Prerequisites #

This tutorial uses Unreal Engine 5.3 and Pragma Engine version 0.1.0 to demonstrate integrating Pragma Engine matchmaking functionality with a third-party game engine.

Build Unreal Engine from source #

Building a dedicated game server executable requires an Unreal Engine source build.

If you’ve already started building your game against Unreal Editor from the Epic Games Store:

• Right click on your game project’s .uproject file, then select Switch Unreal Engine Version…
• In the dialog box that appears, select the source build. This ensures that you’re using Unreal Editor built from source, enabling you to build and package your dedicated server.

Set up dedicated servers #

If you are starting a new Unreal game project from scratch or if you have an already-existing game project that’s not yet set up to build a dedicated server, you’ll have to make some changes to your project in order to build and package a dedicated server. Follow the Required Setup and Setting Up a Server Build Target sections of Epic’s official Setting Up Dedicated Servers guide to configure your project. You don’t need to complete the other sections on that page at this time; we ’ll be covering the map and packaging steps in a later section.