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    Step-by-step: How to build EmulationStation on Windows

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    emulationstatiobuildingwindows
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    • T
      TheRealFox
      last edited by TheRealFox

      That folders below? I have to make them in c:\ ?

      Unzip to c:\src\lib\boost_1_61_0
      Unzip to c:\src\lib\eigen
      Unzip to c:\src\lib\FreeImage
      Extract to c:\src\lib\freetype-2.7
      Unzip to c:\src\lib\curl-7.50.3
      Extract to c:\src\lib\libvlc-2.2.2
      Extract to c:\src\lib\SDL2-2.0.5

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      • Z
        Zigurana @TheRealFox
        last edited by

        @TheRealFox @TheRealFox @TheRealFox @TheRealFox @TheRealFox @TheRealFox
        Whoah! Hold your horses!
        (You realize that since this is a global forum, people might actually be sleeping while you are posting, right?)

        To be able to help you, we need some more information.

        • what version of VS are you using?
        • is it a fresh installation of VS or have you configured it before?

        Some answers :

        • To remove the line about the #defineyou simply remove the line (s) , save the file, build.
        • You do not have to create all those directories in C:, as long as you remember where you put them, and adjust the location later when you call make.

        If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

        lilbudL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • lilbudL
          lilbud @Zigurana
          last edited by

          @Zigurana said in Step-by-step: How to build EmulationStation on Windows:

          Whoah! Hold your horses!

          0_1480177437511_upload-5597cf58-c39d-46eb-a3a0-deb0de4415dc

          Creator of the Radiocade: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6077/radiocade

          Backlog: http://backloggery.com/lilbud

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • fieldofcowsF
            fieldofcows @TheRealFox
            last edited by

            @TheRealFox said in Step-by-step: How to build EmulationStation on Windows:

            The post lack of detailed information for noobs like me. That is my situation: How I do that: "Edit tif_config.h to remove #define snprintf _snprintf"

            I put together the step-by-step by setting up a brand new VM starting with nothing installed and noted down what I did at each step. The idea was to help experienced developers to get a build environment up and running with the least pain. I know some of the steps are a bit vague and require some experience but I think you would need that experience in order to actually understand the ES code to make any meaningful modifications.

            However, I am happy to help noobs to get going as much as I can, although trying to find time when I have three young kids and a full time job is quite hard!

            Anyway, I hope you managed to get it building.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • J
              jdrassa
              last edited by

              @fieldofcows Thanks for writing up this tutorial, it has inspired me to try and get a build environment up and running. I believe that I have everything setup properly and I was able to build all of the dependent libraries and use cmake to generate emulationstation-all.sln, but when I try to build ES in VS I immediately get errors because it appears to not find the boost library.

              1>------ Build started: Project: es-core, Configuration: Release Win32 ------
              1>  platform.cpp
              1>  Util.cpp
              1>C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp(87): error C3861: 'open': identifier not found
              1>C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp(89): error C3861: 'close': identifier not found
              1>C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(105): error C2440: 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>'
              1>  C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(105): note: No constructor could take the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous
              1>C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(106): error C2440: 'initializing': cannot convert from 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' to 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>'
              1>  C:\esdev\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(106): note: No constructor could take the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous
              

              Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

              Get latest build of EmulationStation for Windows here

              fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • K
                kfj001
                last edited by

                If you're getting compilation errors due to a signature mismatch in the function definition, it's because there is an unnecessary redefinition in one of the project header files. Locate the .h file containing the definition of the offending function and comment it out, then try building again.

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                • fieldofcowsF
                  fieldofcows @jdrassa
                  last edited by

                  @jdrassa What fork of EmulationStation are you trying to build? open() and close() are not supported on Windows and boost on Windows uses wide strings in some places where Linux/Pi uses short strings. This error pops up in a few of the forks that are out there but I have fixed this in my fork: https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation.

                  See the changes to Util.cpp and platform.cpp in this commit: https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/commit/1297107533bef0b8bb351e5d10338371de7ef436. You don't want to include the other changes from this commit to make it work.

                  J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • J
                    jdrassa @fieldofcows
                    last edited by

                    @fieldofcows I was working off of the RetroPie fork. I pulled in the changes from yours and I am now able to build. Thanks.

                    Get latest build of EmulationStation for Windows here

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Z
                      Zigurana
                      last edited by

                      @fieldofcows :
                      After pulling in the latest changes on the RetroPie/master branch, I am now trying to compile with your video-view included.
                      When first setting up my build environment, I followed the steps you described above, and all was well.
                      Now, after pulling in these latest changes, I re-ran the long cmake command, and tried to build.
                      I run into the following error: in viewcontroller.cpp, line15: #include <SDL2/SDL.h>, which gives me the error: 1> ViewController.cpp 1>C:\src\EmulationStation\es-app\src\views\ViewController.cpp(15): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'SDL2/SDL.h': No such file or directory .
                      A simple enough message to understand, why I am getting it is another matter.
                      When I go into my C:\src\lib\SDL2-2.0.5\include folder, SDL.h is there alright.
                      This does not match with %ES_LIB_DIR%\SDL2-2.0.5\include\SDL2\SDL.h, which I think <SDL2/SDL.h> gets translated into?
                      Sure enough, when I change it into just #include <SDL.h> I can build just fine.

                      I am just wondering why I need to make that change, and apparently you do not.

                      If tetris has thought me anything, it's that errors pile up and that accomplishments dissappear.

                      fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • fieldofcowsF
                        fieldofcows @Zigurana
                        last edited by

                        @Zigurana - the retropie ES branch contains a couple issues that prevent it from building in Windows. I have the fixes ready which I'll submit as a PR shortly. I was building from my fork which already included the fixes. The SDL2/SDL.h include was actually added for the video view so it's my fault that the Windows build breaks here when following the instructions in this post.

                        There are two ways to fix it. The first is to do exactly what you've done and remove the SDL2/ from the beginning. The second is to add the parent directory of SDL2 into the include path. This is what happens on the RPi and Linux. I would suggest just fixing it the way you have done for now.

                        N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • N
                          Nismo @fieldofcows
                          last edited by

                          @fieldofcows I'm trying to compile, i had the same error than @zigurana and i made the same change for #include <SDL.h> but i still have errors and i can't compile:

                          Error C3861 'open': can't find identifier es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 87

                          Error C3861 'close': can't find identifier es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp 89

                          Error C2440 'initializating': can't do conversion of 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' a 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 105

                          Error C2440 'initializating': can't do conversion of 'const boost::filesystem::path::value_type *' a 'std::basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char>>' es-core C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp 106

                          Error LNK1104 can't open file '....\Debug\es-cored.lib' emulationstation C:\src\EmulationStation\build\es-app\LINK 1

                          I translated some error because my VS2015 is not in english language so may differ a bit.

                          Any help would be aprecciated.

                          fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • fieldofcowsF
                            fieldofcows @Nismo
                            last edited by

                            @Nismo In addition to the SDL change, have a look at this commit to my fork:

                            https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/commit/59fe6a36cbafc0a94a5db8e877ad3f497c76efd5

                            This details the changes that need to be made in order to compile the RetroPie ES for Windows.

                            N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • N
                              Nismo @fieldofcows
                              last edited by

                              @fieldofcows Thank you i'll take a look right now.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • N
                                Nismo @fieldofcows
                                last edited by Nismo

                                @fieldofcows sorry but still can't compile (never compiled before) what i'm doing wrong?

                                1> ------ Operation Compilation omitted: project: INSTALL, configuration: Debug Win32 ------
                                1> Project not selected to be compiled for this solution configuration
                                2> ------ Operation Compilation omitted: project: PACKAGE, configuration: Debug Win32 ------
                                2> Project not selected to be compiled for this solution configuration
                                ========== Compile: 0 correct, 0 incorrect, 6 updated, 2 omitted ==========

                                I'm trying to compile emulationstation-all debug win32

                                And if I try to compile release:

                                6> ------ Operation Compile started: project: ALL_BUILD, configuration: Release Win32 ------
                                6> Building Custom Rule C: /src/EmulationStation/CMakeLists.txt
                                6> CMake does not need to be re-run because C: \ src \ EmulationStation \ build \ CMakeFiles \ generate.stamp is up-to-date.
                                7> ------ Operation Compile skipped: project: INSTALL, configuration: Release Win32 ------
                                7> Project not selected to be compiled for this solution configuration
                                8> ------ Operation Compile skipped: project: PACKAGE, configuration: Release Win32 ------
                                8> Project not selected to be compiled for this solution configuration
                                ========== Compile: 6 correct, 0 incorrect, 0 updated, 2 omitted ==========

                                fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • fieldofcowsF
                                  fieldofcows @Nismo
                                  last edited by

                                  @Nismo That looks like it built correctly. If you look in your EmulationStation source directory there should be subdirectory named "Release" which should now contain your emulationstation.exe.

                                  N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • N
                                    Nismo @fieldofcows
                                    last edited by Nismo

                                    @fieldofcows yes the directories are there but no .exe inside, only log files.

                                    Edit: it's ok, i was looking in the wrong release and debug folders inside "build" folder.

                                    Compiled ok, thanks a lot, now i'm trying to translate some menus.

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                                    • N
                                      Nismo @fieldofcows
                                      last edited by Nismo

                                      @fieldofcows Sorry mate but i have another problem, when i try to run my compiled program, it doesn't use the same libs than before, it requires mt-gd libs and more than before, now requires boost_thread, boost_chrono, boost_date_time, icuind57.dll and icuucd57.dll:

                                      • boost_chrono-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • boost_date_time-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • boost_filesystem-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • boost_locale-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • boost_system-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • boost_thread-vc140-mt-gd-1_61.dll
                                      • icuind57.dll
                                      • icuucd57.dll

                                      No problem with boost libs, i have found compiled libs out there, but i can't find icuind57.dll and icuucd57.dll.

                                      Any tips?

                                      Edit: fixed by compiling minsizerelease.

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                                      • N
                                        Nismo
                                        last edited by

                                        @fieldofcows it's not working the no splash screen command in the last build?

                                        fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • fieldofcowsF
                                          fieldofcows @Nismo
                                          last edited by

                                          @Nismo said in Step-by-step: How to build EmulationStation on Windows:

                                          it's not working the no splash screen command in the last build

                                          Which fork of ES are you building? I've separated all the 'enhancements' out into separate commits and at the moment there isn't a branch that pulls in the latest of everything. I can put one together for you shortly if you want.

                                          N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • N
                                            Nismo @fieldofcows
                                            last edited by Nismo

                                            @fieldofcows can you do it for me? I'm using your fork I downloaded today.

                                            Where I can find the commits you did?

                                            fieldofcowsF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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