This page introduces the Anything World plugin installation process for Unreal Engine 5.2 on MacOS M1 and M2 chipsets.
Many steps of the first time setup process will not be required for subsequent Unreal 5.2 project creation. If you have follow this setup process previously and would like to create a new project feel free to skip to the Quick Setup Section.
Requirements:
Minimum macOS version: 12.5 Monterey or newer
Recommended macOS version: Latest macOS Ventura
The Anything World plugin for Unreal Engine 5.2 is currently in early access and its features should be considered experimental and may change significantly in later updates. Please take this into account when considering using this plugin in your specific use case.
Step 1: Install Dependencies
Install Unreal 5.2, Visual Studio Code, and XCode 14.1 or above on your MacOS.
Once XCode is installed, open terminal and begin the installation for Clang/Clang++.
Enter the provided terminal command to install Clang/Clang++:
You can verify that Clang/Clang++ was successfully installed by providing terminal with the following command:
Step 2: Setup Visual Studio Code Extensions and .NET
Download and install the .NET dependency for Visual Studio Code.
Verify that the .NET dependency is installed by opening terminal and providing the dotnet --info command. You should receive information regarding the current version of the .NET SDK.
It is recommended to review the official Visual Studio Code documentation in order to setup Clang for MacOS.
In order to successfully compile an Unreal 5.2 C++ project on MacOS the following Extensions are required:
VSCode Extensions:
Step 3: Configure Unreal 5.2
Open the Epic Game Launcher, navigate the Unreal Engine view, and select the Launch Unreal Engine 5.2 button.
Switch to the Games panel, select your preferred template, change the project default option to a C++ project, provide a project name, and select the Create button.
Once the Unreal Editor is ready, open the Editor Preferences by selecting Unreal Editor > Preferences.
Use the search bar to find the General - Source Code setting and switch the Source Code Editor to Visual Studio Code.
Next let's open the project files in Visual Studio Code by navigating to Tools > Open Visual Studio Code from within the Unreal Editor.
Now that the Visual Studio Code is set as the default IDE close the Unreal Editor application.
Step 4: Install the Anything World Plugin and generate the project files
Download the latest version of the Anything World Unreal Plugin from the Anything World Profile page.
Unzip the package, open the Mac folder, then unzip the 5.2 package. Copy the newly created Anything World folder and navigate to your Unreal 5.2 project folder (Documents > Unreal Projects > Your project name. Create a new folder called "Plugins" and paste the Anything World Plugin inside this folder.
Now that the Anything World Plugin is installed we recommend re-generating the project files for the Unreal 5.2 project.
Re-generating the project files may cause issues or lost work with an existing project. We recommend creating a backup version of the project before proceeding with cleaning the project files. Please reach out to us on our Discord or at Support@Anything.World for additional help.
To re-generate the project files we need to delete the following folders from the Unreal 5.2 project.
Binaries
DerivedDataCache
Intermediate
Saved
Find and copy the file path for your Unreal 5.2 .uproject file:
Open terminal and navigate to the following Unreal 5.2 installation path:
Next provide terminal with the following command:
Make sure to add the Single quote ' character in front of the beginning and at the end of the file path. The first single quote should added after the -project= and the end single quote should be added before the -game command.
Your terminal will display this message:
Now that the project files have been re-generated we are able to build, compile, and debug the project using Visual Studio Code.
Step 5: Update task.json to include the "-architecture=arm64" argument
Return to the project files in Visual Studio Code and open the tasks.json file within the .vscode folder.
Find the label named "<Your Project Name>Editor Mac Development Build" and add the provided argument to the list of args:
Select the dropdown that displays "Launch <your project name>" and set the option "Launch <your project name> Editor (Develoipment)" as the default.
Press the Play icon to launch your projects then Visual Studio will display the debug icons, press the play icon twice to proceed.
Users may receive a security notification from Apple when launching the project. If this occurs, open System Preferences for Mac, open Security and Privacy, and select the Allow Anyway button. You may need to unlock the setting by selecting the lock icon before accepting.
Once this Anything World dylib is allowed re-launch the project from Visual Studio Code.
Congratulations! You have completed the first time setup process for installing the Anything World Plugin for Unreal 5.2 on MacOS.
This section assumes that you have successfully installed the Anything World MacOS plugin previously on your current machine, if not please review the first time setup guide before proceeding.
Step 1: Create an Unreal 5.2 Project
Open the Unreal 5.2 Project Browser, choose your template, and change the project to C++:
Once created, the Visual Studio Code IDE should automatically open along with the Unreal 5.2 editor.
Step 2: Add the Anything 5.2 plugin to the project's plugins folder.
Navigate to the project folder by opening Documents > Unreal Projects > Project
Create a new folder and name it Plugins then copy and paste the Anything World folder inside the newly created project's plugins folder.
Restart the Unreal 5.2 project and allow the AnythingWorld.dylib to run by opening the System Preferences for Mac and navigate to Security & Privacy.
Users may receive a message from Unreal stating "Plugin 'AnythingWorld' failed to load because module could not be loaded. If this occurs please allow access via System Preferences >Security & Privacy and re-open the project.
Once all of the applications have been accepted re-open the project from within the Epic Games Launcher and you should have access to the Anything World plugin!
Once installed, open Visual Studio Code and navigate to the extensions view by selecting the icon.
Next let's launch the project from Visual Studio Code, to do this navigate to the Run and Debug view which can be found by selecting the icon.
