Visual Studio C++ 2019 !free! -

| Criteria | VS2019 | VS2022 | |----------|--------|--------| | | C++20 partial | C++20 full, C++23 progress | | Performance | Good | Better (64-bit devenv) | | Hot reload | Limited | Enhanced | | Support status | Extended only (until 2029) | Mainstream (until 2027) |

The linker in VS 2019 was optimized to be up to 2x faster for large C++ codebases by multi-threading PDB (Program Database) creation.

Background code analysis was added to provide real-time warnings and suggestions without requiring a full build.

For game developers, VS2019 is practically the industry standard. It includes specialized workloads for: