In the context of the large-scale project and the remote working demand caused by the pandemic, collaborative editing under development has become particularly important. In UE’s resource mechanism, maps are single resources; although they can be split using the Sub-level format, the smallest element remains a single resource. When different designers modify the same resource, it can lead to file conflicts, and merging is not as straightforward as with text. Furthermore, when each person is responsible for editing a single sub-level, there is no way to preview the entire scene’s effect in real-time, which is a bottleneck in collaborative development.
After UE4.23, UE officially launched a multi-user collaboration mechanism that allows multiple people to edit the same map simultaneously without causing conflicts. It can also synchronize other changing resources and take effect in real time. As a supplement to version control, it effectively resolves issues of synchronized collaboration.
This article records the enabling process, usage specifications, network strategies, and other issues. It will also extract an independent server-side program without relying on the complete engine, allowing for convenient deployment of the server side.