Building using CMake - Windows

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1rightarrow.png See Building Flightgear for the main article about this subject.

Required software

  • CMake GUI
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Express (MSVC). The C++ compiler will not be installed by default. You either choose this component during installation or after installation by starting MSVS and try to create a new C++ project. Also make sure to have the component "C++ Foundation Classes" marked. These are also required.
  • Microsoft Windows SDK (only required for 64-bit builds)
If you get an error during the installation of the SDK, try uninstalling MSVC redist packages first, then installing the SDK without compilers and then finally re-installing MSVC. According to the authors experience it is important to have a clean installation of both the SDK and MSVC. Ignoring any errors during installation might lead to annoying problems later. So (un)installing until there are no more complaints is worth the time.

Obtaining source

1rightarrow.png See FlightGear and Git for the main article about this subject.

Throughout this article it is assumed that you've already set up git clones of the various source repositories (FlightGear, SimGear, data...).

Directory tree

On Windows, assumptions on the directory structure are made to automate the discovery of dependencies. This recommended directory structure is described below. Clicking the links allows you to download pre-built parts. If you do not use the recommended structure you will need to enter paths by hand. Source and build directories can be located anywhere.

32-bits

${MSVC_3RDPARTY_ROOT} /
3rdParty / ( includes plib, fltk, zlib, libpng, libjpeg, libtiff, freetype, libsvn, gdal, ... )
bin /
include /
lib /
Boost / (latest version can be downloaded from http://www.boost.org/)
boost /
lib /
install /
msvc140 / ( for VS2015 32 bits, or msvc100 for VS2010 32 bits, or msvc90 for VS2008 32-bits or newer versions of Visual Studio)
OpenSceneGraph / ( OSG CMake install )
bin /
include /
lib /
SimGear / (create this empty for now, subfolders will be created by build process)
include /
lib /
FlightGear / (create this empty for now)
include /
lib /

64-bits

${MSVC_3RDPARTY_ROOT} /
3rdParty.x64 /
bin /
include /
lib /
Boost /
boost /
lib64 /
install /
msvc140-64 / ( for VS2015 64-bits, or msvc100-64 for VS2010 64-bits, or msvc90-64 for VS2008 64-bits )
OpenSceneGraph / ( OSG CMake install )
bin /
include /
lib /
SimGear / (create this empty for now, subfolders will be created by build process)
include /
lib /
FlightGear / (create this empty for now)
include /
lib /

Building

GUI compilation

  1. Set up a work directory as described above.
  2. Building SimGear
    1. Open the CMake gui.
    2. Set "Where is the source code" to wherever you put the SimGear sources (from the released tarball or the git repository).
    3. Set "Where to build the binaries" to a new empty directory (could be anywhere and any name, for example naming it simgear-build, at the same folder location as your unzipped SimGear source folder was put).
    4. Press CMake GUI Configure.png. The first time that the project is configured, CMake will bring up a window asking you to "Specify the generator for this project" i.e. which compiler you wish to use. Select Visual Studio 10 (or Visual Studio 10 Win64 for 64-bit), and press Finish. CMake will now do a check on your system and will produce a preliminary build configuration.
    5. CMake adds new configuration variables in red. Some have a value ending with -NOTFOUND. These variables should receive your attention. Some errors will prevent SimGear from building and others will simply invalidate some options without causing build errors.
      1. First check the MSVC_3RDPARTY_ROOT variable. If it is not set, chances are that there will be a lot of -NOTFOUND errors. Instead of trying to fix every error individually, set that variable to the location of the directory structure that is presented above. Then press CMake GUI Configure.png again.
      2. Set the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable to ${MSVC_3RDPARTY_ROOT}/install/msvc140/SimGear.
      3. Also check the lines with a checkbox. These are build options and may impact the feature set of the built program.
    6. Repeat the process from step 5, until CMake GUI Generate.png is enabled.
    7. Press CMake GUI Generate.png.
    8. Start Visual Studio 2015 and open the SimGear solution (SimGear.sln) located in "Where to build the binaries".
    9. Choose the "Release" build in the toolbar. The right menu should read Win32 for 32-bits or x64 for 64-bits.
      MVSC 2010 solution.png
    10. Generate the solution with F7 key or right-click the top level "Solution SimGear" in the Solution Explorer and choose Build.
    11. If there are build errors, return to CMake, clear remaining errors, CMake GUI Configure.png and CMake GUI Generate.png.
    12. When Visual Studio is able to build everything without errors, right-click on the INSTALL project (further down within the "Solution Simgear" solution) and choose Build, which will put the include and lib files in ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}
  3. Building FlightGear
    Repeat the steps under Building Simgear, but change the SimGear paths to FlightGear.
  4. Enjoy!

Script compilation

Firstly set up the directory structure as above. For the following scripts, the Windows environmental variable MSVC_3RDPARTY_ROOT must be set to the full path where this is located.

SimGear

For building SimGear with MSVC 2015 as 64-bit:

Place the script in a new directory within the SimGear sources such as build. To clean up the build files, another batch file can be used:

FlightGear

For building FlightGear with MSVC 2015 as 64-bit:

Place the script in a new directory within the FlightGear sources such as build. To clean up the build files, another batch file can be used:

Updating

When updating the source from git, it is usually unnecessary to restart CMake as the solution is able to reconfigure itself when CMake files are changed. Simply rebuild the solution from Visual Studio and accept the reload of updated projects. When the Simgear/FlightGear version numbers change, you do have to re-run CMake.

It is also possible to edit CMakeList.txt files directly in Visual Studio as they also appear in the solution, and projects will be reconfigured on the next generation. To change build options or directory path, it is mandatory to use the CMake Gui. In case of problems, locate the CMakeCache.txt file in "Where to build the binaries” directory and delete it to reconfigure from scratch or use the menu item File > Delete Cache.

TerraGear

TerraGear can be built the same way as FlightGear, just change the paths to your TerraGear source and directories.

Jenkins Windows configurations

When using CMake GUI, you can add those entries by clicking the Add entry button. Note that you should omit the -D prefix.

OSG-Win

SimGear-Win

FlightGear-Win

External link