Compile In Windows

Software requirements

Compiler

To compile FreeOrion you can use the MSVC 2010 IDE, MSVC 2008 IDE(but needs to update project files) or cmake;compiling with cmake is done from the command-line, but uses the same compiler as the IDE.

Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition may be downloaded for trial from Microsoft. If that link doesn't work even in IE, than use this English link. But after 30 days you have to register for free.On same page can be downloaded also VS 2008 Express Edition. Due to different registry keys being used, the Express Edition compiler may not be compatible with cmake, so if the newest version of cmake doesn't work, you'll have to use the project files to compile FreeOrion.

If you are a student, you may also be eligible for Microsoft Dreamspark, which will give you the Professional version of MSVC 2010 or several other Microsoft programs.

Software Dependencies

The majority of FreeOrion dependencies can be found precompiled and packaged in the FreeOrion Windows SDK, from the SourceForge FreeOrion SDK page.

The SDK includes compiled libraries, headers and DLLs for: zlib, OGRE, Python, bullet, Boost, FreeType, GLEW, libpng, libjpeg, OpenAL, ALUT, libvorbis, and libogg.

Other dependencies include:

• GiGi - Including GiGiOgre and GiGiOgrePlugin_OIS. These are available from a Subversion repository, and should be automatically checked out with FreeOrion code when using the FreeOrion SDK. The MSVC project files contain projects for the GiGi libraries that are needed by FreeOrion, and the DLLs .lib files will be placed in the FreeOrion folder when built. All GiGi dependencies are in the FreeOrion SDK and should be automatically found and used when GiGi is built. If building FreeOrion using cmake, GiGi but must be built from source and installed.

Compilation Instructions

1. First, get the FreeOrion SDK from SourceForge.
2. Check out the source code from SVN which should automatically also update GiGi.
3. Open msvc2010\FreeOrion\FreeOrion.sln
4. Configure the Python include and lib directories to where these are located on your system(need to be added to VS 2010 for AI). These are accessed in the GUI at (Project->Properties->C/C++->General) and (Project->Properties->Linker->General). This is essential only for the "freeorionca" project, but all three projects have the directories in their settings by default.
5. Use Build->Build Solution to build the three projects' release targets

Runtime Errors

Please report runtime errors in the forums.