Ranguli/Buildling FlightGear on Windows
| This is a draft. |
Deficiencies in the current build workflow
- Reliance on 3rd-party code bundled within the repository (sometimes this is useful for small libraries, especially if they aren't packaged elsewhere, but can quickly get out of hand).
- A major downside of this is that years go by without anyone copy and pasting the new library code into the repository, and the project is built with exceedingly old and likely insecure version of these libraries.
- Reliance on a git repository containing .lib and .dll files (this is icky and makes me cry).
- This has the same downsides as discussed above, but is also a uniquely gross solution given that we're tracking pre-compiled binary objects in a version control system, and using it for distribution and a very weak form of dependency management.
- Reliance on .bat scripts to orchestrate the build system. This really shouldn't be necessary in the large majority of cases if we're doing things correctly.
What the new vcpkg-based approach solves
- Developers don't need to clone or install the windows-3rd-party repo, nor do maintainers need to copy/paste new source code and .dll files into that repository periodically
-
The state of dependencies
| Available in vcpkg? | Currently source location on Windows builds | Currently source location on Linux builds | Assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| boost | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| crashrpt | Yes, but only for Windows | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
N/A - Windows-only dependency | This should be added to vcpkg. We can use a platform constraint so it's only pulled in and built on Windows, as it's a Windows-only library.
|
| curl | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| dbus | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| easyxml | No | Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Why do we have two XML parsing libraries, neither of which are particularly popular or widely used? |
| expat | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Why do we have two XML parsing libraries, neither of which are particularly popular or widely used? |
| ffmpeg | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. | |
| freeglut | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| freetype | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| gexttext-libintl | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| libudns | Yes, but only for Linux | Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Keep in the SimGear repository |
| libevent | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| libjpeg-turbo | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| liblzma | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| libpng | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| libtiff | No | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Can't migrate to vcpkg |
| nlohmann-json | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Only used by tinygtlf. We don't need to include or manage this dependency if we migrate tinygltf to vcpkg. |
| openal-soft | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. |
| osg | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. | |
| plib | Yes, but only for Windows and Linux | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager | Get from vcpkg instead. MacOS users will not benefit from this change, but Linux and Windows users will. |
| tinygltf | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Embedded in the SimGear repository
|
Get from vcpkg instead. |
| zlib | Yes, for Windows, Linux, and macOS | From FlightGear's windows-3rd-party repository.
|
System package manager |
Installing WinGet
Traditionally, installing software on Windows has required a lot of manual steps (going to a URL, downloading an installer, clicking through all the steps, etc). There are much more modern and ergonomic alternatives available. One of these is WinGet.
Installing Microsoft Visual Studio 2022
Lastly, you will prompted to sign in with a Visual Studio account, and then personalize Visual Studio. These options are purely personal preference and won't have a bearing on the build process.
Installing CMake
Version 3.30.3
Windows will prompt you to confirm you would like to allow the CMake Installation to proceed. Select Yes.
Installing Qt6
https://www.qt.io/download-qt-installer-oss
Selecting components
- Ensure that CMake is not selected, as we will download CMake ourselves instead of using the bundled version.