Why I cannot imagine coming back to Visual Studio after using JetBrains Rider for Unreal Engine
It’s not sponsored content, I promise¹! I just love working with this IDE because of various reasons and I want to explain why I think Rider is the best choice for Unreal Engine programmers.
Performance
Rider is way faster than VS in most cases, especially if you use Visual Studio with extensions (and you will most likely use at least some extensions like Visual Studio Integration Tool, because working with pure VS with UE is a huge pain in the neck, especially if you develop a bigger project).
While searching the entire solution can even freeze Visual Studio, searching the whole Unreal Engine source code takes just a moment and you won’t even notice any impact on performance.
Great C++ support & productivity tools available out-of-the-box
By default, C++ syntax support in Visual Studio is very limited. Rider will suggest various types of code improvements: From the most basic like passing structure parameters by const reference, to the more advanced like using forward declarations or the constexpr keyword:
It also has a convenient code description system:
Rider also provides very handy productivity tools like generating multiple definitions at once or a very detailed refactoring tool for changing the function’s declaration:
Fantastic Unreal Engine support
Apart from the famous scanning “Content” folder feature that allows showing usages of UCLASS, UPROPERTY and UFUNCTION, Rider supports everything essential for convenient and efficient work with Unreal: from detailed tooltips for Unreal syntax to suggesting how to work with Unreal Engine’s Garbage Collection or automatic adding Core Redirectors:
Having a positive impact on Visual Studio development
The mentioned earlier Visual Studio Integration Tool was developed after Rider delivered its game-changing Blueprint support.
However, the overall quality of JetBrains tools seems to motivate Microsoft to boost the Unreal Engine support in Visual Studio. You can read David Li’s Microsoft DevBlog for the latest improvements of Visual Studio in terms of Unreal Engine development.
Does Rider have any flaws?
Actually, yes…
It’s paid
U̶n̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶V̶i̶s̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶S̶t̶u̶d̶i̶o̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶P̶y̶C̶h̶a̶r̶m̶,̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶C̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶l̶i̶c̶e̶n̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶.̶ ̶O̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶-̶o̶f̶-̶t̶h̶e̶-̶b̶o̶x̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶V̶S̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶p̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶e̶x̶t̶e̶n̶s̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶V̶i̶s̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶A̶s̶s̶i̶s̶t̶.̶ — This paragraph is not true anymore! Rider provides a free license for non-commercial use now! 🎉
However, if you want to buy the paid license, I suggest buying the dotUltimate license, because it has a similar price as Rider, but also contains ReSharper C++ — the Visual Studio extension that has the most crucial Rider features.
Debugger
It seems the Visual Studio debugger can be better in some cases, for instance, debugging console builds.
However, as you can read in the comment section of that YouTrack thread, Rider has already developed some console support.
Free plugins that makes Rider even better
- EzArgs — an equivalent of UnrealVS
- EnhancedUnrealEngineDocumentation — provides tooltips with benui’s Unreal Engine Documentation
More detailed comparisons
- JetBrains Rider vs Visual Studio (with and without ReSharper)
- Visual Studio vs JetBrains Rider: A Detailed Comparison (from a .NET developer perspective)
[1]: I wouldn’t mind some donation for praising Rider though, so if someone from JetBrains is reading this article, feel free to contact me… 😉
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