Unreal Engine Derived Data Cache Builder

BuildDDC.bat

:: Copyright (c) Solessfir under MIT license

:: Builds the Derived Data Cache (DDC) for an Unreal Engine project
:: Place this file in your project's root directory and run it

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
title Build Derived Data Cache

:: Enable ANSI color support
reg add HKCU\Console /v VirtualTerminalLevel /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f >nul 2>&1

:: Define Colors
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('powershell -NoProfile -Command "[char]27"') do set "ESC=%%a"
set "Colors_Red=!ESC![91m"
set "Colors_Green=!ESC![92m"
set "Colors_White=!ESC![97m"
set "Colors_Reset=!ESC![0m"

:: Configuration
set "RootDirectory=%~dp0"
set "RootDirectory=%RootDirectory:~0,-1%"
set "PushdDone=0"

:: 1. Locate Project
if exist "%RootDirectory%\*.uproject" (
    set "ProjectDir=%RootDirectory%"
) else if exist "%RootDirectory%\..\*.uproject" (
    set "ProjectDir=%RootDirectory%\.."
) else (
    echo !Colors_Red!Error: No .uproject file found.!Colors_Reset!
    goto :ExitWithPause
)
pushd "%ProjectDir%"
set "PushdDone=1"
for %%i in ("*.uproject") do set "UprojectFile=%%~fi" & set "ProjectName=%%~ni"

:: 2. Extract Engine Association
set "RawVersion="
for /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%a in ('findstr /i "EngineAssociation" "%UprojectFile%"') do set "RawVersion=%%a"

:: Clean string (remove quotes, spaces, braces, and commas)
if defined RawVersion (
    set "RawVersion=!RawVersion:"=!"
    set "RawVersion=!RawVersion:,=!"
    set "RawVersion=!RawVersion: =!"
    set "RawVersion=!RawVersion:{=!"
    set "RawVersion=!RawVersion:}=!"
) else (
    echo !Colors_Red!Error: 'EngineAssociation' not found in .uproject file.!Colors_Reset!
    goto :ExitWithPause
)

:: 3. Determine Engine Path
set "EngineDir="

:: A. Check Standard Installation (HKLM)
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\EpicGames\Unreal Engine\%RawVersion%" /v "InstalledDirectory" >nul 2>&1
if !errorlevel! equ 0 (
    for /f "skip=2 tokens=2*" %%a in ('reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\EpicGames\Unreal Engine\%RawVersion%" /v "InstalledDirectory"') do set "EngineDir=%%b"
)

:: B. Check Custom/Source Build Registration (HKCU - matches GUIDs)
if not defined EngineDir (
    reg query "HKCU\Software\Epic Games\Unreal Engine\Builds" /v "{%RawVersion%}" >nul 2>&1
    if !errorlevel! equ 0 (
        for /f "skip=2 tokens=2*" %%a in ('reg query "HKCU\Software\Epic Games\Unreal Engine\Builds" /v "{%RawVersion%}"') do set "EngineDir=%%b"
    )
)

:: C. Check Relative Path (Assuming Project is inside/next to Engine root)
:: EngineDir must be set to the engine root so that %EngineDir%\Engine\Binaries\...
:: resolves correctly — consistent with what the registry returns in cases A and B.
if not defined EngineDir (
    if exist "%ProjectDir%\..\Engine\Binaries" set "EngineDir=%ProjectDir%\.."
)

if not defined EngineDir (
    echo !Colors_Red!Error: Could not locate Unreal Engine installation for: %RawVersion%!Colors_Reset!
    goto :ExitWithPause
)

:: 4. Locate Editor CMD Executable (UE5 or UE4)
set "EditorCmd=%EngineDir%\Engine\Binaries\Win64\UnrealEditor-Cmd.exe"
if not exist "!EditorCmd!" (
    set "EditorCmd=%EngineDir%\Engine\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor-Cmd.exe"
)

if not exist "!EditorCmd!" (
    echo !Colors_Red!Error: Editor executable not found at:!Colors_Reset!
    echo %EngineDir%\Engine\Binaries\Win64\
    goto :ExitWithPause
)

:: 5. Execute DDC Build
cls
echo !Colors_Green!:: Building Derived Data Cache ::!Colors_Reset!
echo Project: !Colors_White!%ProjectName%!Colors_Reset!
echo Engine:  !Colors_White!%RawVersion%!Colors_Reset!
echo Path:    !Colors_White!!EditorCmd!!Colors_Reset!
echo:

call "!EditorCmd!" "%UprojectFile%" -run=DerivedDataCache -fill -DDC=CreatePak -ProjectOnly

echo:
if !errorlevel! neq 0 (
    echo !Colors_Red!DDC Build Failed. Check the log above.!Colors_Reset!
) else (
    echo !Colors_Green!DDC Build Completed Successfully.!Colors_Reset!
)

:ExitWithPause
if "%PushdDone%"=="1" popd
pause
exit /b