UE4 as an open source business engine whose code is hosted in a private library:https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine
In order to see and download the UE4 code, the developer needs to have a GitHub account and unrealengine account, and then associate the GitHub username on the Unrealengine account's personal information page
After the association is successful, login to the GitHub account, you will receive a confirmation box, and then you can access the UE4 code. See:https://www.unrealengine.com/zh-CN/ue4-on-github
UE4 from open source, the development community is very active, greatly promoting the development of the engine, version iteration speed very fast
4.17 (2017-8-7)-->4.18 (2017.10.23)-->4.19 (2018.3.4)-->4.20 (2018.7.16)
Each release contains feature see:http://api.unrealengine.com/CHN/Support/Builds/index.html
UE4 Future Version Planning Roadmap:https://trello.com/b/TTAVI7Ny/ue4-roadmap
From GitHub we can see that UE4 contains many branches
Release: Publishing Branch
Master: The main line has 2 sources: the content of the ①dev_* branch ②release when the branch is published, all its modifications are included in the master
promoted: The branch used by the artist and the game planner to merge into the branch every day from the master branch, and if there is no serious problem with the basic test, commit to that branch, otherwise the master Branch will be resolved and then merge. The branch has a balance between stability and acquiring new feature
staging-4.18(staging-4.19 staging-4.20 staging-4.21 ... ): The first branch of the version, pulled from the master branch, allows the project group to iterate over 2 development branches at the same time. If the current development branch is 4.21, then staging-4.21 is the development branch of the next 4.22
4.18(4.19 4.20 4.21 ... ): 4.18 version Development Branch, from Staging-4.17 Branch development, functional stability after the release branch to publish
dev_*: Developer Feature branch that contains features for the current and future versions. 2018.5.10,epic released these internal development branches on GitHub, see:Development Branches now Available on GitHub
Dev_build-build tools such as UBT (Unreal build tool), UHT (Unreal Header tool), UAT (Unreal Automation tool), and other build logic
Dev_core--Fstring, FName, Tarray, TList, TMap, Tset, Uobject, Uactorcomponent, aactor and other data structures and algorithms
Dev_geometry--Calculation of geometry-related
Dev_networking--Network synchronization correlation
Dev_rendering--rendering
Dev_anim--Action behavior tree
Dev_sequencer--skeletal animation, cut-out animation
Dev_editor--Editor
Dev_framework--Gameplay frame
Dev_mobile-Android, iOS and other mobile platforms
Dev_niagara--Cascade2.0 particle system
DEV_VR--VR
Dev_vr_mac--VR on MAC system
Dev_vr_editor--The editor function of VR
The Gitflow process is as follows:
Reference
Unrealengine readme.md
Master, 4.12 or promoted for latest?
git Flow for UE4 branch