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

Zigurana

@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.

fieldofcows

@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.

Nismo

@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.

fieldofcows

@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.

Nismo

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

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 ==========

fieldofcows

@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.

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.

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.

Nismo

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

fieldofcows

@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.

Nismo

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

Where I can find the commits you did?

fieldofcows

@Nismo I tidied up my fork a while ago. The 'master' now tracks the retropie master. This branch is the previous one I built you and contains all modifications except the opacity bug fix. Will that one do for now?

Nismo

@fieldofcows Yes!! thank you vey much!!! Nice christmas present.

I'm translating to my native language.

Nismo

@fieldofcows do I need to make this commits to that fork?

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

fieldofcows

@Nismo No. That one should build fine on Windows.

Nismo

@fieldofcows Thanks again.

trigger_death

@fieldofcows I'm having the same issues someone else is having with the following:

5>c:\src\emulationstation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataList.h(11): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory (compiling source file C:\src\EmulationStation\es-gamedata\src\GameData.cpp)
5>c:\src\emulationstation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataList.h(11): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory (compiling source file C:\src\EmulationStation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataList.cpp)
5>c:\src\emulationstation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataList.h(11): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory (compiling source file C:\src\EmulationStation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataFolder.cpp)
5>c:\src\emulationstation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataTags.h(11): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory (compiling source file C:\src\EmulationStation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataItem.cpp)
5>c:\src\emulationstation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataList.h(11): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'sqlite3.h': No such file or directory (compiling source file C:\src\EmulationStation\es-gamedata\src\GameDataTags.cpp)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4>C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp(87): error C3861: 'open': identifier not found
4>C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\platform.cpp(89): error C3861: 'close': identifier not found
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4>C:\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>>'
4>  C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(105): note: No constructor could take the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous
4>C:\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>>'
4>  C:\src\EmulationStation\es-core\src\Util.cpp(106): note: No constructor could take the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous

Now the open()/close() issue you state would be fixed in your fork but I'm using your fork. Not sure about the sqlite and initializing issues.

I'm not sure if this is related, but when building a few of the libraries, VS stated a few projects were skipped.

fieldofcows

@trigger_death My 'master' branch is not the one to use anymore. It should be tracking the RetroPie branch but I think I've committed some stuff there by mistake. I generally do not use that one anymore.

I took a backup of the branch from the point where I was working on the video preview with Nismo and named it 'old_master'. You find it here: https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation/commits/old_master. This might be a good starting point if you want a Windows build. You can switch to it like this:

git clone https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation.git EmulationStation
cd EmulationStation
git checkout old_master

I've got a few features to sort out and try to get merged back to retropie. When this is done I'll create a Windows build branch and keep it up to date with my latest developments.

trigger_death

@fieldofcows Thanks it works. :D

But about the Windows branch, does that mean there's currently separate branches for building on Windows and Linux systems? Because I was hoping to use this to debug before spending multiple hours building on my Pi.