Build Engine from Source Code

The complete installation process may take several hours, depending on your network bandwidth and CPU performance. If you encounter any issues that you cannot resolve, please submit them to our Issues page.

Choose the appropriate guide based on your experience level:

- Regular Users

Account Setup

Before you begin, you'll need:

• An Epic Games account
• A GitHub account

If you don't have either account, please register first. Then:

1. Visit the Epic Games documentation and follow the instructions to link your GitHub account to your Epic Games account.

2. Return to GitHub, navigate to "Your Organizations", and accept Epic's invitation to join their organization:

caution

Important Notes:

• If you cannot find EpicGames in your organizations after accepting the invitation, try signing out and back into your GitHub account.
• Epic Games has recently restructured their GitHub organization. If you encounter issues accessing GitHub project links, verify that your GitHub account is properly joined to the EpicGames organization and try re-linking your accounts if necessary.

Download MooaToon Installation Tool

1. Download the installation tool ZIP file
2. Extract it to a root directory on your hard drive (e.g., D:\MooaToon)
   • This helps avoid compilation errors caused by long file paths
   • Important: Ensure you have at least 500GB of free SSD space

Automated Installation Process

Follow these steps in order:

1. Run _1_1_Install_Git.bat to install Git with default settings
2. Run _1_2_Install_VisualStudio.bat to install Visual Studio with default settings
3. Save all your work, then run _1_3_Restart_Computer.bat to restart your computer
4. Run _2_0_Install_And_Run_MooaToon.bat and:
   • Follow the prompts to log in to your GitHub account
   • Wait for the download and compilation to complete (typically 1-3 hours)
   • Note for Chinese Users: Enable a global proxy as prompted to avoid network issues
5. The project will launch automatically once installation is complete

Verifying the Installation

When you first launch the project:

1. Wait for shader compilation to complete
2. You should see an interface similar to this:

All sample levels are located in the Content\MooaToonSamples\Maps directory:

Feel free to explore these samples to learn about MooaToon's features.

Updating MooaToon

To stay updated:

1. Subscribe to the MooaToon-Engine repository for update notifications
2. Use the _3_0_Update_And_Run_MooaToon.bat script to download updates

caution

Important: Do not use _2_0_Install_And_Run_MooaToon.bat for updates. This script downloads only the minimum required content and is intended for initial installation only.

Handling Conflicts

When updating MooaToon:

• You'll be notified if you've modified any MooaToon files
• If modified files conflict with updates, you'll receive an error
• Best practice:
  1. Manually backup any files causing merge conflicts
  2. Run _3_X_Clean_MooaToon_X to clean the workspace
  3. Attempt the update again

- Developer Users

For developers familiar with Unreal Engine:

1. Review the Official UE Documentation on building from source
2. Visit the MooaToon-Engine Repository
3. Clone and work with these branches:
   • 5.x branch for engine compilation
   • 5.x_MooaToonProject branch for project development

Troubleshooting

Network Issues During Installation or Updates

Here are several solutions to common network problems:

Optimize GitHub Connection Speed

For users experiencing slow GitHub connections (especially in mainland China):

1. Run _2_4_Fetch_Fastest_Github_IPs.bat
   • This script automatically runs during _2_0_Install_And_Run_MooaToon.bat
   • It finds the fastest GitHub server IPs in your region
   • Updates your hosts file to improve download speeds

Configure Global Proxy

If you have access to a proxy server:

1. Enable global proxy in your proxy software
2. Run _0_2_Set_CMD_And_Git_Proxy.bat to configure Git and CMD
3. To disable the proxy later, run _0_3_Cancel_CMD_And_Git_Proxy.bat

Manual ZIP Download Method

As an alternative to Git, you can download ZIP files directly. This method may provide:

• More stable downloads
• Support for download managers
• Resume capability for interrupted downloads

Note: This method requires manually downloading the entire engine and project for each update.

Steps:

1. Visit MooaToon-Engine Repository:

2. Download the Engine:

   • Select the 5.x branch
   • Click Code > Download ZIP

3. Download the Project:

   • Switch to 5.x_MooaToonProject branch
   • Download its ZIP file

4. Extract the Engine:

   • Navigate to your MooaToon directory
   • Extract engine files to MooaToon\MooaToon-Engine:

5. Extract the Project:

   • Extract project files to MooaToon\MooaToon-Project:

6. Setup and Build:

   • Run _2_3_Setup_Unreal_Engine.bat (requires downloading files from Epic's servers)
   • Run _4_0_Build_And_Run_MooaToon.bat

Setup_Unreal_Engine Network Issues

When running the UE setup, you might encounter download issues:

If downloads stall or fail due to Epic server issues:

1. First try:

   • Toggle your global proxy
   • Switch to a different proxy server

2. Alternative solution - Manual Download: Download the required files from either:

   • MEGA
   • Baidu

   You'll receive a ZIP file like this:

3. Installation:

   • Extract ue-gitdeps.zip to MooaToon-Engine\.git\ue-gitdeps
   • Run _2_3_Setup_Unreal_Engine.bat again
   • Finally, run _4_0_Build_And_Run_MooaToon.bat

Compilation Issues

Compiler Version Mismatch

Unreal Engine has specific compiler requirements.

To resolve:

1. Run _1_2_Install_VisualStudio.bat to automatically install the correct compiler
2. If issues persist:
   • Completely uninstall Visual Studio
   • Restart your computer
   • Reinstall using the provided script

Missing Runtime Libraries

If compilation fails due to missing Windows libraries:

1. Install the latest .NET Framework
2. Use our Library Repair Tool to fix DirectX and C++ runtime libraries

PCH (Precompiled Header) Issues

Follow Microsoft's official guidelines to increase your system's virtual memory allocation.