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

fieldofcows

Whilst building EmulationStation on Linux and Raspberry Pi is a relatively painless (and well documented) experience, the same cannot be said for building it on Windows. I recently went through that pain in order to create a Windows build of my ES fork for people to try so I thought I would document the process from the beginning to hopefully save others from having to work it out.

I tested this process from a freshly installed Windows 10 VM so am confident that the steps are complete.

Pre-requisites

A few tools are required on the Windows system in order to build ES:

7-zip:
Download from http://7-zip.org/a/7z1604-x64.exe and install

CMake:
Download from https://cmake.org/files/v3.7/cmake-3.7.0-rc3-win64-x64.msi
Ensure you select "Add CMake to the path for all users" during installation
Visual Studio Community 2015:
Use the web setup at https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/community/ selecting the following options:

Custom install
Select Visual C++->Common Tools (nothing else)
Select Common Tools->Git & GitHub
Everything else off

Libraries

Next we need to download and build all the dependent libraries for ES. I have linked to specific versions of the libraries in each case because I know these build without issue with ES.

Boost:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost-binaries/1.61.0/boost_1_61_0-msvc-14.0-32.exe
Unzip to c:\src\lib\boost_1_61_0

Eigen:
http://bitbucket.org/eigen/eigen/get/3.2.10.zip
Unzip to c:\src\lib\eigen

FreeImage:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/freeimage/FreeImage3170.zip
Unzip to c:\src\lib\FreeImage
Open c:\src\lib\FreeImage\FreeImage.2013.sln in Visual Studio
Allow Visual Studio to convert project to 2015
Edit tif_config.h to remove #define snprintf _snprintf
Build Debug | Win32
Build Release | Win32

FreeType:
http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.7.tar.gz
Extract to c:\src\lib\freetype-2.7
Open C:\src\lib\freetype-2.7\builds\windows\vc2010\freetype.sln i VS
Allow VS to convert project to 2015
Build Debug | Win32
Build Release | Win32

Curl:
https://curl.haxx.se/download/curl-7.50.3.zip
Unzip to c:\src\lib\curl-7.50.3
Open a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt
Enter these commands:

     c:
     cd \src\lib\curl-7.50.3\winbuild
     nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=dll VC=14 DEBUG=yes
     nmake /f Makefile.vc mode=dll VC=14 DEBUG=no

VLC (required for fieldofcows fork):
https://github.com/RSATom/libvlc-sdk/archive/64ca3daa475a6539073f7544c740725b818642b2.zip (This is for V2.2.2)
Extract to c:\src\lib\libvlc-2.2.2
Download http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/2.2.2/win32/vlc-2.2.2-win32.zip (You will need the DLLs from this in a bit)

SDL2:
https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-2.0.5.zip
Extract to c:\src\lib\SDL2-2.0.5
Open a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt
Enter these commands:

     c:
     cd \src\lib\SDL2-2.0.5
     mkdir build
     cd build
     cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015" ..

Open c:\src\lib\SDL2-2.0.5\build\SDL2.sln in VS
Build Debug | Win32
Build Release | Win32

Building EmulationStation

The final step is to do the actual build of EmulationStation. This requires setting up CMake to find all of the libraries that we have just configured. The steps below build my fork. The instructions should work for other forks too, including the RetroPie fork. Just replace the URL in the git clone command.

Open a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt
Enter these commands:

 c:
 cd \src
 git clone https://github.com/fieldofcows/EmulationStation.git EmulationStation
 cd EmulationStation
 mkdir build
 cd build
 set ES_LIB_DIR=c:\src\lib
 cmake -g "Visual Studio 14 2015 x86" .. -DEIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\eigen -DFREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIRS=%ES_LIB_DIR%\freetype-2.7\include -DFREETYPE_LIBRARY=%ES_LIB_DIR%\freetype-2.7\objs\vc2010\Win32\freetype27.lib -DFreeImage_INCLUDE_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\FreeImage\Source -DFreeImage_LIBRARY=%ES_LIB_DIR%\FreeImage\Dist\x32\FreeImage.lib -DSDL2_INCLUDE_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\SDL2-2.0.5\include -DSDL2_LIBRARY=%ES_LIB_DIR%\SDL2-2.0.5\build\Release\SDL2.lib;%ES_LIB_DIR%\SDL2-2.0.5\build\Release\SDL2main.lib;Imm32.lib;version.lib -DBOOST_ROOT=%ES_LIB_DIR%\boost_1_61_0 -DBoost_LIBRARY_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\boost_1_61_0\lib32-msvc-14.0 -DCURL_INCLUDE_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\curl-7.50.3\include -DCURL_LIBRARY=%ES_LIB_DIR%\curl-7.50.3\builds\libcurl-vc14-x86-release-dll-ipv6-sspi-winssl\lib\libcurl.lib -DVLC_INCLUDE_DIR=%ES_LIB_DIR%\libvlc-2.2.2\include -DVLC_LIBRARIES=%ES_LIB_DIR%\libvlc-2.2.2\lib\msvc\libvlc.lib;%ES_LIB_DIR%\libvlc-2.2.2\lib\msvc\libvlccore.lib -DVLC_VERSION=1.0.0

When CMake has finished, open c:\src\EmulationStation\build\emulationstation-all.sln in Visual Studio 2015 and build.

Running EmulationStation

In order to run ES you need to make sure any DLLs required by ES are in the right place. The DLLs you need can all be found under the libraries subdirectory in c:\src\libs. The easiest thing to do is search for all the DLLs here and copy them to c:\src\EmulationStation\Release or c:\src\EmulationStation\Debug depending on which version you built.

The required DLLs are:

boost_filesystem-vc140-mt-1_61.dll
boost_locale-vc140-mt-1_61.dll
boost_system-vc140-mt-1_61.dll
FreeImage.dll
libcurl.dll

And if you're building my fork then you need the VLC DLLs from vlc-2.2.2-win32.zip

libvlc.dll
libvlccore.dll

I hope I've remembered to cover everything :D I'm here to help if anyone gets stuck

[Edit 16/11/2016: Update ES build commands to include 'cd EmulationStation'. Thanks @Zigurana]

Nismo

@fieldofcows Amazing tutorial, thanks for taking your time for doing this.

Seems that finally I could compile Emulationstation by miself. I'll try soon.

Good job.

reigelgallarde

@fieldofcows Very nice... thanks dude...

now how to edit EmulationStation? what software do I need? haha

mattrixk

@reigelgallarde: I think Notepad should do it. Maybe Notepad++ if you want to get really hardcore.

Zigurana

@fieldofcows YOU ARE THE BEST!

Zigurana

@reigelgallarde
Depends on your preferences, notepad(++) will work, but if you want a full blown IDE to guide you through the code and supply code-completion and what not, use the VisualStudio. This also integrates with Github nowadays, and you will use it for building anyways.

mattrixk

@Zigurana I was just s#!t-stirring when I mentioned notepad... I wasn't expecting it to actually be an applicable answer. I have no idea where to even begin if I wanted to try messing with ES itself. I'll stick to theme making for now.

tronkyfran

I coudn't for my life make this work on windows before, lets give it a try again!!!

fieldofcows

@tronkyfran If you do give it a go then please update this topic saying how you got on. I can then fix the steps if there are any errors. Thanks :)

Zigurana

@tronkyfran
I'll be doing the same thing tonight.

Zigurana

@mattrixk Ah, I see, I'm afraid my shitstirring-detectors were not booted up yet. All ready to go now!
(Wait, do I smell something?)

Zigurana

@fieldofcows : Hey, I'm still running cmake for ES at the moment, but I just wanted to let you know that after cloning your ES repo, you need to create the build directory inside that newly downloaded EmulationStation directory, then call the long cmake command from there.
It's kinda obvious, but easy to miss if you are just copy pasting the commands to the command prompt.

Apart from that, everything is going swell!

[Edit: And the debug version is running! I can't believe this! I finally got out of this dependency hell! Thank you, I owe you a beer!]

fieldofcows

@Zigurana Yay! It works! Thanks for pointing out the error. I've edited it in the first post.

Did you manage to copy the dependent DLLs ok? By the time I was writing that bit up it was after midnight and I was working in Linux from memory so it's a bit vague.

reigelgallarde

Thanks to all and thanks for the notepad(++) suggestion... haha my bad I was not specific with my question. I thought there was an easy way than notepad(++).
So I guess Visual Studio it is.

I'm not a c++ developer but I know a little about it. What I'm trying to achieve might not be possible.
What I'm really trying to do is make emulation station accept html/css/javascript codes.
So it would be easy for us to change theme. As in change all the designs the easy way. Not just color or background. And there are a lot of javascript plugins around free to download.

I was thinking of using nodejs + ejs. I'm still reading through chromium embedded framework. CEF has chromium inside it, much like google chrome. With this it would be easy for us to just throw in html/css/javascript templates. And with javascript or css3, imagine the animations we could do.

Outside ES, with this idea, using node-webkit , I was able to replicate hyperspin (frontend only) on my Windows machine (I have not tried but I'm sure it would also run on Linux). But my target is raspberry pi. node-webkit can't be opened on a lite raspbian which is too bad. It says GTK error, cannot open window* haha.

So with that I'm back to editing ES. But a novice like me on C++ this would take time. Good luck to me.

kfj001

This was an awesome guide! One caveat I found - building emulationstation in VS ran into linker errors, but once I added /FORCE:MULTIPLE to the linker options (of the emulationstation project!) it built with no problems.

TheRealFox

""Allow Visual Studio to convert project to 2015"". In this section, i need a detalied explanation how to convert. I am noob , so can you explain step by step how to convert the project to 2015?

fieldofcows

@TheRealFox Just open the project in Visual Studio. It will pop up a box saying that the project is for an old version of visual studio and ask you if you want to update it. Just say yes and it should load and build ok.

binpaxjunk

great work

TheRealFox

@fieldofcows The Project doesnt ask. I saw it also on a note at microsoft site: " If you decline the update when you're first prompted, you can update the project later by choosing Update VC++ project on the Project menu. If the command doesn't appear, then an update isn't required."

TheRealFox

@fieldofcows I see this also at microsoft site, that the conversion in some cases are not necessary. Check this: " If the project (.vcxproj) was created in Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012, or Visual Studio 2013 you have two options:
You can skip the update. Visual Studio 2015 will load the project without making any changes if it has access to the Visual C++ tools in Visual Studio 2010 with SP1, Visual Studio 2012, or Visual Studio 2013. You can provide this access by installing the version of Visual Studio that the project was created with on the same machine that has Visual Studio 2015. For more information, see Installing Visual Studio Versions Side-by-Side. "