDE:

Option A: JetBrains Rider (Recommended ⭐)

👉 Follow: SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS_RIDER.md 👈

• Faster, better IntelliSense
• Native Unreal Engine support
• Modern IDE experience

Option B: Visual Studio 2022

👉 Follow: SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md 👈

• Free and fully featured
• Official Microsoft tooling
• Good UE5 integration

Both guides walk you through:

1. Installing your chosen IDE
2. Installing Unreal Engine 5.4
3. Creating the UE5 project
4. Setting up Git LFS
5. Building and running the project

Estimated Time: 2-3 hours (mostly downloads)

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📚 Documentation

All project documentation is in the /Documentation/ folder:

Essential Reading

1. SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md - Setup guide (START HERE!)
2. Documentation/README.md - Documentation overview
3. Documentation/Phase2_SetupGuide.md - Detailed development guide
4. FarmingSimulator_ProjectPlan.md - Project timeline

Design Documents (Phase 1)

• GameDesignDocument.md - Complete game design
• TechnicalDesignSpecification.md - Technical architecture
• ArtStyleGuide.md - Visual style guide
• CoreFarmingMechanics.md - Gameplay mechanics
• ScopeAndResourcePlanning.md - Budget and timeline

Development Documents (Phase 2)

• Phase2_PrototypeAndCoreSystems.md - Week-by-week tasks
• ProjectStructure.md - Folder organization

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🛠️ Requirements

Software Needed

• Unreal Engine 5.4+ (via Epic Games Launcher)
• IDE - Choose one:
  • JetBrains Rider (recommended) - $149/year or free student license
  • Visual Studio 2022 Community (free)
• Windows Build Tools (required even with Rider)
• Git with Git LFS
• Windows 10/11 64-bit

Hardware Minimum

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• RAM: 16 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1660 / AMD RX 5600 XT
• Storage: 100 GB SSD

Hardware Recommended

• CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K / AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
• RAM: 32 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3070 / AMD RX 6800
• Storage: 250 GB NVMe SSD

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📁 Project Structure

FarmingSimulator/           (will be created by UE5)
├── Content/                (Unreal assets)
├── Source/                 (C++ source code)
│   └── FarmingSimulator/
│       ├── Public/         (C++ headers - already created!)
│       │   ├── Core/
│       │   ├── Characters/
│       │   ├── Systems/
│       │   ├── Crops/
│       │   └── Data/
│       └── Private/        (C++ implementations - to be created)
├── Documentation/          (All project docs)
├── Config/                 (UE5 config files)
├── Saved/                  (Generated files, not in git)
├── Intermediate/           (Build files, not in git)
└── Binaries/               (Compiled binaries, not in git)

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🎯 Setup Checklist

Use this to track your progress:

Installation Phase

• Choose IDE:
  • Option A: JetBrains Rider + VS Build Tools
  • Option B: Visual Studio 2022 Community (full IDE)
• Install Windows Build Tools or Visual Studio
  • Game development with C++ workload (or MSVC build tools)
  • Windows 10/11 SDK
• Install Epic Games Launcher
• Install Unreal Engine 5.4
• Install Git
• Install Git LFS

Project Creation Phase

• Launch Unreal Engine 5.4
• Create new C++ project (Third Person template)
• Project name: FarmingSimulator
• Location: C:\projects\
• Wait for project generation

Integration Phase

• Copy Documentation folder to UE5 project
• Copy C++ headers to Source folder
• Copy .gitignore and .gitattributes
• Initialize Git in UE5 project folder
• Configure Git LFS

Build Phase

• Open FarmingSimulator.sln in your IDE (Rider or VS)
• Build solution (Ctrl+Shift+B or F6)
• Launch editor (F5 or Shift+F10 in Rider)
• Verify project opens successfully

Ready to Develop! 🎉

• Read Phase2_SetupGuide.md
• Start Week 5 tasks

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🆘 Common Issues

"Module could not be loaded"

Fix: Rebuild the solution in your IDE (Ctrl+Shift+B)

"Build tools not found" (Rider users)

Fix: Install Visual Studio Build Tools (see SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS_RIDER.md Step 2)

"Cannot compile - compiler not found"

Fix: Install MSVC build tools via Visual Studio or VS Build Tools

Build errors

Fix: Make sure all files copied to correct locations

Git LFS not working

git lfs install
git lfs track "*.uasset"
git lfs track "*.umap"

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📞 Support

Having issues?

• Check: SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md
• UE5 Docs: https://docs.unrealengine.com/
• UE5 Forums: https://forums.unrealengine.com/

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🗓️ Project Timeline

Total Duration: 56 weeks (14 months) Current Week: Week 5 of 56 Current Phase: Phase 2 - Prototype & Core Systems (Weeks 5-12)

Upcoming Milestones

• Week 6: Player controller functional
• Week 7: Time/weather systems
• Week 12: Playable prototype complete
• Week 36: Alpha build
• Week 56: Launch! 🚀

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👥 Team Info

Team Size: 20 people Budget: $2.7M - $3.4M Platform: PC (Windows), Future: PS5, Xbox Series X/S

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Let's build an amazing farming simulator! 🌾🚜

Next Step: Read SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md