"Game module could not be loaded. There may be an operating system error or the module may not be properly set up."

After reinstalling Unreal Engine, my project stopped loading up. The above error message was extremely unhelpful, especially as any search for it online referred to moving DLLs around which had nothing to do with my issue. It turns out what was missing was the exact version of Visual Studio that I had when I last worked on my project. It has to be the exact version with the extras for C++ game development included. Any newer or older version still returns the same error. In my case, it was Visual Studio 2019 paired with Unreal Engine 4.23.1; it took me a few reinstalls just to figure that out because the help docs point you instead to Visual Studio 2017.
This is more a reminder for myself in the future to avoid losing a day to this again, but maybe it helps save someone else the time as well.

General notes and things I wish I knew as I delved deeper into #UE4:
- Package build by default includes unused assets, which can bloat the size of your game.  Go to Project Settings -> Packaging -> List of Maps to package only assets referenced by that map.  To be more aggressive and reduce unused assets in general (or to keep smaller backups), right-click your map and Migrate to a new project to create a new folder with only the assets used in your game.  More tips on this here.  But don't mark your game as shipping or distribution until you want to disable loading of listening servers by command line / shortcut.
- Do not use numbers in the project folder name.  Otherwise builds will fail to run.
- Do not use Duplicate, as it moves the object slightly.  Use copy+paste.
- Never use AND boolean functions.  They will calculate every condition even if the first one is already false.  Use multiple branch nodes instead.  See Blueprint Scripting Has No Short-Circuit Evaluation.
- Never rename...[More]

Learning to web design from the ground up...

  This site was my first real attempt ever at coding a website from scratch. I started this with absolutely no clue as to what I was doing, and to be honest, I still don't really know what I'm doing.
  For those wondering, I use nothing but a simple text editor to type all my code - type the code, yes. You really can't "program" your site if you're using a click-and-drag interface. At most, I'd use Notepad2, which is the same as Notepad on Windows except with highlighting. Anything extra is cumbersome.
  The following are tutorial and resource sites in the order I found them. This site wouldn't be here if I didn't manage to find these. If you're just starting web design, you might want to bookmark a few of these.  Once you're done with those and want to learn actual programming...[More]

     At some point, you will have to switch to paid hosting if you want a truly functional website.  By then, you'll probably have figured out how to find some decent hosts (search on Google for starters).  I also list a few recommendations for paid hosts further down.

Free Website Hosting

Last Updated Feb 23rd, 2014 | 604 unique view(s)