Infrequently Asked Question: What software and hardware do I use?
Software
Programming
- Rider for Unreal Engine. I used to use Visual Studio + Visual Assist X but it was constantly hanging, and the P4VS plugin was terrible so I swapped to Rider. It's not perfect but it works better for me 99% of the time.
- A mixture of Perforce and PlasticSCM for version control. Perforce is slow and clunky, but Unreal has so many binary files that you really need file locking and Git still doens't really support that. PlasticSCM is way faster and has a nicer interface for artists, but in other areas the "pro" user interface is still a little under-baked.
- Python for workflow tools and scripts. Did you know that Unreal has support for Python scripts in the editor?
- Vim for Python, text files, markdown.
UI
- Sketch still can't be beaten for designing, managing and outputting the huge batches of assets needed for buttons and all their states, text boxes, and everything else. I've tried Figma and it just felt a lot slower and less responsive than Sketch.
- Photoshop, unfortunately.
- Snip and Sketch program that comes with Windows. It's great for taking quick screenshots and scribbling on them.
Web
- This page is created using Jekyll, hosted in GitHub and uses a modified Minimal Mistakes theme.
- Analytics are by Plausible.
Hardware
- Ergonomic keyboards saved my hands. I was using an Apple keyboard at work and got terrible RSI, that went away after I swapped to an ergonomic keyborad. I've tried a few over the years and the Microsoft ones are usually pretty good.
- An ergonomic mouse is also vital. I use a cheap vertical mouse that you can get anywhere online. Takes a week to get used to but totally worth it.
- A computer with an SSD and the fastest CPU that you can afford. Graphics card is secondary, get a good CPU for shorter compile times.
