Set up Helix Core integration in Unreal Engine

The following video and steps describe the typical workflow of using Helix Core integration with Unreal Engine.

Submit changes with changelist descriptions

As you and your colleagues work on your project, you will want to regularly submit your changes along with changelist descriptions so that everyone has the latest versions of each others’ files, and you maintain a history of who made which changes.

You can either submit changes in P4V, or by using the source control menu built into Unreal Engine.

Submit changes in P4V

To submit changes using P4V:

  1. In P4V, select the files you want to change.

  2. Right-click the files and select Check Out. Checking out files will prevent other users from working on the same files at the same time as you are.

  3. Make your changes in your local workspace.

  4. Submit the files in P4V.

Submit changes in Unreal Engine

To submit changes in Unreal Engine, use the source control extension that is built into Unreal Engine.

Use source control extension in Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine comes with a built-in source control extension that integrates with Perforce. In UE4, this is located in the upper left area of the screen, and in UE5, it is located in the bottom right. It can also be accessed through the Tools menu.

  1. Click on the Source Control icon and select Connect to Source Control.

  2. Select Perforce as your provider.
  3. Fill in your server information like we did in P4V.

  4. Enter your user name.
  5. Enter your workspace name or select it from the Available Workspaces dropdown.

    Note: Be sure you select the workspace that contains the project you have open, otherwise it will not recognize your changes. If you copied your file from a different location, the one in your Recent Projects list may not be the one you want.

The Source Control icon will change to show you are connected.

Now, whenever you make changes to your project files, Unreal will display a popup message asking if you want to checkout the files. You will want to check out any files before saving your changes. Then, when you are ready to submit them, you can click on the Source Control icon and select Submit To Source Control.

From the Source Control menu, you can also get the latest changes from other users.

Access Source Control menu on individual assets

In addition to submitting your changes and getting the latest changes, you can also access the source control menu on individual assets by right-clicking in the Content Browser. This will allow you to do things like compare your changes with what is currently on the server, revert your changes to undo them, view the history of changes on that file, and more.

Automatically check out files

Finally, in the Source Control section of the Editor Preferences (Under General - Loading and Saving), you can set it to automatically check out files when you modify them, so you don’t need to click to check them out every time. Just be careful to revert them if you didn’t mean to check them out so that other users can still edit them.