- In common:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 or higher - currently the only supported IDE for making Engine and Editor. The free Community edition is sufficient and is available for download at the Microsoft's site:
- In theory you may try other tools, using MSVS project for the reference.
- To work with Engine code and Editor's full solution (see elaboration in related section):
- Allegro 4.4.2 library patched sources: clone our own Allegro repository and checkout allegro-4.4.2-agspatch branch which already has necessary patch applied and MSVC projects created.
- OR, alternatively, you may get original sources and patch yourself (look for instructions below): clone official git repository) and checkout 4.4.2 tag.
- Alfont 1.9.1 library patched sources: clone our own Alfont repository and checkout alfont-1.9.1-agspatch branch which already has necessary patch applied and MSVC projects created.
- OR, alternatively, you may get original sources and patch yourself: (checkout or download from SVN repository).
- Allegro 4.4.2 library patched sources: clone our own Allegro repository and checkout allegro-4.4.2-agspatch branch which already has necessary patch applied and MSVC projects created.
- Specifically for the Engine:
- Specifically for the Editor:
- irrKlang 1.6 (32-bit) assembly pack for .NET 4.5 (Download).
- To make manual and/or Windows installer:
NOTE: You may skip building libraries from the source completely by using prebuilt libs from the following archive:
You still have to download library sources though, because you'd need header files. If you go this way, then skip "Patching libraries" and "Building libraries" sections altogether.
You need to have DirectX SDK. "August 2007" version is recommended, that seems to be the last version that still has required libraries and headers compatible with software renderer in AGS. OpenGL API and Extension headers should be placed wherever Visual Studio can see them (or setup include paths to them in MSVS).
Historically AGS was built with slightly modified libraries. To keep backwards compatibility at current point you need to patch two libraries which source you download by the links above.
Diff files can be found in "Windows\patches" directory of AGS repository.
- Allegro 4.4.2 source should be patched with allegro-4.4.2.patch file.
- Alfont 1.9.1 source should be patched with alfont-1.9.1.patch file.
If you got these libraries from our own repositories, you do not need to patch them yourself, just checkout allegro-4.4.2-agspatch and alfont-1.9.1-agspatch branches respectively and build from them.
All of the mentioned libraries should either have MSVC project(s) in their sources, CMake configuration, or at least a Makefile which you could use to create MSVC solution.
It is important to make sure static libraries have four build configuration set up: a pair with runtime C library linked dynamically (/MD and /MDd compilation flags) and another pair with runtime library linked statically (/MT and /MTd compilation flags). These options are be found at the compiler's "Code Generation" property page in the MSVC project settings. /MD option is usually default one, so you may need to create second one by hand.
The reason for having both configurations is explained in the latter section below.
DirectX is linked dynamically. You should not be building DirectX libraries, but using the reference libs from DirectX SDK.
Our patched Allegro library branch has ready MSVC solution: you will find it in "build/VS2015" subdirectory.
If you want to go all the way on your own and/or getting sources from official site, following is a brief information on creating one.
Allegro 4.4 source provides CMake script for generating MSVC project files. We do not cover CMake tool here, please refer to official documentation: https://cmake.org/documentation/ .
Before using CMake you need to create two enviroment variables (for your OS, not Visual Studio) called "INCLUDE" and "LIB", unless these already exist. Add path to DirectX SDK header files into "INCLUDE" variable and path to DirectX *.lib files into "LIB" variable.
When configuring CMake, you may uncheck all Allegro add-ons and examples, because AGS does not need them. Also make sure to uncheck SHARED option, for AGS is linking Allegro statically.
If you are using patched sources from our Allegro fork, the MSVC_SHARED_CRT option will also be present. You need that option checked when building library with /MD flag for the Editor, and unchecked when building library with /MT option for the Engine (also see explanation in related section below). If you are using official Allegro source, then you'll have to modify generated projects by hand to setup this flag properly.
Static library built with /MD is expected to be named alleg-static.lib, and one with /MT named alleg-static-mt.lib. Debug versions are to be named alleg-debug-static.lib with /MDd flag, and alleg-debug-static-mt.lib for /MTd.
Alfont 1.9.1 sources already come with MSVC projects. The ones in our own fork are located in "build/VS2015" subdirectory and already have distinct configurations with /MD and /MT flags set appropriately.
You need to build only static library project for AGS.
Static library built with /MD is expected to be named alfont_md.lib, and one with /MT named alfont_mt.lib. Debug versions are to be named alfont_md_d.lib with /MDd flag, and alfont_mt_d.lib for /MTd.
All of these come with MSVC projects. You may need to make sure there are distinct build configurations with /MT(d) compilation flags (to link with the Engine only), but other than that just build static libraries, and you are all set.
You need to build static libraries, compiled with /MT or /MTd option (statically linked runtime C library). Latter is important or you may get linking issues.
Build following libraries:
- Allegro 4.4.2 (patched)
- Alfont 1.9.1 (patched)
- libogg
- libtheora
- libvorbis and libvorbisfile
Engine MSVS solution is Solutions\Engine.sln. Depending on the version of MSVS you are using you need to setup paths to compiled libraries and their headers either in IDE options (older) or project property pages (newer). Then build the solution.
If you are building from MSVS 2015 or higher it is important to make sure that DirectX SDK headers path is mentioned after Windows Kits headers path in the "Include directories", otherwise you will get obscure compilation errors. It is possible to omit DirectX SDK headers path from the "Include directories" completely and let compiler use related headers from Windows Kits. You still need to link against DirectX SDK libs though.
Editor has two related solutions: Solutions\AGS.Editor.Full.sln and Solutions\AGS.Editor.NoNative.sln. The latter is useful if your version of MSVS cannot build mixed (C#/C++) assemblies, or if you specifically do not want to work with and/or compile C++ code.
If you are working with full solution, you need to first build static libraries, compiled with /MD or /MDd option (dynamically linked runtime C library). Latter is important or you may get linking issues.
Build following libraries:
- Allegro 4.4.2 (patched)
- Alfont 1.9.1 (patched)
Depending on the version of MSVS you are using you need to setup paths to compiled libraries and their headers either in IDE options (older) or project property pages (newer). Then build the solution.
If you are working with AGS.Editor.NoNative solution, then you do not have to make any of C++ libraries at all, but you will have to get compatible compiled AGS.Native.dll somewhere. For starters we suggest taking one from the latest release of AGS.
In either case you also need to download irrKlang assembly pack and put irrKlang.NET4.dll and ikpMP3.dll into Editor/References subdirectory.