Creating UBT Module Fast

Since I love to separate different sets of functionality, using UBT modules for that purpose is an expected choice. Unfortunately, there is still no way to create UBT Modules in Unreal automatically, as opposed to creating Plugins. We should do it manually writing a boring boilerplate.

So, here is a list of the code templates that can be copy-pasted into the project. After that you need only replace ModuleName and ProjectName with the names of your module and project respectively.

First, create a Module folder inside the Source directory and add build.cs to that folder:

ModuleName.build.cs

using UnrealBuildTool;

public class ModuleName : ModuleRules
{
	public ModuleName(ReadOnlyTargetRules Target) : base(Target)
	{
		PCHUsage = PCHUsageMode.UseExplicitOrSharedPCHs;

		PublicDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] {
			"Core",
			"CoreUObject",
			"Engine",
			"ProjectName",
		});

		//The path for the header files
		PublicIncludePaths.AddRange(new string[] {"ModuleName/Public"});
		//The path for the source files
		PrivateIncludePaths.AddRange(new string[] {"ModuleName/Private"});
	}
}

Then create a subclass that is derived from IModuleInterface:

ModuleNameModule.h

#pragma once

#include "CoreMinimal.h"
#include "Modules/ModuleInterface.h"

DECLARE_LOG_CATEGORY_EXTERN(ModuleName, All, All);

class FModuleNameModule : public IModuleInterface
{
public:
 
	/* This will get called when the editor loads the module */
	virtual void StartupModule() override;
 
	/* This will get called when the editor unloads the module */
	virtual void ShutdownModule() override;
};

ModuleNameModule.cpp

#include "ModuleName/Public/ModuleNameModule.h"
#include "Modules/ModuleManager.h"
#include "Modules/ModuleInterface.h"

IMPLEMENT_GAME_MODULE(FModuleNameModule, ModuleName);

DEFINE_LOG_CATEGORY(ModuleName);
 
#define LOCTEXT_NAMESPACE "ModuleName"
 
void FModuleNameModule::StartupModule()
{
	UE_LOG(ModuleName, Warning, TEXT("ModuleName module has started!"));
}
 
void FModuleNameModule::ShutdownModule()
{
	UE_LOG(ModuleName, Warning, TEXT("ModuleName module has shut down"));
}
 
#undef LOCTEXT_NAMESPACE

And the last thing you should do is adding your Module to Target.cs and the uproject file:

ProjectName.Target.cs

ExtraModuleNames.AddRange( new string[] { "ProjectName", "ModuleName" } );

ProjectNameEditor.Target.cs

ExtraModuleNames.AddRange( new string[] { "ProjectName", "ModuleName" });

ProjectName.uproject

{
	"Modules": [
		{
			"Name": "ModuleName",
			"Type": "Runtime",
			"LoadingPhase": "Default"
		},
	]
}

After all of this you can finally recompile you project.